Day 30, Monday July 22 Snug as a bug

Day 30, Monday July 22

We wake up to a cooler day then the previous week, but a nice morning.  We listen to the weather forecast and winds are scheduled to pick up in the next 24 hours with strong wind warnings for later in the day and for the following day.  The winds will swing to the NW which is not good for our current anchorage so we will have to move.

We dinghy around the area, to see how many boats are in Horseshoe bay and in the next cove, there are a number of boats but neither spot has good coverage from a NW wind.  We decide to go up the Lansdowne channel to Snug Harbour which is a very snug harbour, just as the name implies; protected from all directions.

The anchor is hauled up and we are off.  Mist goes first, then us, then Windswept.  We of course will race to get to the next anchorage.  It is a beautiful sail with about 12 knot winds.  Dawson’s hand is still not healed so Julie is managing the sail trim which is a bit tiring once we reach the Lansdowne channel as the wind direction is not favourable for sailing a direct course and the navigatable portion of the channel is narrow.  We decide our sailing is done for the day and turn on the iron genny.  This is ok as we need to charge the batteries and we are only a couple miles away from our destination now.

We are the first through the entranceway which has lots of water on the west side even though the charts say there is not enough water to get in.  There are about 15 boats already in the harbour, but lots of room at the NW end.  The problem with this anchorage is the depth.  It is 35-40 feet deep everywhere which means we would need about 150 feet of chain out and a large swing.  We decide to tie to shore.  This is the first time we have done this in our new boat.  It all goes well albeit slowly, both of us think about how easier it was when we had crew (kids).  After an hour, we are rafted up with the 2 other sailboats in the NW corner of the harbour. 

We host happy hour at about 4:00 and Ila brings over some lovely appetizers (bacon wrapped apricot with sage).  They were yummy.  We also had the favourite chips and guacamole.  The water is not appealing enough to go for a swim as the air is about 20 degrees.  After happy hours, we start preparing dinner and decide to dine on Mist which is a 36 foot Jeaneau.  Mist raced in the full MacMan race and is a fast boat.  We have a fabulous dinner and too much wine.  There is a full moon making for a beautiful picture of the anchorage.  Off to bed with hopes the winds are gentle to us in the anchorage.

Rafted up at Snug

Full moon over Snug

 

Cheers Julie and Dawson

Day 29, Sunday July 21 return to Cruising Mode

Day 29, Sunday July 21

Wasn’t that a party??  Ouch Julie just had way too much fun last night.  Party, party, dance, dance, dance and now this morning a little slow moving.



Dawson hand with splint

Cleaned up the boat a bit, and defrosted the freezer then headed over for breakfast at the Anchor Inn.  Ross is running again today in Finland so we tried to live stream the race.  Did not work, but the video will be posted about an hour after his race so pretty close to real time viewing.  Prior to heading back to the boat we get some groceries and Dawson picks up a splint for his finger.  The swelling is the same with some nice colours coming in.



View of Blueberry Island anchorage

Time to convert the boat back to cruiser mode.  Not much to do, as we raced with the dinghy and outboard attached as we had nowhere to put them.  We put the bimini back on and think about where to head for the night.  We have 3 choices; head west, friends are heading that way, stay in Little Current at or head east another set of friends are heading that way.  Around 4 o’clock the wind has veered to the west so we figure we will head east.  It is good to have a flexible plan.  We catch the 5 o’clock swing bridge and are on our way.  There are about 7 sail boats waiting for the bridge and for some reason the lead boat is going very slow and we all end up in a line at 2 knots. 



With the west wind we are able to have a nice sail across the Strawberry Channel but are abandoned by the wind gods after a 1 hour.  It is then a 2 hour motor to the end of Frazer Bay to meet up with our companions.  We have a nice stir fry for supper while underway something we will be doing more of as we move south.

Perch feeding around Jazzebelle

We meet up with Mist, Windswept and Sail La Vie at Blueberry Island which is a nice protected bay at the very end of Frazer Bay.  Just around dusk we are treated to show by a school of perch feeding at the surface around the boat.  It is quite a site to see.  It is an early night off to bed for 10:00 pm.



