Drone On.

The time has certainly flown by, Here it is January 22nd and the Scottish Lady and I have the bags packed and waiting for the limo to the airport. As you all know we are off to South East Asia via a stop- over in London to visit friends and take a cruise. We are on OCIANIA and will hit some neat places like Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Brunei  It is a small ship by today’s standards at 400 people and it doesn’t have an Italian Captain!

On the home front I have come across some incredible graphics from Keewatin’s past. The Scottish lady and I met up with Kevin Griffin from ” The Cruise People” of London England and he had a great collection of post cards and brochures from the early 1900′s. Kevin was a waiter on the ASSINIBOIA and got in touch with us as soon as he heard about the return of KEEWATIN. He was visiting Toronto and we met for diner. There he graciously lent me his collection so I could scan the art..Fantastic art deco…You will be seeing more of it.

Everything is fine with the project, just at a stop now as winter flies through. Very little snow, no ice on the lake and only weeks until spring..How lucky. The stage is set however for a busy spring with lots of deck work on Keewatin. In fact we will have rebuilt the entire top ( storm) deck by moving day. She is getting a paint job and of course all the things she will need for her trip. Skyline have chosen a Michigan tow firm to bring her home. They offered a two vessel service and committed to the time table to bring her in on time..Between 3 and 5 on Saturday June 23rd 2012.

Planning for the volunteers is in full swing up in Port McNicoll and over 200 people have signed up to be part of Keewatins return. We are still looking for more if you are interested. E mail  SCOTT GARRETT (scottgarrett@sskeewatin.com)

I hope you are all well and enjoying the winter. See you after March 6th.

Happy New Year patient readers...

It has been a few days, last year in fact that the last entry proclaimed the Keewatin was at last floating. The dredges have now been stored until spring and Keewatin waits at her dock to be freed into the open Great Lakes waters! The plan as it stands now is to finish the dredging and tow Keewatin out of Lake Kalamazoo around the first week of June, probably the 2nd or 3rd.  She will then be moored to a dock site on a sea wall a few hundred meters from Lake Michigan.

Her welcome back to Port McNicoll  party is being planned for June 23rd, a Saturday between noon and 2 pm when she will appear back in her spot ( or close to) where she left exactly 45 years ago to the day. We have started a series of meetings to build a committee to “Bring her on Home” and had our last meeting January 6th. If anyone reading this wants to take part, please email SCOTT GARRETT at     scottgarrett@sskeewatin.com     as we can use all the help we can get!

Just because we are in waiting mode for KEEWATIN doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. As I have said in the past we are looking to build a replica railway station in the park where Keewatin will be at home. We have been able to find the original plans for the station and construction should start sometime this summer. Scott Garrett is our go to guy for photos and information and he found it..Amazing.

Also amazing is our search for the train we want to have at the station. As many of you have told me the “Ossawippi Express” in Orillia has become available again and the Scottish lady and I went there Friday to check it out. It is fantastic. It consists of eight cars, mostly club and restaurant cars, with a box car containing a full kitchen and a baggage car for food prep, storage and service room. It has been an operating restaurant in Orillia for over 25 years and has been well maintained. I think they would add a great deal to the site and certainly underline the railway connection to KEEWATIN and Port McNicoll. SKYLINE is seriously considering that acquisition.

January 22nd is the day the Scottish lady and I go on our retirement trip to south east Asia. We leave for London, then Bangkok, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, and the Philippines,. We then retun to Bangkok and on to a week in London and home by March 6th..This trip was planned as our retirement celebration.

Little did we know what we would be getting into back in July. However, Scott Garrett is a dynamic fellow, and will be around to field any questions and I will be in touch with him throughout my trip. I also will be seeking out internet cafes along the way to reply to emails as frequently as the geography will let me.

I will send one more blog before I leave with updates on all the strands of this incredible project.

HAVE A GREAT 2012…..THE YEAR KEEWATIN COMES HOME! It arrives 135 days from January 8th…

” I left home at 17, ran away with a Great Lakes Queen,

Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen..and now she’s comin’ home!”

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