Leamington to QCYC

September 9, 2012

Pat's express arrives at about 5 in the afternoon.  The winds have been light all day so we decide to take off immediately to Port Colbourne.  We say goodbye to Pat and Belinda and cast off the lines and motor out of Leamington harbour.

We point Sansei towards the Pt. Pelee light.  After 2 hours we finally arrive at the light.  14 nm out and still in 25' of water.  Last time I went by this light it was dark so really could not see what it looked like.

As we rounded Pt. Pelee light the wind picked up from the N at about 10 to 15 kts.  First couple of hours were fine, we unfurled part of the headsail to steady the boat and we motorsailed along at 7 kts. After midnight the winds had built to about 20 kts and the waves have built to 1 to 1.5 meters.  I was up in the V berth and with each crashing wave would be jolted out of any slumber that I was having.  I tried to move aft to one of the settees but each time, I started feeling nauseous so I quickly went back to the nook in the V berth.  The deck prism over the V berth now leaks to water from the waves ws dripping down getting everything wet. After going back on watch, Robert and I watched the sunrise through the clouds.  Excellent.

In the morning the winds subside and the waves flatten out.  We have a more comfortable ride towards Long Point.  For the next several hours we kept seeing Long Point.  I guess there is a reason why they called it Long Point.

As we approach Port Colbourne, the winds pick up from the west.  We hoist the main and pick up a little speed. In a short period of time, the waves have built again to about 1 m. We drop sails and then head into Port Colbourne just as the sun is setting.  26 hours and 188 nm we arrive at the mouth of the Welland Canal.  We tie up at the Municipal dock and call in to the Seaway requesting passage.  There is 1 other sailboat there and we are told that we will be transiting the canal with Zingara, but no earlier than midnight.  I recall that a friend from Star sailing usually sails on a boat called Zingara.   Sure enough Brian M is delivering Zingara back from the Beneteau NA Regattta in Cleveland.

At 2am, Zingara gets the call and is informed that once a Coast Guard boat exits the canal we are to enter and proceed to lock 8. Lock 8 has a drop of about 1' to compensate for the locks and the height of  Lake Erie.  No need to tie up to the side, just stop the boat, locks close and then the front lock opens and off we go.  Its about 14 nm from Lock 8 to Lock 7. The temperature has dropped to about 8 deg C and as a result, there are some heavy fog patches.  Our instructions are to stay with Zingara so I am following the stern light and trying to keep pace.  Hard to do when going in and out of the fog patches. The light goes dim so I throttle up a bit and then all of a sudden the light brightens and we are only a couple of boat lengths away. Time to throttle back.  We approach Lock 7 and there is a Big Black Boat in the lock coming up so we have to wait until it has passed us.  As I approach the wall the throttle lever falls off and I have no way of throttling or changing gears. O Oh! We are going pretty slow so we are able to tie up and Paul goes to work and quickly repairs the lever.  The connecting bolt had loosened so it just needed some tightening. The boat had been making a funny noise starting in Lake Huron and then across Lake Erie.  We could not figure it out. We now believe that the lever was loose so the transmission was not being fully engaged and the noise was the clutch plates vibrating.  After the repair, the noise has gone.   I will change the transmission fluid and hopefully did not damage the clutch plates.

The most impressive set of locks are Locks 6, 5 and 4.  These locks are back to back and drop about 50' each.

Going down the canal is way easier than going up.  As the water drains from the lock, there is very little turbulence.  Going up, there is lots of turbulence and it is very difficult to hold the boat in place.  Going down, it is very relaxing, a little push here and there to keep the boat steady.

I had paid for the transit online and filled out the necessary forms electronically.  We arrive at Lock 3 where I have to pay.  I give them the Seaway receipt that I had printed out.  The lock guy taking the receipt insisted that I manually fill out the form with all the information. Some day, the modern electronic age will catch up with the canal staff.

We arrive at Lock 1 and there is another BBB in the lock so we have to wait until it has exited the lock.

We exit Lock 1 at 1030 and go and tie up along the wall.  Jim T makes breakfast.  Hard to tell what meal one should be eating since we have been on the go for almost 2 days straight and have been awake for 8 hours already. Food is good and it hits the spot.  We cast off the lines again and exit the Canal and point Sansei towards Toronto. 

The wind picks up and we are able to sail.  It was a welcome change from the droning of the engine.  Jim T has crashed in the aft cabin so we turn off the depth sounder which continuously beeps in a strange pattern.  Hopefully Jim appreciates our efforts to provide a quiet passage across Lake Ontario.