Day 28, Saturday July 20th - Race Day

Day 28 Saturday July 20^th Race Day

Up at 6:00, shower, group breaky, stow away all the bedding and we are off the dock for 8:00.  We had taken down our enclosure and sent it to Little Current with Denise Chabot, but no one to take the dinghy and motor, or our wind generator so we are racing, cruising style.  We also have 400 feet of chain and 3 anchors, and 75 gallons of diesel fuel so we are very heavy for racing.  Oh well, we are going to have fun.  Our boat is rated to do well as it is one of the larger boats and the more waterline, the faster the boat should be.  There are 3 fleets and we are the last start so there are 21 boats jockeying around in a small area.  We need to stay out of the way of the boats that have the 1^st and 2^nd start.  It is a beautiful sight seeing the start.  The winds are around 12 knots and the boats are all healed on a port tack.  Now it is our turn.  We are not very competitive as we don’t even know how long it will take for us to get to the line.  The 5 minute warning goes off and we power up (tighten up the jib).  We head away from the line as we are too close, and then tack around and head for the start.  The 1 minute warning goes off and we realize we will have a reasonable start.  We could be 100 metres closer but good enough.  There are 3 boats ahead of us, but 3 behind us.  We are creeping up on tack 2 and moonshadow.  We pass Moonshadow and are catching tack 2, but then tack 2 takes off and we don’t ever catch up.  Fracas is catching us and passes us and soon we don’t see her anymore.  We are not thrilled with our trim. We have stayed too close to shore and the winds are weaker here.  Darn!

We have lots of weather helm which means that the rudder is turned which slows us down, but is necessary to keep us on course.  We have realized that the way the rigging is tuned we have this weather helm problem.  We will need to read about how to trim to get rid of it.  More research to do..... This is a constant part of our life.  Read manuals, tinker, experiment, sometimes break, then fix.....

We are getting near the north end of Clapperton, and will change our heading so we start preparing the assymetrical sail.  This is the big colourful foresail.  We have only launched once and we did it with the jib down and figuring it out with the jib out adds to our challenge.  It takes us about 20 minutes to get the rigging ready and Fred and Beth are struggling to keep the existing sails full so we are losing more time.  Finally we launch and there is only 1 line wrong.  We realize we could have had this sail up about an hour ago, but thought the wind direction was not favourable.  Turns out our assymetrical is capable of “reaching” not just downward sailing.  More mistakes for us...  We speed up and start catching up to the fleet.  We are careening and surfing now at about 7 knots of speed.  It is a fun sail from the top of Clapperton to James Foote patch marker.  Then hell breaks loose as we struggle to keep the sails full.  They are being flaky.  Then a gust and the assymetrical blows its sheet and they get tangled.  Both Dawson and Julie try to untangle the lines, but they are whipping around.  Julie bruises her hand and gives up then Dawson gets smacked and finally we hear Fred yell, “Douse the sail”.  The lightbulb in Julie and Dawson’s brain goes on and we douse quickly which controls the sail and we can untangle.  We need to get the jib back out, but we are frazzled and wait to ensure that there are not tangles and delay the jib launch thereby losing even more time.  Finally the jib goes back out and we have a good sail for the final 5 miles.  We are deflated from all our errors and Dawson’s hand is a bit of a mess.  Swelling and bruising is setting in.  It was dumb of both of us to think we could hold the lines with the winds gusting the way they were.  Lesson learned.  Luckily no arms were broken.

The horn goes as we pass the finish line.There are a couple boats behind us, but with our handicap, they may finish ahead of us with adjusted time.Bummer! Oh well.Racing forces us to learn and challenge ourselves.We park in our slip uneventfully and break out the celebratory toasts.We get the stories of the other 2 fleets, and socialize along the docks.Off to the evening banquet to be dancing fools and call it a race and fun time!

Cheers Julie and Dawson

Race Crew prior to start

Rail meat early in Race

Julie and Harvey

Raceers at Little Current



Race Crew at banquet

Some of the dancing fools

Dawson's fat hand

Day 27, Friday July 19th an interesting night

Day 27, Friday July 19^th

What a night.....we are very glad we were anchored in Gore Bay instead of out racing the 1^st leg of the MacMan race.  The winds swirled all night.  Gusts up to 40 knots (~80 kms) an hour.  There was lightening and thunder all night.  3 Squalls had come through the area.  At one point, Julie checked the anchor and the winds had disappeared.  The air was still.  This is always a worry and was what was happening just prior to the next squall hammering into the area.  We were confident our anchor would hold, but concerned that other boats anchored might drag into us, and also that the racers would come into harbour in the middle of the night and not see us.  We did have our mast light on, but not so easy to see during the downpours.

