Single handed Canada Day at the Sandbars and slept at Dowkers

On Wednesday morning I got up and tried to adjust the steering quadrant to make the steering wheel symmetrical to architectural specifications. 

Darla texted me from the sandbars so I motored out to the sandbars in the morning.  

It appears I had adjusted the steering the wrong way.  And the steering cable was too loose, causing lots of vibration.  Probably causing the rudder shaft to vibrate.

Zig Zag

Chingos

We had a couple of beers floating at the sandbars and making good use of Chingos' bimini in the heatwave.  Tara, Zig-Zag, Thalassa III anchored around us.

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We went our separate paths around six as Darla went to PC and I sailed towards Dowkers and when I started the motor, the steering was making noises again

A powerboat just departed the middle of the bat and I grabbed the prized spot to anchor

I readjusted the steering the other way, tightened the cables and had supper.

Thursday morning I left Dowkers, sailed towards the Gut and then sailed around hunting for SLVYRA racing marks out there.  Then I returned to the club.

The steering was much better.

DNS warm up with Maud on Tuesday

On Tuesday morning I biked to the club picking up some food at Arkavan.

On the way out, I fouled the main halyard on the halyard winch.  Trying to fix it with the main winch, I fouled that too.  :( Using the other main winch, I was able to undo the whole mess.

It was a good first warm-up race with Maud with good winds.  

We sailed back.  Maud doesn't drink alcohol on weekends anymore.  

Lots of discussions about the upcoming Duggan cup next weekend. Maud was very stressed with work and did not want to eat aboard. 

Maud complained that the helm wheel was not symmetrical.  Very upsetting to an architect. :(

I skipped supper and went for a nightcap with Norm and MLM.

I slept aboard.

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

I got to the club on Thursday early morning with the car full of stuff for the boat and to remove stuff from the locker and Chickon from Arkavan.

The weather was cool which is good for cleaning, polishing, and waxing the port cockpit and proceeded to the port topside. 

I reconfigured the dock lines to better use the piling for my catchline as per David's recommendation.

The day was very windy and Norm and I were planning to do the first DNS and have a BBQ aboard. 

Norm shows up until 6 and I thought it was too windy and late to get to PC.  Norm was at the club in a meeting.  He wanted to go but I declined.  Apparently, there were four boats three that started and two that finished.


On Friday, I polished the starboard side.  The boat is really clean outside.  Chatted with Jason who just launched and I did my RC duties with my zoom.

Saturday I helped rig the sharks 

I cleaned Bellum, went to Access Electronics, and got some Somosa from Singh Farms.  The threat of rain and thunderstorm faded away and I decided to go back to the club and motored to the bay beside the club to spend the night - cooking the Shish Taouk I got for Thursday BBQ with Norm. I chatted with Darla about maybe going sailing next week 

Most of the rain dodged us

Nice evening and next morning I motored out to AD15 and back to the club.  I practiced some docking on the service dock in light winds in forward and reverse.  I docked the boat with the new dock line configuration.  It worked just fine -  the three-strand line was very stretchy.

I washed the bugs off the deck, tidy up and de-spider the boat and come home to edit the photos and wrote this blog.

Glad I stayed the night aboard.

Heat wave on the Solstice Weekend

I got up early on Saturday morning and decided to wire up the Telcom batteries to make it easier to select batteries and charging and monitoring the batteries.  I cleaned up the boat a bit and then the locker.  

I was going to bike to Sources to get a burger for lunch and some Somosa and maybe resistors from Access Electronic.  

Darla texted me she was at Dowkers and invited me to join her.  I told her I was heading to Sand Bars and she said she would probably join me there.  I made a quick noodle soup and prepared to leave with the telecom batteries running the fridge.

As I was about to leave, Norm was walking down the dock and helped me depart with the dingy.

I motored to the channel and used the headsail to slowly sail from club to the Gut and then sped up towards Beaconsfield.  Then Darla had to return to land because something came up.

I was looking for Darla outside Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield on the water when I noticed Redline was behind me with full sails.  I tacked left and headed south.  Scott was with Audrey and Zig Zag so Redline and I headed to the sandbars.

We both anchored and I set up the Torqeedo and she had error code 30.  It seemed to be a loose connection on the cables.  

Varuna came by towards Seal Cove anchored further west.  

Norm took his dinghy out for a test run and I went aboard Scott's powerboat for a beer and badly needed swim  

Norm left for supper with the family.  I eventually returned to Bellum as Scott and Audrey returned followed by Zig Zag

I had a nice dinner of pork tenderloin enjoying the sunset.  As usual, I was the only boat out there.

The lake became so smooth.  

I the morning you could see the separation between the Outaouais and St Lawrence

The updated forecast was for no winds until much later and very hot.  I took a swim and motored back to the club for a pump out and then went back out again when a bit of wind arrived but came back to the club when the sailing was pretty hopeless.  

I cleaned up the boat and set u the charger to replenish the 700 watts I consumed from the hard-working fridge.  The fridge never really got frosty cold with all the outings from Thursday to Sunday and the heatwave.

Veronica filled a couple of water bottles for me.  I biked back home.  Toni had run out of gas and I found a jerry can in the fridge to bring her 4 liters of gas.  I did groceries on the way back.

Friday fun race No 1

We had a quick briefing at 5:30 and I went out single-handed.

Single-handed racing was a lot of work - especially when nobody gives you a break.  I did okay but made a few mistakes in tacking and getting lines tangled and oversteering.  I was going to miss the leeward mark until reminded by Jacques.  And I fouling Tallisaman for him from delaying his turn.

I sailed back to the club and spent some time on Gaucho and Zig Zag for an Expresso. Getting really good at bringing down the sails single-handed. 

I went back to sleep aboard Bellum and spent the night aboard.

Redline launch

Redline was supposed to launch at 1 but due to travel lift issues, she got out about 3:30 and we took her out to anchor to put up the headsail on Redline.

After a cold one, I took off about 5PM on a nice sail towards Grand Anse.  Winds died an at 8 I motored to Grand Anse in a fabulous sunset sail and had a great night out.  

The next morning I tried using a car back up camera to de-anchor from the helm.  The screen did not work well in bright daylight. 

I had a nice sail back.  There was a southern component to the wind and Dave was walking down the dock helped my docking.  It was probably okay without him but it was good to protect my dock neighbour Flow Control.

A very nice day of sailing.  Now getting ready for FFR no 1.

Single handed overnight

I came to the boat on Tuesday.  There were no winds.  I inflated the dinghy, helped lubricate Redline seacocks, then motored to the bay beside the club for a nice sunset with chickon again. 

Slept very well.  No winds, I tried out the rearview camera with very poor results in seeing the anchor lines.  I came back to the club about 9AM as the winds picked up from the southeast so I turned around and sailed from the club to Pointe-Claire and back with some help docking with Norm.  I had an FFR meeting with Scott and then washed the boat and woody waxed the deck, then biked back to the office to prepare the Wednesday FFR zoom meeting.