Fresh air before the rain

After an early breakfast on Carling Avenue I had time for a short walk in Dick Bell Park by the Nepean Sailing Club before the rain started (and continued all day). It was cold (4º) but refreshing, with grey views of the Ottawa River, and nobody in the park apart than me and a solitary jogger. A small lighthouse at the mouth of the harbour guides the yachts to their docks in summer; not much need for it at this time of year when most of the yachts have been lifted to higher ground for the winter. The Nepean Sailing Club's website reports:

Despite the nasty weather, a large group of very dedicated volunteers were on hand this past Saturday to help haul about 85 boats. Tow-boat drivers, Radio-jockeys, Dock Crews, Shore Crews, Safety staff, Cradle placement teams, Layout planners [...] All in all, nearly 100 volunteers on hand in cold and wet conditions.

Geese were taking off from Britannia Bay this morning; they sleep on the river in large flocks by night then commute in family formations to the local cornfields by day.

My favourite Ottawa River view, as I've mentioned before, is the view from Dick Bell Park looking west, where the river appears to go on for ever, luring explorers upstream towards the wilds.

"Senseless rowing"

This is the clever title of a new blog being created by Dean Pucsek (previously mentioned here) who hopes to compete in the 2016 Paralympics as an oarsman and who's presently training daily at the Ottawa Rowing Club and on the Ottawa River. His description of what it's like to attempt this with impaired vision starts as follows:

Picture this, it’s 5:00 AM and you just arrived at the boathouse for your morning row. Getting out of the passenger seat you see small orbs of light floating mid-air, that must be the boathouse. As you walk towards the floating orbs you start to see other shapes, what are they? Likely the boathouse. Closer still, you can see a door under an orb. Yep, this is the boathouse. As you go around the front of the boathouse you see more floating orbs and hope the path to what you think are your team mates is clear. As you get closer to your suspected team mates you can hear voices that you recognize—nailed it. [...]

I am posting a link to Dean's blog from this site, so that I can follow his progress.

Good luck to him!