Spirit of Victoria Ferry Ride

Rita's sister and brother in law Debbie and Hans run a flower growing business called Eurosa Farms.
They have 250,000 sqft of greenhouses to grow roses, gerberas, and others.

Hans needed to make the trip by ferry to the Vancouver flower auction to pickup some flower required for the week's production of bouquets of flowers and such.

Active Pass
Passing Spirit of Vancouver at 20 knots

More of Active Pass

Salt Spring Island

Coming back through Active Pass

Load of Flowers

Leaving the ferry

 
Trip Odometer: 128 miles
Moving Average: 20.3 knots
Moving Time: 06:06:00

THIS INCLUDING DRIVING

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140929.kmz

Coug in BC

Rita's sister Debbie and her husband Hans keep their Beneteau First 375 at SNSYC (Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club) on Vancouver Island.  Went to the clubhouse, and to my surprise, the first piece of artwork I see on the wall upstairs is of Coug!

For those of you who don't know, Coug is a 41ft raceboat that I have been racing on for several years.  All of the owners of ACE used to be partners in Coug before she was sold this spring.

Coug flying spinnaker with blooper

Little more detail

It is a really nice watercolour painting of Coug in its original Canada Cup days from the early 80s. Very detailed with all the spinnaker guys and sheets, runners, and sail number.  I even recognize the spinnaker.

I don't know if it was an original or a print.

The plaque on the bottom said:

Doug Leatherdale

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?pid=162141117



It would be interesting to find out more about the history of the work.

Shadow Rose Brentwood Bay to Sidney BC.

Hans and I had to bring the boat back to SNSYC (Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club)

Brentwood Bay Spa and Resort Marina

Butchard Gardens Tod Inlet

We motored around Brentwood Bay and Tod Inlet, a marine water park that is a perfect place to anchor for the day or night.

JellyFish

We sailed for about half an hour, but the wind died off, so we dropped the sailed and motored leisurely.

Passed a ferry from Vancouver

We toured around to Deep Cove and passed Deep Cove Chalet where we were going to have dinner later:

View from Water
Restaurant on the right

View of water from restaurant

We had the most wonderful dinner!



Trip Odometer: 16.77 miles
Moving Average: 4.5 knots
Moving Time: 03:42:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140925.kmz

Shadow Rose Sidney to Brentwood Bay BC

Rita's brother in law Hans dragged me out for a sail on his Beneteau First 375 called Shadow Rose.

There wasn't any wind to speak of when we started out, so we motored along at about 4 knots.

Sea lions sunning themselves near Kelp beds

Beautiful

Sea lion on the move

Jellyfish

Ferry on way to Vancouver

Some really nice hou$e$ along the shore.

Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design

 Notice how the boathouse looks the same as the house.  We are at low tide here.

Flying Tiger on a mooring ball

We went around the Saanich peninsula through Satellite channel.  We were in the low tide with the water ebbing out toward Victoria.  We figured there was 2 knots of current.

On the other side of the Saanich peninsula and Salt Spring Island we got about 10 knots of wind from the SW and we were able to hoist the sails and turn the motor off.  Will a full main and 135% genoa, we were able to sail close to 6 knots.
 

Hans at the helm

The skies were threatening, but we only got  a sprinkle of rain, plus it was warm.

We went across the bay to Mill Bay Marina, as went for a beer in the restaurant.  The last time Rita and I were in BC, Mill Bay was completely trashed by a storm.  They have done a really nice job re-building it.

Restaurant on the right

Shadow Rose is on the far left

"Docks are off limits when winds are over 40 knots"

I went into town (about a 5 minute walk) and picked up a case of local beer, while Hans went back to the boat to warm up some homemade prawn bisk soup on the boat.

We left Mill Bay for Brentwood Bay (about 4.5 miles).  We had to beat close hauled all the way there.  Was a great sail!


Trip Odoemter: 20.77 miles
Moving Average: 4.5 knots
Max Speed: 7.0 knots
Moving Time: 04:39:00
Stopped Time: 02:31:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140924.kmz

CS34 ABYC to WYC

Peter and I were going to leave early in the morning, but it was miserable cold rain, so we slept in. 

