My cousin Zaza has come from France to visit her daughter, Lucie, who moved here a couple of years ago. Before this visit, I hadn't seen her in over 35 years, since my only visit to France when I was 14 years old. Zaza had spent a year in Canada when she was in her late teens. It's been wonderful getting to spend time with her, and what could be more relaxing than an evening sail at the end of the work week. My niece Magda and her boyfriend Alec also joined us.
We headed out on a beautiful, sunny, late afternoon. We raised the sails just after going through the eastern gap, and turned off the engine. There was little wind, but our guests were happy to be on the water. While I was below preparing some snacks, Ed said I should come up to see the mist rolling in. We don't get a lot of fog in Toronto, so this was strange. The wind picked up just enough that we could actually feel that we were moving, and we thought we could still stay out on the lake, when suddenly, we were enveloped in really thick fog. Visibility went down to a few dozen feet almost instantly. We started the engine, got the sails down, and I went forward with the air horn to keep an eye out for shore and other boats, and to signal our position.
We started up the handheld GPS, and while it was acquiring a signal, we motored as slowly as we could in what we thought was the right direction for the channel. Ed spotted the green buoy near the island, and the fog lifted enough so that we made it through the gap and into the harbour. We were debating whether it would be safe to stay out a little longer when the fog thickened again. Decision made. We got back without incident and enjoyed some refreshments aboard before heading up to the club restaurant for dinner. During dinner, the fog rolled in again, so thickly that we could hardly see the other side of the lagoon, but by the time we were done, the skies cleared and we got a great view of the Toronto skyline.
On Sunday, Derek, Hayley, and Emily came out for a sail. Derek and Hayley had taken sailing lessons at Humber in June just before their vacation, and were happy to have a good breeze for a sailing day. This was probably one of the best weekends we've had this summer, weatherwise, with sunshine, warm temps and a nice breeze.
Afterwards, as we were enjoying a refreshment in the cockpit, a couple of kayakers were paddling by, and Emily recognized Scott and Louise from the curling club. We invited them to stop for a drink, and gave them a little tour of the clubhouse. They're considering buying a boat, and are looking for a yacht club with a comfortable atmosphere. Maybe QCYC will fit the bill.
Deb and Andrew brought their new boat, Delta G a Hanse 37, to QCYC to join us for this year's Women Skippers Race. It turned out that Prime Interest was one of only 4 boats in the 29 feet and over category. We got over the line about a minute after the rest of the group, which was fine with me. With the wind from the south, we had to tack through the gap, with a freighter approaching the outer end of the shipping channel. With 3 boats tacking close to each other, I was pretty nervous and wanting to get out of the way of the others, but Ed and Andrew encouraged me to hold my course and we were able to get ourselves out of the channel with only one boat still ahead of us.
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| Deb concentrating |
I couldn't believe we passed that boat, and rounded the Gibraltar mark first! On the way back, the wind suddenly got really light going back through the channel, and it felt like we were stopped. We managed to cross the finish line over 5 minutes ahead of the next boat, Wild Jasmine, but with our boat's PHRF rating (handicap), we ended up second on corrected time. We later learned that Ascend, a normally fast racing boat, had a branch caught on their rudder, which is likely why we managed to pass them. The race flags for the WSR are usually handed out on the lawn after the race, but this year, the club is having special 125th anniversary race flags printed, which will be handed out at the Awards Banquet at the end of the season. I guess we'll have to go this year.
The cruise in to Niagara-on-the-Lake was a great way to finish off our vacation. On the way home, we had our best sail of the trip, right across the lake to Toronto. This was going to be a west end cruise, and ended up being a south shore cruise. We didn't cover as much ground as we often do, but enjoyed staying a little longer at the various ports, and meeting friends old and new.
We arrived at NOLSC on Friday evening, along with a handful of other QCYC boats. The rest of the cruisers arrived on Saturday, most of them having motored due to lack of wind. First thing in the morning, Eriks from Wild Jasmine came by with our 125th anniversary burgee, which had finally arrived when we were on vacation, and we had a visit aboard with Eriks and Jacqui. We enjoyed a walk through town, and I managed to get a bunch of laundry done before most boats arrived. In the afternoon, we had drinks at the tiki bar on the deck near our boat before joining all the cruisers for a potluck cocktail party before dinner. In fact, with so many snacks, Ed and I didn't bother with dinner, and had a quiet evening.
On Sunday, since we were finished breakfast early, we went to mass at St. Vincent de Paul Church, right near the yacht club. It's a nice little church. Later in the afternoon, we spent a little money at the art show near the light house, and met with the cruisers for a pint at The Olde Angel Inn just off the main street. We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Corks Winebar and Eatery with Jacqui and Eriks, and finished the evening with a little rum tasting.
As we were leaving Port Dalhousie, we passed several ships which were anchored near the entrance to the Welland Canal, but otherwise, it was pretty quiet on the water until we got close to the Niagara River.
QCYC had arranged a cruise in the Niagara-on-the-Lake for the August long weekend, and we had decided to join in from wherever we were. We had to leave DYC at around noon, but needed to get to Niagara-on-the-Lake Sailing Club late in the afternoon, because the slip wouldn't be available until then. With only 10 nautical miles to go, lots of time to kill, and having hardly sailed on this cruise, we decided that we would sail, even though the winds were very light. We spent the first couple of hours bobbing along at about 1 knot, but then actually had a pretty good sail for a few hours. By the time the wind really picked up, we were ready to start the engine so that we could finally get to NOLSC. We got a great slip close to the clubhouse, and it had only taken us 6 hours!
