My Watermark is Bristol Lake in North Bay, ON.

Rob Pitcher:

"We’ve been going to the cottage there for 30 years, so we have lots of stories, but there is one that sticks out.

Four years ago, the water level, like a lot of lakes in Ontario were down quite a bit. We took our fishing boat out, to some fishing and went amongst the island, midway down to the lake end, and the waves placed us right on top of the rocks.

The only way to get out of the rocks was to get me out of the boat, and push the boat out. There I was with the life jacket, that my wife made me wear, pushing the boat out of the water, and we were free. At the point, we were scratching our heads as to how I was going to get back into this tin can of mine.
We spotted a cottage on one of the islands, with a dock out, and the people there looking rather worried. So I hung on to a rope and my wife Vicky, started the engine, and the boat dragged me across, but it was quite difficult with the waves and everything."

Vicky Pitcher:

"Of course, I had never started an engine before and I am also not the strongest person to pull the cord to even get the motor started, plus I had never driven a boat. So I had no idea, that as Rob was being pulled behind me, holding the rope ..that I was actually drowning him. I pulled him three or four feet below the water.

In the end I let go, and swam to the dock, but as I looked up to the sky, circling above I saw the Ministry of Natural Resources helicopters flying above me, getting lower and lower above me. They were showing me thumps up/thumbs down, asking if I was okay or needed help. I gave them a thumbs up. But just by the spray from the propellers he was pushing me under the water again. So thanks to the Ministry of Natural Resources, they almost drowned me.

We did eventually make it to the dock, and the folks there were a couple teachers from burlington. She came down insisting that I have gatorade, and the other guy offered me beer. We had a nice time and lunch with those folks, and then we finally headed back to our cottage.

By the way, I had never docked a boat either. So I had never seen a look of terror, like I did with the man, when I was heading full force into his dock.

To watch him get out of the boat and stand on the rocks, was like watching Jesus standing on water. We’ve never seen the rocks that high before, but the water was just so low, that it was like that. We’ve been going there for years and never had a problem like that before. The water had gone up since. Things have changed over the years. The fishing is terrible there now. The guys used to come back with strings and strings but not anymore.

Anyways now we live on the water with our trailer, looking at boats. "