Skana Delivery

We share a finger with Dave and Debbie Sandford on their CS30 called Galaxsea.  We have known them from our days in Newcastle.  They purchased a 1988 CS36 Merlin and I jumped at the opportunity to deliver the boat from Etobicoke Yacht Club.

Dave, Yvan, John, and I left the club a little after 7am to drive to EYC.
John's girl Georgian drove us down.

Docks @EYC are nice

New boat owner Dave on the helm as we pulled out

Wind was on the nose 3 knots the entire way. We just motored all the way taking the inside route in Toronto Harbour.

Yvan and John

Dave and Debbie and their dog Zoe
with some bubbly

Skana is a nicely equipped CS36; I am sure Dave and Debbie will enjoy racing and cruising her.

Trip Odometer: 31.75 miles
Moving Average: 6.0 knots
Moving Time: 05:15:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130831.kmz

We had a corn roast at the club with over 100 people attending.
We helped Walter and Colleen husk the corn:

CS34 Friday Dinner

Our friends Steve and Arlene came out the to boat at around 6pm.

We tried to head out to the anchor balls, but out beyond the breakwall was 15 knots of wind from the south and 2-3 waves.  So we headed back and anchored in the harbor behind the breakwall.

Dinner was awesome; the new BBQ did a great job on the steaks!

Sometimes after 11pm, there was lightening strikes on shore, so we decided to head in.  Good thing, the sky let got just after we got to the dock!

It rained hard, but we stayed dry in the cockpit under the dodger/bimini.

Trip Odometer: 2.22 miles
Moving Average: 2.2 knots
Moving Time: 00:42:23
Stopped Time: 00:02:40

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130830.kmz

C22 Whitby Race Night (NOT!)

Hottest day of the summer with no wind.  BRUTAL!

Forecast was for 2-3 knots from the SE.

Melissa, John, and I were one of the first boats off the dock.
Motored out to Mark 9 as the committee boat Tanker Jones got there just before us.

I had the main up, but it was flapping in the waves. HATE THAT SOUND, so we dropped it, and then rolled it and put it away.

Bobbed around for a while, Tanker sounded two cannons to signify race postponement.

Boats all around us were having a swim:

Stan on Sumac
with
Pizza and Beer

Melissa just jumped in with her clothes on.  I jumped in with my underwear and scrubbed the bottom for about 20 minutes.  The water was VERY warm.  There was about 3/8" of scum on the bottom of the boat!

Tanker sounded three cannons to signify the abandonment of the race.

We took a leisurely motor along Whitby Shores.

Melissa said "This was the best race night ever!!!!"
It was fun for sure.

Trip Odometer: 4.19 miles
Moving Average: 2.3 knots (all under motor)
Moving Time: 01:50:00
Stopped Time: 00:32:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130828.kmz

C22 Whitby Doublehanded Race

John and Melissa were unavailable, so I went out singlehanded.

First thing I had to do was fix the electrical connector for the autohelm.  Took a little bit, but got it fixed.  Full racing main and light #1.

Winds were light 3-7 knots from the south, course was set at two triangles 1-5-7-1-5-7-1.

Was the first whitesail boat to the windward mark, not too far behind Berserk.  Really got the boat going upwind well.  Didn't fare as well on the reaching legs however, as IRIS overtook me.

Finished a couple of minutes behind IRIS (Catalina 25)  and 30 seconds behind White Out (Viking 28).

UPDATE: won the race on corrected time by 7 seconds over IRIS.
1st of 5 boats in whitesail
2nd of 8 boats overall with only Road Trip! beating me.

Trip Odometer: 9.62 miles
Moving Average: 3.3 knots
Moving Time: 02:56:00

Google Earth Track:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130825.kmz

CS34 Jackie and Leon

We had Rita's friend Jackie and her husband Leon out for a dinner cruise.

We got off the dock a little after 6pm, and took an anchor ball by the club house.

The new BBQ worked great cooking the steaks.

No wind to speak of, so we leisurely motored to Oshawa and went in the harbour.  I checked the moon rise time on my GPS (09:14) and we watched the moon rise over Darlington GS from the water; AWESOME

We got back to the dock around midnight.

