We filled our days getting organised we had to get  Australian registration, marine insurance, a stainless steel frame to hold the solar panels, a spinnaker made and delivered, a new battery as well as various upgrades or replacements to things like the outdoor BBQ, a dripping tap, watermaker, new anchor and chain.....

We waited months for the watermaker to arrive from Trinidad (of all places) it was held up in customs for weeks.
There were some beautiful sunny days and some not so nice wet and windy ones but the temperatures were slowly rising and there were no longer minus temperatures even overnight. 

To get her insured we had to wait for Bill’s insurance to be cancelled, we had to have a bill of sale, forms had to be completed with length of hull, tonnage, measurements from top of mast to waterline.  Then we had to have a Public Notary sign the forms.  We were so well looked after - the lawyer in the practice up the road from Northern Confections was a Public Notary and said he would sign our paperwork for us at a charge of $25.00.  After he had signed our forms he said “no charge “ how nice was that. We left him a $25.00 coffee tab with Todd and Heather as we had noticed his secretary, who was also his wife, picked up coffee there most mornings.

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

Once we had our registration number from Australia Maritime we had to source a plaque that needed to be engraved with 2 inch letters stating our registration number and our weight. We walked up a huge hill to visit an older man who was a carpenter and had previously made a sign for the owner of the marina, it took a few days but he made us a beautiful timber sign out of America Oak.  It was way too big,  but we paid for it anyway he was a lovely gentleman who had recently lost his wife.  He invited us inside and showed us the grandfather clocks he had made for each of his sons and the roll top desk for his daughter. 

Instead we ordered a Perspex sign from the sports store, the sports store’s machine wasbroken and we would have to wait for the part to come in.  Everything seemed to take so much time, but in reality it was good to have time to live onboard, and for us to get used to the space and the movement, we tied up with quite long lines and Adriana would bob around when the winds shifted. some days the wind would create waves but generally the lakes are very calm and there are no tides.

The day we received our Melbourne signage was exciting

Craig installed an Iridium Go, an extra navigational tool that creates/links us to a wifi point from a satellite.  We had to send off our Raymarine AIS to be updated with our details and that took forever, we sent it to Canada, who then sent it to US, who sent it back to us.

We wanted to install solar panels, Craig calculated 6 would be sufficient and we needed to have a frame custom built to hold them.  The frame will sit above the dodger.  We were given a few names of local stainless steel fabricators. 

The best person for the job couldn’t do it until 2nd week in June and at that time we were planning to be gone by then so we kept asking around until we found someone willing to start straight away.  

The first problem was this person could not source the grade of steel that we should use.  We wanted to use 316 stainless but all he could source was 304. Up here around the lakes they don’t have the salt air so the 316 grade is not so common. We felt we had no choice so gave the go ahead.  

The frame was beautifully built his welds were really neat and clean, the frame fitted over but we had trouble securing the legs to the boat.  After about 7 attempts to match the angle of the feet to the side of the boat he gave up and refunded our money.  

We spent our days onboard learning as much as we could about Adriana’s systems, how the power and pump systems worked, where the Blackwater drained to from each toilet and where the sink water went.  Why did we keep blowing a fuse? Turns out the power point was faulty so we walked to the hardware and to our surprise we could purchase a new power point straight off the shelf.

I created the blog, we walked each day between the supermarket, the hardware, the op shop, the marina and Todd and Heathers.

It was still chilly we were still wearing beanies and parkas but I no longer had to wear my $15 boots I could now wear runners, we were still wearing leggings under jeans and long sleeved T-shirt’s under at least 3 layers.  

Adriana has an electric heating and cooling system with separate zones -  one in our bedroom, one in the main living and then the spare bedrooms.  We were lovely and warm as the weather got better we stopped using the a/c and just used the small portable electric fan heater to heat the air at night and in the mornings.

All the locals kept telling us wait until 1st June, the weather completely changes and so it did, by 3rd June I was sitting in the cockpit with a skirt on sunning my legs.

The morning and evenings were still chilly but we could cope with that. 

