Sunday, August 30, 2015

Les Beaupres


Marie-Frederique, BenĂ´it and Alain came out for a Sunday sail.

Nice winds.  Sailed around the lake a few times and had a Hamburger BBQ in the bay beside the club and motored back to the club in time for 7 PM termination.






Saturday, August 29, 2015

MacAuslan Cup with Alan and Marie

Alan and Marie came late as usual.  We got to the start line and did a couple of practise tacks before starting at 10 minute 29 seconds after the start.

The race was mostly upwind for the first half and a beam reach on the way back, veering to a run. Very nice course.

Patrick asked me to take some pictures, but it was not easy while racing.






The cruisers took some nice pictures too.






We came in 12th out of 30 boats







We partied until 9 ish.  I had too many beers.  Crashed in the harbour (aboard the boat)



Friday, August 28, 2015

Friday Fun Race and Dowkers with full moon.

Daniele was managing the school buses and it was an absolute mess.  She picked me up late and was stressed.  We went to IGA and got a nice 1 LB bavette steak for Dowkers during the full moon.

When we got to the boat, and there was some confusion about who Jimmy was sailing with. He went out with Chris and Alain and Ginger.

Daniele and I took off early and had a fairly good sail.  The police were watching the start from afar.

Daniele took the helm and I did the rest.  We came in 14th out of 17th. No way as good as we did last Wednesday













After the race, we sailed to Dowkers, anchored and re-anchored as the anchor failed the drag test.

We had a loose wire with the starboard (green) navigation light.  The police were still flashing their blue lights in the lake.

We ate and crashed.  No bugs.

Next morning we got up at 9:30.  We tested the anchor with the motor at 2200 RPM and it not not move.  We motored back to wash the boat for the MacAulan cup with Alan and Marie.


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Great Race

Jimmy and I went out racing. Daniele was working.

I biked to the club to enjoy the exercise.

Winds were a little strong for just the two of us.

I took the start and gave the helm to Jimmy.

We had a good start but were not near RC.  But we had clear air.  That seemed to have given us the clear advantage.  We went farther up the lake before tacking.  The rest of the fleet tacked earlier, giving us clear air and some lifts.

When we tacked and approached the windward mark, we were in second place, behind Chaos.

After the downwind mark, Jimmy asked where was RC.  I peeked behind the sail and yelled TACK NOW.  We tacked to find ourselves in the sights of Talisman who veered out of our way.

We did very well.  Third.  8 seconds behind Talisman. 









Friday, August 21, 2015

Redline - Ganonque to Dorval

Friday Chris and I drove to Ganonque to take Redline back to Dorval.

Motored much of the time but a great day of sailing from Iroquois to Valleyfield on 24th and returned to the club on Tuesday August 25th.


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Naomi Racing

Racing on Naonmi.

Towed a shark out

Came in 4th.

Audrey bought us a beer for the tow.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Meet Up

Peter organized a West Island meet-up on Bellum for Tuesday.

We have been going through a heat wave.  But winds were very low .. less than 4 knots.  There were some dark clouds north of the club but the west looked fine.

 We motored out of the channel.  Put up the sails and sailed to the Gut.  Winds died a few meters before the gut and we started drifting back east.

We motored to the sandbars and swam.

Came back about 8:30 in a sunset.  Motored from the Gut to the club.

They took me out to Scores for supper.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Weekend with Daniele doing a big loop

I changed the anchor for the Bruce and put in a new anchor rode.


I tried Fugu's regulator and it worked fine so my BBQ was malfunctioning.

Weather was hot and winds were very light.

We decided to take the dinghy and 2 HP out to Ile St Bernard.  Had to anchor three times to get the anchor to hold. We set a deep anchor alarm on the i70.

We took the dinghy to head for the Chateauguay river.  As we entered the river, the engine made a popping noise and died. We go someone to tow us back.

The BBQ acted a little better, not as hot.  We tried modify recipe for Daniele's pork chops that did not work so great.

The special herbs helped.  Nice night with some rocking as the lakers came through.  The winds picked up over night and Daniele thought the anchor alarm came on.  It had not.  About 6:30 the depth alarm came on and I started up the motor to get out of the seaway as a biggie was coming from Montreal.  We put up the sails as the laker passed by.

Early morning sailing after anchor drag
We tacked up the seaway.  We decided to go for Ile des Faubert. Winds died and things were going slow and Daniele wanted to get to Dowkers South to have breakfast.

We arrived and did a zero carbon anchoring about a mile out from Dowkers South. Eggs and potatoe pan cakes and swimming.  It was HOT.

We napped and then set off back to the club with just the jib.

Washed the boat and came home to veggie burgers, chips and salads.  We tried the fine herbs again.







Friday, August 14, 2015

Friday fun race - short light

The winds were light.  We were not sure if we were going to go or not, but if we did not go, we would probably go late Saturday.  And Jimmy wanted to go out.