After 4 hours, we sail into Toronto Harbour and then drop the sails and motor into QCYC to the dry sail dock.  Belinda and Pat greet us. After a quick unload of fender boards and jerry cans, we move Sansei back into her slip for the first time in 2 years. Its good to be home. We celebrate with a bottle of Glenmorangie and a bottle of El Dorado.

Ready to Leave Leamington

The weather has finally changed to light winds.  No strong wind warnings or gale warnings.  The dinghy is packed and stored below; jack lines are on; running and steaming lights checked; fuel is topped up. We are ready to leave.

The plan is for Paul H., Jim T. and Robert C. to drive down from TO courtesy of Pat's express.  Belinda will drive back to TO with Pat and me and the crew will depart for Pt. Colbourne later this afternoon.

September 8, 2012

Yesterday we spent a quiet day.  The marina was having a Customer Appreciation BBQ so we went for a beer.  After the beer we walked to the upper downtown about 40 minutes and had lunch at Taco Tony's.  It's very much like being in Mexico; the waiter did not speak much english so my 2 tacos and nachos ended up as 2 tacos and fries. Belinda had the chicken flautas which took awhile to arrive.

The Heinz plant is right in the middle of town. There's tractors with tomato trailers driving all over town.

We also saw a wedding party go by. They went down to the Marina for photos.

Stayed onboard and made dinner for a change. Had the last bottle of Kenneth Volk Chardonnay that we bought in Mentor, OH.  Quiet evening.

Sarnia to Windsor to Leamington

September 4, 2012

We are startled by the sound of thunder in the morning.  That changes all the plans.  We are staying put.  After breakfast, its still raining with the sound of the occasional thunder.  We all pile into Bonnie and Jim's car and drive into downtown Sarnia.  As we tour the sites of Sarnia (refineries) we end up downtown.  We find a mall which is pretty much empty, most of the stores are closed. We end up at a pub and have lunch.  For dinner, I make a pasta with sausages and we have a great dinner on the boat.

September 5, 2012

The rain has passed so we are off to Windsor.  Bonnie and Jim stay on board and Belinda drives the car to Windsor.  It is pretty exciting to motor under the Bluewater bridge, with the current we are doing 9 kts.  The winds are light from the SSE so we motor all the way.  Downhill is definitely easier than uphill.  Apparently there is a 30' drop between Sarnia and Windsor.  We pass 3 big freighters during the day with 2 of them passing at the narrowest part of the St. Clair river. We are careful to stay on the Canadian side of the river so that we do not have to report into border services upon arrival at Windsor.

As we motor across Lake St Clair, we come across a regatta. They are sailing Etchells, a 3 person sail boat.  There are several Canadian boats.  I thought that one boat was Hans Fogh, which was later confirmed.  Apparently, the regatta had not yet started so this was a practice race.

We arrive at Lakeview Park Marina and tie up on the Federal Wall.  The marina does not have WiFi so we have to go to the local restaurant Lilly's Kazzillys to get onto the internet.  Before dinner we drop into the Windsor Yacht Club for a drink.  The one server remembered us so we had no problem getting a drink.

September 6, 2012

Bonnie has decided to drive around to Leamington with Belinda.  Jim and I leave Windsor and motor down the Detroit River.

Its Navy week in Detroit and the brig Niagara is tied up in front of the Ren Center.  As we motor down the river, the US Coast Guard radio informs us that the Niagara will give a cannon salute to commemorate the war of 1812.

As we get down to the south end of the Detroit river we start seeing black clouds in the west.  The US Coast Guard radio indicates that the line of thunderstorms are moving north east.  After a couple of miles, the sky clears for us so we are OK.

We exit the Detroit river doing 9 kts. again (mostly 7 kts. along the way).  We have seen only 4 freighters all day.

Lake Erie is flat so we motor eastward towards Leamington and make very good time.  We are tempted to continue on but there are no ports to stop 10 to 20 miles past Leamington. We arrive at Leamington marina and Belinda and Bonnie have just arrived to greet us as we refuel and pump out.

We tie up behind another Tartan 4100 Excalibur.  We had seen this boat in Vermillion and Putin Bay, Ohio, earlier this summer.

The original plan was for Eriks R. and Jim T. join us as crew and we would sail the length of Lake Erie to Pt. Colbourne (about 180nm), the entrance to the Welland Canal.  The forecast included a strong wind warning so we decided to stay put and Eriks and Jim stayed in TO.

For dinner we went to Ray's Ribhouse. Great ribs and chicken wings.

