By Our Mainland Dock

Our boat is the pontoon in the middle with a roof. 

Having a cottage on an island creates a few special considerations most cottagers don't deal with. One big one has been having a dock and parking space on the mainland as well as the dock at the cottage. Some cottage areas are set up for island transportation and have marinas and even boat shuttle services but we are in a community that is not huge and most people have cottages on the main shore of the lake. 

We have rented 4 different docks over the years and there have been different challenges with each one. Our very first one was a private cottage on the same bay as us. A friend of the real estate agent we used let us rent for the first year and then informed us that he needed the dock space for his own water vehicles and that was the beginning of the struggle of "what to do with the boat?". Next, we got a fantastic spot with an older couple just across the water from us. They were so wonderful and acted like an uncle and aunt to us and were lovely with our growing family. Eventually, the husband passed away and the wife was not able to take care of the cottage for very many more years after he was gone. The cottage was sold and the new people had no interest in renting.  We wound up with a long miserable period of having to take the boat in and out of the water each time and haul it home to the city with us.  

There are two resorts/ seasonal trailer parks at a reasonable distance from our island that we have used. Both have a very limited number of dock spots to rent and understandably give priority to the people who are also renting a trailer spot. For the most part, we have been happy where we are currently located. It has gone through several owners and the rules kind of change with each owner but the current owner is very business-like and we appreciate that. We rent the dock during the summer and get a place to leave our car while we are away. We have also arranged to leave the boat tarped and in their parking lot over the winter. Our current dock slip is located closest to the resort's little beach.

I thought I would share a few pictures from beside our dock last weekend.

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