A great time was had by all.

Trip Odometer: 19.55 miles
Moving Average: 5.0 knots
Moving Time: 03:53:00
Stopped Time: 02:13:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130823.kmz

CS34 BBQ

On our cruise, we were using our 4 year old KUUMA BBQ in Cobourg to cook some steaks.  I was talking to Judy and she looks over my shoulder and exclaims YOUR BBQ IS ON FIRE!!!  There were flames about 2ft high coming out by the regulator.  I quickly went in the propane locker to turn the propane tank off, while Rita doused the flames with a glass of white wine.

Turns out the LPG propane hose had split and was letting raw propane gas to exit the hose BEFORE the regulator.  BBQ is toast.  I never really liked it because is was very small, could only do a couple of items.  It kept going out in the littlest of wind.  It was not that hot, and was permanently mounted to the rail.

Old BBQ on the rail

The old unit used to rattle with engine vibrations, so I would prop the stern line in the open lid.

After researching the market, I decided on a Dickinson Spitfire 180. 
Lot bigger grill, same width, but taller and deeper.
MADE IN CANADA (Surrey BC).
Really well made.

It heats up quickly with real even heat. 
It was blowing 20 knots from the stern and it didn't blow out.

Bought the quick release rail mount, so it can be stored down below.
Also bought a stainless tray for cooking vegetables/bacon/pancakes etc.

As an added bonus, it has feet so it can be used ashore using the 1 lb propane bottles.

Comes with cover

11"x16" cooking surface

Thermometer (center) and Igniter (left)

You can see the stainless drip tray on the bottom

Tray for vegetables and stuff

Very shiney!

MacIntosh MHOR Article in GAM

Interesting article in GAM on our Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race finish:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/MHOR%20GAM.pdf

Neat hearing what was going through our competitor's heads!

20 Seconds!

C22 Whitby Race Night

Melissa, John, and I were out for the last race of series 3.  Still Time had missed 3 of the 4 in the series and was in 5th place of 8 boats.  The goal was to place well in tonight's race to move up to 3rd place for a flag for the series.

Winds were forecast to be 11 knots with gusts to 16 knots.  We went out with full racing main and light #1.  Course was 4 medium.

Before the race, John passed me his Tilley hat and I tossed it into the cabin, but the wind blew it overboard.  Luckily they float.  Man overboard (MOB) drill with sails and winds gusting all over the place.  If that hat was a human, they would have been dead before we retrieved them!  It was a good exercise just the same.

GPS track for MOB

We had a good start on a starboard tack, and were gaining on some of the bigger boats that were further up the line start line.  We had IRIS a little to windward and behind us.  Instead of getting into a dustup with the bigger boats in front, I decided to tack to port in from of IRIS and duck underneath her.  We forgot to dump the main and pressure on it made it so John could not steer the boat under them.  Chris on IRIS had to duck below us.  We clearly fouled IRIS, so we immediate did our penalty turns.

We were overwhelmed upwind; lots of heel; the main was basically doing nothing.  We would have done better and faster with a reef in the main.  On the reaching and downwind legs we did really well.  On the last upwind leg, we decided to tack right away after the leeward mark, and move the jib cars back a bunch to put a twist in the jib to depower it.  On this leg we beat the Catalina 25, Viking 28, and Thunderbird to the finish. 

We were 3rd across the line behind the two sharks.  Don't think we caught them on corrected time. More wind than expected, and the Sharks "go like hell when the wind blows". 

http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/reviews/revshark.htm

We had a great race.  This was the most wind/waves that Melissa had seen yet!

What a sunset!

Melissa posted this photo on Facebook:

Sailing glove or reverse beer coozy?

You decide.


UPDATE: we crossed the line 3rd and finished 3rd in corrected time not too far behind the Sharks.  Unfortunately, we finished 4th in the series behind the two Sharks and the Catalina 25.

Trip Odometer: 10.50 miles
Moving Average: 4.1 knots
Moving Time: 02:32:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130821.kmz

Signs from 2013 Cruise

Anybody who knows me well knows that I like random signs.

