Windmill Point

After Fred's wedding on Saturday, Daniele and I got to the club at 8:30 to get the boat ready for the Windmill Point race.

Norm and Peter arrived, got a little familiarization and left the harbour at 9:45.

Peter was very knowledgeable with winds on the lake and the marks.  Daniele helmed expertly.  Peter determined the oscillation of the winds and we learnt not to chase the lulls but take advantage of puffs.

Decompression had problems finding SL33 but RC saved the day by finding it and escorting Decompression to the next mark SL44.  Both marks were where they were supposed to be.

We came in fourth out of 7 behind Decompression, Gaucho and Ghost Owl.

UPDATE:  Our adjusted position is 3rd.  Podium?

Chaos

Norm cancelled cos he had a web conference with CPS
Jimmy cancelled - customer coming in late

I went to the club to remove the head sail and get the Subie back.

I went out with Chaos and we went out late and there was no winds.  We came back

Anchorage party

There was going to be no racing this Friday due to the "party" at Hudson Yacht Club so I declared an anchorage party.

Redline, Gaucho, Scott and Bellum participated.  Jimmy and Tilda were supposed to come but Tilda was doing tomatoes so she cancelled.  Jimmy was not interested in coming with us or Gaucho.  Jimmy was in a strange may be angry mood.

Redline had spent Friday night at Grande Anse.

Winds were to be very light on Saturday and raining on Sunday with an East wind.  Not too good. But there was wind at 11'ish when we went out and had a nice sail to the middle of the lake near Baie d'urfie when the winds died.  We mostly napped and drifted around watching Gaucho try flying a spinnaker in zero winds.

There was not enough winds to get to Redline and we decided to raft up with Redline at Allan Point.  Had a cocktail and came back to supper at the dock.  Gaucho had gone back to dock for their supper.

We slept aboard and the next morning it poured.  We went to measure my apartment for new furniture and then went to Daniele's for supper of pasta with garlic, tomatoes, capers and olives.

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