Day 4: Downie Island to Grenadier Island to Rockport to Downey

By Conor

On our fourth day on the river, the three boys woke up with a mission.  We were determined to complete a football trick that we had begun on the day before.  Each attempt begins with the three of us lined up on the roof of the houseboat.  The thrower throws the ball to the first man – standing the whole boat length from the thrower – who catches it in the air and throws it to the man in the middle.  The middle man catches the ball in the air and throws it over his head to the thrower, who catches it in the air as all three enter the water. 

We started this game yesterday.  I would love to tell you that we completed it on the first try, but we didn’t.  Nor the second.  Or third.  Or thirtieth.  In the hour or two we spent this morning attempting our football catch, we came close many times, but never completed it once.  Although dejected with our failure, we were consoled by our parents with the help of their tasty breakfast of eggs and potatoes they cooked for us. 

After our breakfast, we set sail east in search of a place to anchor.  Matty started out at the helm and I took over after an hour.  We scouted out a few different possible spots, but they all turned out to be less than ideal.  Finally, we came to a cove between three islands where we attempted to dock at a Canadian National Park on Grenadier island.  If you have never driven a 12-ton houseboat, I have to caution you this is most likely way more difficult than you think.  As I approached the dock, the wind and the shallow waters played havoc with my original plan.  We ended up trying to dock between a pier and an expensive motor boat.  With the help of the whole family placed strategically around the boat, I got us docked safe and sound, with only one little mishap.  (I did briefly terrify the French-Canadian owners of the motorboat.  As we were approaching their boat, Dad yelled "Hard reverse!," and I quickly threw the boat into "hard forward."  Oops.  But everyone survived.) 
We explored the one small trail of the national park and most of us got a nice workout in running up and down the hills.  When it came time to leave, however, Molly came in the houseboat and casually told us, “You know, this dock is broken.”  Not believing her, Dad reluctantly got up, only to find that we had indeed actually broken the dock.  The pier to which we were tied was quite literally hanging off its hinges.  Again, with an entire-family effort (and uthis time with some Canadians too), we released ourselves from the wrecked dock, tied it off so it didn’t float away, and left that godforsaken national park.  I don’t think you could get Mom to go back there again if you paid her. 

The next stop was Rockport, a small Canadian village, to refill our gas tank.  Dad successfully brought the boat in without incident – fortunately, there was a giant empty pier for us to aim at.  After some delicious ice cream cones and milkshakes, we were back on our way in search of a good place to anchor for the night.  We ended up all the way back where we began the day, our original anchoring spot off Downey Island.  Naturally, as soon as we anchored, the boys set off on our football conquest again, with similar results as the morning.  The only difference was this time we alternated which side of the boat we jumped off, so that the anchors (yes, we put down two anchors this time) wouldn’t drag.  We had dinner, attempted to take Christmas card photos (which mostly involved kids laughing and dad getting annoyed), played cards, and ended our fourth, and certainly most adventurous, day on the river.