The skies look a little friendlier now that last evening, the canvas on the boat looked a little less happy and we could see more sky through the canvas which is a bad thing.  Today we would move into a slip at the marina as it is included in the cost of the race.  We have only docked once so far on the trip so we are waiting until the wind dies.  Sporadically the wind seems to calm and then it looks like it may rain again and stir up some air.  Finally we decide to move.  It is almost noon hour and we have lots to do in town today.  The marina does not have a full sized slip as no boats are leaving.  It is a nice easy one to access though so all goes well.  This is the first time we have hooked up our shore line power in almost a month.  We have been self sufficient for 27 days.  It takes us about 2 hours as the power is not coming on.  We test the line, we test the outlets, we are out of ideas.  Then the neighbour suggests we need our inverter on.  Yeah that solves some of the issues, we see a flicker of power.  The cord connection is also being fussy.  Finally after tightening up a connector, and adding an extension to the shore line, we seem to have power.  It is frustrating that even the easiest things seem to take forever some times.  Every day there is a first of something.

Time to get to work now.  We have internet connection now and need to get a yacht club membership, pay some bills, open some attachments we have received during the week etc.  We also need to finish registering for the race, pick up the outboard, re-organize some crap in the boat to make room for our crew, remove the barbeque and see if we can make arrangements to off load the dinghy and outboard to someone going to Little Current. 

As we walk down the docks, we see our fellow racers, most of who did leg 1 and all have horrific stories of the night they spent through the storms.  Many are frazzled and many were terrified, but all are jovial now that they have landed.  We hear that Azzuro (sister ship to our previous boat) had a knock down, and is holed up behind Vidal Island.  Natural High has holed up at Meldrum Bay.  The rest of the boats are in Gore Bay with lots of stories.  Only 7 of 14 boats finished leg 1, the rest all got DNF’s as they turned on engines etc. to combat the storms and control the boats.

Soon Beth and Gary arrive, and we set them to work to help get the boat race ready.  Fred and Marilyn are an hour behind them and it is now time to toast the crew and socialize.  There is a fabulous fish fry sponsored by the Rotary Club.   It is harbour days in Gore Bay so we are also provided with a small fireworks show.  The band playing at the waterfront is only 2 persons, of which one is the high school principle in Little Current.  They are very good and complement our night cap.  We are off to bed by 11:00 as we have an early day tomorrow to get to the start line out in the bay by 9:00.

Cheers Julie and Dawson

Dark skies over Gore Bay

Water filled dinghy

Dawson bailing the dinghy - alot of rain fell

Day 26, Thursday July 18 – Civilization, or at least a town

We motor out of Clapperton Harbour.  The winds are more favourable than anticipated, more NW than West so we are able to sail.  Good for the sailor, bad for the batteries.  Oh well, shore power is not far away.

We pass through the narrow channel uneventfully.  It really is wide and at least 9 feet deep so no challenge at all.  We seem to pass close to Maple Point where Jim and Lynn Monaghan have a cottage.  Unfortunately we have missed them as they are working away in Toronto this week.  The cottages all look beautiful and they have a great view of all the boats coming and going.

It takes us about 3 hours to get to Gore Bay, time enough to do some house cleaning, gather up garbage, and sort laundry.  We are only anchoring in the Bay tonight and have dockage with the race group on Friday night.  There is lots of room to anchor, and soon we are off in the dinghy to run errands and post blogs.  Before we get to shore in the dinghy there is a wave from the Buoy restaurant dock.  There is Keith and Louise from our stormy days in the Benjamin’s.  I think we will have to prioritize a beer and lunch as it is 2:00 and the Laundromat at the marina is full and beyond capacity.

The pizza is great and the beer is cold, but time to get to work.  It is now 3:00 and we want to get to the town office to buy our theatre tickets for tonight.  We often try to attend the Gore Bay summer theatre when we are boating.

