There was no way to return to the dock without leaving, circling and coming back.  In the middle of the big circle, while dodging the kayakers, small boats and bigger party boats

Saturday June 4, 2022  Toronto Harbour to Port Dalhousie

What buffoonery (more to come) xx

Canon Road Trip was a bust.  Not only were they not prepared when it started, but they had the address wrong and I burned out my back walking an extra kilometer distance.  That’s not a lot for most, but until my back heals, it made me arrive angry and sore after planning the Uber and the ‘no walking’ strategy.   The Canon staff were great however and the R3 was superb in a way that I’d never learn what all of them do and never use most of them.   Give me the same quality in a simpler camera and I might like it more.

So we get back to the boat and the marina girl wants us to shove off asap at 11:30. So we fired up the engine and Rob started releasing the dock lines, with help from the girl.   The wind was coming over the port bow and we were docked on the starboard side.   For some reason the bow started pushing out and my stern ground into the dock and I had no choice but to “engage number 1 ahead”.   The boat moved slowly ahead and I did a head check on Rob and the marina girl. 

The worst sound I heard was the slow grinding as my life ring caught on the electrical podium and it bent over.  After it had removed the life ring from the boat, the MOM overboard device caught the now falling podium.   The podium ripped half off and finished bending it to the ground.   There was no way to return to the dock without leaving, circling and coming back.  In the middle of the big circle, while dodging the kayakers, small boats and bigger party boats, I asked Rob where the marina girl was.  He said she went into her office, about 20 meters away.  

So I called her.   Something like:

ME: “Hey this is Cambio, sorry about that.  We’ll come back and work things out.”

HER: “Oh that’s ok.  The dock is under repair and we shouldn’t have put you there.  Next time move up to the bigger dock.   Do you want your life ring back?”

ME: “That’s ok, it is best we do not try to dock there again.  Are you sure we’re square?”

HER: “Yes, it was going to be replaced anyway.”

So Cambio motored away towards the Eastern Gap with a clear conscience and a ton of anxiety.   The life ring was left, amazingly, hanging on the hook on the dock that didn’t have a ring on it. 

About 2 hours later I receive a phone call from a different worker at Marina Four.  “Are you going to come back and get your life ring?”.    “Yes, next week, if that’s ok.”.  “Yea fine.”   

No damage to Cambio except for losing the life ring ($200), and some incidental repairs to the MOM harness.

And we were off, out the Eastern Gap and into a beautiful sail across.  Wind was a steady SW and we hit 8 knots in a 12 knot breeze a few times, close hauled and letting the adrenalin bake away in the wind and sun. 

The tack took us almost to Olcott and then a few short tacks took us to Port Dalhousie. 

On a more serious note, I was sitting there casting my eye down the backstay and was suddenly shocked to see that there was no cotter pin holding the shackle attachment together.  If the shackle pin were to slip out, I’d lose the mast, probably.  It took me about 3 minutes to slip my keys off a ring and insert the ring in the cotter pin hole.  Now my challenge is to find a stainless-steel cotter ring or pin.