We had somehow not packed our music cd’s I do remember putting them aside but we ended up not packing them.  We should have ...Adriana has a Bose deluxe entertainment system it sounds so good.  We managed to hook up Craig’s laptop to the TV so we can watch movies on the tv with surround sound.  Heathers daughter Emily gave me her password for Crave, the Canadian version of Netflix and we have  Deidre's Netflix passwords but this is only good if we have wifi.  We bought a few DVD’s from the op shop but they were soo bad. 

We have Spotify, I have made a playlist with all Callum’s music and we enjoy hearing his voice and music.  We even worked out we could play Triple JJJ through the Bose speakers that’s pretty cool, I miss Australian music especially the Melbourne music scene. Our son Callum is an electronic music producer and has  his music is played on triple jjj radio.  So that’s all we had listened to for years, and l feel we are missing out on hearing all the great music that comes out of Australia, I think I’ve said before the music on the radio over here is pretty sad, it might be different in Toronto there will be alternate stations I’m sure.  

If you would like to check out Callum’s work Elkkle is his working name, he is on Soundcloud and Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5O3OUnaadL3aEVi5x6ImOl
https://soundcloud.com/elkkle

We ate great meals cooked by Craig, we tried not to spend too much money. 

We were gifted charts and chart books, we are not sure if we can use them as some are fairly old eg 2005 ?

We researched fishing in the lakes and what gear we would need.  All while waiting for the weather to warm up, there were some beautiful days with blue skies but then it would turn cold again and be rainy and windy with top temps of 8c.

We had to have Adriana surveyed for our insurance, that took such a long time to be completed.  I won’t go into it, let’s just say I ended up helping the surveyor write the survey, and I made the folder with photos and descriptions to send. The gentleman we hired was a bit too old fashioned for what we required and didn’t have the skills to create what an insurance company in 2019 expects.  

The other issue we had was that he charged us as if he was producing a 30 page bound document instead of the 3 pages he presented to us initially.

We managed to get a  $200 refund which helped pay for the word program I had to buy to create the report. Eventually our insurance came through, one step closer.

Our new anchor arrived a Manus swivel with 80mt of 3/8th BBB Chain.  We laid it out and marked it with paint every 10mt 

Marinas are funny places: everyone who walked past and there were a few, had to tell us how they marked their chain.  Craig would get frustrated but I think it was just an excuse to stop and talk to the Aussies.
The staff at Wiarton Marina are fantastic, everyone is so friendly and helpful, the guys were always yelling out "G'day Mate" to Craig and laughing at him when he chose the wrong day to walk around in shorts and thongs.  Carol and Margot in the office helped us so much  by sourcing parts and letting us know when they arrived.  Alex is a wealth of knowledge and I don't think there is anything he doesn't know or cant fix.
We had to pump out while we were in the Marina, obviously you cannot discharge your blackwater while you are in the marina, but you cannot even do it anywhere in the lakes.  This is understandable as the water is so pristine and clear, each town has its own town water pump station to supply it but they still have to add a bunch of chemicals.  A few years ago another town in Ontario had a huge disaster where people died and others were left with permanent digestive issues from E.coli being present in the drinking water.  It was a government employee who was not doing his job properly that caused it and it changed the way the water to the towns are now supplied and the amount of chemicals that are added.

Here is a small quick video I have made for my Dad so he can see the process used to return the yachts back to the water after the Winter 

Sunday 2nd of June I gave out my blog info to strangers, and here’s how it happened. 

On the Saturday we were on the dock laying out the new chain and a lovely guy introduced himself as Cam and invited us over to his boat for a drink after dinner and to meet his parents, he noticed we had run out of paint and offered us what he had left in a can he had, We had run out as we had used most of it marking the original chain that came with Adriana.  The chain had been delivered late that afternoon it was a Saturday and the shops were all closed, it was cold and spitting rain I might add. Cam ran and fetched his can which turned out to be almost full how nice was that.

We were invited to Todd and Heathers for pizza and didn’t get back in time to visit Cam and his parents but chatted to them in the morning and that’s when I gave out my blog details. They were very interested in us and our forthcoming adventures.