We find the laundromat, the town office, and Julie is able to get the long awaited hair cut too.  Unfortunately no Royal Bank or Scotia bank so banking deposits will have to wait until we get south.  Dawson finds the library with free internet and soon it is 6:00 pm, and we must get the laundry back to the boat and then the motor dinghy back to shore for 7:00 and theatre for 7:30.  Busy, busy suddenly.  No time for dinner.  We do find when we are in civilization suddenly there is a bunch of life administration to be done.    We manage to get hold of Kevin to touch base.  We had wanted to Skype but the headset is on the boat and the library is not the best place to skype without a headset.  All is good in Newfoundland.

The play is enjoyable.  We are back on our boat by 9:30 in time to put on the mast light so no incoming  boats hit us at anchor.  The racers may come into port in the middle of the night.  30 minutes after we get on the boat a squall starts.  The wind is just howling and gusting.  Lightening is in the distance.  Julie dons her rubber shoes. 

 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 25, Wednesday July 17

Day 25 Wednesday July 17 – Moving on

Well we wake up to a breeze.  The weather forecast is saying west to NW winds.  We may be able to sail a bit.  We weigh anchor by 10:00 and are on our way to Clapperton Harbour just north of Kagawong.  We have never been in this harbour as the channel going east-west or visa versa gets quite shallow.  We have a fabulous sail and don’t take the main sail down until we are actually in the harbour.  With one tack we are able to round all the buoy markers and keep sailing.  We could not have asked for better wind.

Old Lodge

Clapperton Harbour used to have a lodge on it that quit operating many years ago.  Stories say that John Wayne stayed at the lodge at one time.  It is now quite in ruins as the roof has caved in.  There is still furniture and everything still inside.

We go for a dinghy ride around the bay, not much new to see.  There may be poison ivy so Julie is wary of exploring on shore.  Memories of childhood poison ivy are still vivid.

We connect with Ross and he reports he got a third place in a race in Finland.  Way to go!  Three more races to go in Europe.

It is a bit windy in this bay, but no waves, so the anchor will not be challenged like it was in the Benjamin’s last week. It is waves more than wind that cause the anchor to drag.  We have released the wind generator to produce some needed energy.  Since we were 5 nights in Matheson, the batteries are quite low because we hate putting the motor on.  Perhaps some solar panels to complement the wind generator is in order.

A quiet evening and we are off to bed ready to move on to Gore Bay in the morning.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 24 Tuesday July 16 – Still no wind

Day 24 Tuesday July 16 – Still no wind

Another blue calm hot day, still no reason to move on.  We want to be in Gore Bay by Thursday so eventually will move a bit to the west to shorten the Thursday sail if weather turns bad, but we are waiting for wind so we don’t have to motor.  We decide to stay in Matheson for the day. 

Today we want to get some work done, so after a swim and some yoga, Dawson starts with the installation of a 12v outlet in the cockpit area of the boat.  This is to charge the ipad and keep it charged so we can use it for navigation.  Dawson soon has sweat dripping from his nose as it is very hot and he is crawling down in the bowels of the boat locker to pull wire.  Julie starts polishing stainless.  We have a lot of stainless on the boat.  Dawson gets his outlet installed with Julie as assistant of course.  The stainless is only about a third complete, but it looks good.  The dorals (air intakes), are shining.

More swimming, more relaxing, then shore happy hour with the neighbours.  Again there is a fire for cooking, but we have steaks so decide on a late bbq on the boat.  On the shore is a group of kayakers who have set up tents for the night.  They are with a tour group out of Parry Sound.  We chat for a while with them.  They are on day 2 of a 5 day trip from Spanish to Whitefish Falls and having fabulous weather for their trip.

Back to our boat for our bbq and off to bed for a quiet nights sleep.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 23 Monday July 15 – We are alone

So far we have spent very little time alone, a few days here and there through the week.  We once again woke to a hot, blue beautiful day in Matheson.  There was no wind, so we could not come up with a reason to change anchorages so we continued to swing.  Our fellow boaters all upped anchor and headed out, but we could see new boats coming into our cove.

We swam out to the point and then circumnavigated the small island north of Matheson by foot, stopping to do some sun salutations, push ups and a few “warrior” poses to stretch our muscles.  Along the way there were a few blueberries to munch on.

A beaver was swimming along the shore in the water ahead of us.  We watched it for awhile until we got to the east end of the island.  Here there is a little beach and it is extremely warm due to the shallows.  We swam back to the boat as Scapin from Sarnia was pulling in.  They live in Bright’s Grove near Julie’s family.  Airtime also is travelling with Scapin.  They are heading to Caribbean this fall so we can chat with them about the “to do” list etc.

