ACE Delivery for Whitby 100

This weekend is the Whitby 100.  Starts on Friday night from Whitby to Toronto to Niagara, to Newcastle, and back to Whitby.

I was planning of delivering ACE on Thu morning with Andrew from the club, but Michael saw the forecast for Wed 11-13 knots from the north, vs 6-8 from the east on Thu.  Phil and I met it Whitby and we took the GO Train in to Toronto, and left the docks with Michael at 2:27pm

To our surprise, the wind was on just 6 knots from the south!

We motored sailed with main past Toronto Island where we saw an anchored NAVY frigate:

We popped a chute, turned the motor off and were sailing along between 6 and 7 knots.

Leslie Spit in the background

The winds were really light and all over the place.  Towards the bluffs, the winds moved forward and dropped the chute and started the motor.  I wanted to make it back to Whitby for race night which started at 6pm.

Michael and Phil

When we got near the Pickering Nuclear plant, we could see some boats in tons of wind on the opposite tack.  The north wind had filled in, but much later than forecasted.  We had 12-14 knots from the NE, so we hoisted the #2 and were flying along between 7 and 8.5 knots on a beam reach.

We heard the start of the race on the VHF at 18:00, but it took another 30 minutes to get there.  There were 9 boats out for the race, and we sailed below them at the windward mark and sailed around the course with them.

Kirby 25 Marauder

Track at the race course

We motored to the visitor dock and didn't hit bottom once, even though the depth meter sail 6.5ft and our draft is 7' 4".

Easy delivery at 4 hours for 26 miles.

Trip Odometer: 31.2 miles
Avg Speed: 6.5 knots
Moving Time: 04:45:00

Google Earth Track

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