I'm on a boat / windmilling around

Today was an adventure filled day.

Most of you have probably seen the SNL “I’m on a Boat” short. Well, today, I spent a lot of time on boats.

Figure 1?: The "I'm On a Boat" short

I went to work this morning, got some things done, but had to leave for a one o’clock doctor’s appointment. The appointment went well, but I didn’t really want to go back to work. So, I called my friend Nicola. I went over to her place and we brainstormed an afternoon adventure. We decided to head for Wolfe Island, see some windmills and meet up with some friends.

So, we headed for the ferry. We got there, but it hadn’t arrived yet. So, we went to the Fort Frontenac patio to hang out until it arrived, which was very quickly. As we were leaving The Fort, we were harassed by a Commissionaire. Apparently, you aren’t allowed to walk through the back gate – Ridiculous! Anyhoo, we eventually made it to the ferry and boarded. We got a spot at the front, so we would of course get soaked by the waves, which was actually a lot of fun.

Once we arrived on the island, we set off in search of windmills. We spotted what we thought would be the closest one. This is where the adventure began. First, we had to hop a schoolyard fence, which happened to be the same place I came for “Outdoor Education” in grade 4. Then, we crossed a fence via bridge from the playground to a farmer’s field. Our next obstacle was - you guessed it, a fence. This one, we crawled under. Now, this put us in a field with a lone cow. We couldn’t tell if it was a bull or not, so we stuck to the treeline and came up with a contingency plan in case it charged. The plan involved a lot of running away and jumping of fences. Soon, we came to our greatest challenge – an electric fence! Now, according to Nicola, the electric fences used to keep horses in are pretty low voltage. I can only assume that it is a higher voltage for cattle. So, we had a choice to make. Do we crawl under? Or jump over? Neither seemed very appealing, so we used the gate. Only after about 7 minutes of trying to decide what to do did we notice the gate – oops. The Holy Grail was near. We just had a short distance between us and the windmill. It loomed in the distance, casting a massive shadow over us. It was actually pretty beautiful. It was silent, spinning quickly and gigantic. After some pictures, we headed back to town.

Figure 2: The windmill, in all it's glory

Figure 3: If you can see us, we are in front of the windmill, striking "adventure" poses

We met up with Zak and Krista (I think that is her name, I can’t remember. Can someone correct me?) at the Island Grill. The food was great and surprisingly cheap. We ate and headed off in Zak’s boat. We planned on going to his place and tubing. The trip, which normally takes about 30 minutes, took close to an hour because of the chop. The waves were huge. We were all soaked by the time we got to Zak’s and we all had sore tail bones. Once there, we changed and built a fire. We were waiting for Zak’s parents to get back from catamaraning, so we could all tube together. Upon their arrival, they noticed that all the fibreglass from the side of the boat had sheared off. We don’t know when/how it happened, but tubing was out. So, we made smores, chatted and eventually headed home.

Figure 4: Nicola and I on Zak's boat

Figure 5: Waves crashing over us

I think I need more days like this. It was so relaxing to be out on the water, in the sun, enjoying myself. Hopefully I can find some more time for this kind of life, before the summer is over. We shall see, as I always say.