Todd and Heather continued to look after us, they let me do our washing and drying at their house, everything was still going in the dryer as there wasn’t always enough daily sunshine.  

They would walk Izzy down to the marina every night to say hello, most nights we would join them for a walk , sometimes they would come in for a beer, occasionally watch a movie or share pizza, they would bring us samples from the shop for Craig to taste test and if we mentioned we needed anything they helped us source it. 

They adopted us like we were their children, if they were going to Owen Sound we would tag along, we went to their food wholesalers, there were fun nights with them and Bill & Sue playing a neat game called Cards against Humanity. They hosted pot luck dinners and as the weather became less chilly they had us round for bbqs where we sat around the fire pit. 

There was an incident one  night at the Marina before we left.  We were pottering around getting ready for bed, Craig had started the watermaker for the first time and we were tasting the new water so it was a bit exciting.  I felt the boat move at the same time as we realised there were flashing lights outside, the movement was a boat in the slip opposite us it had just returned to the dock and they had rescued 2 guys from the water. A third was pulled from the water by Brian in lazuli, the boat opposite us on the same arm of the dock.

Four guys had been out fishing in the lake in front of the marina, the boat had hit something below the water that ripped the bottom off it and it sunk very quickly 3 of them were rescued but one man  drowned. 

The water was around  4-6 Celsius, they had been swimming  in the cold water n the dark for about an hour.  It was awful hearing everyone yell out  Tyson Tyson, then once they located him everything went silent. A very sad few days watching the police boat doing their investigating and detectives around interviewing the main people involved in the rescue.

It brought home to me that I will need to always be wearing a life jacket in the dingy and while we are sailing.

Finally we move onboard.

On the Monday while we were at Niagara Falls Adriana was put in the water.

We couldn’t believe it~ Geoff from the marina called Craig on the Saturday before we left to let us know there was a chance Monday would be the day !!  

We had no choice but to let it go ahead, without us being there, we totally trusted the marina and their hoist system but we would have liked to film the process to share with everyone. The hotel rooms had been booked and the other two couples had made their plans so we missed out on witnessing her launch.

So on the Monday night when we got back to Wiarton we did a drive by and there she was floating. 

Adriana was tied to the fuel dock straight out of the cradle and on the Tuesday Craig started the engine for the first time and motored her around to our berth.  It was nerve wracking but the guys from the marina were all there to lend a hand, they helped me securely tie her to the dock.  The first berth we tied to is actually Bill the previous owners berth and it was paid up for the year, we were allowed to stay there until Bill purchased his new boat and brought her over to Wiarton.  

Bill and Shoni have gone with a Grand Bank motor cruiser, a much easier craft for them to handle as they are both in their 70’s.  It’s still a live aboard but with twin engines and no sails. We were invited onboard to have a look around and the timberwork is beautiful and I can see why this boat is perfect from them.  The living area is spacious and sunny, the galley is compact and workable and the bedroom is cosy with a spacious ensuite.

That first day we pottered around on board Adriana it was cold outside and freezing down below we had no power or water so we went back to Todd and Heathers for one last special meal.  We lashed out and bought the most melt in the mouth scotch fillet from the specialist butcher next door to Northern Confections. 

On Wednesday we managed to get shore power plugged in but we could only get the water to turn on part way down the dock, we only realised this after the marina staff had finished for the day.  It was raining and dark with an overnight temperature of 4c and we still had to bring our suitcases over so we said "we’re back" and had another night in the warm comfortable house.

Thursday 2nd of May 50 days after leaving Australia we moved onboard.  

We borrowed Todd and Heathers car, did a quick grocery shop, picked up our suitcases and moved in.  It was our first night sleeping onboard Adriana.

Chaos 

But it didn’t take us long to get sorted, we don’t have much stuff and Adriana has so many storage areas.  The hardest part is storing the things we will use the most in areas that are easily accessible.

Summer shoes, bathers, sarongs and beach towels all went under our bed.  I stashed the toilet rolls in there too. Then on top of that are the map books for New York to the  Bahamas that Bill very kindly passed on to us.

