July 19 – Thursday
The rain stayed with us so we remained in Merrickville. As I left the boat for the restroom at the lock, I discovered we had been “egged” in the night. The wall we were tied to was parallel to, and 25’ from Mill St. (Rt.43) and I suppose some young people were on a hell-raising spree or maybe even saw we were from the U.S. and could tell we are strong Bush supporters or something like that. Anyway, it was good it was raining and the boat was wet because it didn’t take much to clean things up.
During our walkabout the afternoon before, we spotted a neat little coffee shop called “Brewed Awakenings” and it opened at 06:00, my kind of place. Breakfast out, was on the menu this morning so about 07:30 we were at the counter ordering and the gal was pouring our first cup of great coffee (real honest-to-God cream, too). They have burlap bags of green beans from all over the world setting around, and their own roaster right out where the little tables are. Sheetz or Rutter’s this ain’t. The breakfast special was as good as the coffee, and the coffee refill, that is included. I (RCB) like coffee.
Polly had bought a Rideau T-shirt yesterday so I thought I should have something from Merrickville too. I got a haircut from Kym who owns “HairDooz” on St. Lawrence St. I know it is a really good hair cut because it cost $20. Canadian, with tip, and my regular trim from Frank at home, is only $12.
I forgot to mention we moved the boat from the wall to the floating dock. When we returned from breakfast some of the French boats that had covered the more secure floating dock, seemed to be leaving so we watched and when 3 of them had gone we made ready to move. There was a spot where 2 of the boats had been that looked like more than enough space for FLIGHT. There were still 2 remaining boats on that side of the dock – one at each end of the space we wanted, but I thought they would also soon be gone. When it was clear they were staying, we idled across the basin and I set up my approach – operating from the lower helm station. The view is different down there and what looks tight, is usually not, so I proceeded. Polly made some sounds that indicated I was close and then closer to the boat in front, so I backed down in reverse, which always shifts the stern to starboard (right)which is where I wanted it to go anyway. Two of the French guys were now on the dock watching and then helping to hold us in position. At first, I think they didn’t believe we were really putting the boat into that space, but this time the Americans were coming – for sure. No worries mate – we had tucked FLIGHT in between the two French navy 24s with a foot clear at the bow and a good 8” of space between our dinghy bottom and the rear boat’s anchor. After we got our lines all set the skipper of the boat in front slid up a couple of feet to give his canvas enclosure a little more breathing room from the 35# CQR looming 5’above his stern. Frankly, if FLIGHT’s captain had viewed the situation from the dock, he would not have proceeded. However, here we sit – the “rule of tonnage” applies in a relative fashion.
The rain began again and we just hung-out, walked around town, down loaded pictures, worked on the blog etc. We saw a boat locking through whose owners we knew from Westport, so we chatted with them and invited them to drop by when they settled in at the marina below the locks. Linda and Alan Weiland, from Clewiston, FL have a trailer-able boat complete with kayaks, which they towed and launched at Kingston to do the Rideau and Thousand Islands. They will be having meat loaf for dinner, aboard FLIGHT. We will have our own little English-speaking ghetto here on the floating dock among the French Quebecer majority. There was no lull in the conversation at dinner. We covered many topics – kids, of course – boats, OF COURSE. They also spoke of their recovery from hurricane damage and how the both of them worked hands-on in cleaning up and rebuilding the office where their dental practice is located. It took them four months to get back in business. Now they are practicing hard to move into retirement in the near future. The conversation was so good that it kept the four of us up way past our normal bed time of 9:00PM.
As we cleaned up from dinner, we were entertained by a phone call from our son, Matt. He has been a single Dad for a few days while Kris is away on business and he wanted to share the great evening he had with his 2 year old son, Cameron. While out doing some shopping, Cameron saw the Red Robin and “suggested” dinner, so Dad and son had a great night out. The rain seemed to still be with us as we turned off the lights aboard FLIGHT.