It's Ooooooverrrr!

Sadly this is the final chapter for our cruise of '05.  Both Linda and I were sad to have this excellent adventure come to an end.  As you can tell from the delay in getting this out, obligations quickly take over and there is less time for this fun stuff.  This will be fairly short as there are only a couple of days unaccounted for.  For the guys, I have included a few stats that I pulled together.  Unfortunately, the one stat that I do not have is the distance that we travelled.  Oh well, maybe next time I will figure out how to accumulate that info.

Toronto was great other than the inconvenience of the storm.  We did get a chance to meet a few of our old friends from there and believe it or not, two different couples, one from Ottawa and a friend who was recently transferred to Toronto, walked by our boat even though they did not know that we were there.  It is a small world.  Linda loved visiting Chinatown again and we both felt pretty comfortable in the Harbourfront and Queen's Quay areas.  On August 22, we headed to Cobourg dodging the rain showers along the way.  We did not recognize the place as there are 2 new condo buildings next to the marina near the marina building and gas dock.  They look pretty good with terraces on most of the units and some roof top common areas that look like gazebos.  They are also building some new town houses on the other side of the parking lot near the beach area.  They are fixing things up pretty nicely there.  We went to the jail for the first time.  Who would have thought that a theme like that would work??  There are a number of hotel rooms, really cells, that have been decorated nicely.  The pub food was good as well.  My cousin from Balsam Lake caught up with us there for a late lunch and my friends from Markham came out to have dinner with us.  Another pub and of course more beer.  I would make any Brit proud with the number of different beers that I tried from their country.

We had a good trip to Kingston.  We took the Murray Canal and crossed the Bay of Quinte quite comfortably this time.  Unfortunately, we did not have time to stop in Belleville again.  We had a good time on the way out a couple of months earlier.  Near Portsmouth Harbour we were overrun by hundreds of small sail boats who were obviously heading for the harbour after a day of instruction and competing on the water.  I believe that it is called CORK, altho I do not know what it stands for.  Kingston was good as always; more draft beers to try at the Tir An Nog (sp).  At last, there is construction on the waterfront, west of the Ramada but closer that the Admiralty, on 85 Ontario Street.  We'll have to find out what that is about when I get a chance.  Unfortunately, there were no signs other than the official notices from the city planning office.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end.  We had our best (ie. quickest) transitting of the Iroquois Lock (ie. it was open and they waited for us.) and we made it back to Crysler Park Marina in good time.  Nobody was there to meet us, but I forgive you all.  ;>)

For those like numbers, here are some facts from the trip:
Num. of days  -  63
Engine Hours  -  137
Fuel  -  8,708 litres
Avg. Cost for Fuel  -  $ 0.889 / litre
Avg. Fuel Usage  -  63.5 litres / hour
I hope that I have not burdened people with my ramblings, but Linda and I would like to thank you all for your encouragement and for sharing this wonderful summer with us.  We wish that everyone gets an opportunity like this past summer for their great adventure.

Bye for now.
Tom & Linda