I have no idea what order the pictures will appear so please bear with me. I will describe them as I put them in though I suspect the opposite loading will be the reality.

There is my wife Ellie, Clutching the boom as we motor in our destination marina, Toronto Island Marina. We had a beautiful 6 hour sail from Hamilton. The wind was from the South-West so as our destination was due East we sailed on a starboard tack for six hours. Six hours on one tack! As Ellie is the rope handler on board, the first hour was like a blissful vacation for her with no work to do. As the second hour approached she said she was bored and got out a book to read. Our speed was between 4 to 5 1/2 knots.

The second picture is of me sailing along with a cap from the last ship I served on, or was it the second last? Who knows, they were sisters ships and for all intents and purposes, identical.

The third picture is a view from our rental slip; The famed CN Tower and the Rogers Centre, aka the Molson Centre, aka The Sky Dome! Yes, it has been sold that many times.

The last, (or first), photo is of me in the R.O.M., or the Royal Ontario Museum. Not really my cup of tea, it certainly did not live up to its TV adverts. I have to admit, the dinosaur exhibit lifted me out of my funky mood a bit. I am standing in front of a T-Rex, man, I knew they were big, but it never dawned on me just how big they were. I would guess that it could take at least 50 lbs, or 20 odd kilograms of flesh from its prey in a single bite! Directly behind me is a triceratops skull. 6 Tons to a T-rex's 8 tons. I always wanted to be a triceratops even though I am a meatasaur by nature.

Now about Toronto city proper....I could go on about how we were given false directions because we were tourists, or how some water taxi drivers tried to charge us triple what the posted rate was but what struck me the worst was the general people. They are dirty and disgusting! I seen this over and over, they would be standing not 5 feet from a garbage can but they will still just toss their litter on the ground beside it! The town is filthy! Now I know they are just a couple of weeks from a bad garbage strike, but that is over and done with now and there are no heaping piles of garbage anywhere to be seen, but the litter, Oh the litter. I'll never set foot in that town again.

The trip back was a bit of an adventure. The wind westerly, right in our face. That means we will have to tack, or zig-zag, back to Hamilton. So we tacked and tacked and tacked. for three hours and only travelled about 6 miles. Then we had a small rigging failure, a sheave on our main sheet traveller broke free, We secured the traveller amiships and in doing so lost some fine tuning ability. The sheaves were held with stainless steel cotter pins and one let go. Today I put proper shackles on them. I am pissed off that I never noticed such a shoddy short cut like that before it failed.

We decided to motor. Then the swells started hitting us on our port forward quarter with high winds coming from straight ahead creating wind driven waves. It was hot and the spray was exhilarating. We took turns at the helm, (Steering), as it was a bit of a fight. We did make it to the lift bridge at about 7 pm.

Just outside of of the channel leading to the lift bridge, we ran out of gas. Not a problem as we still carried the old gas tank that came with the boat, plus a three gallon and a one gallon gas container with the appropriate two stroke oil.

Inside the channel to the lift bridge a huge gust of wind caught us and spun us around, and we were under motor with no canvas showing at all! Usually the channel is full of boats but fortunately we were more or less on our own, it truly could have been disastrous.

We had a good trip over all and am going to try for 50 point Conservation Area next.

Cleaning some growth

Here is a couple of shots of my wife cleaning some marine growth off our mighty nine point nine outboard. I just mentioned that the boat isn't motoring as fast as it should and whoosh, splash! Over the side she went, (after I dropped anchor). Now how is that for a sailing spouse? Great I say. Soon I'll post some pictures from our three day trip to Toronto Island. Notice my wife is wearing her bouyancy vest....heh, heh.

Here is a 1964 C&C 42. Wood hull, the engine does not go in reverse. There is a lot of cosmetic work to be done. Just a thought. I like old boats. The owners are thinking of cutting her up if they don't sell her. What can I say. I find boats with character very interesting and dare I say it, compelling. The first picture is of a ferro cement boat approx. 43' long with the bow sprit.

Blah Weather

I cannot believe the unseasonally cool temperatures we are having. The end of July and it is either spring or fall temperatures, depending on your outlook on life. And the rain, don't get me started on the deluge, highway closing, road washing away rain we are getting in South Central Ontario. The upside is the wonder full light show of near continuous lightning strikes.