After about 10am, the sun came out, so we had breakfast, punished the bowls in the men's washroom, then headed out.

It was blowing 20 knots from the SW, we hoisted the full main going out the channel, turned the corner and were doing 5.5 knots on a broad reach with just the main.  We rigged up the asymmetric spinnaker, and quickly hoisted it, passing Silver Shadow from Whitby.

We got the boat going between 7 and 8 knots in control under spinnaker.

AWESOME

The wind and waves were building as we went offshore.  When the true wind got to 27 knots we decided we better get the chute down.

We turned downwind to blanket the spinnaker behind the main, and Peter went forward to douse.  The spinnaker halyard would not come down.  While trying to figure it out we got the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay a couple of times.  After about half an hour, Peter managed to get it unwrapped, and we discovered that the halyard outer cover had separated from the core, so the core was jammed in the shive at the top of the mast.  We could not get the spinnaker down!

I set the autopilot to sail at a wind angle (broad reach) in 26 knots of wind under full main.  We were still going 5.5 knots!

Peter hauled me up the mast in a bosun's chair using the main topping lift.  The boat was pitching back and forth in the waves under autopilot.  I had to hug the mast to keep from getting thrown about aloft.  Perched on the first spreader, hugging the mast, I was able to disconnect the spinnaker.  I hauled another line up using the pole topping lift to hookup to the spinnaker halyard so we could try and get it off later.

Just hanging around at 5.5 knots

Once we got it (and me) down to the deck, we were able to pull the halyard forward and have it clear the shive with some force.

We un-furled the jib and sailed back comfortably wing on wing to Whitby.

Nothing but an adventure sailing with Peter.

The batteries died in the GPS, so stats and track are approximate.

Trip Odometer: 22 miles
Moving Average: 6.0 knots
Moving Time: 04:00:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140921.kmz

ACE Donald Summerville Race

The Donald Summerville memorial race is a medium distance race to Frenchman's Bay and back (approximately 25 miles).  Winds were forecast to be 15 knots from the SW with gusts to 30: PERFECT conditions for ACE.   We were excited because ACE is really a long distance offshore racer NOT an around the cans racer.

Crew for the race:

• Michael C (driver)
• Michael A (pit)
• Michael Y (main)
• Me (bow)
• Peter (jib)
• Jeremy (jib)

We went out with the darcon main (because we could reef it if required) and #3.  For the downwind start, you could NOT put the spinnaker up until after crossing the line.  We had a good start and immediately hoisted the large red spinnaker.

Five Fifteen and Lively at the start

We were the lead boat for a about 3/4 of the way to Frenchmans.

Maggie Kelly and 515 pulled ahead of us at the turning mark.

At the turning mark, somehow the lazy jib sheet got wrapped around the doused spinnaker down the hatch, so we would not gybe when went wanted to.  Lost a little bit of time as we got it sorted out.

Upwind, we were a little too heeled over, but the boat was in control going upwind at around 7 knots keeping neck and neck with the other two.  We could have used a reef in the main.

Lively and Maggie Kelly after about 5 miles

Rail Meat

Maggie Kelly upwind
Beneteau First 40.7

We finished 3rd across the line about 2 minutes behind the leaders, and 3rd in corrected time.

We were proud of how we sailed ACE.

After the race, we sailed her to National, where Mike Ahearn drove us back to ABYC.  The drive from National took almost 2 hours because of traffic!

We met up with the Whitby Yacht Club cruisers for a BBQ and drinks near the clubhouse.  It was nice!


Trip Odometer: 40.50 miles
Moving Average: 6.7 knots
Moving Time: 06:00:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140920.kmz

CS34 towing ACE

ACE was being delivered by Michael Cullen/Ahearn from National leaving around 8am, which should put them at ABYC around 9am.

I called Mike on his cell phone a little after 9am, and he said he is coming into the bay.  We saw as ACE run aground in the channel.  We waited a couple of minutes, and took Still Time out to tow them out.

We motored over to them to tow them out.

ACE in less than 7ft water 

Ace draws 7ft 4in, while Still Time draws 4 1/2ft.  My depth meter measured 6.8 feet as we went past them.

 The guys had put the main sail up to try and heel the boat over.

