Spontaneous six-day solo trip with Cindy

After a cool week at Tupper Lake and at home, the forecast was for a one-week heatwave, so I decided to spend the week on the lake. 

I called up Cindy, whom I had not seen in years, and we went to the club on Friday evening for the Saturday FFR with Scarlet and her BFF, who was in town for a few days. 

I asked Scarlet for confirmation for FFR, and she was too busy, so we cancelled.  

Cindy and I drove to the club and had supper there.  And we played pool.

Saturday was cool, wet and windy, so the FFR race was cancelled. 

So on Saturday morning, Cindy and I did Yoga with Sheila, and we took an afternoon nap.  About 5PM, it cleared up, and we sailed out to the sandbar and anchored there.

Sunday morning was nice, so we decided to go to St. Anne's.  We had ice cream and then set sail for Soulanges to see the Aurora Borealis peaking on Monday night. We spent two nights doing nothing.  Unfortunately, we did not have a dinghy with us, so we could not visit the shore.  The sky was clear both nights, but we saw nothing in the sky.

We had the following malfunctions on BELLUM.

The radar reflector broke and was hanging from the spreaders. 

The fridge thermostat wire broke, and I jury-rigged it to run manually. 

The head was full, and the water tank went empty.  We had never intended to be out for so long.

Cindy opened the curtains, which had not been opened for years, to discover there was a lot of black mould on the inside window edging.

On Tuesday morning, we departed for the club, going through the Seaway by motor and taking the shortcut - bypassing the zigzag channel.

Cindy showered as I repaired the radar reflector, filled the water tank and did a pump-out.  

We were heading for Lachine's Quai 34, one of Cindy's favourite spots.  We went for a walk, did some shopping and dodged some scattered showers.  I went out later to find supper.  I got a rotisserie chicken from Metro.  

On Wednesday, Cindy went for a walk and got some Timmy's.  About noon, she decided to head home by BMW.  I motored back to the club, cleaned the mould on the portlights, did some laundry, and tidied up the boat.

I cleaned the windows and washed the curtains.

I helped Gerald take his mast down in preparation for his trip to the Bahamas.

I brought the Niskie bike back home in the Honda.

We had a great spontaneous week of six nights, with no wind, warm weather and good company.

Meals were fish and chips, strudel, sausages, pork tenderloin, ribs, confit de canard, chicken and ramean.  Mostly emergency rations. 

Later in the week, I picked up a new NTC temperature probe for the fridge and fixed the thermostat.

Tupper Lake Boathouse

 

Voilavie

We took Karyne's new boat out for her first FFR race.  She wanted to go out on Saturday, but I was not available.

John from Adult Sailing and a friend of Karyne a 420 sailor from PCYC joined us.

Lousy start, going the wrong way and not hearing the radio at the start.  We were not the only boat that did that.

A nice evening.  I went back to the boat and finished last night's pizza and had a Glenfiddich aboard Fugu.

Thursday with Scarlett, Louise and Phil

We met Louise at the AQVA dinner.  We invited her to race, and she came with Phil.  Scarlett was there too.

We had a close incident where we cut Expresso II off.  She had to veer off to avoid us.

Phil was a strong man.  He was way too strong on the lines.  I wish he would watch out for what he was doing rather than pulling fast.

9 out of 12

GNS Tuesday Norm and Maud

I biked to the boat on the Norco for the first time in a while.  It wasn't too hard.  My heartbeat was about 142, peaking at 146.  Not so bad.

Helped spot Norm go up his mast to install the PA speaker.

Maud and Norm went out in very light winds, not expecting to race.  The winds did pick up, and we had a great race, starting at the far western end of the lake due to the prevailing eastern winds.

Had burgers at the club later.

I biked home since it was supposed to rain on Wednesday morning.  It did not rain.

14th out of 17

AQVA with Scarlett

I got up on Saturday morning, did yoga, and prepared for the AQVA race.   

Wind Forecast

Scarlett arrived.  Maud did not show up.  She thought the race and supper were on Sunday.

Scarlett arrived, but Maud did not show up; she thought the race and supper were on Sunday. We waited as long as we could for Maud and then set out for the race area. 

The winds were very light, and it was uncertain whether a race would take place.

The start was delayed from 1330 to 1400 as the winds picked up.

Actual Wind

Finished 19th

BELLUM crossed a tad bit early, but the race committee allowed it to pass. We couldn’t win, and if we did, we would have to disqualify ourselves from the competition. We had an excellent race overall. Scarlett and I agreed on most strategies, although the winds were oscillating throughout the day.

At SL 44, Testardo was closest to the mark; we were beside him, and a Kronopio 2, a Tanzer with sail number 313, was downwind of us. The Tanzer decided to tack in front of us, and we nearly collided. We protested against her actions, but she ignored us.  Unfortunately, protests are not allowed in this race.

Our biggest mistake in the race occurred at SL 33. We were trying for speed with wing-to-wing sails, but we drifted east due to the current and had to head back up to reach the mark.