Season winding down

Late October and it is time to start removing the small craft buoys throughout the Great Lakes. This week, it was Lake St. Clair's turn. As the lake it quite shallow, except for the main shipping channel running through it, the work had to be done by our work barge while we waited in the channel for its return.

It took a full day to lift the many buoys and anchors from the Thames River and Mitchell's Bay, and then transit back to the ship. The barge made it back to the ship just as the sun was setting. The reflective tape that is used to help boaters identify the buoys at night shows up extremely well in the camera's flash.

As we finished up unloading the barge and putting the barge on deck, we waited our turn for a ship to pass heading down the lake and followed him towards our dock in Windsor.

First Law Of Cycling

As I am standing at a corner in Mile End waiting for the light to change, I can't help but marvel at the cyclist who has just cycled down the sidewalk of the busy commercial section of Parc Avenue and then placed his bicycle right in the road at the intersection so that every car has to make a wide turn around him.

Amazingly, he waits for the light to turn green, but then rides along St. Viateur on the wrong side of the street. Which brings me to the first law of cycling:

If you are an idiot off a bike, you will be just as much one on a bike.

I have seen the light

September is a wonderful time of year for biking. The weather is more temperate, the bike paths are less congested and the leaves are starting to change colour. Unfortunately, the days are getting shorter and yet many cyclists blithely continue to bike around without any form of illumination during the hours of darkness.

These phantoms of the night are difficult to make out for other cyclists on the paths and streets of Montreal; so I can imagine how invisible they are for motorists.

Do yourselves, and the rest of us a favour and light up!

A ride for every pocketbook

A ride to St. Anne de Bellevue via Boulevard Gouin and return via the Lakeshore allowed me to see three very different levels of boating experience. At the Canal de St. Anne, your everyday motorboat could be seen locking through.

While at the Old Port, another cruise ship was in port although only available to European travellers.

But if you have half a million to throw away for a week's worth of ultimate luxury, you can walk up the gangway of the Blue Moon.

Boat watchers' dream

After watching all the Tall ships motor down the river near Morrisburg earlier this week, I saw them berthed at the Old Port over the weekend as I weaved through the crowds toward the Lachine Canal. Funny how this expression of old technology that is a sailing vessel attracts so much more interest than the modern ocean racer does pictured in the foreground.

To round out the flotilla, a cruise ship and a Navy frigate were also in the harbour; two very different updates on ship technology. I wonder which is the more expensive to run? And I wonder how many people realized that the orange line floating in the water is an oil boom?