Me: "Blah blah blah, crappy weath..."
CRACK/FLASH/SIZZLE
Me: "Ooooooh that was pretty"
Wife: Yes it was, but that crappy wind is mak...."
CRACK/FLASH/SIZZLE
Me: "Wasn't the TV and lights on a second ago?"

Yup, that basically was our weekend.

Later....Allan

Just a quick note, a beautiful sail Friday evening no sail Saturday nor Sunday due to extremely high winds and torrential rain. Our daughter did get one meal in this fortnight, Kentucky Yucky. (I love the stuff myself, though it doesn't love me!), oh yes we are baaaad parents. She doesn't like to sail. We have to trick her with promises of shopping malls and pimple removing cream.

Oh, the middle picture is of a boat that seems to sit there year after year. I hear the owner is keeping up with the storage fees though. Pictured for scale is my wife.

4 days of sailing in a row!

We just had four wonderful days of sailing. The weather was cool for the season but the wind was a good 15 knots.
Friday evening was OK even after my wife's emergency root canal at noon.
Saturday wonderful and tough and after I changed the alternator on our car we went out. Just approaching our marina lifts the foul mood I was in after working on the car. The winds were just shy of overpowering us but we refused to reef or go to one sail. What a work out.
Sunday my newly married cousin and her husband joined us for a BBQ, drinks and a sail. Fun times had by all.
Monday our daughter came out with us, (a rarity), but she was bored. The wife and I loved it of course.
We were supposed to go out on a Nonsuch Tuesday but it rained. Supposed to rain tonight also.
Not much of an entry.....Allan

Blue collar cruising.

No pictures today. I want to talk, (or bitch), about the high cost of sailing products and the crappy magazines that seem to cater to people with six figure disposable incomes. The chandleries are the worst, charging high prices for low quality stainless steel products. More on THAT later.

First off, the magazines. My God, they are nothing but adverts, every single article! I have yet to read about a corrupt customs official, or squalid living conditions on some of the islands. I know there are squalid conditions, because I've seen them in my many years in the Canadian Navy. Don't gloss over the facts, I want and need the facts to make good safe cruising plans. for the record, I'll take squalid over corruption any day of the week, hands down.

I have yet to read about any installation/repair jobs that the sailor does. I am not talking about changing a washer in a faucet either. I want to hear about a burst fuel line, runaway engines, steering systems gone wrong. I want to hear about jury rigging a quick repair in order to get ones sorry ass to a safe haven to effect proper repairs. I don't want to read about getting a tow. $$$$$.

I want to hear about the blue collar worker sailing, using the basic instruments that we can afford. Remember Scotty off of Star Trek saying "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain!', or something to that effect. A $1,200 GPS/plotter/nose picker tied in to your radar and ice maker will break down more often than a hand held GPS requiring more expensive repairs to boot! I do not want to hear about that.

I want to read about fees for clearing customs, grant you some has been said and written as I do know some places are prohibitive while others are not. The articles rarely talk about the costs of being a tourist in certain areas. I need to know this stuff.

I have the privilege of being slip neighbours to a couple who went down south for a planned 6 months and came back 5 years later! They are a wealth of knowledge. They should write a magazine article. Wait, but who would publish it? Not Bruisers World, or Bachtworld!( The actual names were butchered to protect the innocent, namely me). Those glossy rags have done nothing but prostitute themselves to the advertisers shamelessly. Nothing wrong with earning a profit, but come on, there is a whole class of people out there who you could target.

Now on to marine supply stores; I bought 16 stainless steel bolts for about $16. I was in a hurry OK! Now, one of the heads stripped while removing said bolts so I could install new backing plates for my stanchions. Drat! I figure if one stripped, the rest would so I went to a store that specializes in fasteners and bought a box of fifty grade 316 stainless steel bolts for $12 before taxes. Even just comparing the two you could see the difference, 316 shiny, chandlery stock, dull. When I change the rigging, it will be off to a wire speciality store and not to a marine supply store.

Well, that's my rant....Allan