We had done a huge $500 shop early on when we had the bong mobile so all the cans of coconut milk, tomato’s pasta sauce etc went under the lounge seating, the dry goods such as rice, pasta, noodles, flour sugar all went behind the backrest of the lounge seats.  We had to shuffle the cans around so the boat balanced.  We had found a great shop called Bulk Barn where you can buy loose ingredients, so many choices everything you can think of including  powdered Mac and cheese sauce, all the nuts, every type of flour conceivable and a huge range of herbs and spices. We stocked up on all the basics, black pepper, mixed herbs, powdered ginger, cinnamon nutmeg etc. it’s not as if we won’t have access to shops, we will be able to provision as we go but we want to be able to anchor out as much as possible. Plus once we start out to the North Chanel I cant imagine there will be a huge range of foods and things like meat may be a bit more expensive.

I hung my winter clothes in the easy access lockers and drawers.  We both had found a couple more jumpers, some black cords for Craig and black jeans for me from the local Salvation Army op shop.  Before we left Wiarton we were on first name terms with Jan the lovely lady who runs the shop.  We did treat ourselves to a couple of hot water bottles an electric fan heater, some nice throws a Soda stream, some nice bright outdoor cushions and all new bed linen and towels.

One of or first jobs was to check out that our Australian flag was big enough and fitted on the flag pole.

We had a couple of days to get sorted before we moved her from the fuel dock where the marina staff had tied her up when she was first put back in the water.  

We had to move her over to her old berth.

Bill brought over the dodger covers that had been in storage in his garage and helped Craig fit them, having the cockpit enclosed made such a difference it gave us another room.  And with all the sides sipped down it is quite dry and windproof.

Bill also delivered the dingy it is a Highfield 2.9mt with a Mercury 6hp outboard that hangs from the back of the boat from a frame and we can drop or winch it up quite easily when we need it.

On the Sunday Craig and I had our first experience of taking Adriana out for a sail.  It was a lovely sunny day, still chilly - we are still wearing full thermals as normal every day wear, under jeans and layers of jumpers.  

She is huge, really big and she can move....We practiced using the engine first forward, then backwards we tested the bow thrusters, the steering etc.  then Craig hoisted the sails, going upwind she sailed beautifully but on the way back as we tacked across the bay the sails seemed to fill out too much, a bit more than they should, which meant we keeled way over which is normal but with the sails full there was less propulsion than he expected.

This happened partly because its a furling sail - rolled up around itself, sitting vertical rather than the type that you hoist up, the hoist up ones have batons that help keep the sails in shape and partly because they will need to be tuned in and maybe they are a bit stretched, which is how you can tell you have old sails, anyway all went well and Craig was more than happy with her 1st performance.  

On the way back to the dock we could see this man running ? and sure enough he was heading down the dock towards us, then there were 2 men then there were 3.  We ended up with 4 lovely men there to help us catch the cleat and tie up, it was so nice of them, Canadians are so very nice and helpful.  
Once we are on our way this will be my responsibility, Bill had described to us how he and Shoni maneuvered into a port and tied up.  It was Shoni’s job to loop the rope over the cleat on the dock while he drove in, if she missed it then obviously he was going too fast “good advice I thought “.

We were the first yacht out in the water for the year, we may have upset a local by taking that honour.

We enjoyed Bills Marina berth, it’s location was nice and private, not that there were that many people around but it was on the very last arm and had a beautiful view across the lake. 

When we were at Niagara Falls Heather and Sue had slipped away and bought Craig and I a present, thanks girls it is very apt and we will use it everywhere we go.

Towards the end of our stay with Heather and Todd, they along with Bill and Sue invited us for an overnight trip to Niagara Falls   WOW.

The distance was about a 3 hour drive and we all went in Todd’s van, with lots of jokes and laughter on the way the trip didn’t take long, we stayed in a nice hotel walking distance to the falls and the Casino.  

We had a quick drive around to get the lay of the land, then checked into our hotel, a short walk brought us down to the falls.  I won’t go into specifics, you can google the information but the falls really are spectacular.   

There was still ice coming down from the lakes and it had been raining, so the falls were really thundering.  It’s still early spring so not so many tourists, but it was still very busy so I cant imagine how it will be in Summer.  

