Air Show 2019

We had guests out for the air show this year.  Emily & Leigh came on the Saturday, so they could enjoy Pig Roast, and Paul & Helena came out on Labour Day Monday.  Paul and Helena are avid photographers, and showed up with a selection of fancy cameras.

Breezy Day

 

Kim and Adam came for a sail on a breezy day.  Always fun!

Heading Home

From Cobourg, we mostly motored using the autopilot, to our regular stop at the Port Whitby Marina, before heading home.

Rib Fest in Cobourg

Our next stop took us to Cobourg, where our friends Tina and Dan happened to be staying, and it was Ribfest!  Dan and Tina are buying a condo, still under construction, where they'll spend their summers overlooking the lake and harbour, with plans to cruise the Bahamas during the winter months.  

Sodus is always a favourite stop

We spent a few days in Sodus Bay, enjoying the good weather.  Even better, we met Sandy and Tom from Oakville, enjoying drinks on the club patio before heading out with them to a newish restaurant in town - the 650.  Great pizza and there was enough for lunch the next day.  

I learned that Sandy is the Executive Director of the ILC Foundation, which aims to help individuals overcome the challenges of living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes and other chronic pain diseases through knowledge-sharing resources, awareness, education, wellness support and research to find cures.  This is one of the things I love about cruising - we meet so many people we wouldn't necessarily cross paths with otherwise.

Sodus still has pretty high water, with part of the road closed, and pumps running all around town. It's interesting to see the various types of flood mitigation tools all around town, from waterdams at the beach, to sandbags, to huge pumps.

Wild Ride

After completing the sale of our home, we headed out for the next part of our vacation.  Friday was pretty breezy, but we were heading downwind towards Rochester.  We left around 3:30 in the afternoon for an overnight trip, flying only the headsail.  After an hour or so, we rolled up part of the sail without really losing much speed.  It was a pretty wild ride, with 1-2 metre waves from behind.  We had moonlight until about 2:30 in the morning, then steered by the glow the of the city ahead.  We saw lots of lightning in the distance, but had no weather worries.


We sailed all the way to the Gennessee River with just that bit of our headsail, arriving in Rochester just before 7:00 am.  After checking into the country and a warm breakfast, it was time for a nap.  

Ajay picked us up in the afternoon for a visit to Webster.  On Sunday, we were able to return the favour by hosting Cathy, Ajay and Sara at the Rochester Yacht Club pool, and dinner at Schooners.     

West End Mini Cruise - Hamilton

For the long weekend,  QCYC had a reciprocal cruise with Royal Hamilton Yacht Club.  RHYC had been our first trip when we first got our boat in 2006.  We arrived at the lift bridge just before it opened, so didn't have to wait around.  We actually passed under with Fine Romance from QCYC.  The club has beautiful new docks, which have been put in since our Cruising Guide was last published, so the docks didn't match the photo we had. The dockmaster was very helpful in getting us settled in.  
On Saturday night, we had a club pot luck before dinner.  As often happens, we didn't actually need dinner, because there were so many great snacks provided by members. 

Sunday we attended mass at a nearby church, then walked almost 6 km to Millionaire's

Daughter.  No good finds today, but it was an interesting walk along Barton St.  It's quite an economically depressed street, with lots of boarded up businesses, on the border of the industrial areas and residencial neighbourhoods.  We went past the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre, the Children's hospital, Hamilton General, and a bunch of churches, including two Polish churches.  Near St. Stanislaus Kostka, there was a branch of the Polish Credit Union, a Polish deli, and 2 other churches, but not much else.

We got an early start on Monday, going under the bridge at the 9:00 a.m. opening.  We motored for the first couple of hours, then had a great sail to the Western Gap.  First cruise of the season was a great success!

West End Mini Cruise day 2-3

We had an easy motor to Port Credit Yacht Club, going past our new neighbourhood.  I enjoyed the pool for a while to help beat the heat.  Katie had the day off, and joined us for dinner in the dining room, where we enjoyed wonderful service and a complementary glass of champagne - or is that sparkling wine?  

There were three C&C Landfall 38s all docked within a few feet of each other.  We had come across Mariner in Picton in 2008, and met the owners of the other boat as we were heading over for dinner.  It's not often that we come across another Landfall, so this was pretty cool.
   
The next day, we took a walk to Port Credit village, going past Mal and Kashi's place.  Ed worked with Mal in the 80's and we had been to their beautiful home on the lake many years ago.  Jacqui and Eriks had dropped off Wild Jasmine the day before, and were back after work, in time for dinner.  This time Katie was doing the cooking as we ate in the Chart Room.

West End Mini Cruise Day 1

With a club cruise to Hamilton on the long weekend, we took the opportunity to leave a few days early to stop at some other west end clubs.  First stop was Mimico Cruising Club.  The last time we were there, Katie had been working there.  We had a bit of a sail, but the winds were pretty light.  

We were docked on the south wall, and across the parking lot on the lawn, a family of foxes was playing.  We saw them throughout the afternoon and evening.  They kept their distance, but weren't really afraid of people.  We took a walk to the grocery store at Lakeshore and Parklawn the next morning before heading out for the day.   

Sailpast on the Commodore's yacht

Sailpast fell on our 34th wedding anniversary this year.  It was a cool day, but we were reasonably comfortable at anchor.  It was our first time really anchoring Prime Interest and all went well.  Andy helped us set a stern anchor so that we didn't swing around in the breeze, and came back at the end in case we needed help pulling the anchors up.

As I saluted the fleet, Ed played photographer and captured each boat as they passed us.

Since I only have 2 race flags, I followed Jacqui's lead and came up with a message with which to dress ship which used each letter no more than twice, since I only had two sets of flags available - QC 2019 ALL HANDS ON DECK. 

All Hands on Deck

We were hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.  2019 spring was cool and wet, and with snow melt from the winter, all the Great Lakes reached record levels.  We were much better prepared this time than in 2017, and started sandbagging vulnerable areas early.  The clubhouse has remained dry, and the grounds and lawn have gone from dry to flooded and back again, sometimes several times in a day.



The city worked hard to keep the island open this year, and as a result, the public wasn't always aware how bad the situation was.  We did have a number of media outlets come around while we were sandbagging, and I was glad to be able to showcase the hard work of our members.

From filling and placing sandbags to monitoring pumps around the clock, the members heeded the call for All Hands on Deck.