Leamington weekend

We spent a nice long weekend in Leamington, Ontario, Canada. We arrived at the boat Wednesday to get ready for the trip across the lake. Dave had to take apart & clean one of the winches that was giving us trouble while Nelson and I headed to the local grocery for provisions. We cooked dinner onboard that nigh and had a surprise visit from one of the marina residents. I'm calling her Priscilla.
Click for big. Priscilla nibbled my toes then ate pretzels out of the palm of my hand.
She was very gentle and very hungry.

Thursday morning we got an early start toward Canada. There was a good strong breeze so Dave put a reef in the main and we headed north. We left Catawba (red dot) and crossed the South Passage, then east of the Bass Islands, up the west side of Pelee, across the Pelee Passage, into Pigeon Bay, then docked in the Leamington Marina (green dot). It's typically a 5 hour sail.

Here's a shot as we pass the Bass Islands. You can see South Bass Island with Perry's Monument, Gibralter Island in the center, and Middle Bass on the right.

Upon entering Leamington Dave had to check into customs before the rest of us could leave the boat, which was fine because there were a million things to do such as hook up the shore power and water hose, put the mainsail cover on, adjust dock lines, etc. So Nelson and I started tackling the list, but right then his cell phone rang and he went down below leaving me to do the all strenuous stuff by myself. What a guy!

Here's a view of the marina. It was nice to see that they were flying our yacht club flag. Our boat, Anegada, is the 4th mast from the left.

We did all the usual things like talk hockey with our good friend Jim at Bowman Pro Sports, bought hockey sticks and ketchup (Leamington is the tomato capitol of Canada!), drank wine and socialized with our fellow yacht club members.

One afternoon we took a tour of Muscedere Vineyards (pronounced 'moo-SHED-ray') while tasting 7 of their wines, and afterwards they served lunch. The wine-tasting part was my favorite. *hic*
I wanted to lick the top of that barrel where the wine leaked out, but people were watching.
I will be drinking these babies in a few years.

The trip home was as it always is coming home from Leamington; no wind and motoring all the way. The only excitement was when we had to keep an eye out for freighters in the Peelee Passage.
We stopped at Put-In-Bay to check in with US customs as is the law, but it was lunch time and no one was answering the video phone. So I documented our effort with a photo and we went to have lunch.
Dave and John trying to be good citizens.
After lunch we returned to the check-in point and this time we were able to reach customs. They spoke to each one of us and then we were off, back to the boats to return to our home port. Once there we hurried to get things ship-shape, then hit the road for the 3 hour drive home. It was a long day.