Slyvie cancelled on me for the race a few days before, Maud was going to Gaspe (too last minute), Sylvie, Allan, Darla Lori were not available and there was Audrey. She was not certain, but it turned out she was availble, but wanted to take Gaucho. I agreed.
The weekend forecast was supposed to be great. We organized food and stuff on Saturday morning. I insisted we use my 10 KG Bruce. Not too confident with her Danforth or 11 LB Bruce.
Overnight was cold for August
Departure was mildy drizzly, departed about 2:30, arrived at 5. Dissidence, Fugu, Zig-Zag were there and L'isle showed up about 6:30. Flew the drone. Kelly lost her iPhone.
Chairman meeting, bitching about club, AQVA, Salute to Patrick.
Next morning the partipants were undecisivie on a starting time. So we all We all started at diffent times and took our start and finish times. We were second, and easlily passed L'Isle, difficulties finding marks with poor binoculars and no SLYVA marks on chart apps. We did failry well. L'Isle did not do the uwind leg and reported the wrong mark when he finished ahead of us. Disqualified. Fugu, Zig Zag and DIssidense did not do the course, deciding to sail back through the Seaway.
Winds were good and got stronger. Mostly broad reach, with a good upwind leg in West winds.
After an intensive adult sailing, we had a beer at the club while waiting for a decision on the weather for FFR. Weather looked marginal, PRO wanted to go out, many racers did not - especially considering there are many new graduates. The race was cancelled due to many participants not willing to participate.
Adult Sailing SE 3
Adult SAiling
In the end, the rain was very heavy with lots of thunder at 9
After adult sailing, there was not much wind, but the weather looked nice. The racers went out and I was packing the new anchor and rode away, At 6 I sailed to the Gut in light westernly winds, going around the abandoned lighthouse.
I had to motor past the Gut due to lack of winds. I went for a mile and was able to sail, through the race course snapping photos.
I ended up at the Sandbars in 10 knot west winds. It was quite a rocky night.
At 6:30, I sailed back to the club as the winds raised from 8 to 16 knot.
On Wedneday morning, I installed the new anchor and rode before Adult Sailing. Removed the Bruce and install the new Vulcan and sailed with the Adults. We had good winds and a good sail trying to get to PCYC for pizza. I was hasitant on going because of timing and issues about docking at PCYC without a motor. I decided we did not have time to get there.
After returning from Adult Sailing lesson, Sailing Coordinator told me that they found my anchor. It seems the buoy I put out there was small and was pushed underwater and they put a bigger buoy on the rode.
I was thinking of going downtown to visit a musuem, but it heavy rain dampered that. When the rain stopped, it was calm. I was going back to the boat to to do some work.
But seeing how calm it was, I made a decison to go and "try" recover the anchor. I removed the new Vulcan, rigged the Bruce as a spare, put the motor on the dinghy. I motored to the are and quickly found the buoys, anchored up steam to the buoys with the bruce. Motored to the buoys, pulled them into the dingy, brought them back to Bellum and used the windlass to hull in the old Vulcan. It worked peferctly and came back to the harbour and celelbrated with a 15 year old Scotch.
Sat with the dingy sailors and a couple AS teacher and Felix and company and explained my anchor recovery.
I reinstalled the old Rocna on Thursday morning.
Decision what to do with the new anchor and rode.
Brand New Rocna Vulcan 12 KG, Chain 5/16" X 50’ G4 + 5/8 X 150’ Brait rope
Tout nouveau Rocna Vulcan 12 KG, chaîne 5/16" X 50' G4 + 5/8 X 150' corde Brait
I went our at Sunday evening at 4PM, heading to the sandbars
Passed OS shortly after I hit a red buoy in the channel. No marks.
Anchored with Zig-Zag and Fugu.
I washed the stern of Bellum of the diesel fumes from our Quebec City trip.
Fugu and Zig-Zag left and I spent the night there.
The next moring, I pulled the old Bruce anchor with the narrow line and motored back to the club for Adult Sailing.
I did the Monday intentsive session and had issues with Pat who could not speak English and later Heather had some issues with me.
Monday night, I got called to do the Adult Sailing sesson, last minute. Had the owner of Don't Panic who was good, but quite a Cowboy with the boat, tacking throught the harbour and with the reefed sail for an evening of active sailing.
Saturday morning was drizzling and cold. 20+ knots. I decided not to race the Maud Cup. And decided not to go out with the Sharks. I was tired and stressed about loosing the anchor. The weather was supposed to improve and it did and I biked to Dorval Museum, PCYC, BYC BDCYC, LRYC and then took the train from St Anne's to downtown to visit Just for Laughs and the mountain with the drone.
