October single handed bliss

October is coming to an end.

Four days of rain in the forecast

Wednesday is 15 knots winds from West.  Jason and Mike are working.  Norm is assembling Ikea furniture, Chris does not answer email.

I left the office at 3 and  the temperature was so nice, I came back and packed the bike to go to the club.  Once at the club, I answered my urge to go out.  Winds were 15 knots from the west.  The wind forecast was supposed to drop to 2-3 knots so I had thoughts of anchoring for the evening.

I untied and took off motoring to the gut.  Put up the Jib and sailed to Beaconsfield, tacked around and came back.  I started the motor just before the Gut.  Very difficult to see the gut without the regular buoys. 

Did not anchor. 

Biked back home, arriving at 9.  Glad I did it.   I DID IT.

Frostbites 7 and 8

Norm and Chris boldly went out in threatening rains in the bowels of October.  Winds were light and expecting to rise to 30 km.

We got to the club and sailed out to the start.  Winds were light, too light for a good race.  They waited for over an hour. ML texted Norm saying it was pouring in Pierrefonds.  A little while later, the rain reaches us.

Eventually, there would be thunder and a few minutes later, the race was canceled.

We sail motored back and dried up in the cabin and we all came home.  Main Sail remained uncovered, hoping Norm would be around to the club to put the cover on if it was dry.

Seasons over....  Bellum, Norm and I did every race that was and we were willing to be there if the conditions were not.

Final Frostbite results.  - 3rd white sail

Frostbite 5 and 6 with Norm

I reconfirmed with Norm and Chris for the Thanksgiving Monday morning frostbite.

Chris said he was staying up North.  (thanks for letting me know ahead chris)

We tried to get other crew but to no avail.  The forecast for Monday morning was 3 degrees.  I was not eager to go but Norm seemed eager so we went.  I dropped by the office to pick up some parts and went to the club.

Races were very pleasant with somewhat shifty winds.

We went out for a nice sail before returning to the club.

We tried a new approach using a longer stern line. Result was a fender that popped up and the hull got scratched by a chain shackle on the dock.

We came in 13th out of 18 and 15th out of 18

I hung around and met Andre to gas up his Hunter.

Then I gave Audrey a lift home.

Thursday sail with Norm, Friday overnight with Daniele at Dowkers

I left work early on Thursday with the Outback and a bike strapped to the carrier and met Norm at the fuel dock.  He broke the pump out! We waited around for a yard guy to come fix it.  He got it working enough to pump out the last holding tank and we took off for some light wind sailing and took down the jib.


I stayed around as Mike and Jason came in.  We had supper and a couple of drinks and I decided to stay overnight to spend Friday working on the boat until Daniele came and we went to Dowkers about 4. 

I had done the groceries, moved the whisker pole closer to the toe rail so the jib sheet would not get caught, installed the raw water pump and installed two new fairleads to make the movable cars more manageable. 

We sailed into the sunset and when it got dark, we ended up at Dowkers to protect ourselves from the south winds that were forecasted.  Supper was salad and bavette with lobster tails.

Next morning it was raining pretty hard and we decided not to do the pas-de-deux.  I got up and pulled the anchor and motored back to the club as we passed Fugu and Therapy head for the pas-de-deux.  We docked poorly with the south wind and awkwardly pulled ourselves  into position. 

Daniele went home and I hung around cleaning the lockers and then went home for Thanksgiving the next day.

Frostbite 3 and 4

Norm, Daniele and I got up early Sunday to take on the first Frostbite series.

19 boats showed up.  Nice one start.

Winds were flaky and died near the end of the first race.  Ave wind: 9 to 2 kts   Second race was cancelled due to lack of wind.

We came in 18th. ... Oh no, we are last.  Airway DNF :(  But we are third in our fleet.