Ashore for the Season

Tin Lizzie is parked at the sailing club in the ‘field of shame.’ She’ll escape in the spring.

It’s been a busy few days. After retrieving my car from LaSalle Monday I drove to Chicago Tuesday in the Rondo. My intent was to tow Tin Lizzie’s trailer back to Port Dover. I had made arrangements for a haulout early Thursday morning.

This was a stupid thing to do. And as usual I was slow to recognize that. The trailer carries a lot of tongue weight empty and requires a much higher hitch than I could configure with the Rondo. At the yard Brian was helping me with burning loose the old hitch bar and we had a good audience at one point. Tim came up a little later and offered to lend me his truck.

A couple of hours later I called Tim and took him up on the offer. Drove down to Portage, took his old pickup back to Crowley’s, jury rigged a wiring harness and drove to Port Dover. The only point where I started to feel discouraged was at the border, where I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t just drive Tim’s truck in without proof that I was in legal possession of it. It was about 0530 at this point and I’d been driving all night. So I laid out the whole sordid story at the booth, and the officer allowed me through.

I got in to the marina at 0758 Thursday, just in time for the crew that was due to arrive at 0800. Met with them, made a plan, and by noon Lizzie was in the yard on the trailer with the mast on deck. I was ready for a long nap and headed back to Guelph.

We had been considering various winter storage options for Tin Lizzie. Outside in a field is not ideal, but it’s local and cheap. I rented a truck from Enterprise in Guelph, drove down to Port Dover, and returned with the boat. Got a brand new Dodge 2500 Super Duty. Beast of a truck.

Here’s the trip in to the sailing club.

Sarah and Leo joined me there and did spotting and branch clearing.

Leo even mowed a patch for us to set down.

We’ve got most of the sails and gear home now, and will get things properly put away in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow I drive Tim’s truck back to Portage and return with the Rondo. Then it’s off to Kingston NY Sunday to see Mazurka and get ready for the trip north.

Oh and here’s a picture of the broken rudder shaft. It clearly flexed both ways before snapping.