July 17, 2006

Man, is it toasty here! It must be very hot where you are, as most of you are further south than we are. At least here, it cools off over night and allows us to get some sleep.

Sorry that I haven’t written much but the twelve hour days, six days per week started on July 1st. There weren’t too many boats for another week or so, but they are arriving now. The traffic seems to be down this year. Likely the high cost of fuel and the high Canadian dollar is affecting the numbers. Here, our gas is 1.309 per litre and diesel is 1.289! That works out to approx $5 US per US gallon. Too much. Personally, we try not to drive any more than we must. Once a week, I drive to the laundry, just a few blocks away. Otherwise, we bike or walk around town.

The antenna that we had purchased to enable us to extend our range of wireless reception has been sent back to the company for repairs. It’s failure was very disappointing and will curtail our communications somewhat. Now, we will only receive e-mail when we take our computer into the Lodge. We will try to do that at least once per week. If you need us urgently, phone here ( Lodge’s phone number 705-287-2242 ) and we can call back when things are not too busy. In between times, I will try to check e-mails on-line with the Lodge’s computer.

The dock staff are doing very well. We have mostly females again this year. Murray’s angels. One is from Switzerland and one from Denmark. The others are from Ontario. Our token male, other than Mur, is a local guy and only 15 but doing a super job. The girls from Europe have a small problem with snakes, mice and turtles. They scream if they see any of these things! The rest of us just laugh at them. But, they all work hard and are feeling this excessive heat.

My joints have been fairly good for the last week or so, allowing me to sleep most nights. Perhaps they respond to the increased temperatures. I may be able to have surgery sooner than expected through a doctor who works out of St Mike’s Hospital in Toronto. We shall see what happens this fall.

Murray is doing well, working too hard as usual and not eating too well due to the heat. In his spare time,he is doing some more carvings. He has been involved in a couple of rescues locally. Today, we received a radio call from a boat anchored in Covered Portage Cove saying that someone aboard had broken their arm. Murray went out to bring the patient into the marina while I arranged for an ambulance to take them to Sudbury. The strange thing was that we knew the people and had cruised with them in the Bahamas. Yesterday, we also got a radio call from Cover Portage Cove informing us that one of our rental fleet boats had broken down and the 4 persons aboard needed to be brought back to the Lodge. They were guests from Holland who had an adventure to entertain all of their friends at home.

In our spare time, we try to go sailing a couple of times a week on Fandango, the Goman Express 20 that we bought last summer. It is great fun to sail and moves easily in the slightest evening breeze.

Preparations have started already for the 2nd annual “Round the Island” Sailing Race being held on Sept 2nd. It is a fun race and a fund raising event that raised in excess of $1500 last year towards the local Health Centre Building Fund. Flyers are posted now and paperwork being organized. Advertising needs to be addressed along with donations from the local merchants. Where will we find the time?

How are things down in your neck of the woods? All healthy, happy and wise? I assume that none of us are wealthy. Take care all and write when you have time.

Hugs, Heather & Murray