A Sea Pig Weekend 2009

This is a picture of my Dad on the up-dated Sea Pig at Present Island about 1979 - Remembering the Sea Pig.

Judy peruses the fresh strawberries at Sarnia Farmers' Market

Bill and Wendy at the market.

The weather forecast was somewhat ominous and the skies were filled with clouds as my old friends Bill and Judy arrived from Brampton at around noon on Friday. Our other old friends David and Reenie were arriving Saturday. I have known Bill and David since we were in seventh grade when my family moved from North Bay down to Toronto in 1960. It has become somewhat of a tradition over the past ten years or so for us to get together here in Point Edward on a long weekend. Luckily, the sun started to break through and by seven Friday evening (better late than never).

Click any picture to enlarge it.

Reenie helps set up the buffet lunch aboard the Phoenix. All part of the Sea Pig Reunion weekend.

Now, as back in Sea Pig days, the food has always been part of the ritual. David checks it out.

Bill and David watch the boats go by from the bridge of the Phoenix.

The original Sea Pig with oil drum pontoons. Look how small the front deck is.

In 1967 (age 18) David and I began construction of a home made houseboat named the Sea Pig. My mom was office manager at Canadian Oxygen at the time and she sweet talked somebody into loaning us a welder. The original plan involved used oil drums, welded together to form the pontoons. The result was a ‘ship’ with all the styling finesse of a case of beer on two salamis. The boat was started in our back yard in Long Branch and completed up at David’s family cottage at Duck Bay, near Port Severn Ontario.

Several years later, when I was living in London Ontario, I managed to acquire a dozen stainless steel agricultural spray tanks from the bankruptcy auction of the George White Farm Machinery Company. Nose cones were fabricated at London Steel Industries and David hauled the ready-to-assemble pontoons on his trailer up to the cottage near Waubaushene. This enhancement made the old Sea Pig much more seaworthy, increased her weight carrying capacity, and increased her length by 7 feet to about 38 feet. Longer and better balanced, she even looked much better.

That's Wendy and me with David and his Mom, Mabel.

We sold the Sea Pig in 1980 for $1800 but in those dozen or so years we had countless adventures as we explored the lower part of Georgian Bay’s Thirty Thousand Islands. I had become part of David’s family up there at the cottage as did the Sea Pig. His family’s un-ending hospitality is something I’ll never forget. Over the years, the youths of the Sea Pig grew up, married and had children. Parents and older friends and neighbors passed away one by one but the memories of those Sea Pig days live on at these annual get-togethers.

Wendy and I in the galley of the Sea Pig.

Bill seems to be having a good time. I remember it was a rough water voyage from Midland to Waubaushene.

Barry's mom Lois laughed until tears ran down her face

We took the Pig through some pretty rough water. How it stayed together is an engineering mystery.

David's mom Mabel seems to doubt the sage admonitions of Captain Tim.

The new, stainless pontoons ready for installation during the late 1970's refit.

Judy is aboard their Alcan houseboat. The hands are my son Tim's 1979 (born 1977).

Reenie thirty years ago.

Bill and I on the 'roof deck' of the old Sea Pig

So, almost every year for the past forty or so, we have gotten together somewhere for the Sea Pig Reunion. This year, I dug out some old photos to put on a slide presentation of a hundred or so snapshot pictures of some of the highlights of those Sea Pig Years. As usual, we had a really good time, albeit much more subdued than those wilder and carefree days aboard the old Sea Pig.

A buffet on the 'Lido Deck' of the Sea Pig over 30 years ago.



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Trip to Orillia

Friday morning we loaded the dinghy on the trailer and headed towards Orillia with our Garmin GPS set to “shortest” route instead of quickest. We prefer the back country route as opposed to the big freeways, especially on a long weekend. When we called David as we neared Barrie, our wisdom of staying off the big highways was confirmed. “The 400 highway is a parking lot!”. We arrived at our destination only about 15 minutes late. That’s pretty good on a 4½ hour trip. David was 2 hours late on a 1½ hour trip from Toronto.

