Wed Sept 7: Colonel By Island to Westport town marina

We took our time leaving this morning - it was so peaceful, and we only had one lock and an hour of driving to do. The one lock, called The Narrows, was a bottle neck.  Only a three foot lift, but we had to wait for them to lock two big trawlers down and then shoehorn 3 of us in.  Rick took charge, told everyone where they were going to be and we did just fine.

This is one of the sailors on the Le Boat that was on the island with us last night.  Furry Phoebe saved the day by scaring off a racoon that tried to climb in their window in the night! (Her owner introduced 
her as a “terriorist”) 

It's a cozy fit!

We arrived in Westport to find that boats and electrical had been moved around to make room for us.  Bless em!  There were a LOT of older folks eating lunch on the island where we docked, and they all wanted to talk to us about the boat, Florida, etc.

It's a darling perfectly pleasant marina/village, with a lot more life then most:

You can see us between our friends, Yankee Zulu, from last night, and our KEEN new friends in front.

Like many marinas on the Rideau, the dock hands spend their free time racking grass out of the slips and fairways. (It clogs up the props) But this marina has found a great use for it - a local woman dries it and uses it for her organic garden as compost.  That's a win-win, if you ask me.  Last year she carted away 2000 bags of the stuff.

Lunch was at the local Westport Brewery.  Rick was captivated by their S H I N Y equipment!

Then we wandered around the 2-block radius of the village.  Cute and easily covered in an hour.  We are not much for shopping, but there are always a couple of fun 'local legend' type places, and we stumbled upon one of them - the Lower Mountain Mercantile (mercantile meaning, in this case, everything from puzzles to clothes to postcards to a VHS-C tape).

It’s the puzzle JACKPOT! I’ve never seen such a display-you can see a whole room devoted to them just beyond. The owner told us people drive all the way from Kingston to visit!  We had to go back to the boat and measure our table to see what we can buy… (I’ve been looking online for puzzle exchanges, since it seems a bit wasteful. And I’m cheap.)

After all that puzzle excitement we had to go back to the boat so Rick could lie down. Either the puzzles were too much for him, or he is still growing a new bone/healing. At dusk we sat up top reading, and having entertaining conversations with (possibly tipsy) passers by.

Book Corner:

Rick is now reading The Emerald Mile, which is about the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon and the crazy rafting guide who ran the river to make a speed record during the major flooding in 1983.  This is of great interest to both of us as the Bradley’s were very involved in opposing the Glen Canyon dam (Lake Powell) in the 1960’s.

I just finished God in Ruins, which was so sad I’m next going to read Playing With Myself, by Randy Rainbow, to cheer myself up.  (Ck out his YouTube videos!)