Sailing Cambio

Category: Sailing

  • He discovered that the forestay core wire was broken

    He discovered that the forestay core wire was broken

    I’ve got lots to enter in this log and not so much time to do it.  But I stole 30 minutes to update and will go back and fill in the smaller adventures we’ve had since leaving Kingston. 

    Yesterday Keven Piper of Bay Sails installed a new furler.  It looks beautiful in pieces and hopefully today I’ll get down to the marina and check it out.  

    As he was taking the forestay off he discovered that the forestay core wire was broken.  At some point the forestay was twisted and broke the core.  Before he took it apart a visual inspection would have said, “This is Perfect”.  Not so!!  Good catch Keven.

    Remember that the genoa looked like this for 24 hours In very heavy wind so it is no surprise that the forestay was going to be highly stressed.   Part of a new furler is a new forestay, which is a very good thing.

  • Through this whole experience, I hope I’ve exuded patience and grace.  It’s safer that way.

    Through this whole experience, I hope I’ve exuded patience and grace.  It’s safer that way.

    Thursday, August 11, 2022, Kingston Yacht Club / St. Catharines

    So much has happened in the last 9 days, and yet not so much accomplished, I think.   

    Much of my my August 2 angst was in the wrong direction and not well thought out.  Any solution that involved towing, and haulout, and the end to end process of fixing the boat generally broke down when the question ‘after all that, who will fix it?’ popped its practical head up.  And it was expensive. There is a shortage of technicians to fix various things.  I can replace the furler through the local dealer but there are no technicians in Kingston to do the work, even when I ask the local Harken dealer.

    I’m frustrated with some of the stuff that hasn’t been accomplished yet, but there have been some big wins. 

    • I couldn’t find the local Kiwi propeller dealer for days, although when I did find him, service was as great as possible, but waiting for the propellor blades to come from New Zealand is the singular holdup, and it is reasonable, I guess.   
    • The engine mechanic came quickly and did great work.  (Kevin Mcleod of Kingston). 
    • The Kingston Yacht Club seems patient with me but they will have hosted me for a month by the time I can leave, I think.  But if I have to be stuck somewhere, KYC is a club full of great people, and have allowed me to get my boat back to proper seaworthiness. 
    • The genoa was fixed by John Clark at Kingston Sail Loft and it was fixed 2 days faster than promised. 
    • Isabelle, the insurance adjuster is prompt to respond and always cheerful.    

    Matt went home when it was apparent that the propellor would not be fixed for a week or two.  I followed him home shortly after for doctor appointments and a change of view.

    Now my doctor says I don’t need knee replacements yet, and I’m happy about that.

    Then the propellor blades, which were promised for August 16 from New Zealand arrived on August 10 but the service guy is on vacation and we’ll have to wait until he can make time to do it.  I know he’ll show up asap because he interrupted his vacation for a day to come to Kingston to pull off a blade to inspect it and check out the propellor.  He then ordered the match of 3 blade replacements.

    And I’m committed to photograph the 2022 Canada Games sailing events on August 17, 18, 19, and 20 which is inconveniently in the middle of the repairs. 

    So if the fix is in on Sunday the 14th I’ll be able to rush home if the weather window is right. Only the furler won’t be fixed, but everything else should be in working shape on this cruise.  This means that we’ll be moving under main sail and motor only. 

    Through this whole experience, I hope I’ve exuded patience and grace.  It’s safer that way.

    Pierre has offered to crew and that would be a pleasure.  I’ll be careful to pick a comfortable weather window and hopefully interesting ports.   If we have to leave on Sunday Aug 14 we’ll not stop, but if we leave on August 21st it will be a vacation of stops. It would be fabulous to start with Wapoose winery.  Then along the North shore to Toronto and then a usually simple crossing to Dalhousie.   I’d like to spend a few hours each with Lily Storring and Elle Anne, hopefully photoshoots or dinner or drinks.  They are in the Kingston/Gananoque area and maybe Stephanie in Cobourg.  All good people and good models.

  • Winterizing the Marine Engine

    Winterizing the Marine Engine

    November 11, 2022

    Keith was good enough to come down to the boat and ‘coach’ me on how to winterize the engine. This, of course means he will do it for me but teach me how to do it for the next time. He shows great patience but I wonder if I’m just insensitive.

    After 2 hours of reading the manual and inspecting the back end of the engine where the YouTube video said to do the winterization, we took a break. I called Al, the previous owner. He reminded me of the videos he made for me, one of which outlined how to commission the engine in spring. He said, “just do it in reverse!” 10 minutes later, Keith had run the motor and filled the water system with antifreeze.

