Nice evening sailing with a lifetime friend

Earlier winds were forecasted to 3 knots but then the forecast was for 10 knots.  So I met Chris at his dentist and we rushed out the club, getting there at 5:45. Jumped aboard and race the Wednesday evening race.

As we were heading out, some white ball bearings fell out into the cockpit !  Probably from the traveler car.  NOT sure.

We had a reasonable start, running down the line until the horn blew.  We tacked immediately to get out of Talisman and Chaos's dirt but in the end they probably had a better layline after they tacked later in the course. On both our windward marks we got knocked and had to use momentum to get around the mark.  On the first round, touched and did our 360.

We came in 5 out 5.  Then we went out for a night sail.  Came back in time for the BBQ but agreed to go to Ye Old Orchard for wings and fish and chips.

Winds were 10 knots

Anchored for the night

We went out to anchor after the Sperry Party. We did not stay for supper.  We baptized the Rocna Vulcan.

We had spaghetti at the anchor, enjoying the sunset.

There were no winds.

In fact, Sunday was supposed to be 1 knot of winds so Mark cancelled the corporate meeting we had planned on Bellum for Sunday.

New Rocna Vulcan

Someone shot this of Bellum at anchor on Sunday morning

We went to Laval to look at furniture for the apartment and then MEC to buy some bike parts.  Then I biked to Chris' to pick up my car and then to the apartment to check out the repairs and make my bed so I could sleep at home for the first time in a month.

Afterwards, I went out for supper with Mark at La Taj for Indian food.

Sperry Challenge

Daniele and I were going to race the Sperry Challenge together.

Jimmy and Tilde asked to join us.

The Sperry Challenge is a charity race to enabling handicap people to  sailing.

Daniele helmed the whole race.  I did the timing and the headsail, Jimmy managed the main.

I put up the 155 main since the forecast called very light winds.

Winds were about 7 knots as we were heading to the start area.

Our start was 4 minutes. We had a slightly messy start as a few boats before us were late.  I think the wind may have shifted. We skimmed by RC.

The boat pointed very well as were closest to the layline to the BC 43 mark. The winds were very shifty but we sped past most of the fleet until we got behind Tara II and Borlean when the winds died.

We were still going upwind and against the current.  We just had to make it past the mark to take an advantage of the current to bring us back.

I made the decision to tack when the mark was within reach.  There were objections but I insisted we take risks.  We were almost 4th or 5th and if we did not take risks, we would fall behind and if we were successful with the risk we could have a podium position. Only Jimmy agreed with me. 

We were making the mark when the wind shifted and we struggled to avoid the mark. We touched and wind our 360.  We did not lose any position doing the 360 but Ghost Owl did pass us.  In fact that was the only boat that passed us in this race. We pasted most other boats.

Our final position was 6 out of 19.  One of Bellum's better races.

We went back to the club had a beer and Jimmy and Tilde left.  We changed the head sail which took a lot of time and then joined the party.  In the end, we did not stay and we went out the bay for spaghetti.

Wind instruments worked better after despidering

Friday fun race on Naomi

Winds were supposed to be light.  I had no crew for the Friday fun race.  Jimmy need crew and I told him okay.  Tilda was with him too.

The race was short.  30 minutes.

Collateral damage

On the way back was a run.  I took some photos with the 70-210.  As I handed the camera to Tilde, the boat jibed and the main sheet tossed the camera across the cockpit smashing the hood and filter. The filter is jammed to the lens.










But we won the race

No Wednesday race

Norm was not available.  I had thawed meat in the fridge.  I decided not to go race. Jimmy was probably disappointed.

Went to Dan's and BBQ Steaks, pork fillets and sausages.

It looks like they just raced for 30 minutes.  Late start (19.14).  Winds were probably shifty.

Finally we anchored

On Monday afternoon we set out to sail in what was supposed to be 12 knots maxing to 23 knots on Windfinder.

Raymarine wind instruments were acting up.  I reset the i70 without any improvements.  Sometimes the wind direction was way off.


We had a nice sail upwind to Baie D'urfie and back and then we settled to anchor at Dowkers.  There was still the threat of 23 knots on windfinder so we tucked in close and put out 50 foot of rode.

Supper was a T-bone steak.






Overnight the winds died and we all swung around.  Quite different from the 28 Knots Max forecast by Windfinder.



















Getting up early we find there was a serious storm approaching Ottawa.  There were no winds. 


I had a conference call with Echosoft at 10 so we motored back, but there was time to go up the mast and clean up and de-spider the troublesome anemometer and another quick pump out.

We washed the boat and went to Ikea.

A microburst tore down a lot of trees in NDG just after 3PM.  What a mess.

Fretless VI

It was quite windy and we decided to go for a sail on Fretless VI.

Nice boat.  Had a few beers aboard Fretless afterward.

We had Koobideh for supper aboard Bellum.  

Winds were threatening to max out at 28 knots.  It did not.

The Annual Regatta

Daniele showed up about 9:30.  She felt like racing and so did I.  We had offers to join Patrick and Richard (Ghost Owl).  We thought we'd go on our own.  Winds were strong.  We were determined to give our first regatta for quite a few years.

Peter had canceled because he had a gig.  Norm had a funeral to go to.

There was one start for all the fleets.  Winds were 11 to 13 knots.

I helmed the first race and half way through, Daniele had problems winching so she took the helm and she helmed the rest of the races.

