Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: Oh Say Can You See, Orillia

Orillia, Ontario Starpoint Marina July 27-29, 2016

Another beautiful morning greeted us, so after mom’s quick shower she took me for a long walk to photograph around the Fenlon Falls park that was right by us. So many cute middle class Victorian’s from the 1830’s on… The town was founded by James Wallis in 1834 he and a partner started a sawmill and later and grist mill and got the town going.

We all agreed if we can do it, we are going through 7 locks today and heading across Lake Simcoe to Orillia for a couple of days before moving towards the small boat channel in the Georgian Bay.

As beautiful as it is, the day just kept getting hotter making the locks that much more tiring…Kirkland Lift Lock was like Peterboro, but 3 feet shorter, but far more open…spooky! We are finally ascending which presents different lock issues…the lock masters help you put your lines through the cables…we see them first as we descend into the holes…one was 22 feet down. Incredible! The canal through these areas are so narrow and shallow our depth detector was constantly going off. Passing a boat going the other way was especially harrowing because you could see the rock abutment’s under the water on both sides…

We only hit one stump that we know of since mom felt it and then saw it pop up afterwards. Kevin and Jill said they could feel the bottom hit multiple times because their Chris Craft is deeper…once they felt it scraping the bottom, as they were coming through the Hole in the Wall Bridge.

We didn’t make it in here until about 6 PM. Mom caved from the heat around 3:30 when we were crossing Lake Simcoe. She turned on the generator, so we could put on AC in the salon. She and I laid down in here and took a short nap…Heaven! Mom went up to relieve dad for a few before coming back downstairs with me. It kept threatening showers but thankfully none came.

Wow, Starlight Marina outside of Orillia is incredibly fancy and very, very large. They have covered slips in three very large fairways!!! Unfortunately, the vegetation is growing into their fairways, so when dad had to back up, he got a bunch of it wrapped around his shaft and the rudders weren’t able to work properly. Making it incredibly difficult to land the boat, but he still backed it into our slip.

Everyone couldn’t get docked & hooked up fast enough! They needed a drink and it was way past my dinnertime! After getting me fed and drinks made, we all gathered at the picnic tables behind our boats, They were in the shade with a breeze…HEAVEN!

Lucky for us we are traveling with Kevin, who put on his full diving gear this AM to go down and clean our shaft and check our bottom as well as his own boat and Knot Sew Easy…

Thankfully, none of us had much real damage to our boats. And a big 3’ snapping turtle was very happy to chomp on all those veggies Kevin cleaned off our boat’s shaft. Scared the crap out of all of us!!!

I’m really enjoying not having to move much today…but mom and dad are cleaning inside and out, catching up on laundry, and small boat repairs before they head to the pool for some much earned R & R! Can’t believe they won’t let me in the pool area! It’s not like I want to go in! It’s not a sunny day here, but it’s still plenty warm! Fine, I’m happy to stay in AC!!!

Mom and Dad returned from the pool in time to feed me…after all it is all about ME! This stop has really rejuvenated me since I got to catch up on my sleep! Mom loved it here because even though it was vast, all she had to do was flag down one of the workers in golf carts and they would give her a ride to wherever she wanted to go…

I’m bummed, I miss riding on Penny’s golf cart & didn’t get to ride these either!

So we go out after dinner to discuss our next few days plan when all of a sudden we hear Liz scream Brandy’s name and a splash. Their old boxer Brandy had fallen off the dock between the boats. Like Lily she can’t hear, so we are trying to get her attention while Kevin, Mr. Firefighter jumps in to rescue her. Bob pushes the boats apart to give them both room to get out to open water. Mike runs to our boat when he realizes that Brandy is coming that way…he and Bob get on the swim platform to get both Brandy and Kevin out. Way more excitement than we wanted tonight! Other than scaring the poo out of her, she seemed no worse from wear… The rest of us including me, are exhausted from all that excitement!