Category: Lake Ontario

Friday June 3, 2022  Port Dalhousie –> Toronto

The squall hit about 3:30. More later.  😊

Left the dock at about 11 with Rob.   I didn’t account for the light wind and especially the prop walk to the right when reversing and  leaving the dock was a clusterfuck with squealing fenders and bouncy boat.  

But the light wind became darned near no wind and for a couple of hours we drifted at about 1 knot from port Dalhousie. Finally we fired up the engine and started towards Toronto.  The wind picked up and we got to 5 knots under sail alone and this felt great.    Two squalls sitting under thunderclouds were off to the Northeast and it looked like we were going to miss them both.  This is good.  

We were wrong.  The small one hit quickly and it was moving fast so when it hit we let our sails out to flog and rounded up under control of sorts and rode out the squall.  I guess that it brought winds of about 30 knots but we could only watch the instruments after the worst had died down and the instrument said 22.5 knots of wind.  As soon as the wind died down Rob brought in the genoa and we let the main drive the boat the last few miles into Toronto Harbour.  This was the first time in the harbour with this boat and was rather intimidating. 

I’ve been in Toronto Harbour many times after crossing with the Shark but this boat is a whole other navigation hazard.

First I violated Department of Transport rules by motoring inside the (one) buoy that marks Billy Bishop safety zones.  I knew the safety buoys were there and did my best not to go inside them but sure enough there was one lone buoy on my Port that I had missed.   I got out of there PDQ.  

The ferry in the Western Gap was good enough to not cross while I was passing through into the chaos of the harbour. 

We got into the harbour and I called the Marina Four number to arrange dockage. The west wind meant I should dock on the wall with the bow facing west and with fenders on the starboard side.  “Rob, could you please put the fenders on the starboard side?”   He did.  We went in to the dock and the hull scraped against the dock.  My horror was complete when I realized that he had tied the fenders too high for the dock.  The dockmaster was valiant by pushing the boat off the dock but there is a long scar there on the hull that will require significant buffing.

We were both exhausted and settled down in the cockpit processing what had happened this day.

Should I have specified dock level fenders?  Ultimately the captain is responsible for ‘it all’ so yes.  Rob had only been sailing 5 times and had done well all the other times. So I have to take responsibility and am quite certain that he’ll remember that incident and be fantastic with the fenders in future.    

Another thing I plan to do with the fenders is to create a quick release and quick attach system because it leaves deck hands puffed out to untie and retrieve the fenders and then to tie them on again after a great sail.  This will take some thought. 

During the squall, the main sail flogged and worked the topping lift shackle pin out and the shackle went overboard.  This is the second time and I had fixed it once with a smaller shackle but didn’t have seizing wire to secure the pin.  I even had the heavy duty pins on board and had planned to replace it on Monday.    We’ll fix it tomorrow before we leave, but without seizing wire I’ll use pliers to keep it tight.

I’m very tired.  Lots of esoteric things to mull over about the responsibilities of captain and crew as well as a fantastic sail, 90% quiet enjoyment and 10% stress and terror.

Tomorrow the weather back to Port Dalhousie forecasts 15-25 km/h from the West so it should be a lively and fun beam reach to Niagara.   No squalls are forecast.