Bill and Judy had already been up here for the past week, so they appeared entirely relaxed as we found them down by the lake on lawn chairs at their b&b, Pumpkin Bay Hideaway where, by their kind invitation, we were to join them and take a bedroom in the private suite that miraculously became available for the long weekend. They moved from the studio apartment just for us.

Later in the afternoon, Bill and I went by dinghy over to the municipal marina at Port of Orillia to find David, who had brought his 25 foot Four Winns boat and planned to sleep on board here. David was on his own since Reenie drove up to Sault Ste. Marie with her sister Barb to visit their mother.

David

Bill

Wendy
Me

Judy, Bill and Wendy

The five of us went to on the main drag for an enjoyable dinner before retiring for the evening.




Wendy with Bill's wife Judy

Saturday morning Bill and Judy were planning a bicycle ride so Wendy and I took the dinghy for a ride over to “the Atherley Narrows”.

We were hoping to meet Cheryl and John and the gang around 1:30 but Holly and Barry reported that the Toronto traffic was extreme so we decided to go with David for an hour or two. We towed the dinghy to explore.

David's daughter Tanya and her boyfriend (and two other beautiful girls) caught up with us.




I have seen other places where boats congregate for a water party but never anything like the number of boats at Big Chief Island, about 2 miles out in Lake Couchiching. We anchored off shore and estimated a couple hundred boats were anchored closer in. Upon exploring the scene with the dinghy, we could see that there was layer upon layer of boats stretching nearly to shore an a mile or so long. There was more like 500 boats here. The island itself is part of the Indian reserve, an off limits sacred burial ground and home to only dense vegetation with plenty of poison ivy and snakes. This meant that all the activity was in the shallow water surrounding the island.


All kinds of music boomed from boat loudspeakers, and even a live band and a pontoon boat with a BBQ selling hamburgers added to the party atmosphere. Not a cop was in sight as hundreds of people, young and old, openly carried their beer and drinks in the knee deep water. I navigated the dinghy at idle speed through the boats until the maze of anchor ropes and people made it unsafe to use the engine. At this point David jumped in the water and began dragging the dinghy and me through the crowd as I snapped pictures.

Pete calls the place 'Pee Bay'

Returning to the marina, we met up with the rest of the gang who had survived the horrendous traffic jam as thousands of people tried to escape from Toronto for the long weekend.. It was great to see everyone as we look forward to dinner at Theo’s Eatery, a local favorite. Donna, who had to work this weekend will join us there.







Always great to see Donna!



With our table for 14 it was somewhat like the dining experiences we shared on the cruise ships during the winter months past. The food was excellent and the conversation lively as we enjoyed gabbing with all our friends. After dinner we all made our way to Cheryl’s condo a mile or so away. This place was purchased as rental investment and provides accommodation to their daughter as she attends school here. The party continued until after midnight as we planned to meet Sunday for breakfast at “Hasty Tasty” and then shop the quaint and independent stores along Orillia’s main drag.

That's me kabitzing with Heather. We missed the spring cruise this year so Heather and her friend took our place with the gang.









Next morning, we met at Tasty Hasty and then went to the main drag for some shopping in the tourist traps. As we said our goodbyes and parted, we were still unresolved about where to go on our next cruise, but Holly was suggesting a Panama transit on Celebrity in late November.
Cheryl tries on some winter garb.

That afternoon/evening, Bill drove us over to the “Casino Rama” since neither Wendy nor I had ever been there. This huge complex is native Canadian owned and is a destination for millions of people each year. There is a luxury hotel, a casino, and a huge entertainment venue featuring Las Vegas style shows and acts. All this is managed by Caesar’s Palace of Las Vegas.


We thoroughly enjoyed seeing everybody and thank Bill and Judy for sharing their B&B suite with us for the three nights.


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