During the process of purchasing Adriana we were invited to visit Bill and Shoni at their home approximately 100km from Wiarton back down the highway towards Toronto.

We stopped for a quick breakfast on the way, I was excited to have pancakes with maple syrup from an authentic Canadian diner, Craig found this quote on the wall which he thought was quite apt.

It was an absolute privilege to be invited to Bills house and we were given a guided tour of his amazing property.  It’s set on 80 acres, the house is an original farmhouse that has been lovingly remodelled over the years using timber sourced and milled on the property.

Bill drove us down to his Maple Syrup sugar shack where he explained the process of how the maple trees are tapped, the sap is collect then reduced right down to leave the sweet syrup.  The ratio is 40 litres of sap produces 1litre of syrup. 

Bill has hand built the sugar shack also from timber sourced and milled on his property. 
We then had a look through the cottage that he hand built, it’s nestled into the surrounding bush land and it’s the cutest little house it reminds me of little house on the prairie, so simple. it was even warm inside with no heating on and it smelt divine.

There was a huge pond with a creek flowing through it, with a boat landing and a bridge, Bill casually mentions “oh yes I hand built the pond using stones from here”.  
Did I mention there was a small quarry that provided shale for all the roads and paths on the property.  Alongside Bills land his church has a holiday camp that he and his sons helped create, an amazing place for children to come and experience nature at its finest. There were also skidoo and cross country ski trails. There was still snow on the ground, it was so pretty.  

After an enjoyable look around the property we shared a hot bowl of homemade soup and we left with our arms full of sailing charts and a huge bottle of maple syrup.  

Another trip we made while waiting on the snow to melt was with Bill and Sue, we went to  Blue Mountain Ski Resort. 

Sue’s childhood best friend lived close by in the adjacent suburb of Collingwood.  Josie and Martin have done lots of sailing so were happy to share their knowledge on traversing through the lakes and canals, they were just about to hop on a plane to attend their sons wedding in Sydney Australia.  

We had a lovely afternoon drinking beer in the sunshine.  It was the end of the snow season so most of the village bars eateries and shops were closed already but we managed to find a bar and try the local delicacy beaver tails, puff pastry base with your choice of sweet toppings.  

The village was incredibly pretty much much bigger than Mt Buller, the Victorian ski resort where Craig and I met.

What was interesting to me was different sides of the mountain were owned by either a lift company or a ski club.

When we left the ski field area heading across country to a favoured pizza restaurant we were still at a really high elevation, it was cold and the snow was still thick on the ground.

Driving home from Blue Mountain there was a beautiful sunset, living in Wiarton we are on the wrong side of the peninsula for sunsets but one evening we went to Sauble Beach, which is a good 20 minute drive across the Bruce Peninsula, Todd and Heather kindly took us for a drive so we could see the beach, the sunset and have pizza at another favoured pizza place.  

Sauble Beach is just like an ocean beach even though it is  Lake Huron.  The sand is just like beach sand, it stretches for miles there were people out on sup and kayaks or canoes.  It was still out of season so most of the businesses were closed but you could see why it would be super busy in Summer, Todd was telling us a lot of Americans come over to the Bruce Peninsula for the long weekends and summer holidays. 

Adriana is a beautiful yacht  and we really did not have to do a lot to her to make her exactly what we wanted for our adventures.
We wanted to antifoul her bottom before she went back into the water.  This was easy we ordered the paint from the marina chandlery and it arrived within a couple of days.
Normally Craig would use Micron Extra but that product is not available in Canada due to strict toxicity regulations.  so we had to settle for Micron CSC.
We had to sand the previous years antifoul off and repaint her this took over a week and yes it did snow in between sanding and painting.  The antifoul is blue and got on to everything.

There were a couple of slight gouges that Craig re glassed and she was as good as new.

Her propeller is a solid bronze four blade feathering Vairprop made in Denmark.  We removed the propeller and thoroughly cleaned, sanded, re greased and gave it a good coating of PropSpeed.  There is a brand new spare prop onboard just in case.

We enjoyed doing the work to her and even though it was cold it was nice to be outside.

Inside temperature

We had access to the inside but we had not power or water and we had to climb a ladder secured with a rope.