September 7, 2012

Checked the forecast this morning.  Not just a wind warning but a gale warning. I let Eriks know that he should wait another day. Organizing crew's schedules with weather is a very difficult thing.   We will take it day by day to see if we can get crew and a weather window.

Jim is checking on the hurricanes that are travelling up the Atlantic coast headed for Newfoundland.  Bonnie is getting annoyed at us for obsessing about the weather and storms.  Despite the wind warnings, the winds are light here.  Very tempting to leave and head off to the next port.  Over night the winds had been light so the lake is flat. But the distance to the next port is much.

Bonnie and Jim leave to start driving back to Holyrood, NL.  They will stay at our house in TO on the way through.  Jim will give Princess a big belly rub so she will be very happy. Thanks to our neighbours Mark and Anita who will be away allowing Bonnie and Jim to park in their driveway.

We spend the morning cleaning the boat up. After lunch we head off to the Walmart and Metro for some reprovisioning. The gale warning has been downgraded to strong wind warning tonight. Some really ugly clouds went south of us today.  Glad that we stayed put. Still not looking good to leave Leamington any time soon.

Its Friday and its Happy Hour.  Enjoying a martini and the weather seems to be clearing, now waiting for the strong winds to start blowing.

Tobermory to Bayfield to Sarnia

September 1, 2012

Winds have finally subsided and then switched around to NE.  No wind warning in the forecast so we are off to Kincardine.  We take the Cape Hurd Channel rather than the Devil's Island Channel which shortens the distance somewhat.  Cape Hurd is narrower but no worse that other channels around here. We are able to sail on a broad reach doing 6-7kts. but after an hour the wind drops a bit which puts arrival into Kincardine rather late.  We started the motor and kept the speed at 7 kts.  The wind shifts more N so we furl the headsail and motor sail with main alone. We are following a trawler out of Sarnia yacht club, Mary Rose, with Ken and Leslie.  All day we slowly close the gap.  We talk on the radio with Marty on Queen's Ransom who is ahead by a couple of hours. As we approach Kincardine, the waves have now built to 1 to 2 m so we are surfing down the face at 10kts. What a ride.

As we approach Kincardine, there is an emergency call on the radio and Mary Rose goes out to investigate.  No distressed boats are located.  We go to the fuel dock and top up with diesel.  The dock hand says that the emergency was a laser type boat that had capsized but had managed to get ashore. All good.

After a shower, it is off to see the parade.  Every Saturday night during the summer there is bag pipe parade which goes down main street and turns around and comes back.  By the time we get there the parade has already gone down the street.  There does not seem to be any sign of them coming back so we head off to the Bruce for dinner.  As we are having our drinks, the parade comes back.  A pipe band followed by the entire population of Kincardine.

September 2, 2012

We leave Kincardine at 0810.  We again wake up at first light to the sound of Bliss starting her engine, doing the chart plot beeping and then operating the bow thruster. Bliss is the C & C 51 that we saw in Gore Bay earlier in the summer.  They left Tobermory at first light.

The other boats, Queen's Ransom and Mary Rose, left early but were headed directly to Sarnia, about 80 miles. We are headed to Bayfield, only 45 miles so we do not have to leave as early.  We are off the dock by 0810 and sail south along the west coast of Ontario. Once we turn southerly, we are able to broad reach in 15 to 20 kts of wind.  We sail along at 8+kts but got a little overpowered so we furl in the head sail and slow down a little to 7+kts. We cruise along all the way to Goderich when the wind diminishes.  We have to motor the rest of the way 10 miles.  We get into Bayfield and the dock hand Ethan remembers us from our June visit.

Terrence, who was crewing on Stella B back to Goderich came by to say hello.  We had a couple of beers and got the gossip and news of the local boaters.  They had a 13 hour sail from Tobermory back to Goderich.

Bonnie and Jim drove in from St. John's via the James family reunion, New Brunswick and bee lined across Ontario.  We head off to the Black Dog for dinner.  I had pork tacos to make up for the missed Pig Roast at QCYC.

John and Heather H, former QCYC members also came by to say hello.  Also Reynold from China Rose, dropped by to say hello.  We last saw China Rose in Mary Ann Cove when we had Pat and Paul onbaord.

Tragedy in Bayfield today.  Two boaters went swimming and 1 could not be found.  (http://www.lfpress.com/2012/09/02/one-person-pulled-from-water-without-vital-signs-another-missing-in-lake-huron-near-bayfield)

September 3, 2012

Jim and I departed Bayfield, while Belinda and Bonnie drove around to Sarnia via Grand Bend.

