The Liveaboard Life - Is it Spring yet?

There are only five more pumpouts until we can move to our summer home. For those of us in Toronto Harbour, that means winter is more than half way over!

Granted, it is not exactly the most universally accepted way of marking the passage of time, but it has significance to us. There seems to be a general feeling in the air among the liveaboards that spring is almost here. Discussions about summer “homes” seem to pop up more often. Many boaters in our community yearn for the Toronto Islands where they dock their boats for the summer.

As much as the prospect of Spring and all it means excites me, it also makes me aware of the fact that there are jobs that we need to do before we take the plastic cover off of the boat. We have some deck leaks that we need to deal with (read that as rebedding all of the deck fittings) before we can freely open the decks to the elements again.

The marine surveyor condemned our propane hoses and fittings, so we need to get that renovated so that we can cook with the propane stove and oven rather than a hot plate and toaster oven.

Our AC powered refrigeration system has ceased to work properly – right now we are using the portable 12 volt Koolatron we use for camping. Surprisingly, having the fridge on the blink hasn’t upset me much, especially since we have a temporary alternative; I’m used to grocery shopping every day or two anyway. I can’t just put the food in the cockpit to keep cold – it will freeze at night and get too warm in the day (in the sun the cockpit temperature under the plastic cover can easily rise to 15 deg C or more).

When the sun shines around here and it is not too cold, the marina seems to come to life. During the cold snaps, usually there is no one else out when we’re scurrying to or from the boat. However, as soon as it gets nice, everybody is out chatting on the docks or in the laundry room, taking the time to enjoy our reprieve from ice bound homes. Only Denver, our neighbours’ woolly-coated Chow, seems to prefer the cooler weather!

The ice in the harbour is breaking up and heading out of the gap towards the open waters of Humber Bay, and the arctic ducks that winter here can be heard calling to one other. There are now larger open areas of water around our vessels, but some of the ice flows that are breaking up drift in toward some boats and then freeze overnight, creating their own nuisance factor.
Arriving home in the early evening with some daylight to light our way is a very welcome treat.

There is so much to enjoy at this time of year, and so much to look forward to, however
I think I‘m going to have to do some of that with tools in my hands!

Lynn Kaak