Dockage, updates, and boat weirdness

So as you can see the post of the 3rd day of my trip from Eastport to Toronto is up. I’ll continue working through my notes and post the rest as I can. Not sure how long it’ll take overall though as I’m trying to make sure I get onto the ship permanently by the end of July… Soooooo ya. I’ll be busy.

Anyways, this weekend ended up being very busy for me while getting only some of what I wanted done. We (my parents, my friend Jon and I) got the bilge pumped out over the weekend satisfactorily and were able to clean and pump over the side 6 barrels worth of water. The plus side is that with the considerably less fuel on board (400ish gallons of diesel vs what it is when full which is 1000 gallons) plus the water out of the bilge she’s now drawing only 6 and a half feet in the stern and around 5 and feet in the bow. Next jobs include finalizing on what phase 1 for the interior of the ship is going to be so that I can call it “liveable”. The basic features I’m going to have on board is the following:

1. Master berth
2. Master bath
3. Some form of galley even if it is just a microwave, and fridge
4. The cargo hold(s) interior completed with regards to walls (tiling may be done later)

Naturally this is a lot of work but it’s not horrendous really.

This weekend we also found where I’ll be docking permanently for this summer at least (I may try to convince them to let me stay there year round though because the spot is just awesome and in a spot that ice won’t bother it that much). The people of Toronto Island Marina are just hella awesome. They really have saved my sanity ever since OHM decided to play silly bugger games with me the day before I left to pick up the ship (long story). Gary the Dock Master at TIM is a great guy and REALLY liked my boat (so much so it sounded like he was interested in getting one himself) so at least I have the head of the Marina as my champion for the docks. It’s handy to have friends like that. 🙂

We also met an elderly couple where the husband is a guy that has lived on a ship before in Georgian bay for many years and is now a glass salesman. So who cares right? The guy said if I need glass at a good price (which I do most definitely) of any variety including safety or even stained glass windows, talk to him he’ll get me an awesome price.

I’m quickly realizing the mystical powers of owning a ship. When I bought a condo in Kitchener many moons ago people were nice about helping but they really weren’t proactive about it. With a ship however all my friends have offered help, my coworkers, and total strangers. It’s rather disorienting how friendly people are regarding this. Needless to say once she’s more complete I’m going to need to take a lot of people out for a cruise.