But we had gas and we could make a cup of tea, she looked so lovely before we moved in

When she went into the water we had to empty the water tanks of the antifreeze, which is an alcohol based pink solution.  This was done by flushing fresh water through the pipes and emptying out the tanks.  The toilets and shower drains got the same treatment.  Once we switched the aircon on the antifreeze flushed through the system and it was ready to use.
I think the Wintering process is a lot more involved, they have to ensure there is no water in any pipes and add the antifreeze as any liquid will freeze and can expand a burst pipes and tanks.

The Marina uses a travel lift to put the boats in and out of the water, the boats are moved around by a trailer while they are on the stands.  The are manoeuvred into position below the travel lift, which slides forward away from the water.  Big bands or straps are placed under the hull, they are then tightened so she lifts off the stands and the travel lift moves back over the water where the boat is lowered by the straps, once the boat is sitting in the water the straps are released and she is free to move forward and out into the marina waters, and into to her berth.

The staff at Wiarton Marina were so friendly and helpfull, its a lovely Marina, very sheltered and calm most of the time. Carol in the office was fantastic helping us with our questions and ordering in our bits and pieces.

The lake water is super clear and there are no tides as such. There can be a slight tide due to the wind blowing the mass of water towards or away from shore, the lakes were running real high this Spring due to the wet weather. There is a blanket ban on putting anything in the water, so we had to pump out every so often.

We ordered a new Mantis 85 lb  anchor along with 80 mt of new chain and 80 mt of rode.  We ordered a water maker from Trinidad of all the places !! writing this blog on 30th May it still hadn't arrived.
We found an ex metalwork teacher to make us a frame to hold the 6 solar panels ~ We managed to buy the solar panels on sale they were originally CA$549.00 each and we bought them for $249.00, that's a huge saving when your buying 6.

We settled into our new home, Craig took over Heathers kitchen and cooked some amazing meals and we were treated like family.  Craig introduced Todd to dim sims Canadians have not embraced this delicacy like we do.
As soon as the season opened, we walked up the hill to the local fish shop and bought some Whitefish for fish and chips, whitefish is the equivalent to our flake.  A big hit was the steak and Guinness pie, for Craig and I the highlight was bowls of ice cream after dinner and house made fudge and popcorn.

The house was a constant 23c and was so cosy and comfortable.

Craig had a constant companion in the kitchen, Izzy was ever hopeful of a dropped piece of chicken but she was partial to raw veggies as well. Todd and Heather were also never far away when Craig was cooking.

On about the 2nd night we were invited along to watch Heather play her weekly girls only curling competition, the girls were so welcoming and allowed us to have a go … I didn't know  that they wear a slip on slider on one foot and a slip on grippy sole on the other, these slip ons go over their normal shoes, next time your watching the curling on Tv check out the way they scoot across the ice.  My impression is that lawn bowls is the summer version of curling, they play ends and have a skip and the stone turns as it slides just like bowling balls have a bias.

I must admit I could not work out if the sweeping actually made any difference, but it seems to be an integral part of the game.  Our arrival at  Heather and Todd’s coincided with the end of their playing season and we were invited to the clubs end of year dinner and awards night, the food was lovely.  We had oven baked chicken, mashed potatoes, Caesar salad plus a spinach salad w mandarins, mixed veggies bread rolls w butter and for dessert apple & strawberry pie or blueberry pie prepared and served by the wife of the marina manager. We knew a few people there so felt quite at home.
Check this out the curling club has a mixed social competition, now that marijuana is legal they are embracing the bong.

Another social event I was invited to was a fashion show put on by a local boutique as a fundraiser for a local charities group, they were fundraising to help set up a skate park to give local youth something to do. It was good fun and its interesting to see other communities even on the other side of the world, all struggle with the same issues.

It was coming to the end of the Winter sports season, we enjoyed watching The Toronto Maples, go through the preliminary final rounds on Tv, Craig went to watch Todd and his friend Bill play ice hockey a few times, the kids here have grown up ice skating and Craig could never quite get over their skills on the ice.

As we waited for the snow to disappear time seemed to go so slowly mostly because we were waiting but also because we were not working and it being too cold to do much more than potter around for an hour or so on board Adriana, the cold would seep right into your bones no matter how many layers of clothes we wore, it was like hanging around in a commercial cool room. 

It snowed on and off, some mornings we would wake up and there would be a fresh blanket of snow over everything, the sun would come out to a beautiful day with stunning blue skies,  or it would rain and it was cold and miserable, but eventually the snow started to melt.

We returned to Wiarton on the Monday only to find most of the shops and services close on the Monday’s too during the off season. 

