SOS AGM, 2013 ~ Port Dover

15 04 2013

Saturday, April 13th, 2013 ~

After a long drive from Ottawa to Port Dover (about 6 hours, on the Friday night), I arrived…. almost… It seems that the bridge that I was trying to get across was closed for the night, and blocked off by police cruisers. Since there was a detour sign, I took the detour, only to be greeted by another officer, closing off the other side. I was pretty tired, and just wanted to sleep, so I walked up to the cruiser, to ask what I should do. She told me that I needed to go back around the way that I came (which was not exactly an easy task, at 11:15pm, after a bunch of twists and turns to get where I was), and ask the officer if I could go through.

So… I did… eventually… after a 5.5 km detour. I finally made it to the hotel, and they had left my room open for me (thanks for arranging that, Chris). After convincing myself that a little bug on my pillow was nothing more than just that (it really was nothing more than that), I crashed out…Zzzzzzz…..

I headed over to the Port Dover Harbour Museum, where I met up with a bunch of friends, and it was not long until we were “off to the races.” Chris Phinney opened up, followed by Ian Bell, giving us some of the history of the Port Dover Harbour Museum. He also manages the Museum.

Chris P…

Ian Bell…

There were a few prize breaks in between the speakers, which was fun… although, I didn’t win anything. Oh, well. 🙂

Bob Sherwood gave his presentation on the Vickery Project, too…

Then, Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg gave a presentation on Shipwreck Tales Of The Great Lakes.

We then had a lunch break, where we checked out the museum (of course, we had some yummy sandwiches, too).

Warren was at the helm…

…while Krissy was keeping watch for intruders!

Rick Lymer is no stranger to this spot!

After our lunch break, we gave out some very deserving awards. Among them, was Cris Kohl, receiving the Marine Heritage Award – We caught him by surprise. Congratulations!

Then came the AGM part of the weekend, which was an interesting part of the day, and good to discuss items on the “menu,” with members from all SOS chapters.

After the meeting, Ian Bell came up again, and told us about the Shipwreck history of Port Dover and folklore, which was really neat to listen to. Ian had some really great stories. I really enjoyed hearing about the things that happened, and learned a lot about the town of Port Dover.

Capping off the day, were Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg.

What a great day!

At dinner, of course, there was a little bit of shenaniganry going on. Dar and I had a couple of friends join us…

The Port Dover beach. You can see the lighthouse in the background, as well as the very murky water…

Sunday’s events were workshops, which I would have loved to have taken part in, but I opted to start the journey back home. There were a couple that I was especially interested in:

Primitive SkillsMooring Systems
Historic Artifact Identification

I did get a chance to walk around the pier on Sunday morning, which I am glad that I did!