CS34 Collins Bay to Beaurivage

Check the engine oil before starting the motor and it was fine.  We left the dock at 9am.  We need to get some diesel fuel and ice before heading out.  We were in line for the fuel dock with Aftica and Cajun, so we motored around the bay for an hour. 

After topping up with fuel and a couple of blocks/bags of ice, were were on our way out of Collins Bay.

French Vanilla was next in line, so we leasurely went out of the bay looking at some of the houses along the way.  A couple of years ago, while driving in the Miata, we saw a Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style bungalow that was for sale. We can remember seeing it from the road, and how it had a breakwall in Collins Bay, a boat house, and private deep water docks.

The house looked a little rough back then, and still does today, but the location is awesome, and you can park your sailboat right in front.  One of my favourite houses in the area.

Winds were 10-12 knots from the south on the beam for the most part, so it was nice sailing.

Seeing Kingston from the water was awesome.  There was the annual CORK regatta going on in Kingston Bay.  This is largest junior regatta in the world.  We probably saw close to 1,000 Optimists, Lasers, and 29ers all over the place. 

Optimist Race of Wolf Island with wind turbines in the background

The sail around Howe Island was very fast with the winds building on the beam.

The dog was freaking out with the wind, waves, sails flapping, and winches grinding.  Thought he was going to have a heart attack with the constant panting and shaking.  We gave him half of a children's gravol, and that seemed to calm him down.

As we neared Beaurivage (other side of Howe Island), the winds started building.  I had already put a reef in the main, and furled in about a third of the genoa.  Harvey radioed that his wind instrument was saying 25 knots constant.  We decided the drop sails, so Rita took the wheel and headed us into the wind.  The main dropped no problem into the lazy jacks.  However, because the wind was so strong, the furler furled the sail VERY tightly, and there wasn't enough line in the drum to get the headail all the way in; there was perhaps 6 ft of sail still flapping the breeze.  To get that last 6 feet of sail in, I had to disconnect the sheets and manually wrap the sail around the furler.  Took about 10 mintues.  Rita was stressed and didn't like me out on deck with that amount of breeze.  The dog is freaking and so is she.  Was not a good situation.  Later discovered that the flapping sail had knocked our new TV Antenna off the mast!

Here you can see were we turned into the wind to drop sails...
...and where we anchored

The anchorage at Beaurivage Island already had about 15 boats in it.  We drove around looking for a safe place to anchor not too far away from shore to take the dog for a pee.  Ended up anchoring between Silhouette and Marietta.

Silhouette

Marietta

Took the dog for a pee by dingy...

Wasn't too far to row ashore

...and settled down with a drink!

French Vanilla, Cajun, and See Beyond went further in the bay:

It was a nice a spot with several beautiful cottages:

This island cottage was just off our stern

Trip Odometer: 28.93 miles
Moving Avg: 5.5 knots
Moving Time: 05:16:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2012/20120812.kmz