I checked the weather and Whitby was supposed to get whacked with thunderstorms around dinner time, so we headed out a little after noon. We explored the channels around Center Island. We also checked out Queen City Yacht Club.
Heading around the Leslie Street spit, we got sailing with 10 knot breeze from the south on the beam. With a reefed main and genoa, we got the boat going between 5 and 6 knots.
Rita remembered that she had left her car keys in my car at Toronto Hydroplane. She had driven my car in on Saturday, and we were going to pick it up perhaps on Monday night or the next day. We had left Rita's car at the Whitby Yacht Club. We dropped the sails and headed into Ashbridges Bay around 1pm.
As we docked, we had a localized thunderstorm happening inland. We decided to send Rita and Bogart with the car back to Whitby, and I would single hand the boat back. It would take 3 hours to get to Whitby: well before the thunderstorms (famous last words!)
Going along the Scarborough Bluffs, the clouds behind me were looking NASTY:
I was going along with the engine at 3,000 RPM with 7 knots of boat speed, so I rolled out the genoa in the 10 knots of true wind on a broad reach for some more speed:
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| Gained 0.3 of a knot |
About 6 miles from Frenchman's Bay I couldn't outrun it, so I furled the genoa in, and got all the hatches closed, and put in the dodger/bimini connector piece in.
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| NASTY |
Rita called me on the cell phone, and we decided that I would bail into Frenchman's Bay where she would meet me. She arranged for a slip with Bernie from Swan's Marina. Got the fenders and dock lines out. I put together a ditch bag with some water, handheld VHF and GPS, and attached it to a fender. I altered course closer to shore. If Still Time gets hit by lightning, it could blast large holes in the hull and she would sink FAST, and I could swim ashore. I thought about getting the dinghy inflated, but there wasn't enough time to retrieve it from the deck.
About 3 miles from the entrance, the storm hit.
HARD RAIN
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| Starboard |
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| Port |
I was dry undernear the canvas. Could not see more than 50ft, and using the chart plotter to navigate in the Frenchman's Bay Channel. Lightning strikes all around me, with wind gusting to 30 knots. Going into the channel, winds were a constant 40+ knots. With the motor out of gear, the boat hit 7.7 knots down the channel!
I met Rita at the dock, and docked safely!
WHEW!
Moving Average: 5.0
Moving Time: 04:52:00
Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140804.kmz
We had a drink below and a snooze to ride the storm out.
After a couple of hours, I headed to Whitby without issue.
Trip Odometer: 8.63 miles
Moving Average: 6.1 knots
Moving Time: 01:24:00
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