Waking Up on a Rock

Seapickle "rock-docked" in Fox Harbor. Alternate caption: Ben is crazy.

More to come...

Bay of the Benjamins - Home is Where the Anchor Drops

Home is where the anchor drops...

View from Seapickle of Bay of the Benjamins

Messy morning view inside Seapickle

We had an amazing first night of our North Channel trip in the quintessential North Channel harbor - Bay of the Benjamins. A bonfire on shore with Paul (Orca) and friends completed the perfect evening in the perfect anchorage. We hadn't had much sleep the night before, so Friday was an early night for us, and we were excited to start the morning and our vacation!

Boat mornings are typically about the same every day no matter where we are.  RJ wakes us up, first whoever is sleeping in the bunk with him, with a head bump and "mama!" or "dada!" as if he's just so delighted to see us there! (awww) We try to sneak in some more sleep by cuddling with him (doesn't work), so we then start a movie in the bunk and hope he'll stay occupied while we get a little more shut eye.  Ben, who usually sleeps up in the v-berth which we call the "apartment" now, starts coffee on the swim platform in our propane coffee maker.  While we wait for coffee, it's usually books and cars and snacks to keep RJ busy while we try to wake up.  We love our big boat breakfasts, but this trip we prepared a lot in advance, so we were able to heat up some breakfast burritos that we brought with us (frozen).

If we're going to leave an anchorage to find a new spot, we typically have breakfast and coffee then clean up and get ready to move on.  That part can take awhile, so we usually will start gathering in our lines and pulling anchor around 11 or 11:30am.  This seems to be about the usual time for most other boats as well, although the sailboats sometimes leave right at dawn if they're going a further distance.  For us though, we planned on staying within the Benjamin Island Group (Benjamins, Fox, Croker), so we pulled out around 11:30am to start looking for the next spot.

11:30 is also right about naptime, and babies sleep really well while the boat is underway, so we try to time our movement with the time RJ might fall asleep.  I'll get him settled down below (aka I bribe him with snacks and/or Blaze and the Monster Machines), and try to help Ben with getting the lines in and anchor up.  Usually I'll have to go and lay down with him, but he'll fall asleep once the boat gets moving and I can make my escape.  Sometimes it takes longer than usual though, and Ben is stuck navigating and finding the next spot himself... which is what happened next...

Bedhead and breakfast

Playtime in the Captain's seat

Leaving "our spot" for anchorages unknown...

Seapickle and Toddler take on the North Channel - 2017 Edition

Oh... Captain RJ's mama and dada were there too!

Thursday, July 20 2017 -  RJ and I spent the day getting packed and doing some last minute shopping, packing the boat, making sandwiches and snacks for the overnight drive... and poor Ben worked all day! We always have the best of intentions to leave the house right after Ben gets home from work, and it never quite works out. :-)  We didn't stress this year though, and just focused on making sure we had everything we needed and left when we were ready... which turned out to be 10pm.  That's what vacation (especially boat vacations) are all about right?  No stress and go with the flow.  That is definitely one lesson we've learned from years of boat traveling.

The 559 mile drive, according to my gps, should take 9 hours and 9 minutes. That time is not toddler or boat trailering driving time. At all. To be fair, we did also squeeze a 2 hour nap in there at 3am, but our total time in the car was 16 HOURS. SIXTEEN. HOURS. With an 18 month old. Ok ok, that makes it sound much worse than it was. He actually did amazing, mostly thanks to a new dvd player for the car, Blaze and the Monster Machines and Minions. And snacks. Lots of snacks. Movies and snacks. That's my best advice. :-)

The start of the overnight drive

Our super awesome toddler traveling buddy

Rest stop snack and walk

This is going to be our annual rest stop photo

Rest stop breakfast and a Seapickle in the background

The bridge that used to (and sometimes still does) terrify us.

We FINALLY arrived in Spanish, Ontario to launch the boat and store our truck and trailer for the 2 weeks we planned to be in the North Channel.  This was our 4th year launching at Spanish, and we've really grown comfortable with the facilities and launch.  They can always squeeze you in at a slip if you arrive and conditions are too rough to head out into the North Channel, or you arrive too late (we've experienced both of those.) This year though we arrived at a pretty decent time at around 3 in the afternoon. It doesn't get dark in the North Channel until around 10:30pm, so that left us plenty of time to move the things we packed in the truck into the boat, get the truck and trailer secured, attempt to put the boat back together (it was wrecked inside) and be on our way!  

RJ and his 75th snack of the day in our travel wrecked Seapickle

Launching a Seapickle in Spanish, Ontario

And we're off!! (Ben will have to talk about the dinghy setup in a later post)

Where to Captain RJ?

At 6:30pm Friday we arrived at the Bay of the Benjamins, for the 2nd year in a row as our first stop! Ben had made plans (over Instagram) months prior to meet our friend Paul aboard Orca in the Benjamins, so it was nice to have a plan and a friend to help us get settled for the first night.  As an added bonus, a large group of boaters in the anchorage were having a bonfire on shore and Paul even picked us up for the bonfire.  I brought more snacks, and RJ allowed us about 20 minutes of relaxation time before we were headed back to the boat for the night.  (Toddler after 16 hour drive, bonfire, and "ski slope" rocks are not the greatest combination)  We were feeling a little nervous about the next couple weeks on the boat with the RJ, and hoping we weren't too ambitious in our plans!  Only time would tell, and we hoped we'd all get settled in during the next few days aboard.

Our spot in the Bay of the Benjamins... and the infamous runaway dinghy from the last post