One thing we did that was really cool was to descend down through some really old tunnels and stand alongside the falls.  We then went through some more tunnels and stood behind the falls.  It was freezing and wet (obviously) but worth doing for the photos.  

A trolley car took us back up to street level and we walked back to the hotel for some fortification. 

Niagara Falls the city was traditionally a honeymoon destination, Sue’s Mum and Dad went there for their honeymoon back in the late 50’s.  It’s also a Mecca for families with theme parks, go karts, carnival rides, and even an indoor waterslide park, there is so much to see and do.

We had dinner in the rotating Sky Tower Restaurant.

The food was so so but the view was amazing, the tower moves slowly around, it takes about an hour to do the full rotation we had arrived before sunset so we got to appreciate the view by day and by night. The falls are lit up at night in different colours, there are 2 sets of falls the Canadian and the American, it is very spectacular. 

After dinner we made a b-line for the casino we all had a $20 gift card compliments of the hotel.  The other 4 managed to spend a fair few hours playing, but our money was gone in an instant and we chose to head back to the hotel.  I must admit it was a bit of a luxury having so much space so we made the most of the hotel amenities and had a sleep in. 

The next morning Heather Todd, Bill and Sue all returned to the casino.  

When everyone was done playing at the casino we headed out for a late breakfast at the Flying Saucer Diner,  its a bit of an institution in Niagara.  The diner has been owned by the same family for over 20 years.  Craig and Todd treated themselves to the super breakfast a huge plate of eggs, bacon, mushrooms and fried potatoes that came with a side of pancakes - so much food!!

A funny thing happened when we first arrived at Niagara, after our 3 hour drive we stopped for lunch and Todd orders a  Ceaser and a glass of water, Craig was in shock he thought we were away for a big eating and drinking weekend and here is Todd’s ordering a Ceasear Salad and a glass of water what’s going on !! As you may have gathered Todd likes his food, Craig’s face was priceless.

Turns out a Caesar is a drink a sort of ready made Bloody Mary so no he wasn’t on a diet, Craig and Todd both had the fried chicken and a beer as per usual.

Our next stop was the Welland Canal information centre, instigated by us - 

Because, once we get started on our journey we will traverse down Lake Huron into Lake Eire then we will use the Welland Canal to enter Lake Ontario.  

All this will take only get us to Toronto.  

We have no choice we have to take the long way around, unfortunately our hull is too big to use the Trent Severn Waterways  and our mast is a little too tall to use Eire Canal to get through to New York, so that’s how we will get out of Canada using the lake systems.

Once we pass Toronto we take the St Lawrence River passing Montreal and Quebec.

The Welland Canal enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment and bypass Niagara Falls.

It was really good for us to see for ourselves what was involved with the locking systems.  It was really cool to be able to watch a huge grain transport vessel move into the lock from Lake Ontario, (the Toronto side) the huge flat tray ship slid along the wall until he was in place, the lock gates closed in front and behind and the lock filled with water, the ship rose surprisingly quite quickly and once she had risen about 25mt,  it changed from us looking down on her - from the viewing platform -  we were now looking up, way up her side. 

Once the water had risen the right amount, the gates in front of her were opened and she smoothly glided through, there are 8 locks in total.  As she sailed out of sight her next obstacle was a lift bridge. This is where the whole road part of the bridge lifts up, way up, to allow the ships to sail underneath.

When we eventually get to the Welland Canal, it should take us about 11 hours from start to finish. 

It was awesome to watch and for me especially it helped make the thought of doing the Canal a little less scary. 

We then detoured around to see Niagara on the Lake, a very pretty, historic town. We tossed up between a visit to an Irish pub or ice Winery, the Winery won. 

Ice Wine ~ they leave the grapes on the vine until the grape temperature drops to -5c, once they reach that temperature the grapes are harvested they are then left for a short fermentation I think it was only about 1 month, this produces a really intense sweet wine that we were served over shaved ice. 

Our trip back was fun, Craig had sat in the front on the way there so it was my turn up the front on the way home but I think the driver was a bit stressed with the Aussie giving directions through the peak hour traffic.