Monday, July 21, 2025, Gore Bay

It was a nice but noisy night on Annie. The wind blew most of the night, generating little waves that slapped on Annie's hull. It seemed like I was awake all night, but my Fitbit gave me an 86 sleep score. Not sue I believe it, but it would tie my highest ever if it's right.

The weather looks good for our trip to Gore Bay today. We plan to get fuel, a pumpout, groceries, a haircut for me and to wash and fold up our dingy. Then we will head out tomorrow to meet up with Peter and Marianna again. The midweek weather for crossing to Michigan does not look great this morning, so we'll have to watch the weather closely. Yesterday, Thursday looked like a good day.

The trip to Gore  Bay took about 2 1/2 hours and was 17.8 miles. It was breezier than I thought it was going to be, about 12 knots, but behind us. The waves gave us a little push along. We stopped at the fuel dock for diesel and a pumpout, then motored to Dock "F", our favorite. Kerry got two loads of laundry in very quickly. Then we put the motor on the dinghy for our final dinghy ride of the trip as we are folding it up in anticipation of our trip home. I had to run the battery down to 50% which is what's recommended for long term storage. I must admit, I really enjoyed having the dinghy and electric motor. I will miss them when we go out anchoring again tomorrow. Kerry enjoyed them too, and got very adept at entering and exiting - much better than she ever was with the inflatable kayak. On the way in, we passed Bristol Mary who was leaving. That's the boat that Kerry photographed to win the boat name contest. It's a steel tug from Port Dover where they are famous for building them.

While Kerry was fetching the clothes from the dryer I cooked the fish that Peter gave us. I used saltine crackers to make a breading. The fish was excellent! I sure wish we could have eaten much more on this trip. Kerry loved it too. 

Finally, a fresh fish dinner. So good!

We washed the dinghy after lunch. Jimbo had given me a bottle of PVC boat cleaner that really worked well on scuffs and marks. Soap and water took care of normal dirt. We let it dry on the dock while we went downtown. I had a haircut appointment and Kerry had shopping in mind. Of course the grocery was next. We stocked up on hamburgers, ribs and a big steak. We'll be eating well on the trip home. 

We packed the dinghy up in it's travel bag when we returned. We got it to fit nicely, hauled it up to Annie's top deck and secured it for travel home. I filled one side of my engine room with oars, seats, lines, the motor, chargers, etc. After all that we were more than ready for some salted caramel ice cream - our new favorite. 

We ended up having the ice cream about 4:00. This kind of interfered with our happy hour and our plans to grill hamburgers. Instead, Kerry made us another little tortilla pizza, this one with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. We took it and our drinks up on the top deck where we had our dinner. It was sunny and pleasant. After dinner, I smoked a little cigar while we sat up and chatted. The whole event was a wonderful experience. Gore Bay is a beautiful harbor and marina. It's nice to be here. 

I uploaded another set of Vietnam pictures to Walgreens so Kerry could work on chapter 2 of my Vietnam story book. She is really enthused about this project. She has wanted to do it for long time. I did a weather check before I surrendered the computer to Kerry. It does not look good now for travel until Friday. 

I started to go on a walk, but it was actually pretty cold, so I went back to Annie and read. I kept falling asleep so Kerry convinced me to beat the solar lights to bed. It was a great day. We accomplished all our tasks and still had a very pleasant day together.

The entries are in for Photo Contest 8, Reflections. Please see separate post and choose your favorite. Jimbo and Jola are judging.