Sailing with Rachel, Daina and Barry followed by race on

I brought the car home to empty it at the locker, picked up Rachel, Daina, and Barry, and we set sail at the club, departing at noon. Nice sail; tacked to the gut and sailed to 1:15, anchored, had lunch and sailed again to 4-ish. 

I decided to stay at the club and offered Rachel the car to bring everyone home, but the logistics weren't working out, so they took the BMW, and I stayed for the FFR and found a place on Winged Hussar with Joe and Brian..

Brian

Boat cleaning

I picked up some industrial Q-tips, which were great for cleaning the teak edges and louvres on the teak doors.

I also got these drill brushes from Temu, which were great for cleaning the non-skid

Windy Thursday Race

Scarlett, Maud, John and Natalie joined us for Series 3, Race 2 in windy conditions.

Tuesday Race Cancelled

 At 2, I decided to cancel the race.  Tornado warnings, etc.

AT 17h32, Racing Organizer cancelled.  Scarlett went out with her crew on the J.

Rachel sailing and then single handed to sandbars

After morning yoga, Rachel came, and we set sail with both the main and the jib, since the main had not been put away the night before.

The winds were great.  We sailed to the gut and had to do one tack at the red, then a second tack to get through the gut, and it was easy sailing through the TRY regatta.  We had lunch while sailing, and then the winds died and became very fluky.  It was difficult to follow the fluky winds.  It kept changing directions.

We sailed by the Pleasurecraft Raft Up and then sailed on.

It turns out that I had emptied the water tanks while washing the Friday BBQ dishes.  There lots of dishes.

At 5, I dropped Rachel off at PCYC to take the 211 back into town. The service dock was quite busy, and I had to tie up near the mast crane.  A safety officer from the TRY regatta helped me dock as I had problems getting close to the dock. Rachel threw the midship line to him, and we did a fairly elegant docking.  The safety officer was wearing goggles and a big hat.  It turned out to be Jerome!  

I walked Rachel to the 211 bus, and I returned to the club and tried to get permission to stay a while or the night.  Nobody could give me permission, so I hung around for an hour and then took off.  I headed towards the west, but winds were too light, and I limped to the sandbars, passing Dissidence.

Saturday fluky winds

The next day, Sunday, was a lazy day.  Fugu, Dissidence, and Zig-Zag were rafted up nearby.  They had not invited me, so I did not ask to raft up.  I sailed by and shot some photos.

I sailed back to the club and cleaned up the bugs from the night at the sandbars.

Made a BBQ from leftovers from Friday and biked back home in the evening.

Sunday winds - very light

FFR Jesica and BBQ

Jessica, Romain, John and Eugenie came to sail in the Friday Fun Race.  

Romain has never been on a sailboat. Eugenie is taking a sailing course, and she is a pretty amazing kid.

We had great winds. John helmed most of the race.  A little rusty, but he has only been sailing for a year.

After the race, we anchored without the engine near the pin and had a BBQ and then hauled anchor without the motor and sailed back through the channel and then started the motor as it was 10:30PM

Corrected time, we came in 17th out of 18

Thurday GNS cancelled

Chris drove me to the club.  We thought it might clear up for the race, but it did not and at 3PM, it did not look good, so I cancelled, and at 6 PM, the Race Organizer had cancelled the evening race.  Chris drove me back home.

Heather and Jennifer

Heather had asked me to take her out on BELLUM.  Her husband Nick was always too busy to take their boat out. She brought her friend Jennifer along. 

We departed at 10 and returned about 3.  Had a great time.

Sunday solitude, Monday solitude, Tuesday Shark

On Sunday morning, I had coffee with Anne, then biked to the club with the SUP board trailer, hoping to raft up with JT and company.  

I did my photographic duties at the club Open House, 

I discovered the house batteries were not charging.  I troubleshot and discovered the 12VDC always-on busbar had corroded and overheated, killing the battery and starting to thaw the fridge.  I tightened the screws, found that a fuse holder had overheated, and replaced it.  Finally, at 5PM, I took off, sailing to the GUT, passing ZIG-ZAG and tacking through Lake St Louis, checking in to FUGU at the sandbars.  I continued towards Dowkers and anchored there at 7.  

I spent the night and a good part of Monday there.  At 4 p.m., I set sail slowly through the lake, anchoring at the Sandbars.  

