A Cozy New Home Base for Wild Horses

Wild Horses is now happily settled into her temporary slip at Trident Yacht Club.  The slip we normally occupy in the west side of the harbour is gone, dismantled as part of the end of the season activities.  We are now tied to a fixed dock on the east side of the harbour where we will stay until mid-October.  

Wild Horses in her new slip, at sunrise

A "floating dock" in the distance and a "fixed dock" up close

It is easy to board Wild Horses when she is tied to a fixed dock!

Trident Yacht Club has been very busy over the last week getting ready for the end of the season.  In addition to the docks in the west side of the harbour getting dismantled, over 40 boats have been hauled out and stored on their cradles at the club. 

Club members dismantling the docks on the west side of the harbour

A crane carefully lifts the boats out of the water and onto their steel cradles, with the help of club members

Boats sitting "on the hard" after being hauled out

​Another 30 boats have left the club for the season, off to be stored somewhere else along the St. Lawrence Seaway or Lake Ontario.  A mere 23 boats, including Wild Horses, remain in the Trident Yacht Club Harbour as of this morning.  It is getting awfully quiet around here!

A view of the harbour before "haul out" activities started...

...and after two days of hauling out boats

A visitor has free rein of the now empty docks

​For us, we are loving the change of the seasons and what that means for living on the boat.  With the water under the boat getting colder, we reach for our slippers more.  And the shorter days mean more flashlight-led walks on the docks.  Still, we are pretty comfortable in our floating home.  We have everything we need on Wild Horses, including a wonderful water-driven furnace.  When inside, the only cue to us that “boat living” is a little different is the condensation that builds around the windows, reminding us that our warm boat is a one-season home and colder weather is building outside.  An added bonus for us is that the Trident clubhouse is still fully functional so we have access to lots of extra creature comforts – laundry room, wi-fi, fireplace and, yes, cable TV with a sports package so we don’t miss a single football game (Thank you Trident Yacht Club!).   

A view looking out of one of our hatches, with condensation built up and dripping

Our cozy clubhouse

​Just shy of three weeks from today, Wild Horses will be hauled out of the water for the winter.  But, for us, we will already be onto our next adventure.  We move into our new winter home in Gananoque just a few days before “haul out”.  We are excited to see what the winter has in store for us, and happy to know Wild Horses will be there waiting for us next Spring, ready for her adventures south.

Enjoying a sunrise from our new slip

Lots of room for Ocean to play on the empty docks