We called into a real estate office but they do not handle the cottages. We called a few phone numbers listed on the outside of buildings and chatted to anyone who showed any interest in us.

I had noticed that the local lolly shop did airb&b and we wondered, if they didn’t have any bookings, they might be able to do something for the weeks before the summer season started.  We tried going in to ask but they were also closed.

It was about this time we had noticed the local Foodland supermarket sold hot takeaway food and coffee for $1.00.  
So off we went for a bowl of hot Chilli soup and a bread roll.  The first time we had bought soup and bread rolls from them we hadn’t noticed the sitting area and ate in the smelly car but we soon cottoned on to the warm dining area with free Wi Fi and a bathroom.  The soup was hot and tasty they also do fried chicken and hot chips so Craig was extra happy. 

To make contact I had to go through airb&b and enquire about a pretend booking.  airb&b automatically block phone numbers and email addresses so it was looking impossible to get through,  I received a reply,  yes.  it was the lolly shop they messaged " we are home - at the rear of the shop why don’t you call in".

We entered into a lovely garden where we were greeted by a man in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, this was Todd, we were to learn that this is Todd’s uniform Summer and Winter,  he made me feel colder just looking at him. 

We were invited inside to a lovely cosy apartment under Northern Confections.  Todd is a born and raised Bruce Peninsula local, Heather hails originally from Nova Scotia, they purchased the building approx 5 years ago and as Todd is a trained confectioner they opened their lolly/ice cream and coffee shop. It’s a very cute shop and they sell the best maple syrup covered popcorn and maple syrup fudge ever,  Craig who has now admitted to buying a little square of fudge every time he went  to the  mini mart  in Cowes, was beside himself. 

There are 2 apartments above the shop that Heather airb&b's over Summer but rents to doctors from the local hospital over the quiet Winter months, both top apartments were being used.  But they had a spare room and we were very welcome to move in!!

As we all found it difficult to talk money Heather said she would txt us an amount.  As we were driving back to Owen Sound we received a txt with a very reasonable rate, we said yes.

It was a bit weird driving away from the Owen Sound airb&b in their sons car, Canadians are very trusting.

We piled our belongings into the bedroom, the bed was really comfortable, the house was lovely and warm, a constant 23c and we had a new friend in Izzy.

Izzy is a  Poodle cross Bichon, she is a rescue dog that  had her back broken when she was a puppy. Heather spent months doing physio on her legs and got her walking again, she now runs around almost as good as if nothing had happened to her, she is very cute and very loved.

Our first weekend in Wiarton -  it dumped down snow, really heavy snow, the snow did not stop for 2 days solid.... we still went out walking and even went to a Rotary fundraiser on the Sunday, it was at an Elk Farm that collected processed and produced maple syrup. 

We were actually very lucky to be in this area at this time of year as maple syrup production was in full swing and we were given a few jars of maple syrup from various people we met along the way including a 2litre bottle from Bill Adianas now previous owner.

The trip to the elk farm was an adventure it was only a 10 minute drive but in the heavy falling snow it seemed to take forever, we slid off the road at one point but luckily Craig didn’t miss a beat and guided the car back on to the road without stopping and with no damage. Thank goodness, if we had had to stop and wait for help we would have froze we were very unequipped for adventuring out in the snow.  

I had bought a pair of cheap $15 boots that I discovered on that day they were not waterproof, everyday from then on I wore plastic bags over my socks and the boots worked a treat, I remember doing this growing up in the snow in Scotland.  Craig on the other hand was getting by with normal everyday runners. 

There is a very cute video of us on the tractor ride to the area where the activities were, we had maple syrup waffles, maple taffy, watched a two person log sawing competition, stood around a fire and learnt about maple syrup production. I thought I was going to die on the tractor ride back to the car I was so cold.

You can go to our zencrasailing Facebook page to see more...

Bill and Shoni very graciously allowed us access to Adriana so we stowed our suitcases and “summer clothes” away. Bill still had to clear out his belongings, we were very lucky to be gifted a number of useful guides and maps from Bill.

We quickly organised for Steven to send our boxes to the Marina address.  They arrived in about 10 days which was a relief as the cost to send them was over $1000.00 .  Inside was Craig’s wet weather sailing gear, some smaller tools, a stack of sailing books that Craig had treated himself to when we sold the garden supply business, we also shipped our Thermomix which we probably won’t be able to use as Canada and USA use differently ampages to Australia.

So then it was a waiting game waiting for the weather to warm up and the ice to melt. 