Too much sun on belly.  Got redder over the next couple days

Can’t really remember what we did during the day.  Unless we write it down, the day just passes.  By 5:00 in the evening we were on shore having a sundowner with Scapin and Airtime.  We had also packed for a shore dinner which was excellent, a fire with no bugs.  Normally if we have a fire we do it at nightfall and it is very buggy so we are not so keen.  We like this idea of having a 5:00 fire on shore.  We packed up by about 8:00 and headed back to shore for some reading and blogging time.

By now we realize we had gotten a bit too much sun.  The belly that has not seen the sun for years is red.  Not good.  It gets even redder as the week progresses.  Need to slather on that 50 protection.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 22, Sunday July 14^th – another hot day

Water like glass on way to Amedroz

We awoke to another beautiful day, with sun and heat at the early hour of 7:30.  Al was already up and out fishing hoping to catch a bass.  Today was Karen’s official birthday.  The day progressed rapidly from coffee, breakfast and the cruiser’s net, with a swim thrown in there somewhere.  After breakfast and another swim we considered options for the day.  The water was flat so we knew sailing was out, but it did beckon for a dingy ride. 

Swim at Amedroz

We loaded up the 4 dinghies and headed south from Matheson to Amedroz Island.  This is an island we have passed many times but have never landed on.  On the north side of the island is a nice anchorage for a west wind.   The anchorage featured a sand beach and a small creek flowing into the small bay; great for minnow catching.  From here we headed back to Matheson where we had another swim and lunch.  In mid afternoon a Bald Eagle came and perched in a tree for about an hour.  Around 4 our friends had to start thinking about heading back to dock as they are still members of the working world.  It reminded me of how my Aunt Judy who had been retired about a year, told me that Sunday was her favorite day as she got to watch all the other cottagers on Penage head back to Sudbury while she sat in her Muskoka chair.  As there was no wind for sailing the Trevisiol’s offered to take Al and Karen back to Little Current, an offer that was accepted.  By 6 pm all the power boats were gone and we had moved and anchored out in the bay, with plans to head out in the morning.

By ourselves now in Matheson

We enjoyed another excellent meal and off to bed, a nice end to the weekend.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 21, Saturday July 13

Little Jamaica

We wake up to a hot beautiful day in Matheson.  First thing after coffee and breakfast is a swim and yoga on the rocks.  Patti, Karen, Beth, and Colleen join Julie for the exercise.  We are pleased at the amount of exercise we continue to get.  It really is a physical existence. 

Calm water for dinghy ride

Dawson and Al busy themselves with an island explore and then scrub the decks.  There are tons of bugs.  Especially some white bugs or skeletons everywhere.

Lunch at the beach

The group decides a dinghy ride and picnic lunch is in order.   We dinghy over to Little Jamaica, Fort Lacloche and then the island to the west of Matheson for lunch.  The little island we lunch on must have regular visitors as there are swings on the beach and a nail polish station set up.  Mark and Hiney Trevisiol have also joined our group for the day.  The women all go for a swim after lunch and decide to swim back to the mother ship(s) which is about 600 meters away.  The water is shallow and warms up like a bathtub in a few spots (and not because someone peed in the water). 

Fort Lacloche



Ladies swim back to the mother ship



The guys pack up and head to Croker on the dinghies.  The water is so still that Croker seems close although it is a bit of a ways away.  Other friends are anchored at East Croker but they are not at their boats unfortunately.  We all reconvene around 5 at the mother ships. 

Karen and Colleen (birthday girls)

Julie has invited everyone for dessert as it is Karen’s birthday tomorrow and Colleen’s birthday on Tuesday.  Julie managed to bake a cake while everyone was swimming as a surprise for the birthday boaters.

Beth and Karen post Grey goose martinis

Mark and Hiney depart around 6 o’clock leaving 10 persons to crowd into our cockpit for cake.  Cake is served at around 9 and the mosquitoes are fierce forcing us to zip everything up and it is very very warm with 10 people crowded in.  The cake is a hit, followed by charades for the fun people.  Karen and Beth have had a few Grey Goose martinis so are enthusiastic about the charades unlike a few of the guys.  After Beth almost heads down the companionway head first we call it a night and hit the sack.

