Out in the Bay.

Here are two photos taken of us in Hamilton Bay, Ontario, Canada. We have been out 8 or 9 times since we launched at the end of April. Most of may was spent finishing up the winter work. Hmm, I notice we left the fender out.

Using the boat as a seduction tool..

Here is my new friend Vic and a Lady Friend on his steel boat 'Alize'. Vic is shamelessly using his fine boat as a sedution tool. Shame, shame! Just kidding there, I mean, one could not use a more conductive setting than a solid, steady platform to introduce someone to the pleasure of sailing.

Think of it, the gentle, lulling sound of water lapping at your hull. Then the gentle wind caressing your body. That same wind swells your sails and moves the boat quietly through the water. Sounds boring? To one who has never been sailing, yes. to one who has been sailing before? No way!

I tried desperately for him to get his third sail up but he said that would be too much like work. Ahh, the Sea going Casanova didn't want to leave his Siren alone in the cockpit. Don't read anything dirty in the word 'cockpit', it is a legitimate nautical AND aviation term...so there.

They took pictures of us sailing, and will send to us soon and when we do receive them I'll make another post. Later.....Allan

First sail of 2009

At last, we had our first sail of the 2009 season. The temperature was about 20 degrees and the wind was approx. 15 to 20 knots from the east. Glorious. We went wing on wing on the way back. I find wing on wing hard to maintain without a spinaker pole to keep the genoa out proper. Whe we went back in I was nervous about entering our slip. I have issues with the motor, it seems to quit on me when I need it the most. Fortunately, my good friend, Graham, who is a mechanic and a boat fanatic likes to tinker with it so I had no issues with it today. There were two opinions on my docking procedure. My opinion was that it went flawlessly. My wife's opinion was that the 4' of open water she had to leap across to the slip with a mooring line told her that I need more practice. At least there wasn't any crunching of any hulls on wooden slips, so it was perfect. Case closed.

We secured the boat alongside, then Ellie crawled into the vee birth and had a nap. I myself laid on the cockpit cushion and promptly fell asleep myself. Mmmmm, boat naps are the best.

The mast is up!

No pictures today. The mast went up last Saturday and a very good friend showed up and we re-bedded the hand rails and sealed the deadlights, most had small leaks but one had a good leak.
We were going to sail on Sunday but my wife fell through the companionway into the cabin and hurt her shoulder. As she is my bos'n and rope handler we put the sail off until later on in the week.
Good thing I suppose as I forgot to hook up the ground to the mast. That was an easy fix. Then the wife dicovered that the bilge pump was not working. Just a bad connection, remedied by cutting out all connections and replacing them with heat shrink connectors and electrical tape. Also put in an in-line fuse holder and hooked it up to the house battery directly. Installed a second, albiet, smaller bilge pump operated from the circuit panel.
Finally returned a new friends' (Vic), two hand held GPS'. He loaned us some of Paul and Sherry Shards videos, Distant Shores and the units were in the bag. It really weighed on my mind that we had them. He was gone for 10 days as he is a long haul trucker. just one of many good people we met in the marina.
Another nice seeming guy is Steve Smith, you know, Red Green. I never spoke with him but did nod a couple of times.
I have had drinks on two other boats, been invited on a couple of more, sailed on one. Had people drinking on mine. It is a lifestyle I want for the rest of my days.

Here are three photos, one is the boat being launched at the end of April and the other two show the result of the deckhead painted. My wife, Ellie, did a superb job matching new paint to the old. Uncanny I say. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are getting impatient to sail so we are going to rush things a bit so we can get the mast up this weekend and sail...Allan