Sunday went back to the club for next week's intensive Adult Sailing course.
After dropping off Darla, I decided to spend the night at Anchor. At 8, I motored out to Dorval Island and winds picked up so I sailed towards the lake and ended up in the bay beside the club. I dropped the anchor and not paying attention, I let out all the rode. The keel wrapped around the rode and I could not overcome the current.
I called Milan and he came out with a crash boat. The boat was not maneuverable enough to pull the stern into the current.
I departed Soulange at 10 and sailed/motored back, taking a shortcut to the zig-zag channel to the club arriving at 12:30.
Fueled and pump out and departed at 12:30 sailing towards the lighthouse and tacking before the lighthouse. Darla steered us too far south and we ended up bypassing the Gut to the south. We sailed around the lake and anchored at Valois Bay outside Venture. Made sausages with onions and peppers on the cast iron pan.
On Sunday afternoon, I biked to the club after trying to conform to the EXO schedule but it was easier to cycle. Did some groceries at Metro and dropped off a phone charger with Raspberry. She complained it would not charge past 95 percent. :(
Arrived at the club at about 16h30, took the dinghy out with me and motored to the gut, sailed around, and anchored outside the bay between BYC and LRYC. The dingy was flooded. The engine sump was full - the shaft packing had started leaking. The supper was pasta with a Dorado fish.
On Monday morning I started sailing towards the club to work on the shaft but decided to sail towards Ste Anne in the end, I ended up at IPYC, docked and tightened the shaft packing, and replaced the broken diode that turns on the fridge. It was broken at the beginning of our trip to Quebec City. Probably from packing the lazerette locker.
Had a challenging departure with strong winds. I hit the rock a the entrance of the Yacht Club.
I sailed through the channel between Dowkers and Ile Perrot. Winds were over 15 knots. I stayed near the green side of the channel to avoid the rocks on the red side.
I tried to sail to the Windmill Point channel, but decide the winds were too strong to try and the west wind would have meant a difficult sail to Soulonge.
I sailed around in 20-plus knots of wind, reefed the Evolution 135, and decided to sail to an anchorage - it turned out to be Dowkers. Arrived at 13h30. I went for a swim and lounged around.
Looks like this might be my long single-handed seasonal trip. Good to be unplanned.
On Tuesday, winds were supposed to be from the East and Wednesday was good from west. Looks like we go to Soulange. Winds did not come up and I motored to Soulonges arriving at about 12h30. The bay was empty except for one motorboat at the big block and she was leaving so I took the block. Nobody around. I went for a dip and set up the dinghy. There was lightning so I delayed my adventure until the lightning passed. The rain passed south of us and weather alerts were mostly in Eastern Townships.
Dinghy to the dock. Did a drone flight. Came back to the boat because the drone batteries were not fully charged and I did not bring liquids (Gatoraid). Went back to the dock and hiked 4 km to the falls and the trailer park, doing some drone footage.
At 4:30 I went back to the boat and leisured around, skipping supper, rather snacking - again.
Sylvie brought the groceries. We packed the boat and fridge. It seems we did not need the extra cooler, since everything fit in the fridge with all the extra drinks.
The train bridge opened for us as we approached. The Cote St Catherine lock was scheduled for 4 We got there before two so we docked or tried to dock. The current was much stronger than I thought and a Beneteau 343, Cafte Terrase was there taking most of the dock. He moved up a bit and helped me dock. Took three tries and I only had half a dock.
The locks opened at 3 and we went through easily as well as St. Lambert. The only thing was Cafe Terrace let go of the lines and started going forward as the lock doors opened, but before the bridge downstream was up.
We motored to Varenne and anchored there, enjoying BBQ chicken breasts, sunset, and a Full Buck moon that came up at about 9:43.
Tuesday, July 4
I took drone footage of Iles aux Fermers and Iles de Varennes in the morning.
We motored further east and tried to fly the drone from a moving vessel. Not a good idea. Fly Away claim filed.
Last drone flight
There were major downpours in downtown Montreal and squall warnings from Cornwall to Donnaconna. I had hoped to make it to Trois Rivieres but decided to be prudent and anchored Iles a la Pierre, just passed Sorel. Several cells came by but the rain all missed us.
We assembled the dinghy and went for a dingy ride and met some hillbillys. We spent 65 percent of the Torqueedo battery.