Here are some that we encountered on the cruise this year.

CS34 Cruise Summary

Our annual cruise was a lot of fun.

Almost 400 nautical miles travelled!

14 days on the water
8 days in the states

All our stays in the states were at Yacht Clubs:

Oak Orchard $20 for two nights
Rochester $34 for two nights
Sodus Bay $25 for two nights (free pumpout)
Fair Haven $20 for two nights

Travelling with a group to new places was a good idea.
Rita and I would now be confident going into these ports no problem.

The day trip to Rochester was fun!

On the Canadian side, we stayed more in marinas as the Yacht Clubs were either full (CORK regatta), or not convenient to our schedule.

Waupoos $62 for one night
Kingston $76 for one night
Trenton $51 for one night ($20 for a pump out)
Cobourg $57 for one night

We anchored twice in Prinyer's Cove and Sandy Cove. We would have anchored more if we had more time to go further east in the 1000 Islands.

We used approximately $80 in diesel.

The boat performed flawlessly.
We had the right amount of food.
The fridge and freezer worked great.
The dingy and motor were convenient and fun!

Having a US phone number and data plan was awesome.  We could and did call/text/email whenever we wanted.  The data was great for checking weather and such.  However, cell coverage was somewhat spotty on the south shore.

We had a lot of wind to sail with.  In previous years, there wasn't much wind or on the nose so we did a LOT of motoring.  I was great getting all the sail time in.

The Stack Pack is AMAZING!  I don't hesitate to hoist the main sail anymore because it is so easy to drop and put away.  Looks great too.

I am getting really comfortable with sailing the big boat in various conditions.
The mainsail double reefing system is wonderful and was used a LOT.
The 135% foam luff genoa is excellent and reefs well.

Rita and I are now very comfortable docking and anchoring the boat.  It is amazing how much difference a year makes with a new bigger boat!

The dog is getting used to the noises of the engine, sails, and rigging (except when there is lots of wind and waves).  As the wind piped up, the dog would freak, and Rita would be tending to him, meaning I was single handing when I probably shouldn't have been.

Improvements for the boat

Instrument display on the bulkhead. 
Working the jib sheets, you have to look back behind the wheel to see the wind speed and direction and depth/speed/heading information.

Updated autohelm.
The existing autohelm is probably original with boat (23 years old).  There were many times in wind and waves that the unit would lose it mind and not hold a course.  A puff of wind would knock the boat 20 degrees off course and the unit would not correct for it.  You could not rely on the unit in more that 10 knots of breeze.  Will probably go with a below deck model.  Plus, an updated unit can steer to the wind and to a course from the chart plotter.  Will also give heading information to the other instrument displays.

Remote RAM mike for the cockpit. 
I have one, I have it wired to the NAVPOD, but never mounted it because I ran out of time, and I wanted to be sure it would not be in the way.  We had the handheld VHF, but its range was limited, and it seems to get interference from the devices in the NAVPOD.  It was really annoying getting DSC/weather alerts on the radio down below, and have to run down to acknowledge them to silence the beeping!  Seemed to happen at the most inappropriate times!

Downwind Sail
There were a couple of times when the wind was light at our backs, and poling out a jib is a pain and not very fast.  An asymmetric cruising spinnaker with a dousing sock would make these passages easier, faster, and more interesting without motoring.

Genoa Tell Tales
The existing tell tales are old and some are missing.
Also need to add more as if you furl in to reef, you no longer have tell tells for sail trim.

C22 Using my Head

Before heading out for our two week cruise, I had taken the old manual head out of the big boat and replaced it with the new electric one. 

I didn't have any room to put it in the car, so I stuck it in the cockpit of little Still Time.

I got this email from fellow dock mate Wade while we were away:



Thanks Bart, our head was full

LMAO!

CS34 Cobourg to Whitby with stop in Port Darlington

No wind at all leaving the Cobourg harbor at around noon, and the forecast showed none for the next couple of days.

We just motored along at a comfortable RPM using autohelm. 

