Saturday Stich cruise

I reinstalled the big Dock Wheel

Saturday morning, I did laundry, reinstalled the dock wheel and did Yoga.

Simon and Iraj came for the social media sailing.  

The winds were supposed to be almost zero, but it picked up as we departed.  

We beat to the gut, doing one tack before the gut and another tack through the gut and sailed to BYC, tacked and then the wind died, and we drifted, chatting about retirement and investments.

Iraj was not "reasonably mobile" as a prerequisite for the activity.

Simon bought me supper at the club,

After supper, I took off for the Jazz Festival with Rachel. We tried to catch the group Angine de Poitrine, a new hot artist. It was too crowded, and we decided to walk home.

Burning Bras(s) band

Single-handed to BYC anchorage

I worked on the boat, cleaning the locker.  About 5, I looked around to see if anybody needed crew, but without success. I departed, sailing close-hauled to the Gut, and watched the race start from the North. As the winds died, the race was cancelled, and I anchored near BYC for the night.

The next morning, David Fleet texted me about moving my car, which was blocking Flow Control's movement to another spot.  We agreed that I would move the car in the early afternoon.  

I made a coffee with the Pixapresso, which was fairly good.

I arrived at the service dock at about 12:30, moved my car, removed my broken radar reflector, and cleaned the mast jewelry.  Got a pump out and returned to my dock.

I finished installing the startboard cabinet lights and put lights in the garage.  

Flow Control moved

cleaning of the locker

Calypso had cancelled her participation in the FFR, but Joe and his daughter came along for a ride to the race area. 

I forgot to undo a stern line and bumped into Tocade with my bow.  He and Elaine were very upset.  I also knocked my dock wheel off the new mount.

There was no wind, so we motored back to the club.

After I returned, I talked with Jacque, and he said there was no damage.  And we were still friends.

Strathcona 2026

I drove down to the club on a weak battery in the Honda, which was drained because I left the headlights on after lunch with Jamie.  The car started and probably got a good charge.

I prepared the SPI and 150 in anticipation of light winds.  The winds were forecast at 12 knots, gusting to 16, coming from the West.  Currently, the winds are very light.

At the skipper's meeting, I decided not to fly the SPI.  We were 2, and the course had a second downwind leg, meaning more work for our think crew of me, Scarlett and Maud.

We were the second boat to start, about 1 minute and 28 seconds after Slow Dancer.  We were almost a minute late.  I was helming the start and a good part of the first leg. 

We beat to AD28, dead downwind with the pole to SL33, close reach back to AD28, close reach to AE 15 - AE16.  I took the helm through the windmill channel.  In the seaway, I did a bad tack and found things up for a minute.  I tacked too slowly and stalled as we were heading close to A40.  Some of the fleet caught up to us here.

We made it to BEA-B and returned to the seaway in a broad reach, which veered into a beam and then broad reach.  Bete Noir now passed us.  SeaScape fouled her spinnaker and came up to us, but we were able to pass the finish a few seconds before her.

I took my shortcut to the club, only turning on the motor before heading towards the harbour.  That should get us back to the club faster and totally under sail.

I stayed at the club on Wednesday and went with Mike and Karla to the fireworks in Dorval

I lent my life jacket to Pierre, who forgot to return it....

I slept aboard.

Nasty Habits - The Rolling Stones Tribute Band

On Saturday, I biked to the club for Yoga and a sail to Village des Ecluse at Pointe des Cascades.

The weather looked bad.  First time I received an Orange Alert.  But the weather looked like it missed Dorval and the lake and was going to hit Montreal hard.  

Looked clear to the West.  I held my breath and took off with Natalie at 2PM.  The winds were from the West, in my nose.  

After the gut, I ran a little north so I could beat it to the Wind Mill channel entrance.  I was able to sail for about 30 minutes.

We arrived at Pointe des Cascade at 5PM, and I was about to set the anchor when I saw the block was available, so we took it.  There was another boat, a Tanzer named Intrepid, which was tied to two different blocks.

We had a beer aboard and went to find the event.  We thought it might be cancelled due to the weather.  We persisted and found the venue.  We shared a large Nachos with Taco meat, which was delicious. Nat had a strawberry beer, and I had a West Coast IPA.

We closed the event and wandered around trying to find where the dinghy was parked.  We eventually found it, and I crashed, being very tired.  

To the East

To the West

The next morning, Nat was up at 4:30, but she was used to that! I slept to 8:30 and only woke up because my watch sent me a reminder for medications.

We made a zero-carbon departure from the dock at 9:15, sailing on a broad reach/run, taking my shortcut to bypass the Zig Zag channel.  This lets us stay in a broad reach.

Dock just before noon.  Not bad.

Story of my handrails

In May 2025, I was doing the Chambly locks.  As I usually do, I tied my fenders to the teak handrails with a clove hitch.  One fender got caught on the lock hinge and pulled out the starboard handrail.

Jason, who was following my trip, suggested building new ones from IPE, a South American hardwood commonly known as Iron Wood for its density and strength.  I picked up two IPE planks at Langevin & Forest. Jason had an impressive set of woodworking tools and carved the planks into new hand rails

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And today, I had Shipwright install them.  We decided to screw them in from underneath instead of from above, giving better strength and easier installation.

 

Watched GNS and Anchored Sandbars across BYC

I biked to the club and departed at 5PM.  Motored to the first mark and tacked to the Gut and sailed to the GNS race course.  Took some photos and anchored at the sandbars across from BYC.  I could not see Bruce, who said he was going to race, but he did not show up.

Just Now, Ad Lib, Tocade, Bete-Noir, Smoke on the Water and others were there.  Winds were light and then died.  The race finished very late.

I fixed the Raspberry PI, which I rewired to the fridge circuit rather than the DC panel.  It had been down for a few days.  Maybe something broke when I rewired my bilge blower.

Snacked on some ribs and garlic.  Slept early, but again, I was not sleeping well aboard.  

The next morning, I got up early, had some breakfast, and motored up to charge the batteries and haul the anchor.  Tacked back to the club through the gut and back to the club.  Again, the winds were in my face!

I rewired the AC charging circuit to eliminate the offending trailer connectors from the charging circuit.  The supply to the monitoring box was still using trailer connectors. The result was much improved charging of the Telecom batteries.

I cleaned some of the stainless steel in the cockpit, removing residual rust spots from the trip to the Bahamas.  A squall came in, and I sat it out in the clubhouse until 3PM, when I tried to take the bus but decided to bike to Boathouse, Addison and PRG.  Supper and groceries at T&T. The weather was nice.  The ride was nice.

Sail Past

I got back to the club, washed the deck and dressed the ship.

Eve and Sylvie came.  We sailed through Valois Bay to the Gut and around, meeting the fleet, with Just Now and Air Mobile blocking us from the Compromise.

The Blue Shit

We got back to the club, had some blue shit and got my 20-year pin

Andre invited me to sushi and dessert aboard Ballade. 

Sunday was going to be wet, so I decided to bike home.  Made it just before the rain.