Daniele and I packed up groceries for a weekend on Bellum.

There was a race. We set out with sails down and finally put up the sail as we heard the 5 minute warning.

We got a good start.  Daniele was at the helm.  A traffic jam formed when there was some wind shift and several boats (Airway, Talisman) stalled at the windward mark.  We tacked to avoid the jam and someone else pushed us to touch the mark.  We made the off set and waited for a clearing to do our penalty.

Race was cut short. 

We ran for the finish line.  Airway pushed Talisman towards the RC, giving us clear air.

We came in 7th out of 10.







We came back and had a salmon supper with corn on the cob and string beans.  The BBQ was set to low but it ran high, very high.  It was too hot to touch.  Salmon was okay.

Slept aboard.


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Exciting Wednesday Race

Actually the winds weere 12-15 knots until 7
Cedric did not show up... guess he forgot. Chris could not make it.  Daniele was not feeling well.

 Jimmy showed up late.  Patrick and Sylvie did not show up until after we left the dock.

I thought I might have been alone and found two shark guys, Fred and "Konny"  who was concerned about the weather so I invited them to sail on Bellum.


Jimmy showed up. We waited for one more guy, but he came more than 5 minutes "as promised".

Motored to the start, did a couple of tacks (badly).

Quite a good start, considering the crew and the late arrival time.

About 3 minutes after the start, Tara tacked and messed up the sheets and cam at us out of control in 15 knots winds.We did an emergency tack to avoid her.

The crew got much better during the race.

On the second round, the windward mark was moved to starboard.



Konny left his large water bottle behind.


Friday, August 7, 2015

4 day weekend with Daniele at Dowkers

After the race on Naomi, we had supper at the club and slept aboard. We slept in.  Woke up too late for coffee with Elizabeth.

Decided to do a pump out and get the dinghy motor gas'd up.

Saturday morning, actually 1PM, we took off in very light winds, but we had some nice sailing.  Saw Rafale C-Class cat practicing outside the club.

Anchored at Dowkers about 5 and I dinghied to Dowkers and met up with Mr. Gordon who was building a fort and look out.

 Nice supper of Hurka.  McClellands, two bottles of win (one was corked) and some Havana Club.

Got up late the next morning.  I dinghied out to Baie d' Urfie and back. Motor ran just fine.

We spent the rest of Sunday August 9th at anchor since there was no wind. Double naps on August 9th.  Supper of hot Italian sausages and watched the sunset.

Monday morning sunrise
Got up and out at 6 AM for a nice sail back to the club.  Danièle docked the boat.  Marty came by to help if we needed it.  He was seeing Antoine off.

Breakfast at La Belle Province and then to Daniele's appointment with Laura Leslie.







Friday race on Naomi

I packed up meals for three days to spend on the boat.

About 2:30, Daniele just got home from camping and could not make it to the club.

I called Naomi to see if he was going out.  He was.  Or he was if I was.

So we went out in very light winds not expecting a race.  Some black smoke was coming out of Naomi exhaust.

Surprise ! there was a race.  We did poorly ... low winds, hard to keep up.

At the club was the Rafale C-Class cat being exhited (and erected)



Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Wednesday Race

From no crew to a crew of five. Cedric, Marie, Chris and Jimmy came out to race the new and clean Bellum.  Daniele was camping.

Intense and rigorous.  Boat performed well, but not good enough.  Last. Again.  BUT if we were 1 second faster, we would have beat Talisman VII. 




Monday, August 3, 2015

Monday morning bottom wash

We hauled the boat to wash the bottom. 

There was some scum, but not at all bad.

Some minor dents from our incident on the Gut on the Keel and Rudder.

sorry no pics

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Soulange with Patrick and Sylvie

We planned a flotilla to Soulange that was rained out two weeks before.

Elizabeth and Jessica cancelled because they were afraid of Lighting
Jimmy cancelled, he had family coming
Mavi Deniz had a wedding
Resolute cancelled


Andre came to pick up the Kayak and fill up at our discount pumps. I left the foldable Kayak in the Subie for Vladimir.

After some discussion on who was going, nobody else was going.  Tara was at Dowkers and went to St. Anne for coffee and wanted to join us

So finally at 2PM, we packed off, motoring to the Gut and opened the genoa and beated it to the windmill channel and sailed to Soulange. 

We saw Evingo near Beauharnois on diesel.  When she saw us, she put up her sails.

Arrival about 5:30

Nice steak dinner inside Bellum as it started to drizzle. 

Next day we went for a nice walk at Pointe aux Cascade. 

Raced back to the Gut and then sailed to Baie d'urfie and then sausage supper at the sandbars.  Passed Fugu and took some pics of her.

Elizabeth, you missed a nice day !







Daniele tried to dock the boat but I took over due to (light) south winds.

Next morning - Wash the bottom of Bellum.


Garbage on Sunday morning

 Disgusting garbage on Sunday morning