Tidy up the boat, and at 6, I took off, motoring to the Gut and sailing to the sandbar where I anchored and made another pork tenderloin. Nice evening.
On Friday morning, I sailed around and returned to the club at 2PM. I installed the new baby stay with a turnbuckle and fixed the windex, which had become loose.
I was supposed to race on Voileavie, but her sons were too tired, so we cancelled.
I decided to clean the dinghy which had not had a deep cleaning since I bought it in September 2024
I got up at 5 to get a lift to the club with Anis. The idea was to get the car back from the club.
I started servicing the spinnaker winches and then assisted Voileavie in launching and installing her sails. Then, I went for a swim and continued working on the Spinnaker winches and the jib halyard winch.
There was not enough wind to go sailing, but about 4:30, Scarlett and I decided there might be enough wind, so we decided to race.
She arrived at 5:10, and I wanted to switch from the 135 to the 150. And then we took off to the race area.
The sails were fine, but the winds were flaky and died as we approached the start line. It took 7 1/2 minutes to cross. Other boats had similar problems.
We did poorly but had a lovely sail back to the club for burgers, fish, and chips with other racers.
I tidied up the boat and gave Vero a lift home.
A busy morning, with Evertt looking at my baby stay, Yoga, and the Annual Regatta being cancelled due to lack of wind. I tidy the boat for Natalie and me to sail to Soulanges with Mike, Jason and Ed.
Natalie, Sven and Mikail helped pull me halfway up the mast to remove the baby stay for Evertt.
Natalie and I departed by motor to Soulanges at 13:00, went via the seaway as suggested by autorouting, and arrived at 16:00. Dissidence had already anchored deep in the bay near the dock.
The weather was hot. Swam. A lot of food and drinks. I forgot the Chairman at home.
Watched Jaws on Bellum using Mike's projector and a movie screen. Never inflated my floaties. Lots of mosquitoes and shady flies.
The next morning was cold. Fugu left with hopes for wind as his batteries were low. Zig Zag departed next, and Dissidence and I had our anchors down and the lines crossed. We meticulously separated the anchors, and I took off, putting up the sails and veering off after a turn at Ile Perrot.
At 11:00 a.m., Dissidence reported that her engine was overheating and requested a tow. We put down the sails, went to pick them up, and towed them back to the club, arriving at 2PM.
I tidied up the boat. I went for a swim and biked back home at 19:30.
We got off our first race of the year with Andry, Scarlette, and Gallia from Adult Sailing.
We had a reasonably good start, but we ultimately finished in 11th place in corrected time. There were some minor mistakes, but we could have done better.
Lovely sunset sail back to the club, and Andrey, Scarlett, and I stayed for supper.
I slept aboard for Yoga the next morning, as well as Everett to come measure the baby stay and fix the outhaul.
I came to the club to prepare and raise the mast on Bellum. Claude's boat was at the sheer legs. Dave and Luc moved it.
Present were Chris, Andrey, Jason and me. Erika was roaming around and taking pictures of us.
Fugu came in first to reinstall the lower shrouds, and he fell into the water while trying to get off Fugu. Lost an expensive pair of glasses ... and a bit of pride.
We got the shoulds installed and then proceeded to put up BELLUM's mast. Very successful.
I spent the night aboard, and the next morning I single-handedly installed the boom and sails. It was very tiring.
Then I presented my trip to the Bahamas to about 60 club members.
Sept aboard and at 6:30, I biked home. I was tired, and it was going to get windy.
On Tuesday at 12:30, Bellum was hauled out for bottom washing and inspection.
Shipwright was invited to look at her, but never responded.
I moved some sails and sewing stuff to the Redline locker to make space for my stuff.
Picked up Explorer Charts from Mark O.
Bellum's bottom was relatively clean, considering she had been in the water for 440 days since May 4th
I also used Toilet Bowl cleaner to clean the ICW Mastashe. Worked very well. Probably removed some of the wax.
The anode was changed to Magnesium.
I slept aboard Zig-Zag and relaunched on Wednesday morning.
There was a heatwave in Montreal. On Wednesday afternoon, I spent time at the pool and then had a burger and Oatmeal stout with Sylvie and grand grandkids at the pool.
Afterwards, I installed the new standing rigging on the mast and went for a drink with Sylvie, which was cut short due to an infestation of mosquitoes.
Helped Fugu raise her mast afterwards
Thursday, I worked on the rigging turnbuckles on the deck. I was not happy with the turnbuckles and ordered 4 new ones from EB Spar. I would like to install the mast on Thursday or Friday, so I drove to Hudson to pick up the turnbuckles.
But Shipwright was not ready to install the bow plate until Monday. They had not replied to my previous emails and one phone message. The drive back was very wet, and if I had known the bow plate wouldn't be installed on Monday, I would have preferred to ride to Hudson on the weekend by bicycle.
I was test-fitting the new turnbuckles when Chris came by and told me that I should install the turnbuckles unthreaded so that both sides would be equal when I install the mast. I was fumbling with the locking ring on the toggle, and he said I needed to flip the ring to the other side so the locking side of the ring could go through the hole. Captain Obvious is so obnoxious when he states the obvious. I wished him a happy anniversary, but he hadn't realized it was his wedding anniversary! I later saw Erika at the clubhouse alone. I reminded Chris that she was not allowed in the clubhouse alone. He said she was 19, thinking that she was at the bar. I had to remind him that, as an adult, she was no longer considered a family member of the club. ZING!
I later had drinks with Rick and Lise as they had dinner.
Friday, I had to grind one of the toggles to fit the starboard chain plate.
I biked out to Leslie ot have an "urgent" meeting about NB.
Later, I raced on Seacan II with Sven, Michel and two others. We came in third. The boat rigging worked very well.
Saturday was a major cleaning and reorganizing day for BELLUM and the locker. I fixed the holding tank monitor alarm system.
I was going to go home and help Jason raise her jib. He had been reinstalling the boom, sails, and bimini after changing the rigging to Dyneema. Jason decided to take Fugu for her first run. Mike and I weren't doing anything, so we took her out and tacked and jibed her in 10 knots of wind, and all checked out.
I drove home for my second BBQ on the balcony.
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| Fugu Mast |
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| EB Spar |
On Friday, Heather cancelled the FFR so I took off with the dinghy to the Sandbar for tomorrow's Cruisers' Raft UP. I was challenging for BELLUM since she did not have a bow plate.
The sailboats, consisting of Zig Zag, Tara II and Dissidence, arrived. Fugu did not. The cruisers rafted up separately.
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| My New floatie |
Friday was fabulous, and I procrastinated going to the boat. On Saturday, around noon, I took the car to the boat, making a stop at Akava...