    I’m lucky to be surrounded by kind people.

    It is October 30 in Niagara Falls, Canada It is going to get cold, and it will come with a snap of it’s crispy little finger, not with a long slow descent of temperatures. I have to get the motor winterized before the first frost because it won’t work next year if it freezes. This of course would be bad.

    I don’t have a picture of the engine so I’ve swapped it out for one of the summer sunset model session images of Katie.

  • Photographing the 2022 Canada Games Sailing competition

    Photographing the 2022 Canada Games Sailing competition

    August 16-August 21, 2022, Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club

    This may not be about Cambio, but it is about my involvement with sailing life.  I really enjoyed photographing the 2022 Canada Games Sailing competitions.   The kids were a great group of competitors and the organization was fabuous, even though the organizers, who shielded us from anything that went wrong by simply sorting it out first, made it an amazing event.

    I was taken by Ontario’s Siobhan MacDonald who got 8 bullets in the Para Mix division.  The boats they use were mini 12 meters, called 2.4 class.  She is incredibly nice and I got some good pictures on land and on the start line.  

    The other two photos I am really happy with are the 29ers and the Lasers at the start. 

  • I don’t think this is right

    I don’t think this is right

    Friday, September 3, 2022

    I don’t think this is right.  I thought we sailed home from Toronto on Thursday, but somewhere in this log I may have lost a day.  If you are reading this, I didn’t go back to find it, and please just go with it.

    We motored on a smooth sunny lake for about 5 hours and pulled into Port Dalhousie.

    After doing a technically challenging docking at the National superbly, I got to my dock in Port Dalhousie and almost rammed the dock.  I went around and got it the second time but I shouldn’t have lost that skill after 6 weeks away.

    I went home, had a shower, and came back to Cambio to do some putaway and such. Instead, I fell asleep on the settee for 3 hours. 

  • I have to catch up yesterday because it wasn’t an easy day

    I have to catch up yesterday because it wasn’t an easy day

    Thursday, August  25, 2022, Belleville

    I have to catch up yesterday because it wasn’t an easy day.  Up relatively early to attack the problem of the line wrapped around the propellor shaft and this meant diving into the cold, dark water (my perception…kids were playing in it not 100 meters from shore) and submerse myself without hitting my head on the boat’s hull or the ‘support’  dinghy. 

    After the previous day I was a bit shell shocked at what could go wrong but this had to be done and only I could do it.  That didn’t make me feel good about proceeding.

    I hemmed and hawed, and finally stepped onto the dinghy and then dove into the water.  This is not a big thing for a lot of people but I haven’t swum since I was washed off my sailboat in a storm in 1991 and had to swim 8 miles to the shore.  Since then my mantra has always been, “do what it takes to stay on the boat!!”  

    It was a rather weird sensation.  I waved my hands  and then I remembered my father, 60 years ago,  telling me that I should keep my fingers together and cup my hands slightly.  I had remembered this in 1991 but it took that flashback from my father to remind me to cup my hands when paddling.  In retrospect, I like that.

    So I hit the water.  I grabbed the handle on the dinghy and held on, breathing deeply.   Pierre was above me on the boat and he said, while my ears were above water, “assess the situation and then make a plan”. 

    This grounded me and I dove down to see the propellor.    I didn’t have goggles so It was all fuzzy but I followed the line down and felt around the shaft for a piece of the line that would move.  Then go up for air and try and avoid hitting my head on the dinghy.   I dove maybe 15 times till the rope was off.  I cut my hands on the sharp blades that should have cut the line I was trying to free.   Several times. 

    There is no comfortable way to get onto Cambio from the water.  Eventually I got the line loose and then…I couldn’t climb into the dinghy from the water, which would have made getting onto the ladder much easier.

    The ladder has steps that only go about 1 foot under the water and I remember being able to do pullups to get out of the water but decades of deskwork had atrophied my arm strength. I just couldn’t do it. When I get home I’ll prioritize getting a deeper, longer ladder. But I didn’t have one then.

    Pierre suggested putting a line around my chest to help pull me up, or at least take some weight off.  Great idea.  And it worked.

    You have to understand that we spent more time climbing on the boat than I did clearing the line around the propeller shaft.  Such is the nature of sailboat maintenance.  It always take more time to prep, or to recover from the maintenance.  An hour’s job becomes 3 hours of hard and frustrating work hopefully followed by a wonderful sail.  