We had one particular part of a park that we would visit most days to check the progress, it seemed to take forever but in reality it was less than a month before we saw the ice melt completely.

We walked most days and wondered at nature awakening from its Winter sleep to blossoming spring. The Bruce Peninsula had experienced up to -20C over Winter.

We had to pay for Adriana which proved to be harder than it should have been.  We had most of the money in a Wells Fargo US account that we planned to transfer to pay for the boat.  The problem was transferring money from US to Canada and we were Australian and there was no Wells Fargo branch we could access.  Eventually we worked out a way to manage this.  It it involved us transferring money to Kelly the American broker who then transfer it to Jack, the Canadian broker who then paid Bill plus we had to split the payments due to daily limits.  I was very stressful having our money out there in cyberspace for what seemed like forever.  Then we had the same problem with the payment from Australia to Canada but eventually all monies were transferred and on the 29th March 2019 we settled and we finally owned Adriana 1.  

having a celebratory champagne with Todd and Heather

The next issue was that we wanted to register her as an Australian vessel.  To get our registration we had to wait for the Canadian registration cancellation to come through, we needed to have the bill of sale, forms had to be completed with things like hull measurement, tonnage and mast to bottom of keel measurement. We had to have a Public Notary sign the forms.  We were lucky the lawyer in the practice up the road from Northern Confections was also a public notary and he agreed to sign them for us for $25.00 but said “no charge” after he had completed the signing so we left the $25 with Todd and Heather to run a coffee tab for him and his lovely receptionist who is his wife.  

In Australia before we left we had to pay $200 (and that was half of what he should have charged us) for a Public Notary to sign forms on the closure of property we sold in the USA, we had to use him twice.

We posted off the originals to Australia and crossed our fingers they would arrive quickly.

I had sent off an anniversary card, a couple of birthday cards and a couple of packages of treats to our boys, when we first arrived in Canada and they actually never arrived in Australia. so I was rather nervous of the Canadian Postal service.

We had to find international health insurance, this was highlighted when Craig had a bout of gout, he is on medication and the medication required a back up dosage, so after about  4 days of pain we headed to the local doctor, who worked out of the local hospital. Well we were stopped in our tracks it was going to cost us up to $500 to see the doctor then we would still have to get the prescription filled, Craig knew what medication he required.  

We had walked there and Craig was in a lot of pain, he nearly cried.

After talking to Heather we found out there was a walk in clinic in Owen Sound that us “out of country folk” could visit at a cost of $50, woo hoo, we did have our original travel insurance but really all we needed was to have a prescription filled. The doctor was very thorough and Craig was in there for almost half an hour, the doctor went through the problem and upped his dosage.  The local chemist was also incredibly thorough, she even phoned Craig to check he understood the medication.

We wore our Aldi thermals every day and night for the first three weeks.  As we knew the weather would warm up and we would not need “snow gear “ we were a bit reluctant to invest too much money in really thick winter clothes.  

I was offered by Sue one of Heathers friends that she would purchase some clothes from the shop she worked in that was closing down, then with her staff discount the price was even lower, so through Sue I acquired 2 pairs of lovely thick fleecy leggings, 2 nice thick cream jumpers and a puffer jacket, I also picked up a few pieces from the local thrift shop.

I would say we collected about a dozen food containers, a chopping board, ice block trays and even a cocktail shaker for $2.00 from the Local Salvation Army op shop in town. Adriana had been purchased with a fair amount of kitchen items but we also did a few trips in the bong mobile to Walmart and Canadian Tire to help fit her out.

Craig bought electric tools, Allan keys, tapes, sandpaper, wrenches, hammer, etc, mostly the same items that we had given away or stored back home.  We did need to invest in imperial tools such as tape measure and wrench set as Adriana was American built and we required tools in inches and feet to work on her.

While we had the car we did one big grocery shop $500 worth of cans of soup, baked beans, canned veggies, pasta sauce, rice, pasta, condiments, cleaning products, toilet rolls etc.  all those things like salt and paper worchestir sauce, tomato sauce we had to start from scratch.  

We held on to the bong mobile for a couple of weeks but it really was a bomb and felt unsafe, we didn’t want it to break down or fall apart on us so we delivered it back to Owen Sound.

We had the very generous offer of using Todd and Heathers car if we needed it and as we felt we had done the bulk of the provisioning and the larger items, we were happy to walk back and forth from the supermarket, hardware etc.