Hi All,
Still motoring, still dead flat calm out here, but with a weather forecast for a little bit of SW wind sometime
tomorrow. We popped into Port Elgin for fuel and a pump out, and a couple of
ice cream cones. They just had ordinary cones, which are a real come down once
you get used to
I thought I was going to get net access too, but my computer
didn't want to connect to their wireless, and we were on the gas dock with
hints that we should move along, so I gave up. We will have access tomorrow in Tobermory, which the guide says has both a net cafe and
access at the library.
Yesterday was a nearly perfect day. The only thing that
would have made it better would have been a bunch of fresh water dolphins to
jump in the bow wave. I spent a bunch of time sitting on the bow dangling my
feet in the spray as we sailed along. I puttered about taping things that
needed taping and generally had a good time. Tonight I think I will do some
picture organizing so that there will be some more illustrations of the trip
for those who are vacationing vicariously (Rob's phrase).
The mist has thinned quite a bit and nthe
visibility is probably closer to 4 miles now, in a hazy sort of way. That makes
me a little less worried about noticing other boats in time. There is very
little traffic, but is amazing how close the intersections that do happen are.
I have had several passes within fifty metres that
just happened while leaving the boat on the same autopilot setting. I was
watching and ready to dodge, but just left it when I saw we weren't going to
bump.
Tomorrow we definitely need groceries. We are out of edible
bread, as the buns turned a really neat green/blue colour
yesterday, and the supply of other perishables is dwindling. The fridge has
been great, in that we still have fresh lamb chops for dinner tonight, even
though it has been five days since groceries. It doesn't seem to eat much power
at all. The big consumers are the incandescent lights that suck up a couple of
amps each. I need to get LED lighting!
I still have a whole bucket full of project stuff that needs
to get installed eventually. In Bayfield I rebedded
the hand rails, so that they should be a little more secure, and more
importantly, should not leak into the cabin and resoak
the cruising guides. I did some more sealing at the mast boot, so that should
be better, and really soon I will replace the gasketing
on the rest of the hatches. After that, maybe some of the new sailing hardware
will get installed in time for the racing.
It's now just about 1800 and less than four miles to the
mouth of the Sauble River where I plan to find an out
of the way spot to anchor tonight, so I think I will wrap it up now. Once we
get there that will make it about a 35 mile day. We need an early start
tomorrow to make Tobermory while it is still light.
There's not much of anywhere to go in between, except for a lot of pretty rocky
shoreline.
I hope everybody is doing well. Cheers!
Rick / Dad
PS I have combined these trip reports into a web version,
for those who are really keen to
read the installments again. The
address is:
http://me.queensu.ca/people/sellens/personal/dragonGB/
It may not be completely up to date.