CS34 Shakedown Cruise to Cobourg

Rita and I had all intentions of leaving WYC at around 9:30am.  The weather reports showed that there would not be much wind.  Rita's girlfriend Meryl came with us.  Between provisioning the boat and getting a pump out, we didn't leave until 12:30pm.

We had some decent winds from the south on the beam until just past Oshawa, and made close to 7 knots of speed.  When our speed dropped below 3 knots, we motor sailed for a while, then took the sails down because they were just flapping in our apparent wind.

I regularly had Still Time running 7.4 knots at 3300 RPMs on the 20 HP diesel.

We passed Port Hope, and what I thought was Peter Rock;  turns out that was a race mark for Port Hope Yacht Club.  Here we were motoring along over 7 knots, and I happened to glance at the depth meter, and saw we had dropped to under 10 ft of water.  Looked to starboard and saw the marker for Peter Rock about 1/2 mile to the south.  Full emergency stop, and the depth gauge showed 6.3 ft.

Screen print from GPS track

For those who don't know, Peter Rock is shoal that extents out 1 mile into Lake Ontario.  At one time, cars could drive on it.  The charts show 3ft of depth, but there is less water than that.  If we had hit the shoal at 7 knots, would have severely damaged Still Time, perhaps even sunk.  The force of the impact could had hurt someone badly on board.

Really gotta get the chart plotter hooked up!

After our Peter Rock scare, I just wanted to get into Cobourg, and put the throttle on full.  Still Time was doing close to 8 knots at 3750 RPMs.  I was surprised she would rev that high, but the water was flat. After running for about 5 minutes like this, the engine overheat alert came on.  I quickly throttled back and took the boat out of gear, and the alarm shut off in about 10 seconds.  So, can't rev her past 3500 RPMs.

We got a slip on the end of F dock with all our Newcastle friends.  It was easy to dock there.  22ft Still Time was $28 with HST last year.  34 ft Still Time is $50 a night.

We met up with Meryl's boyfriend Chris and had a wonderful dinner on the boat.  Chris and Meryl were our first guests to sleep in the aft cabin.  Very warm on the boat, no need for any heater or anything.

Trip Odometer: 35.42 miles

Moving Avg: 6.3 knots

Moving Time: 05:37:20

Google Earth track: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2012/2012052627.kmz

Bunch of us went to the Buttermilk Cafe in downtown Cobourg.  Always great.

Left at around noon with winds from the east about 8 knots.  Sailed for about an hour before the winds started lightening.  Motor sailed for a while, motor sailed with just the main for a while, until we just motored from Westleyville.  Kept the RPMs down to 3,000 and cruised comfortably over 7 knots.  Caught the fleet of Cajun, Silhouette, and Marietta before Newcastle.

Past Newcastle, wind picked up and was able to motor sail at 7 knots with reduced RPMs.  But alas, past St Mary's the wind died again, so we put the mainsail away and motored the rest of the way.

Trip Odometer: 43.73 miles

Moving Avg: 7.3 knots

Moving Time: 06:00:02

We burned about four gallons of diesel fuel for the entire return trip.