Cheers Julie and Dawson.







Day 20 Friday July 12^th

Dawson blogging from the salon.  Footstool is assymetrical sail

Woke up in Mosquito Cove and headed to Little Current to pick up our guests Al and Karen Kettles-Smith.  We sailed down the Wabuno Channel as it was an easterly.  We got to the town at around noon and able to get a pump out and gas for the dinghy and top up our water tanks.  One water tank does us about 10 days.  As usual we had lots to do in Little Current.  After topping up we parked at the town docks next to a beautiful Tartan 44.   Dawson helped our neighbour Chuck over to the service docks and learns the Tartan had a 100hp engine and bow thruster.  Very impressive!

Time to clean the boat now, and get groceries, then head over to the cruisers net happy hour at the Anchor Inn.  We were expecting Al and Karen around 6, but they texted and were able to get away from Sudbury early so would arrive around 4:00 which is great as we are heading to Matheson to meet up with friends.

Al and Karen, our second set of guests

The happy hour was good.  We were able to meet Airtime which is an Abbott 36 out of Sarnia that is also heading to the Caribbean this fall.  We had met their travelling friends at Covered Portage earlier in the week so had been on the lookout for Airtime.  We also got to chat to Fairytale owners Venetia and Ted who own a Caliber 38 and have done lots of sailing including a trip to the Caribbean many years earlier.  Venetia’s advice was open all the cardboard boxes and packages on the docks, not in your boat as it will keep out cockroaches.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  We will have to keep that in mind once we start travelling south.  There are also a bunch of tugboats in town as they are part of the 100 year celebration for the swing bridge anniversary this weekend.

We hooked up with Karen and Al and loaded all the food and goodies they brought and are off the dock by 5:00.  The winds were suitable to sail up the Wabuno Channel.  We did have to tack but at least we got a bit of sailing under our belts.  Once we got into the north channel to head west, we could no longer sail as the wind had also dropped and time was a marching on.  We ducked behind Hog Island for the first time and there was lots of water, and tied up with our reservations by about 8:00pm.  Just in time for the mosquitoes to get Dawson while he was barbequing.  Dickieson’s, Trevisiol’s and Strange’s were to be our rafting mates for the weekend. 

Al on bow watch as we come into anchor late

We shared a sundowner with our boat mates and headed off to bed in reasonable time.  Hopefully Karen and Al can get some sleep in their “cozy” accommodations.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 19 Thursday July 11^th

The wind has finally died down.  The waves have abated and we decide it is time to head east.  All of our fellow boaters are also evacuating the wave bowl in South Benjamin’s that we have been in for 2 days.  Everyone is anxious to move on.

Dawson rigging DRS

We head out after fabulous coffee.  It is difficult to get underway too early as neither of us wants to interfere with our wonderful relaxing coffee mornings.  Every morning Dawson hand grinds our beans.  We have been dripping the coffee and it is excellent.  We also tend to sleep in until 8:00 and then listen to the 9 o’clock cruisers net show which is almost an hour long.  We are not sure where we will head but know we want to get closer to Little Current as we do not want to risk not picking up our guests on Friday.

Successful launch, (note the life jacket)

We set out with a bit of wind, but it dies very quickly.  Often there is wind until about 11 in the morning, just when we get going, then it dies for the afternoon and picks up at 5 or 6 in the evening for a couple hours.  We are sad we will have to motor.  In an attempt to sail, we head south on the east side of Clapperton, but it does not help.  The iron genny is on for the next couple of hours.  South of Amedroz we decide to head north between Bedford Island and Amedroz, but still no wind, but a shorter distance to Mosquito cove.  As we get closer to Mosquito we decide it would be a good idea to hoist our Assymetrical sail.  This is the colourful sail that is used in light winds,that we may need for the race in a week; definitely a good idea to hoist prior to the race.

We turn west (opposite direction to our destination) to try to catch the light wind. Dawson has rigged the sail which can be a bit tricky and we are ready to hoist.  The sail fills and it is a beautifully sight; a perfect trial run with no errors.  We are very happy with ourselves.  The sail is in very good shape as it has not been used very often at all.  Hopefully we get to use it in the race.

