The Sailors' Creed

How True!

ACE in her slip

ACE in her slip in Whitby:

We will have to pull her mast this coming weekend.

One of the last boats in Whitby with its mast up.  Too bad the water is so low, because we could try and get out for a sail!

ACE Cradle Delivery to Whitby

ACE came from Maryland in the spring, so one of things we needed to do was get a cradle for winter storage.  We had ordered one from the Marine Cradle Shop for $2,200 for delivery in October.

I found a used 8 pad cradle for a Beneteau First 36.7 on Kijiji for $700.  The 36.7 has the same draft/length/beam as the MUMM 36, so we jumped on it and cancelled the order for the new cradle.

ACE will be hauled out in the next couple of weeks, so we had to get the new to us cradle from Port Credit Yacht Club to Whitby Yacht Club.

Mark Backman and I hooked up a trailer borrowed from a WYC member and headed to PCYC in the morning.

Took a while to find the cradle, and had the yard forklift operator load it on the trailer:

The cradle is large (6ft x 15ft), and stuck out about 2ft out the back of the trailer. 

Ready to go

at Whitby

There is no way we can lift it.  We will get the club Hydro truck to lift it out of the trailer.

Lobsta

On Thursday night, we went to "The Barnacle" for some local Lobster.

We sat right by the window facing the water.

Nice Bib!

Nice Bib!

Another selfie

Marblehead/Gloucester/Salem

Weather was nasty, cold, rainy, and windy. 

After a nice breakfast at BYC, we headed out for a tour.

Downtown Marblehead

Where else in the world would you see a J/24 missing its keel on the street?

We went though Marblehead, Salem, Beverly, and out to Glasta.

On the way back we toured around the shops and museums in Salem.
Nice town.

There was flooding all over the place with downed branches.  We had to dodge rogue garbage cans!  On the news later that night, they were showing the pictures of flooding and tree damage to many of the places we drove by!

Trip Odometer: 72.5 miles
Moving Average: 20.9 knots
Max Speed: 62.4 knots
Moving Time: 03:28:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20141024.kmz

Boston Yacht Club

After the conference, we rented a car and headed North to Marblehead.  It was about 20 miles and took about 45 minutes.  We followed the coast and saw lots of beautiful waterfront homes.

The Boston Yacht Club is located in historic Marblehead.

Front Door

Front Entrance

Second Floor

Corner room overlooking harbour

The view from the room was spectacular:

In 2013 I was in Marblehead to race on MacIntosh in the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race.  I loved it so much I wanted to take Rita the next time we were in Boston.

Marblehead harbour is very protected from most weather, except when there is a "Nor'Easterly".  The weather was terrible: major rain, and 40 knots winds FROM THE NE.

8 to 10 ft waves were rolling down the harbour.  The docks were heaving and the boats in the mooring field were being bashed around.

 

NASTY

Here is a nice wind up Ship's Bell clock made by Chelsea clocks in Boston:

Click for larger as you can see the boats bobbing in the background

We saw a really nice 30ft wooden sloop:

That sunk overnight

That's the mast sticking out of the water!

We found out later that it was owned by a BYC member and was built by his grandfather in the 30s!

Here are some more photos of the mayhem:

Boston Whaler's can't sink

Upside down power boat

And here is a panoramic shot of the harbour from the 2nd floor deck of BYC:

Click for larger version

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Ferries)

I know this is a sailing blog, but I LOVE BOSTON!

I attended a conference for a software vendor, and brought Rita along. 

We took our car to the Whitby GO Station. 
We took the GO Train to Toronto
We took a Porter shuttle bus from Union Station to the Porter City Station.
We took a ferry to the Billy Bishop Airport
We flew Porter to Boston (one hour and 20 minute flight)
We took a shuttle bus to our hotel.

Painless really!

Our hotel was right on the water in South Boston.  From our hotel window we could see sailboats in the harbor (that's American for harbour).  Across the road was the Boston Fish Pier that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014!

We of course went to Cheers:

And to Make Way for Ducklings in Boston Common:

Quincy Market, Faniel Hall, Beacon Hill, the Boston Sail Loft, and others.  When I was at my conference, Rita explored more of Boston: Macy's, Copley Square, and others.

On Tuesday night, Cyber-Ark rented the Boston Aquarium:

It was KEWL.

Then back home some lunatic goes on a shooting spree on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

I did NOT hear about it until the MC for the conference interrupted the proceedings to announce it and observed a minute of silence for our Canadians at the conference. 

ACE Delivery to Whitby

We could not get winter storage at National Yacht Club, so we are storing the girl at the Whitby Yacht Club.  Today is the day to deliver ACE to Whitby.

Michael, Carson, and I met at National at 10am.

Winds were forecast to be 12-18 knots from the SW, PERFECT for a spinnaker run to Whitby.  It was also forecast to be cold, so we all had several layers on.

We set out with a full main and #2.  Winds were lighter than expected, maybe 5 knots, but from the SE.  We motor sailed to the other side of the Leslie Street Spit.

Leaving National with the CN Tower in the background

We tried to sail for a while without the motor, but would have run aground at the Scarborough Bluffs at 2 knots.  We motored futher out into the lake, perhaps 5 miles and hoisted the spinnaker when the wind angle was deep enough to head towards Whitby.

Main and spinnaker

We got going between 4 and 6 knots for about half an hour before the winds died down to a couple of knots and shifted toward the east.  We doused the spinnaker and motor sailed with the main the rest of the way.

Michael driving

Carson driving

Michael texting

We dropped the main on deck in the channel.  We got stuck in the channel coming into WYC by dock 6.  We hoisted the #2 and heeled the boat over to plough through the mud.  You could see that the water levels had dropped significantly in the last week.  ACE drafts 7ft 3in, and our depth meter was showing 5 1/2 ft.  It took us about 30 minutes to get to our assigned slip, where we had 7 1/2ft of depth.

Account from Carson:

My most enjoyable sail so far on Ace.
Delivery sails are often the best "Get to know the boat"sails and without stress, try different positions and see what works and what does not.
3 of us, Mike C., Bart and myself, took on a 5 hour trip in forecast brisk winds, that only materialized for short periods on a lake that remained flat all the way.
We had the racing main the whole way, with a mix of spinnaker and number two, sometimes touching 7 knots but long stretches of 5-6 and the occasional motor sail.
The wind was fluky which gave Mike C some issues and at one point we were wing on wing as the wind rotated over 90 degrees
Two puffs had us on our ear with no helm, which was good practice!
The only other excitement was finding no water at Whitby YC.
Took us almost 1/2 hour to struggle in through soft lumps along the bottom to our dock.
We left at 11.00 am and arrived at the harbour 5 hours later then the struggle in.
The engine performed flawlessly.
Looking forward to having her out and available for winter projects.

Trip Odometer: 27.82 miles
Moving Average: 5.3 knots
Moving Time: 05:15:00
Max Speed: 8.5 knots

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20141019.kmz

CS34 2014 Haulout

Next out was big Still Time

 

Slings on

Start of lift

Clear of water

Coming down

Ben Russell placing keel

In cradle

Taking slings off

In August we hit a rock off Bowmanville, and there is a dent is the bottom of the lead keel:

Ouch

Nothing that a hammer and some fairing compound won't fix!


Here is a GOPRO video from the stern bimini frame:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR477mxcDZY&feature=em-upload_owner