saying, “I’m not turning off the engine. I
just don’t trust it. Oh, by the way, we lost
the boat’s trumpet horn along the way.”
An hour and a half later, we arrived at the
Rideau Ferry Harbour.A ROUGH START
The launch went smoothly at first; our boat
slip was in a good spot. A relaxing after-
noon was planned, to be followed by boat-
ing to a nearby restaurant for Dave’s birth-
day supper. The check of the bilge, however,
was an unwelcome sight. We hoped the
water in it was rainwater. It was not. There
was too much, in fact, several buckets-full
had to be emptied. In a disappointed tone,
Dave said, “We are going back home.”
Those were not the words I wanted to
hear. Dave had spent months restoring, re-
pairing and replacing rotten wood whereleaks had been discovered. He was sure
he’d fixed them all. For months we had
been looking forward to our 12-day cruise
on the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. We had to haul the boat back
out of the water, which takes time. Factors
such as currents, wind and many other
docked boats can and do slow down the job.
It took about an hour. We were hopeful that
in a day or two the boat would be fixed and
we would be good to go. Dave is good at fix-
ing almost anything.
The marina owner, John, approached us
as we were about to leave. He was sympa-
thetic, suggesting something about a
“quick, temporary fix” that could get us
back in the water. “I don’t like to see you
lose your whole holiday.”
Would Dave consider this idea? Leave
the boat for an assessment and agree to let54 More of Our Canada JULY 2019