A Tribute to a Dear Family Friend

Every family has them - those relations on the perimeter of the family's structure, reliable and comforting as any, except family membership isn't official, it's honourary. These connections last through decades, and form part of a family’s fabric, and in quiet unassuming ways, help strengthen a family's character over time.

It was 1974, at my parents' cottage that we were introduced to this special friend, whose presence would become a fixture during our summers through the years. It’s only upon learning of a serious injury suffered by our friend that I recently came to appreciate her loyalty through 38 years.
  

Having chaperoned teenagers’ parties at my parents’ cottage in the 70's, guided our young family's visits to Provincial Parks of Ontario in the 90's and more recently helping us manage the waves as we built at our own cottage, our beloved green fibreglass canoe carries on.

The threat to her wellbeing triggered memories that there had been other times when we almost lost her.  Most notably, when she was only with a us a few years, my dad received a phone call in Ottawa from the Quebec Provincial Police. They were asking about a canoe, wanting to know if my dad owned one or if he had recently sold one that had his driver's license etched into it's metal gunell. Unbeknownst to us our young watercraft had been stolen from the family cottage. The police had pulled over a suspicous truck on highway 11 (now 105) near Wakefield and rescued her for us.

When my mom was selling the cottage in 2002, the aging boat would have been included in the deal, but she kindly agreed to let me hold onto her. Although I didn't have much use for a canoe, it didn't seem right to part with her after all this time. I certainly had no plans to buy or build a cottage at the time, at least not conciously. I wonder now if the plot to find a new lake for the canoe was already taking shape on a certain level. Perhaps my actions to keep and store her at my house when the cottage was up for sale was driven by these stirring forces.

Over the years the yoke and seats had come loose and needed repeated repairs to stay in place. One year, the yoke couldn't be re-attached as the wood around the holes for the screws to fasten it had deteriorated. I went shopping for a new one, only to find the cost was much more than I was prepared to pay. So I bought a simple piece of 1" X 3" oak and cut to the right length, drilled two holes at each end and it has worked fine for almost ten years now.

This spring's first outing revealed she had sufered a rough winter. There's usually a little water in the canoe as we're paddling along, either from the paddles or our feet, but on an outing to a nearby beach in June (2012) I noticed we had a problem. The towels we loaded for our short trip were soaked when we arrived. The amount of water in the canoe confirmed that this was not just a small leak. A carefull examination revealed a nasty zig zag crack in the side of the hull, about 20 inches in total.

If you ever need to repair a fibreglass boat, Mountain Equipment co-op sells patch kits. The Friday after I noticed the leak I spent the afternoon wrestling with the stickiest material in the world, epoxy, and fibreglass cloth. The procedure would hopefully make our friend's journey last a little longer. It was a very windy day as I worked down by the shore. Not the conditions you want when working with fraying cloth and the super adhesive goo. The result would certainly earn an "F" grading from any cosmetic surgeon, but I'm happy to say the patient has returned to the water and is smoothly cutting the surface without leaking for us once again.

Barb and Laura navigating our loyal friend on Petit Lac Cayamant in 2010.

Below, showing signs of aging and damage in 2012 - we're still talking about the canoe now.