Well I’ve been here before

Thursday September 2, 2022 Whitby to Toronto

We were up early, with the dinghy stowed and the boat prepared for a bumpy and slanty ride. 

Leaving Whitby was an adventure.  I followed the red buoys to the left to get out and then turned left to head for the marina.  There is a lot of mud on either side of the channels and I had been warned to follow the buoys carefully.   So I kept to the right, where the red buoys were, and promptly grounded in muck. 

It took a call to the marina where Brian and Bob came out and pulled us out into the clear and we were pulled over the tow line which got caught under the boat. 

Well I’ve been here before.

They took us to the gas dock and I refueled and did a pump out while mentally preparing to dive under the boat in very murky waters.   I didn’t like the idea of diving to clear the propeller again when the water was very, very brown.   Brian came back and had an idea.  He took the stern line that was caught and worked it around the stern, pulling it along the way.   He had this idea that it wasn’t hooked on the propellor but it was stuck in the gap between the rudder and the hull.  

The line came loose and it turned out Brian was right.   I was relieved from having to dive in dirty, murky, skuzzy water to clear the rope!!  

We left Whitby very carefully using the centre of the channel and got on our way to Port Dalhousie.

We got perhaps 2 hours out, and we were rocking a lot and sometimes burying the bow into oncoming waves.   I wasn’t worried about Cambio. She handles this stuff well, but both Pierre and my stomachs became a bit queasy and neither one of us wanted to go through another 10 hours of this to get to Port Dalhousie when Friday’s weather was supposed to be calm and sunny.  

Pierre hinted that we had talked about going to Toronto and I thought that was a bang up great idea, so I instructed Otto to turn right and head for the Eastern Headlands, about 3 hours away.  The wind built to 30 knots and I was looking forward to getting into the Toronto Harbour where presumably the water would be smooth. 

I phoned the National Yacht Club, searching for a reciprocal berth for the night.  It took me 8 tries before the Officer of the Day answered the phone.  Apparently they are more reliant on VHF radio for communication.  I am more reliant on the phone because the VHF is down below in the cabin and I’m not so comfortable going below in high winds and leaving Otto alone to manage.   But the phone is in my pocket and National is on my speed dial.

When we got into the Toronto Harbour, I did put Otto in charge under Pierre’s supervision while I went forward and stowed the main properly.  I had started to raise it when we were thinking we were going to Port Dalhousie and found that the halyard was wrapped around the lazy jacks a few times.   After the July 20 storm, Jeff and I had fixed all the lines but I must have forgotten to check the main halyard.  I was pooped after straightening it out.  Shortly after we adjusted course towards Toronto and there was no need for the mainsail anymore.   However I did have to wrap the sail tighter on the boom to reduce the windage when we went into the National Yacht Club basin.    

NYC is a very well protected harbour,  protected by an ancient break wall that has an entrance that seems to be about 36 feet across. Cambio has a 13 foot width.   The winds were gusting to 30 knots on the beam (from the side) and the waves made it a rather interesting challenge to get through this gap.   To restate that, going through the gap required a high pucker factor.

So we didn’t know where the dock they had assigned was.  We came into a section of the basin where the wall set in front of the clubhouse and there was space on the wall. I headed for it, with the wind behind me.  I used forward and reverse gears many times before I got the boat alongside, between another boat and the small boat crane.   We had 3 people helping us dock, thankfully.  

Then they wanted me to move to the assigned dock.   There was no way, in my opinion, to do this given the high wind, the small space we were in, and the surrounding boats.   So I suggested moving the first boat back about 12 feet, and my boat forward about 12 feet.  This would be safer and we’d clear the crane, because it was race night and the crane had to be cleared for the Sharks and J’s to launch.  It was a negotiation but the NYC person in charge understood that it would be bad for my 41’, 25,000 pound boat to hit other boats in that kind of weather. 

So we tied up, caught our breaths and had a passage drink. 

Dinner at the National was a buffet, and we were ready for a great meal.  It was good, and we gorged.   Then we realized that the table beside us were the same people that we had met in Belleville.  Actually they recognized us first.  We exchanged short stories and pleasantries, and they left. 

We went to play Rummy on the boat.