Boating Adventures

It’s been nice slow cruising the last couple of days.  Last night I stopped at Hastings, and the night before was in Bobcageon.  I explored a bit more of Stoney Lake and found the sailing association.  They have an active dinghy program run out of their island base.  Nice area.

Today I stopped at Lock 19 and will stay for a bit.  Heading to Guelph for a Canada Day party on my motorcycle.  I’m not in any rush, with 11 days to get to Gananoque to meet guests.

I like this section of the waterway.   The locks are remote and quiet.

Not much else to report.  Maneuvering around locks and narrow passages seems more trivial now, in comparison to narrow boating.  My winter holiday was good cross training 😀

That last boat is a looper in an Aquila 42.  Seems like a great big budget loop boat.  I’ve been meeting a few as I come down.

I’m anchored here at the entrance to the canal.  In the past I’ve tied up inside the breakwater, but it’s quiet here with an easterly wind.  And I’m a bit leery of walls.

After spending two nights below Big Chute we went up and over on the railway, and Miles went back to work.  I meandered up to the bottom of Lock 42 and spent the night there.  Nice spot with a decent burger spot close by.

This morning I woke up to a minor mess in the galley.  I had the boat closed up, but found the window screen open.  I’m quite certain a racoon opened the screen and came in to feast on my bagels.

It was raining and I wasn’t in a big rush, so I didn’t join the other boats for the first locking.  When I was getting off the wall to enter the lock a bit later my control cable for the transmission failed, and I was stuck in reverse. 

I had almost exactly the same thing happen with Mazurka 8 years ago, and the outcome was the same.  I hit the wall going backwards.  Fortunately no damage to the boat or dinghy apart from a scuff on the metal swim platform. 

I’m fortunate that this didn’t happen when I was close to other boats.  I had checked all the cables and connections carefully last year when decommissioning the upper helm.  There was no sign of problems before the internal rod in the cable broke close to the end fitting.

I was able to fix the problem by replacing the cable with the one from the upper station.

Cool, grey and rainy today.  A nice break from the heat of the last couple of days.

I stopped in Orillia on the way through.  Had a nice chat with the folks on this boat, they’re doing a loop of Lake Huron from their home in Ohio.  Cool boat.  They had passed me earlier at their 29 knot cruising speed.

We’re on the Trent Severn.  I’m anchored here below Big Chure, expecting a visit from Miles later today.

I’ve been reminded again of how much I like this area.  On Sunday I came across a calm and foggy lake and went down Twelve Mile Bay.  Monday I traveled the inside route down and came through the first lock in the late afternoon.

Big news is that I met the couple who built Escapade into its current form.  I popped into an anchorage to say hello to fellow loopers, and they were there with their steel tug and approached me as I was leaving.  I’m glad they did.  It filled in some history on the boat for me.  They’ve built and renovated many boats, but all steel apart from mine.  Kyle did some impressive wood work for a metal guy!

There has been a heat warning for the last couple of days, and it hit me yesterday as I came off the lake.  It’s moderated now.  I don’t have air conditioning and for the most part don’t miss it, but it was a bit sticky last night.

I’m back in Wiarton aboard Escapade getting ready to head for Nova Scotia.  It’s too stormy today to cross the bay, but tomorrow looks better.

The plan is to have a leisurely cruise through the Trent Severn, then meet up with Sarah, Samantha and Susan who are traveling with me on their bicycles from the Thousand Islands to Montreal.  I’ll be leaving Montreal around July 19 bound for the Maritimes.

One of my goals is to spend more time in Newfoundland.  I’m not sure whether this is on the itinerary for 2025 or not.  I plan to keep Escapade in the Maritimes through 2026 and winter in Halifax. 

Apart from that my itinerary is fluid.  Will be in Chester in August for Race Week, but I could leave Escapade farther north and join them by land.  I’ll be carrying my motorcycle.

I don’t have guests for the St Lawrence River section.  If you’re interested in joining me reach out. 

David called me a few days ago to invite me to steer Narwal V in a weekend regatta in Nova Scotia, and after looking at the forecast and cashing in some of Susan’s Aeroplan points I was on a big silver bird Friday night.

It was a fun weekend.  We put in a credible performance and came fourth in class.  Five windward-leeward races over two days in Bedford Basin, well run by the club and with some seasoned competition.  Great racing, but not a big fleet.  Relatively easy conditions but lots of holes and lines and shifts. 

David and Laura have cleaned up and restored the boat, and it’s sailing well.  I have a long history with the boat.  Still a cool boat to sail, and a fun group to join.  Nice to see old friends and meet a few new ones.

I’m plotting and scheming now about Chester Race Week.  My plan is to bring Escapade east this summer, leaving Montreal around July 18.   

I don’t have pictures from the weekend.  I’m working on losing fewer phones overboard.  But here’s a recent shot of the boat, photo credit Fay Dickinson.

Miles has been living here in his camper van while working at a nearby resort, so I came over for a visit.  Went down to Owen Sound Saturday and across the lake yesterday.  Smooth sailing.