Tow rope

Took us a couple of minutes to tow them off the sand bar.

To make matter worst, they got stuck again later in the channel, but they were able to motor off.

ACE took a slip near ours and we prepped the boat for a while before heading out to race.

CS34 WYC to ABYC

Peter Smith and I took Still Time to Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club to use as a boatel for the weekend race  on ACE.  We left the dock around 9pm and went for a quick pump out.

Also, by taking Still Time on the cruise, I will have enough cruises in to get my cruising pendant flag for 2014!

Going out the channel, we saw 30 knots of breeze from the south, setup with a reefed main and rolled about about 80% of the jib.  Point of sail was a beam reach, and were screaming along at over 7 knots comfortably.  The waves were 6 to 8 footers and the autohelm could not handle them, so we had to manually steer to keep the boat going in the right direction.

Before CBYC the wind started to dropped down to about 15 knots, so we shook the reef out and rolled the rest of the jib out.  The waves were less.  When the wind dropped to less than 3 knots true, I started the motor to keep our speed over 5 knots.  Peter went below for a snooze.

The wind swung around to the west (on the nose), so I dropped the sails and motored the final 3 miles.  I docked the boat in our slip and woke Peter up after I got the electricity hooked up and the heater.  We got in around 1am in the morning.

Pictures from the morning:

ABYC clubhose

Nice end dock

Trip Odometer: 22.28 miles
Moving Average: 6.1 knots
Max Speed: 9.5 knots!
Moving Time: 03:37:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140919.kmz

ACE Wednesday at National

Peter and I left WYC and picked up Jenny in Scarborough.  Drive to National was not too bad.

Stopped for gas at the ESSO near NYC and left my phone with my credit cards on the roof of my car.  When we got to NYC, I could hear an email come in and found it on the roof!

• Kris (driver)
• Michael A (pit)
• Michael C (main)
• Michael Y (runner)
• Jenny (runner)
• Me (bow)
• Peter (jib)
• Barb (jib)

Winds were 12-18 knots from the SW, lots of waves, Full main and #2.  Red spinnaker.

LOTS of boats in the 3rd start of PHRF 1.

We had two general recalls because of too many boats over the line early.   In the first start, we had Press Gang (MUMM 30) just inside of us at the line trying to push them up.  We were about 3-4 ft away from them pounding close hauled in the waves.  One big wave broke as we pounded down, and completely soaked everyone in their cockpit.  Not just a spray, but full on green water!  We could see a waterfall coming out of their open transom!  AWESOME  Wish I had the GOPRO going!

We had a great starboard tack start near the committee boat.

The race was two windward/leeward loops.  First spinnaker leg launch/gybe/douse went well.  On the last upwind leg we went towards shore, as there was more breeze, so we were going over 7 knots in clear air.

Second spinnaker leg was setup for a gybe set.  I have never done this on the bow, and messed up the guy attachment (attached it on the wrong side of the forestay).  Michael came up and help me sort it out.  The spinnaker was up and flying so we didn't lose much time.  We hit 9 knots on this leg.

As bowman, my lower half was completely soaked.

Results not yet posted, but we do know we didn't make the top three.

Trip Odometer: 11.51 miles
Moving Average: 5.8 knots
Maximum Speed: 9.0 knots
Moving Time: 01:56:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140917.kmz

CS34 RCYC to WYC

Here is our slip at RCYC:

Like being in Muskoka, but with a view of the city skyline!

RCYC clubhouse

Rita really liked the flowers:

Bigger than her head!

We left RCYC around 1pm

Once we got out past the Leslie Street spit, we were able to hoist our sails and sail between 5 and 7 knots!  NO MOTOR  The wind was from the north, so no waves.

After a while, the wind swung to the west (behind us), so we had to pole the genoa out

Near Pickering we were moving along at 5 knots with the wind from the SW.  We could see the windmill at Pickering showing a NW wind.  The waves were building.  The wind started dying as we were in the transition from SW to NW winds, so we dropped the sailed and motored the final 5 miles.

We probably could have sailed some more, but just wanted to get home.

Got to the dock at around 6:30pm

Trip Odometer: 27.04 miles
Moving Average: 5.3 knots
Moving Time: 05:03:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140916.kmz