    We weren’t sailing from Waupoos to Picton.  Our Genoa furler was still broken and the genoa, which took two men to carry, was tied to the deck, and not practical to hoist unless there were an emergency.  As well, Pierre and I would not have the strength to use the genoa anyway.  

    So we motored at about 5 knots and I recovered slowly from the stress of freeing the dinghy line from the shaft.  It took a lot of processing over several days to understand what this had done to my head.  On one hand I was victorious on the mission.  On the other, I was humbled by the lack of strength and wind I had.  Humility won, over a couple of days afterwards.

    Once I had an hour nap, we motored to Picton and caught a mooring for the night.  We had o energy to use the dinghy to leave the boat and just went to bed,  which was an excellent choice.

    Today we motored to Belleville in about 6 hours and everything, including the skipper and crew (me and Pierre) worked out perfectly.   Great motor and we got to BQCY just before some rather interesting people showed up. 

    Joanne is single handing her 36 foot boat towards Hamilton.  Patti Jo and Doug are from my home club, Dalhousie Yacht Club, and the other three crew on a Beneteau 40 I think, were going back to the National Yacht Club.    We had dinner together and wonderful chatter that set me up with 3 beers in the BQYC bar and a bottle of Mr. Reif’s famous Riesling wine.   I lost at Rummy to Pierre, which was an unusual thing. Both of us look forward to the play, rather than the outcome.

    Tomorrow the forecast is for thunderstorms in the morning and aTurkey festival in the evening at BQYC which we are looking forward to.

  • Well I’ve been here before

    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.   

  • It never happened

    It never happened

    Wednesday August 31, 2022, Whitby

    We stayed another day in Whitby, just to sit out a forecasted thunderstorm.   It never happened but it was a pleasant day.  

    Pierre and I invaded the clubhouse to play backgammon and met some interesting members, who looked at us curiously as if we were bringing new vices to the comfortable room.  Besides the members, the Shark sailors came in, went out into the stormy waters and came back but by then Pierre and I had returned to the boat. 

    The previous owner, Al, was around and I asked him what the process for stowing the dinghy on the davits.  He walked me through it and it was exactly what Jeff had figured out back in August and that Pierre and I had worked on.  Sadly, because I was hoping there was an easier way.   I guess the easier way is to do it a dozen times until it seems easy. 

    The weather forecast was for high winds, off the beam, all day, which would be perfect for motorsailing from Whitby to Port Dalhousie.

  • There was a prediction of thunderstorms for Monday

    There was a prediction of thunderstorms for Monday

    Monday August 29, 2022 Cobourg

    There was a prediction of thunderstorms for Monday so we stayed put at the dock the next day.  We had dinner in the old Yacht Club, which had gone out of business and had been taken over by a local tavern entrepreneur.   The clubhouse still looked like it did before the takeover, with race flags, burgees and trophies all over the place.  

    But this was a shell of a yacht club.  There was a pallor of death and I imagined that all the stories that had been told in there among bonne homme members over the years now smelled a little like musty old books, without the life that comes from camaraderie.  The food was pretty good, however.

  • Leaving Brighton, I paid very close attention to Ray, and kept to the narrow track

    Leaving Brighton, I paid very close attention to Ray, and kept to the narrow track

    Leaving Brighton, I paid very close attention to Ray, and kept to the narrow track based on a combination of depth reports on the Raymarine plotter and the navigation buoys.   After the collision yesterday it was a nailbiter but I didn’t hit the ground at all.

    There is a government dock at the end of the canal that has bollards or cleats attached to massive concrete blocks.  All three of us boats in our tiny flotilla stopped there for the night.  The other two boat crews went to the motor racetrack which is about a 200 meter dinghy ride followed by almost a kilometer walk through the bush.  

    Pierre and I did not go to the races.  We made dinner and played Rummy, and before we turned in for the night, I turned the anchor and spreader lights on in case the kids were late and lost in the pitch dark.  They didn’t mention that they got lost, but they did acknowledge that the lights were a help.     

    Just before Presqu’ile Point my Raymarine plotter went wonky and displayed a test pattern of drivel.  (We called the Raymarine, “Ray” and the Autopilot, “Otto” so Ray and Otto guided us most of the time.)

    I turned it off and on many times and pulled out my phone to message my brother who is a guru when it comes to such things.   He messaged me back a few minutes later.  I had already pulled up Navionics on the phone and would have done just fine without Ray.  His advice was “wiggle the wires in back of Ray”.   I did this and Ray was fixed, in time to show me that I should go way out into the lake before turning right towards Cobourg.   

    It was a relatively easy upwind motor to Cobourg.