I’m anchored here for a bit.  Nice spot.  Just watched a sea plane land. 

These are the Western Islands.  Out in the middle of the lake.

I arrived Friday night after a relaxed cruise down from Tobermory.  Destination achieved.  About 600 miles in six days.  I wasn’t trying to make a fast trip, but with unsettled weather the timing allowed a reasonably smooth trip.  I also travel faster in waves for comfort.  Nine knots is much more comfortable than seven, and I adjust speed according to condition. 

Friend Leo who has a boat at the marina was able to give me a lift home to Guelph, about 200 km away, and I’m now back with my car.  Escapade is at anchor.

This is my favourite spot for the boat while I come and go ashore.  Tomorrow I’ll go dinghy racing in Guelph.  It’s a nice drive through the countryside in my car or on the motorcycle.

I love roaming around local marinas. There’s always something to catch the eye.  This is a Paceship Northwind 29 built in Mahone Bay to a C&C design. Clearly well kept.  The early C&C designs still look really sweet to me, unlike some of their IOR inspired stuff from ten years later.  This boat was introduced in 1969. 

Leo has a Corvette 31 that was one of the early boats that C&C made as a builder around the same time.  They’re both shoal draft keel/CB boats. I’ll have to have a closer look at both. 

No sign of Saugeen Queen. Maybe they were visiting last fall.

I keep thinking that this would be the ideal place to have a mooring field, or at least one for me.  The bay is exposed to the east but otherwise well sheltered.

I’m trying to get the inside clean and presentable for guests, so I’ve got time to tell stories.

I was reminded a few times coming up the Michigan shore of my inaugural voyage on Mazurka almost exactly 9 years earlier.  Pre-blog.  I had bought the boat ashore in St Joseph MI a few months before. 

That was an epic trip.  I took two weeks off work with the sole goal of getting the boat back to Canada, launched the boat and headed out.

I made it to Tobermory, but ended taking the long way.  A giant high pressure set in just as I was leaving, and I had two weeks of relentlessly warm, calm and sunny weather.  I cleared into Canada in Little Current five days out of St Joe then kept going to Killarney and did a clockwise loop of Georgian Bay. 

I was hooked, both on trawlering and on this area.  It really is a beautiful spot.  I have pictures that I should dig out and put here.

To complete my travels that summer I headed down the Trent-Severn, through the Thousand Islands, and across the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and stored the boat ashore on the north shore of Lake Erie.  I know I don’t take many pics these days, but it’s sometimes because I’ve got my hands full, but more often that I’m traveling familiar territory and an album full of pictures.

I got into Tobermory last night at dusk and anchored in the harbour, then went in this morning and fueled up.  545 litres/70 hours for the 575 mile trip. 

Yesterday was another long segment, 120 miles from De Tour, but flat water following the south shore of Manitoulin Island in a north wind. 

I’m now meandering my way into Georgian Bay.  It’s nice to be back.

Last night I anchored in Charlevoix after 102 miles in 12 hours.  The last couple of hours coming across  the entrance to Traverse Bay were a little wet, with 25 knots on the starboard bow.  I think most of the Chicago grit is gone.

Today I left Charlevoix at 10:00, and had a relatively smooth passage up through to Lake Huron.  Now I’m heading east in smooth seas towards Detour Passage.  Weather looks benign for the next few days.

Yesterday was a long day.  I was underway at 0730 and followed the shore to Manistee, where I anchored inside the breakwater just after dark.  About 110 miles covered.

Not much to report, except that I lost the anchor off the bow while bashing into some short steep waves off of Big Sable Point.  I heard a brief noise that I thought was shifting of the metal frame I’ve got lashed on the top deck, but in hindsight was the chain running out.

I didn’t notice the missing anchor until things had settled down a bit.  It was dragging in the water for a couple of miles.  As soon as I noticed I stopped and went forward. The chain had jumped off the windlass and 15-20 ft of chain had run out before it jammed on the turn out of the hawse pipe.

We were cruising along in about 40 ft of water at 8-9 knots when I noticed.  It would have been a rude shock to fetch up if the entire rode went out, but that would have made enough racket for me to stop and investigate.

No harm done.  Im now pledging to keep the tether on the chain regularly.  I think it may have been my recent servicing of the windlass that’s to blame.  The clutch on the chain gypsy had been frozen, and I cleaned it up and lubed it.  I’ve always secured the anchor by tensioning the chain with the windlass.  My working theory is that the clutch let out enough chain in the surge loading to allow it to jump off the gypsy.  Will monitor.

Today I was underway at 0630.  Making miles along the shoreline in 15-20 knot easterlies.  My plan is to get to Charlevoix today, and tomorrow it looks like a nice weather window will open up to get up into Lake Huron. 

I installed wind instruments this spring, and it’s great having them, especially this time of year when I’ve got the boat closed up.  Yesterday would have been tricky sailing.  I seemed to be following the line of transition between east and north winds all day.