CS34 Dinner with the Pingles

Went out for an afternoon sail with Walter and Colleen Pingle on big Still Time.

We sailed out into the lake about 4 miles and headed back.  Winds were about 15 knots near the beam with a reefed main and full genoa.

Walter at the helm

We anchored in the harbour and BBQed a wonderful dinner.

Sorry no GPS track.

Macintosh Summer Tour 2014

This picture was taken by our host Fred on a hill overlooking the ocean on Saint Pierre.

Click for a larger version

Left to Right

• Greg
• Durk
• Kevin
• Kris
• Bart
• Michael

MacIntosh in Saint Pierre

Our host in Saint Pierre Dalphine took this photo with her phone:

 

MacIntosh in the FOG

Back from ocean racing on MacIntosh.

Couple of photos of us at the finish from a Facebook page:

Will post a full story later.

MacIntosh RHSP Start

RHSP stands for Route Halifax Saint-Pierre.

Had breakfast at the club, did a provision trips to Costco, Canadian Tire, Binnacle, Princess Auto, and others.

We had a lot to do on the boat

• organize below
• tape anchor locker
• rig reef lines
• fix port nav light
• replace leaking propane regulator
• organize ditch bag
• install man overboard pole
• install 2nd life ring
• rig jack lines
• get waypoints into the GPS and chart plotter
• install 12v lighter socket to charge phones etc

We duct taped the anchor locker shut to prevent major water ingress into the anchor locker.  The drains drain slowly, so we didn't want several hundred pounds of water in the bow in a heavy sea.

MacIntosh Chester to Halifax

Four guys from Toronto got on a Westjet 6:50am flight to Halifax.

• Me
• Michael
• Kris
• Kevin

We arrived at 9:30am Halifax time, and Durk's wife Linda was there to pick us up and take us to Chester.

We met Durk and Greg at the dock:

MacIntosh is usually on a mooring ball, but with hurricane Aurthur coming through just two days before, Durk has moved her to the wall at the Marina.

A Nonsuch 26 and J/120 on mooring balls didn't fair so well, and went up on the rocks:

We went into town to provision the boat with groceries and more importantly beer.  Much of the town was still without power after hurricane Aurthur.

Leaving South Shore Marina

Hoisting the brand new #3

Nice Sail

Smoking along at 8.5 knots with the 20 knots of wind on the beam

We passed Durk and Linda's waterfront home in Blandford NS

We also passed Peggys Cove.

Coming into RNSYS

View of clubhouse

MacIntosh in her slip

Trip Odometer: 47.35 miles

Moving Average: 7.5 knots

Moving Time: 06:17:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140706.kmz

C22 Whitby Race Night

Bart is on vacation in Paris so it was me (his daughter, Melissa), John and Chris on Still Time.

No Tanker Jones tonight so Bezerk called the start. The start line was between the 9 and 1 marks. We were to record our own time. Only a few knots of wind from the West that was very sporadic throughout the night. Course was a 3 short.

We were a bit slow on the start so were about 3-4 minutes behind. We then missed the 9 mark and had to tack back and re-start (not very much wind at the beginning of the race). The Sharks got quite the head start on us. Those Sharks are really good when there's little wind!

At mark 3 we were cutting it VERY CLOSE to the mark, and didn't want to miss ANOTHER ONE! So John stripped down and jumped in the lake, grabbed a line in his teeth and pulled us around mark 3 using his raw strength. It was really close, in fact we did end up grazing the buoy a bit, so we had to do a 360. This waslLucky for John, because we definitely wouldn't have stopped to pick him back up otherwise.

When we approached mark 5 the Sharks were rounding mark 7. Those Sharks are really good in the wind! 

After we rounded mark 5, things took a stern for the worse. A GIANT salmon jumped right into our boat! He proceeded to drink all of our Maclays and brought new meaning to drinking like a fish. Of course, this wasn't our biggest problem, because as we all know, the Loch Ontario Monster feeds on salmon. 

We noticed the current start to shift and the waves get bigger when we realized that the great sea monster was circling our boat, with a taste for beer-braised salmon. The boat started rocking so hard and somehow all three of us smacked our heads together, rendering us unconscious. I can only assume there were cartoon stars floating around our heads.

When we came to, we don't know how, but we had gotten all the way to the New York coast and PIRATES had boarded our vessel! We explained to them the utmost importance of the WYC Wednesday Race nights and how we didn't want to let the Fleet Captain down. I'm not going to say what Chris had to sacrifice*, 'cause this is a PG blog, but we were able to convince them to tow us back to mark 7 so we could finish with the rest of the fleet. GREAT wind at this point and we were able to get back very quickly!

We ended up crossing the finish line at 43 minutes and 44 seconds, about 15 minutes behind the Sharks. Those Sharks really know how to race a tight course!

Overall, great night on the water!

*Let's just say Pirates really like booty.