Julie relaxing

After about an hour we douse the sail and it gets repacked into its sail bag to be stored below deck.  Now it is time to anchor and have our traditional Gin and Tonic reward for a good days work sailing. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 18, Wednesday July 10^th, a very blustery day

Neighbour on the roscks

Dawson hoisting anchor for Greg Miles

The Day started off with a bit of excitement.  During the night the winds had built as predicted.  The only issue was that the wind had stayed to the south long enough to set up waves from the south.  These were able to roll up into the anchorage and get the boats rocking.  We were out of bed at 5:30 to check things out, Dawson looked to the east and said “I think Irish Wake has dragged”  but then noticed that the crew of Irish Wake was on the deck, within 30 seconds there was 3 blasts on Irish Wake’s air horn stating that he was in distressed.   Within 5 minutes there was 4 dinghies over at Irish Wake, with 3 of us pushing and one pulling on a line from the bow.  After 15 mins we had managed to push her off the rocks.  I jumped aboard to hoist the anchor.  She then moved over and re-anchored on the west side of the bay with the rest of us.



Julie sewing the sail cover in the wind

We spent the rest of the day working on the boat and watching the boat walk around her anchor. Julie did a sewing job on the sail cover as the boat tossed and turned with the waves.  On a number of occasions Dawson called Julie to deck to say we were dragging only to have Julie point out that we have just stretched the chain out.  We did leave the boat for about 30 minutes going over to the shore for a quick hike down to the southern point. The hike was nice as we were now 24 hours of rolling back and forth.  No seasickness though, but Julie did take a preventive gravol.  On the bright side our wind generator was spinning around providing some energy for the boat.

We had another excellent dinner and headed off for bed around 10 in the evening.

Jazzebelle blowing at anchor

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

 

Day 17, Tuesday July 9th

Day 17 July 9^th – Watching our son on TV in a Bar

Awoke to another beautiful morning, we had anchored only 5 miles north west of Little Current as we had to be in port and on the internet for Ross’s race at 11:15.  Ross was running in the finals for the world university games.  We tied up to our “usual spot” on the wall at Little Current and made our way up to the Anchor Inn.  Our plan was to dally over breakfast while watching the race.  Just after setting up our computer and ordering breakfast Bruce O’Hare, the owner of the Inn came over.  His wife had told him of our plans to watch Ross, so he offered up the use of the big screen tv on the bar side of the Inn.  This was a much appreciated offer which we immediately accepted.

Julie watching Ross race on the big screen

It was very exciting to watch Ross on the big screen and was neat to reflect back on all the races we had watched.  From the 1^st race out in Falconbridge (small community in Sudbury) where Ross 1^st showed his talent to now watching him run in Kazan, Russia, with us standing in bar in Little Current.  It was a good race with Ross taking 9^th and his fellow Canadian Jeremy Rae taking the silver.  We are very proud of the boy, although his communication skills must improve as we have not heard from him as of this posting.  From Kazan he is off to Helsinki, then Sweden and finally Belgium as he is staying to train and race.  He will be back in Canada August 6^th.

Calm waters of South Benjamin's

We leave Little Current after the race and head to the South Benjamins.  Winds are predicted to be relatively strong (25 knots from the West and North West) so we are thinking that the Gut on the South Benjamins would be good, we were kind of right.  We arrive to find 4 other boats anchored in the bay with all crews up on the rocks enjoying the evening.  Once we are confident the anchor is set we head over to meet our new neighbors.  Two of the boats are out of Midland and the other 2 out of Michigan with the boats being kept on Lake St. Clair.  It is an excellent evening; during the conversation it comes out that the skipper of Irish Wake is a singer songwriter, Greg Miles,  when he was not working in GM Engineering office.  Greg even enjoy his 15 secs of fame after posting his song “I didn’t quit my day job, it quite me”, this was during the layoff in the car industries in 2009.  His posting was seen by media with him appearing on 20/20.  He is now fully retired having retired 2 weeks ago.  We convince him (was not hard) to hold a concert that evening at the back of his boat.  Around 8 o’clock the concert begins with Greg playing in the cockpit and us in our dingy tied to the back.  It was as one of the other boaters said reputably – Awesome.

The concert is over at dark with all of heading back to our boats.   The wind has started to pickup, from the south west, not the best for us, we let out some more chain and head to bed.  We have a good anchor and all chain so we are very confident on our not dragging during the night. 

Cheers

 Dawson and Julie