OH CANADA

We have arrived in Picton Canada. As we pulled in I kept repeating the line "Oh Canada" the only line of their national anthem that I know. Yesterday morning we left Oswego, NY after getting a little weather, wave and wind window. The thunderstorms were not supposed to come until later in the afternoon. The lake had only 1-2 feet waves and the wind was only 10-15knots. Perfect. We locked though our last lock of the Erie Canal lock 8 and were on our way. Things started out fairly smooth and comfortable. That lasted maybe two hours of our seven hour journey and then the wind and the wave came. The angle that we had to take in order to make it to Picton gave us wave right on our port beam (left side) of the boat which got us rocking and rolling pretty good. Check out the salon (living room) while we were underway.

Jeff had gone to the head (bathroom) and came up smiling and said, "you gotta check out the salon (living room)." After I went down one step this is what I saw. I started laughing and thought yeah I guess it is a little rough. Needless to say we made it safely over to Picton on our longest leg of the loop so far - 60 miles and 7 hours. Three guys met us at the dock to tie up the Tidings and we were relieved.  I wasn't allowed to leave the boat until Jeff walked up to the dock master's office and called customs and checked us in. He came back and rose the Canadian flag and removed the US flag. Apparently it's insulting to fly your own flag while in another country. Something Jeff read. We then cracked a bottle of proseco and before we drank it Captain Poot (Jeff, that poot) preformed a renaming ceremony on the bow (front) of the boat thanking the Dorthy D (previous name of the boat) for her service and honoring the old owners and officially giving her the new name The Tidings of Joy. He poured some proseco for her and poured it on the bow. We then went off the boat and poured some on the outside of the boat as well. It was a nice ceremony and we now hope that all of our bad luck and mechanical issues will be over. After our proseco we walked into town to a bar called Coaches at the recommendation of the dock master. It was a cute little restaurant/bar full or locals. We found a quiet little table outside under a shaded tree. We were so happy. We got Rickards Red a Canadian beer and sighed a sigh of relief. 

Picton is an adorable, quaint, laid back kinda town full of mom and pop shops. Today we took a stroll around town and went to the olive oil store, some health foods store and very charming dollar store. We also got the famous butter tarts. If you have not visited or know Canada they are famous for their butter tarts. Yum! We will be having one later after lunch. 

Jeff is doing a little bill paying and within the half hour we will be on our way to Trenton, Ontario. This is the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway where we will go through 44 locks. Shew!