The first race we started fairly well and did fairly well.

Third race, we missed the start because someone was in the head when the race clock started (5 minutes) and we were 3 minutes late.  But we caught up to Gaucho and Limoncello.

After the race, we went out and sailed a bit but decided to come back since the weather was not good for anchoring.

We had lunch and BBQ supper at dock and slept aboard. Tired and sore of the winching.

Friday Fun race with Sandra, Axel and Anshul

I had no crew.  I went to the club anyway.  Figured I could find a crew.

Had a burger with Scott.

Sandra was going on another boat and that other boat was not available so she came with me.  She bought her Swiss friend Axel.

Alec had another newbie looking for a boat so we got Anshul (from India).

Axel was our expert, but he did things quite differently than I would.

We had a great race.  The boat performed very well.  The first round was sloppy but second round was very good.  We did the race in 30 minutes 43 seconds, very close to Chaos.  That's a first.  The final result was sixth, but that is with the funny handicaps.

The race only lasted 30 minutes so I suggested we go for a sail and everyone was on board (sort of speak).  We sailed to Baie d'ufie and back.  Everyone took their share of helming.

It was dark when we got back to the channel and it was pretty much right up the wind, so we eventually started the iron sail.

Nice docking and I slept aboard.  Daniele did not join me later for the annual regatta.  She came next morning.

Nice Wednesday race - windy

Daniele and I got groceries to spend the night at anchor after the Wednesday race.

Winds were very good 10-14 knots.

Jimmy and Tilde enticed us to take them as crew.  We took off motoring down the channel since winds were about 30 degrees off.

We tuned the rig and had some good practise when I notice that the race had started.  We had 4 minutes to get to the start line with the White Sail fleet. We were about a minute behind.

I took the helm and made Jimmy and Daniele and Tilde handle the lines.

Jimmy tried cranking and releasing, I think we tried him.  Daniele got tired of cranking after the first windward leg.

We ended up third out of fourth.  We don't really know what happened to Borlean

Spinnaker with Goucho

Without a crew, I went out with Audrey.  As we left the harbour, we had engine problems (lack of power).  We returned and did not see anything wrong and tried it again.  No problems so we tried again.  Motored to the gut and set up the sails.

After a little while, we decided to reef the main.  There were problems with rigging that created lots of draft on the main.

We sailed around for a while and returned to the club.  In the channel, we ran the spinnaker a bit and we had an hour glass.  Took her down and came home.

Afterwards, I ran into Julie-Helene who asked if I was a diver.  Her daughter had dropped a line while motoring and you imagine what happened.  They got towed to the container docks.  I got my snorkle and got it untangled in a minute.  We took Exlixar back to her dock and she bought me a beer!

I slept aboard and got up early and came to the office.

Another Friday night race cancelled due to storm

There was to be a makeup raft up and Duggan cup.

There were thunderstorm warnings and Jimmy called to cancel.  Tilda did not call.

Yves and Mary joined me on Bellum.  Daniele was setting up her vernissage

As we went out, there was dark rain at the west end of the lake.  On the radar, it was clearly moving north and probably going to miss us.  We put up the main and sailed around waiting for about 40 minutes.  Then the race was cancelled.  We pulled out the jib and sailed back to the club channel.

Then Audrey radioed us saying they were going to sail a bit and that she had Mary's wine.  So we sailed back out again.  The wind was right up to the channel so we took the inshore route and Goucho tacked through the channel.  We almost made it to the gut when we turned back.  We were not watching Goucho and it looks like they gave up tacking and returned to the club.

Mary and I had supper aboard Goucho.

Wednesday with Tilda, Daniele and Jimmy on Naomi

Nice evening with great winds on Naomi with the usual suspects.

no Friday race

Before the race, I went to prepare my apartment to prepare to have all my possessions moved to another apartment so that they could restore my apartment from the flood.

There was a major storm. I doubt there would be a Friday race.  But I had no other place to sleep so I went to the club arriving about 17h20.

Fiona had cancelled

Marty and Lori were at the club.

The race was cancelled.  Blue Nuit did go out.

Patrick and I had some drinks and a pleasant supper.

Got up the next day to spend 10 hours moving my stuff to a neighbour's apartment.

Wednesday race - no wind, lots of wind, no wind

Daniele and I went to pick up the Ebay and Defender stuff from Mike and then headed to the club.

We bought pork fillets to eat at anchor after the race.  Jimmy did not come because of the thunderstorm warnings.

There was no wind in the harbour.  We filled the water tanks.  We went out early and there were 4 to 2 knots.  I could taste the pork on the BBQ.  There was a storm cell east of us.  

Then the winds picked up to 15 knots.

We raced white sail with Tara II, Talisman IV, Borlean.  Daniele helmed.  We ran abeam along the start line and when the horn sounded, we tucked across near the pin side.

We sailed well, tacked well.  Tara II cut in front of us at the windward mark.  We had to tuck behind Borlean because she was starboard.  We were now last. In the run, the winds died and we slowly crept pass Borlean and caught up to Tara II.  Then the course was shortened.  Think moved very slowly. Borlean was too low down the current and abandoned.  Tara finished and so did we.  

There were a little thunder and lightning in that cell that was still east of us.  

There was a storm watch.  I decided to return to the dock.

We had a drink aboard and then decided to join Patrick at the BBQ and then slept aboard.  

Awaiting racing results.