July 2007 Sailing Adventure

July 2007 - A New Adventure

If you read my last adventure in April you know the first thing on my mind when I left the ship was Anders holiday the middle of May. So for a mind distraction right after I got off the ship, the next day I drove 10 hours to my daughters apartment in Stowe, Vermont and spent a week with her. We needed to go shopping for dresses to wear to my sons upcoming wedding! I came home and Anders arrived around the 16th just as planned which was really awesome! We spent a week at home ( I always present him with one of those "honey do " lists..:o) My sons wedding was the 27th of May so we went to Vermont for a long weekend to spend at the Stowehauff Inn in Stowe where the wedding was to take place. It was a wonderful weekend and the wedding ...well their wasn't a dry eye in the place as it was a fairy tale for sure as my son married a beautiful young lady from Germany and it had been a long road for them to get to this point. I love her just like my own and I'm so glad we have her in our family. :o) When we returned home we had my brother and his wife with us , and they spent a week at our house! That was awesome! We spent the rest of Anders vacation at home just having a great time together and working on our house and playing lots of mini golf and backgammon.:o) He went back to work the middle of June and once again I headed to Vermont to visit my children for a week. I was home for 5 days when I realized I needed to take a trip to South Carolina as my Mom is down there in a nursing home and not doing well. It was great to spend a week with my brother down there and to spend some time with my Mom. Its really nice to go and do things and have fun , but honesty its hard to have fun and not miss the one you really want to have fun with. I found myself missing Anders more than when I was at home with our "puppies". So I think he realized that and told me about a trip he had upcoming in the welland canal. Not that its an easy trip to make with him because of the long hours but I just wanted to see him so badly I decided I' ld bring the boys to "camp" just one more time and go visit Anders on the ship. Ended up that he was going to be in the canal a couple times so he said I might as well come for both trips..:o) Okay I didn't' argue..:o)

The day before I was to meet him I was listening to the River Scanners and heard him tell the Spruceglen that he could pass him on Lake St. Clair, I always give Anders a hard time about that since the time I heard him say "I'm in no rush" and another ship beat him to a dock and I had to wait 2 1/2 days in Port Dover for the ship..:o) Course I live here now so I can wait at home...although its hard to wait! So Anders said he would be in lock 8 around 3PM Monday afternoon. So I decided I' ld go around noon to bring the boys to camp and run some errands on my way there. Well I was watching the AIS ( yes I know...the scanner...AIS..I like keeping track of my sailor guy...:o) Anyway , I see the ship at Long Point, which is pretty much in front of our house and heck with that its 11:00 AM but I can't wait here so I pack up and go. I dropped off the boys and ran my errands, got to the fuel dock in Port Colburne around 1PM and got my lunch out and my beach chair to sit and wait. Course I couldn't really sit...I brought the chair for no good reason for sure as I just paced along the canal wall waiting...:o) Anders called at 2:00PM and said he was just coming through the piers and he was going to wharf 16. ( Like I knew where that was...) So he tells me its the dock across the canal from where I'm standing...okay....so NOW what do I do?? What do I do with the car? So he says.." you'll just have to park in at the lock and walk down, but I gotta go I'm really busy." Okay, so I'm in an almost panic now as I know I don't have that much time. I toss my chair and my left over lunch in the car and drive to the lock 8 parking lot. Luckily my new suitcase also doubles as a back pack it still weighed about 40 lbs with all my stuff though. And I start trucking down to the place where I would meet the ship. The Algomarine was in the lock right now so I figured the "coolbeans" would be getting the lock after her. I figure okay I'll cross the bridge above the lock so at least I'll be on the right side of the canal. So I'm walking faster than the 3MPH pace I usually walk and I take the turn to the bridge and "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP" There it goes lifting for the Algomarine to pass under. Yikes, I start panicking now as I really need to get to the other side of the canal and its a bit of a hike to the next bridge. I am walking just as fast as my short legs can go ( I'm only 5.2) Finally I see the bridge I need to cross and I get to the middle and whew...I made it...finally I can walk a normal pace and I look and Yep, there's the ship making the wall right there now. Course I know it takes awhile as I've waited for him to "park" that puppy many times before now. I walk to the pier and toss my stuff down and have a sit on a lamppost while I wait.

Theres some suppliers there waiting for him so we have a chit chat while we wait for the ship. It was funny as when Anders finally did get her parked we all needed to go further down to get to the ladder so one of the guys offered to toss my bag in his truck so I said "sure, thanks!" you can take my bag but I'll walk its not that far.

Then I notice something " Hey , your from Fraziers marine...your not going to charge me $200.00 to deliver that bag are you? " He smiled and said he' ld give me a deal " Only $50.00" . Ha ha!

Funny thing when I got to the ladder and Anders was standing their waiting for me he looked and saw my bag in the back of the Fraziers truck and he said. " Okay how much is THAT going to cost me! Course he was kidding...it was pretty funny at the time though...:o)

So finally I'm onboard!

A dedication first....