Working on this blog @ 6 knots
with Bogart the sailor dog at my feet

Very relaxing. FLAT water.  Don't think we have ever seen it this calm during the day.

Took an easy course past Peter Rock, and out a little further to make it past the bluffs before Newcastle.  We decided to duck into Bowmanville and anchor at the beach west of the channel.

Click for a larger version

Here is a good example of anchor scope.  We were in 10ft of water with a sand bottom.  I let out 30ft of chain for 3:1 scope, and we backed the boat up using reverse at idle until it stopped.  The anchor is laying on its side, and it is really 10-15 ft of chain along the bottom holding the boat.  It the wind was blowing, there were strong currents, or we were staying overnight,  I would have let out more scope (5:1 or 7:1) and really forced the anchor to set.  The boat didn't move at all!

We gave Rita's brother a call.  Lloyd, Nikki, and Cameron came out a little later and we picked them up with the dinghy at Bobby Cs.  Port Darlington is terribly shallow; big Still Time drafts 4.5ft and would not make it to the restaurant.  We even got stuck there with little Still Time that only drafts 3.5ft. 

Cameron got to drive the dinghy and did well:

We had to make two trips with the dinghy as we only had three life jackets, and the inflatable is only rated for 3 people or 475 lbs.  We used the handheld VHF to keep in touch.

Nikki went back and got Lloyd:

Cameron and I went for a swim; MAN it was COLD!!!  Temperature of the water was 16 degrees Celsius!  When we left it was close to 24!

I made some burgers on the propane stove with a frying pan because our rail BBQ died.
This was the last trace of frozen stuff in the freezer from our trip.

Just after sunset, we hoisted anchor and went into the channel and docked at Wiggers Custom Yachts, as they dredge the channel to 10ft to their service dock. 

Thanks guys, it was a really nice visit!

We backed out of the channel, as I didn't want to risk running aground turning around in the channel.  We stayed close to shore in 10ft of water slowly passing all the houses on West Cedar Beach Road.  Once we got past St Mary's Cement, set course outside of the Darlington GS intake area, and booked it to Whitby at close to 7 knots.  The moon was VERY bright making the trip that much better.

We got in at around 10:30pm.  John Berry and Frank Smith helped us dock.

Trip Odometer: 37.30 miles
Moving Average: 5.4 knots
Moving Time: 06:53:00

Stopped Time: 04:32:00  <--- was a nice break!!!

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130817.kmz

CS34 Cobourg Buttermilk Cafe

After a great sleep, we got dressed:

...and headed in to the downtown Cobourg for breakfast at the Buttermilk Café

It was great sitting outside!

A little walk around the shops of downtown Cobourg and we shoved off.

CS34 Trenton to Cobourg

Woke up a little after 8am, showered and got the boat ready to go.

It was then we smelt the tell tales for a pump out.
Liquid was coming out of the tank vent on the transom after my morning dooty.
$20 for a pump out at the marina.

Left the dock a little after 9am.

Thank You Trenton it was nice!

12 knots of wind on the nose.

Motoring along at around 5 knots, had to stop and backup the boat to remove the weeds accumulating on the keel!  With the weeds wrapped around the keel/rudder, I could not go more than 1.5 knots of speed under full throttle. Did this three times.

Brighton swing bridge opening for us:

 

$5 in the cup for the bridge master:

Coming out of the Murray Canal, 15 knots of wind from west through Brighton Bay.  Could have sailed with the wind on beam, but just motored.  Out into Lake Ontario past Presquille Point, 10 knots of wind on the nose to head to Cobourg.  Motored along at 2750 RPM at 6 knots.  FLAT WATER.

Through the binoculars, we can see all the other Newcastle boats

• Cajun
• Off Duty
• Marietta
• Silhouette

Pretty easy passage

We got a slip on F dock (north side of the marina):

Trip Odometer: 35.5 miles
Moving Average: 5.5 knots
Moving Time: 06:25:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130816.kmz

On to Cobourg for Rib Fest!

A couple of drinks.
A Blooming Onion.
A rack of ribs.

YUMMY!