We had light ESE winds so we motored sailed for several hours until the wind died and furled the sail in.  After lunch, the wind picked up again from the NNW and we were able to motor sail again.  As we approached Sarnia, 3 freighters we upbound and lots of boats sailing up the shore.  We entered the outer harbour and there must have been 15 power boats anchor and backed into shore. After a $3.50 pump out we tied up in our assigned slip.  The Valiant that is normally tied up here has left for the sunny south.

I stop by Queen's Ransom to say hello to Marty. Ken from Mary Rose also welcomed us. Its Happy Hour.  Sorry no photos as the internet connection here is slow.

Still In Tobermory

August 30, 2012

The winds did not subside so we stayed for another day.  We had breakfast with David H. at the local greasy spoon and after that David left in our car to drive back to Toronto.  Since we weren't going anywhere, we decided to go for a walk to the Visitor Center for the Bruce Trail. It's not very far but technically we did walk along the Bruce Trail. Only 742.5km to Niagara.

We ran into Wade from Stella B.  We last saw Stella B in Gore Bay.  Stella B had the intention of hauling Gore Bay and taking a seasonal slip next year.  Apparently the 5 grandkids ganged up on Wade and in no uncertain terms demanded that he return the boat to Goderich so he is delivering the boat back to Goderich.

Wade's crew is Terrence who has a Bayfield 36 in Bayfield.  He is an old friend of Dwight and Carol, who are now on their journey south.  Terrence used to work the boat show at Dwight's booth. He was very happy to hear that they were journeying south again.

For dinner, we went back to the Fish & Chip Place for the famous Tobermory Fish Taco.  We shared a table with Wade and Terrence. The tacos did not disappoint. Excellent as ever.

Belinda and I ended the evening with a nightcap at the Crowsnest Pub.

August 31, 2012

The wind eased up slightly overnight but today's forecast was for 20 kts of wind from the SW veering to the W at 20 kts and then backing to NW 20 kts. We decided to stay put for another day. One power boat left this morning but returned a couple hours later.  They had encountered 6 to 8 ft waves and the occasional 10 ft wave.  Its nice to have one's decision confirmed.

We went for a walk around Bug Tub Harbour over to the Big Tub Resort. We ran into Eva and Mark from Liberty's Reach, a Tartan 3500.  They had also returning south along Lake Huron and decided to stay put for the day.

This is the view from patio of the Big Tub Resort.  Lunch was good and beer cold.

We also had a visitor joining us for lunch.

After lunch we walked out to the Big Tub lighthouse.

The big news for the day is the blue moon that is happening tonight.  This is our 4th full moon of our adventure this summer. We are hoping that we will be back at QCYC before the next full moon. It's Pig Roast weekend at QCYC.  This the first Pig Roast that we will miss in the 17 years that we have been at QCYC.

Tobermory II

August 29, 2012

We arrived back in Tobermory to meet up with David H.  After dropping off Dawn and Steve in Killarney, David sailed Sansei down and then sat at anchor in Big Tub Harbour for 2 nights. We went to the Grand View restaurant for dinner and watch the sunset.

During dinner the moon was rising.  It is almost full, so this will be our 4th full moon of the trip and the last blue moon until 2015.

We arrived back from St. John's after a week of fun going back and forth across the island.  Belinda's family had a reunion at the Humber Valley Resort near Deer lake NL.  31 family and significant others showed up.

We did bus trips, boat rides, golfing and a couple of bottles of wine, beer and other spirits disappeared.  The highlight of the weekend was the progressive dinner. Many surprises and excellent food.

On the way back across the island we spent a night in Brigus. The blueberries were in fine form.

We walked Belinda's land to see if the proposed plans would work.

 

The forecast for tomorrow is for strong winds from the SW.  It does not look like we will be leaving Tobermory tomorrow.

Toronto

Back in Toronto to attend a Going Away party for 3 boats leaving QCYC for the sunny south and avoid the Canadian winter.   Rick and Wendy on Silver Fox II, Carol and Dwight on Tapas and Deanna and Ken on Allure are heading off to Oswego, NY, through the Erie Barge Canal to the Hudson River and then to NY City. Bon Voyage.

We left David H. with our boat in Killarney, Dawn and Steve are joining him Saturday.  Other friends from QCYC Stephanie and Chris are staying at the Killarney Mountain Lodge for a family gathering.  The group went for a day sail on Sunday.

We are now off to St. John's NL and then drive across the island to attend a James family reunion.  Should be fun.