The Beckoning Delivery Planning

Our friends Walter and Colleen Pingle have decided to move their boat from Midland back to the Whitby Yacht Club.

Their boat is called "The Beckoning" and is a Catalina 400MKII

They bought the boat 3 years ago in Midland and decided to leave it at Wye Heritage Marina so they could try some sailing in Georgian Bay.   This spring, they have retired and decided they wanted to have the boat closer to home so that they could be with family and friends.

Midland and Georgian Bay are awesome cruising grounds, but AT LEAST a 2 1/2 hour drive to get to.

When they asked us to help with the delivery, WE JUMPED at the opportunity.

First thought was to go through the Trent Severn system.

However, we would have to drop the mast.

We didn't fancy carrying a 58 foot aluminum stick on the boat for the 110 miles of the Trent.

We looked into getting the mast removed in Midland, shipped to Trenton, then raised when we get there.  This would have cost $1,200 and the logistics of arranging the shipping were difficult.

Plus, we would still have another 120 miles to get to Whitby.

The last straw was that the boat drafts 5' 9" and the Trent Severn system only guarantees 5ft depth.

So we decided to deliver the boat the long way through the Great Lakes.

Plan A was to break the trip up into day sails, ducking into ports or anchorages: a vacation cruise.

Date	DOW	Destination	Distance	Hours
25-Jul	Sat	Christian Island	21	4
26-Jul	Sun	Lions Head	45	8
27-Jul	Mon	Tobermorey	45	8
28-Jul	Tue	Pike Bay	30	8
29-Jul	Wed	Kincardine	44	8
30-Jul	Thu	Goderich	30	8
31-Jul	Fri	Grand Bend	30	8
01-Aug	Sat	Sarnia	35	8
02-Aug	Sun	Windsor	45	10
03-Aug	Mon	Leamington	52	10
04-Aug	Tue	Rondeau	40	8
05-Aug	Wed	Long Point	85	12
06-Aug	Thu	Welland	45	8
07-Aug	Fri	Port Weller	22	12
08-Aug	Sat	Whitby	40	6
15			609	126

However, that is 15 days!

Rita and I really want to cruise on Still Time to Kingston in August.

Because of Covid-19 the trip down the Welland can only be done on Tue, Thu, or Sat, which complicated trip planning.

I called a couple of sailing buddies, and we came up with Plan B:

Date	DOW	Destination	Distance	Hours	Comments
25-Jul	Sat	Christian Island	21	4
26-Jul	Sun	Wingfield Basin	58	9
27-Jul	Mon	Tobermorey	20	3
28-Jul	Tue	Kincardine	66	9
29-Jul	Wed	Grand Bend	55	8
30-Jul	Thu	Sarnia/Amhersburg	105	24	Overnight (Guys)
31-Jul	Fri	Port Colbourne	200	24	Overnight (Guys)
01-Aug	Sat	Port Weller	22	24	Welland Canal
02-Aug	Sun	Whitby	40	7
9			587	112

I would leave my truck at Whitby Yacht Club.

Mark would drive my truck to get Mike in Dunnville, and meet us in Grand Bend.

Here we would be meeting up with mutual sailing friends Kevin and Jan.

The ladies would drive the truck home, and the boys would sail day/night back to Whitby.

We spent the next couple of days provisioning the boat and were ready to leave on the Saturday.

Got together several things for the trip:

• laptop computer
• Navionics on tablet
• handheld GPS
• handheld VHF
• phone chargers
• various blocks
• life jackets/tethers
• water jugs
• clothes
• knife