The next day, I sailed back to the club.  I found the 40 Amp fuse for the DC-DC charger had blown, and I changed the fuse at the club. More tidy up of the locker, and at 4PM, I took Shark 1 with John to make him comfortable with her.  He was quite comfortable helming and heave-to.  We returned to the harbour and John bought me supper. at the club.

Met Bob at the yard and he was cleaning his locker and gave me a bunch of boat stuff that he no longer needed.

Stitch with Christine

Saturday morning, I got the new boat inspection sticker from the Coast Guard

I set up a let's-go-sailing group on Stitch, and only Christine registered.  We departed at 1PM and I tacked up the channel through the gut to Grand Anse and ran back. Before the gut, we decided to return to the club at 4, and we made it back to the club at about 5

It was a lot of fun.  Great winds.  Andre went out an hour earlier and decided it was too rough.  Glad we did.  Had a great time -  just the two of us.

I lingered around and then biked home.  Difficult to decide whether to take the bike or the car.  Took the Nikishi bike home.  I had a coffee date with Anne at Cafe Mercati on Sunday.

Friday Fun Race at PCYC

 At noonish, I set sail to PCYC.  The winds were strong, and I had to motor the final 2 minutes to the gut.

Had an Ice Cream at Wild Willie's.

I sailed around for a while, and at 3PM, I docked at PCYC.  The docking was difficult and took 3 attempts. to successfully dock. Alex helped tie the last line.  I lingered around the club, went to Wild Willies for Praline and Cream.  

John showed up, then Calyso and Alex went to the Royal.  The race was cancelled, and we waited for Alex and went out for a nice sail.  

Eventually, we were close to the Gut, and I decided it was easier to dock at the club and drive everyone back to PCYC.  John went home, and Calipso, Alex and I went to Ye Old Orchard for supper.

It was nice sailing.

Thursday race - Squall

On Canada Day, I unloaded the car at St. Amboise and went to the rental increase protest in the East End. I had my hot dogs, and the rain started, and I took the BMW back to my car near Atwater, did some groceries at Aubut and drove to the club.  

The weather looked bad, so I cancelled the Meet-up.  During a calm about 5PM, I took down the 155 and Mark E helped me fold it.

On Tuesday, I biked to RB Packing and Seal to  pick up O-ring to fix the outboard tank gas cap. On Wednesday, I fixed the gas cap (hopfully).

The day was rainy, and I pan-fried hot Italian sausages with Uncle Ben's prepared rice.

Thursday morning, I fixed the dock wheel. 

Karyne invited me sailing on her boat, so we took Voilavoile out to Baie d'Urfe and back to the club.  Karyn handled the boat very well.

Maud and Scarlett showed up early, so we sailed to the race area going around the lighthouse, and we made it to the race area in the almost sametime as Espresso, Espresso-X, and Shelby's boat. The weather and forecast looked great. We discussed how to look for a squall - rolling clouds 

The race started very late.  We were about 25 seconds late for the start, worried about barging Espresso.  About 30 seconds before the start, I determined we were not in a barging situation, but Scarlett hesitated to move towards the line.  We were fine, and the other boat was much closer to the RC boat.

At the windward mark, we were fairly close to the fleet, but thereafter, we fell behind.

The squall was building up. RC was making VHF broadcasts that were difficult to understand.  Sounded like a strong Pakistani accent.  I asked for a repeat, and it was not decipherable.  At the leeward mark, we decided to abandon the race.  We ran back to the club.  I saw winds peak at 27 knots, which is not too bad.  But the rain drenched us.  The winds calmed down in the harbour, and we had a good docking.  We were all wet, trying to dry up in the cabin while drinking some well-earned beer.

We had supper at the club and discussed the crew bank and the AQVA supper.

Saturday Stich cruise

I reinstalled the big Dock Wheel

Saturday morning, I did laundry, reinstalled the dock wheel and did Yoga.

Simon and Iraj came for the social media sailing.  

The winds were supposed to be almost zero, but it picked up as we departed.  

We beat to the gut, doing one tack before the gut and another tack through the gut and sailed to BYC, tacked and then the wind died, and we drifted, chatting about retirement and investments.

Iraj was not "reasonably mobile" as a prerequisite for the activity.

Simon bought me supper at the club,

After supper, I took off for the Jazz Festival with Rachel. We tried to catch the group Angine de Poitrine, a new hot artist. It was too crowded, and we decided to walk home.

Burning Bras(s) band