Trip Restart
Return to Bayfield
Thursday, June 23
For much of June, Simply Blue sat high and dry at Harbour Lights Marina in Bayfield. Roland kept in touch with the marine mechanic regarding the status of repairs. After a long period of working through his backlog, the mechanic finally started working on Simply Blue, and from that point on, things progressed relatively quickly. Roland added one final work item for the mechanic: install a mean-toothed rope cutter that he purchased online and sent down to the marina. He was determined to minimize the chances of a repeat of this incident.
The repairs were completed on June 22, and Roland and I prepared for a trip restart. We rented a car one-way, and on the morning of the 23rd, we set out from Ottawa with a fresh load of supplies and food, bound for Bayfield.
Even though we'd been told that all repairs had been completed, there was a slight hold-your-breath moment as we drove through the marina grounds to where Simply Blue was cradled. The repairs were immediately apparent, however, smoothly finished off with a bronze-colored sealant. The cracks were gone, the propeller was shiny and gold, and an evil-looking point-studded silver disk was installed on the shaft.
Much had to be done before we were ready to continue our journey: We had to tidy up and load the boat with new supplies; Roland had to finish off paperwork with the repair shop; we had to get the boat launched; a final engine alignment had to be done; the dinghy (which was moored elsewhere) needed to be retrieved; and, I had to drop off our rental car in a nearby town and buy some last-minute groceries.
We split up these tasks, and over the course of the afternoon, they got checked off, one by one. By 7pm, Simply Blue was sitting placidly in the water next to the boat ramp and nearly everything was ready to go. We thought about heading out right away, but it was getting late and it had been a long day. We chose to stay moored at the marina and start out early the next morning. For our end-of-evening activity, we visited a fellow Catalina owner that Roland had befriended a few weeks before.
Click below to watch a video wrap-up for June 23:
Video wrap-up for June 23