The supper was pork chops. Waited for the moonrise which was almost midnight. Mosquitos and horse flys were terrible.
Wednesday, July 5
We motored through Lac St Pierre, to Trois /Riviere and anchored at one of my favourite anchorages - Ile Sainte-Quentin. Easy anchoring. We dingy around the beach and eventually beached on Ile Sainte Quentin and walked around the island.
Supper was ribs
Thursday, July 6
We motored downriver doing over 10 knots, and as we were about 5 miles from Portneuf we were discussing visiting Portneuf or anchoring on the other side of the river. Sylvie had an urge to mke it to Quebec. So we called YCQ and they had space so we made it to Quebec Yacht Club, docked and met with Audet and Serge. We had supper at the club and visited the new water front park just west of the yacht club. It was all brand new, with beaches, infinity pools, bike paths.
Friday, July 7
We moved the boat to the fuel dock and it started to rain heavily. They did not want to feul us until the "storm" passed. I washed the boat in my bathing suit. Eventually, they filled us with 33 liters of diesel.
We left QYC and it was a short ride to Bassin Louise - just 3 miles. I went in to check inside and switched to Channel 71 for the locks. The RCMP with an inflatable with lights flashing pulled up beside us. They wanted to check my PCOC. I think they wanted to check out Sylvie. We both had our life jackets on and my PCOC was in my life jacket. They asked some basic questions about the boat size and owner and complimented us for wearing our life jackets.
There was a lot of crosswind and current as we approached the Bassin Louise lock.
The lock information was confusing. They told us to dock and call the marina. I saw boats circling waiting for the lock, but I docked as per instructions.
I tied calling on the cell but the reception asked us to call on channel 71 which I thought was very busy. I called on channel 77 and the marina assigned me to Echo 33 West. There was a nice map on the floating dock in the lock.
Then the locks were cycling and apparently, they told us on the radio not to bother docking, but we missed that
We got to the dock and a nice young bilingual lady help us with the lines.
Sylvie was overwhelmed with issues at work and we decided to make the trip into two weeks.
We did groceries at Metro.
She visited her sister as I did a 19 km walk in the old city, Plains of Abraham, fought the Festival de Ete, walked on Grand Alle to YQB and the new water park, and returned via rue Champlain. It started to shower and I found a shortcut to the marina via the lock which was not on Google Maps. The walk lasted from 5:30 to midnight. At about 11, it started drizzling and most restaurants were closed. I make myself a salmon salad sandwich for supper.
Saturday, July 8
I lounged around the club and pool waiting for Sylvie to call. She showed up about two and alerted us to the downpours coming tomorrow and suggested we leave Quebec City to sit it out at anchor.
I agreed and we checked out. The marina gave us a refund for the second day.
We departed and sailed for 20 minutes before deciding to motor due to the lack of wind, excessive traffic and the current. We decided to anchor at Goutte. We did 3 miles.
Sunday, July 9
We motored from Quebec to Trois Riviere at 2200 RPM steady for 12 hours.
The next day, Monday was a rainy day at Anchor.
Tuesday, July 11
we departed Trois Riviere at 9:10 AM. We passed a ship Whitefish Bay. She did not show up AIS on VHF or MFD, but she showed up on Marine Traffic. WIERD. Passed Bonita
We make it to Sorel at 16h20 to buy 67 litres of diesel. The tank capacity was supposed to be 70 litres.
Continued to Contracoeur and anchored at 1925
It was supposed to be a storm warning. We thought it would miss us, but it did hit us and then dried up and we had our sausages afterwards.
Wednesday, July 12
Contrecoeur to Longueuil visiting the Bout de Ile following the track with Norm and Daniele from 2016.
We did sail for almost an hour at the Port of Montreal before deciding to go back to Motor. As we were approaching the bay in Longueuil, a laker was behind us and Sylvie had not noticed. Boy she sh*t in her pants.
Lovely evening with the last meal of duck.
Thursday, July 13
Longueil to Montreal
There were tornado warnings.
Harbour photo by Denise B
Locks were on schedule and bridges were on schedule and calm until we got to Kahnawake when winds picked up. Bombing down the zig-zag channel in 15-25 knots of wind. The 420 and Opti's were blown towards the seaway, many dunking and turtling.
We made it into the dock when the winds blew us against Flirtation.
We unloaded Sylvie and I stayed as the storm hit and I went to the Thousand Islands seminar when the power for the club failed.
Had Yoga with Shiela and then met with Biran and we decided to cancel/postpone the Duggan Cup due to thunderstorms and a lack of boats. Two boats canceled
