Sunday Summary #77

The Magical Land of Canada 🇨🇦

Hi ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 77th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written on a Monday at a coffee shop in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Last Week.

We left Picton Island and headed to Clayton where we spent 2 nights that turned into 3 at a marina doing boat work! It was a busy few days to complete our long list of items that needed to get done, but we left the marina clean without PIVOT’s ICW beard (brown stain at her bow) and with shiny stainless steel. Thanks to our viewers who recommended lemon juice to remove the stain, it worked like charm and we were amazed by the results. Elliot also fixed our diesel tank fitting with a new one keeping with the true saying that “no boat project is ever easy or fast.”

Leaving the marina, we visited Bolt Castle, checked into Canada, and raised our Canadian flag. It was emotional to have entered our first new country since leaving India in 2020, the trip that started it all. We were so excited to be in Canada! That night we ventured into the Thousand Islands National Park, which is part of Canada and includes 20 of the 1,800 islands in the Thousand Islands region. As we were searching for a potential mooring ball or dock as part of Parks Canada, we stumbled upon the best dock on Georgina Island. We deeply enjoyed our time here (maximum 3 nights) as PIVOT was sitting at 20 feet at her stern and 5 feet at her bow and it’s all crystal clear! Yes, that's a tree sitting at the bottom of the clear water in about 10 feet of water - wild! We were within walking distance to a real-life lazy river, the island we’re on has multiple walking trails, and we’ve gotten out our pool floats to enjoy the Canadian summer vibes. Canada has been magical 🇨🇦

Seeing these clear waters has raised a lot of questions. We had the chance to speak with our boat neighbors local to the area. They explained that the clear water was due to the invasion of zebra muscles, native to the Black and Caspian seas region in southeastern Europe. Although muscles are nature’s water filter to clean the water, the invasion of this species is particularly damaging as they remove native species' food sources harm native muscles, and produce a lot of social and economic damage to the area. The

clearer water also has negative benefits

, which was surprising as I was under the notion that clear water must be healthy water. That notion has since been dismissed after researching more about the Thousand Islands, the Great Lakes, and the value of these waterways. Our environmental interest in the Great Lakes began when

National Geographic

released their December 2020 issue with the health of the Great Lakes on the front cover. If you know of anyone who can provide us with more information or resources on the topic, we’d love to learn more!

"Never underestimate the importance of having fun."-Randy Pausch

This Week.

We’ll be in Kingston for two days, exploring this really cool city and enjoying all of its delicious food. Then we’ll begin our journey on the Trent Severn waterway! We’re beyond excited to be cruising these waterways and exploring new places. The weather forecast is raining all week, but as we’ve experienced over the past few days, rain comes on days when it’s not forecasted and doesn’t come on days when it is. We’ve heard there are backups and delays on the Trent Severn waterway, but this could add another reason. So we expect some pivots will be in store this week. We particularly enjoy rainy days inside the boat as we can get work done.

 Videos. 

In case you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

Leaving Norfolk for a PROTECTED ANCHORAGE in Hampton Virginia (Trawler Life)

ENTERING the BAY and we find a MAJOR LEAK! (Our PSS Shaft Seal + How we timed the weather)

FIXING our Shaft Seal LEAK and Checking out the Deltaville Maritime Museum

 Great Loop Recommendations. 

We are looking for recommendations for destinations and spots along our Great Loop to go see, visit, and enjoy. It's been a real challenge for us to keep track and stay organized with the many wonderful recommendations we've received thus far. So we've created a Google Form to help us stay organized. Thank you to everyone sending us recommendations so far! We really appreciate it.

 Gratitudes. 

We’re grateful for this time we’ve had to live our childhood summer camp dreams. It has been so fun to sit on our pool floats tied to the back of PIVOT while reading our books during our weekly “day off” (read: no cameras, computers, or phones). It was such a fun day that really filled our cups! We are so grateful to be here, sharing these experiences together.

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot