heatherstreetsailing: Merlin Boat Delivery

Day One - Monday, 8 May 2017 - 1 nm

This week showed a weather window that would allow us 3 days to bring Franklin's CS 36 Merlin from Belleville to Toronto via the Bay of Quinte. We would again make the loop around because the Murray Canal would not be open.

Franklin picked me up at the house and we drove to Belleville to see some interesting weather challanges at the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club. The water levels were so high that the access road to the club was closed and we need to use a shuttle boat to get to Rona Cara. After having done so we took Rona Cara to the docks at Meyers Pier where we would do a bit of work before heading out early next morning.

We were told that B dock had power but that was not the case - many docks in many places would have the same issues due to the high water level. The fuel dock, a fixed dock, at Meyers was also inches from being swamped.

I did some work on running the sheets through the blocks and cars back to the cockpit and reinstalled the boom vang and lines. We went into town to refill the propane tank, get some groceries and had a bite to eat at Swiss Chalet.

During the night the heater stopped working and I got really cold and didn't sleep well the rest of the night.

Day Two - Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Left Belleville at 0736 after filling one of the water tanks and hoisting the dinghy onto the foredeck. Winds were very light and the skies were a bit overcast. It was still a bit chilly until the sun comes out to warm things up.

The plan was to get as far as Waupoos which was 45 nm away and overnight there. I called ahead to Waupoos to check that their fuel dock and docks were in fact open. This was done for Cobourg as well. We would top up the fuel in Waupoos to ensure that we could motor all the way to Toronto if needed.

There was little boat traffic up and down the reaches and we made good time to arrive in Waupoos at 1620. After refueling, we stayed tied to the fuel dock as there was no other boat traffic expected. In fact the marina was just in the process of installing their docks for the coming spring and summer.

The Waupoos fuel dock (fixed) was also only inches from being swamped. We did get some shore power as this would ensure that we would not lose heat over the night.

Services and cost of same was deemed a bit lacking - no washrooms or showers that we could see. Tried to go to the pub up the road but it was closed until later in the week.

Watched Deepwater Horizon on Franklin's laptop which was pretty interesting. I would end up watching it again later at home on Netflix.

Day Three - Wednesday, 10 May 2017 - 60 nm

After another terrible night of sleep and a miscommunication on when to get up - Franklin was underway on his own at 0645 before I was even completely up. Today we would go around the southeast corner of Prince Edward County and make our way to Cobourg and the wall used by reciprocal members to dock.

It looked as if the sun would be out and warm things up a bit. Winds were very light and forecast to be the same for the rest of the day.

Once around the corner we pulled out the headsail to give us a bit of a lift for the many miles to Cobourg.

I took 2 Sun Sights, recorded GPS for actual and to compute the track for the running fix. I would work these out at a later time or even after I got home. When reduced, the sights were pretty good although I was surprised at how hard the split horizon mirror was to actually see the horizon. I will need to work on this. I also didn't capture the 2nd GPS point accurately as it gave me an error on the track because we could not have traveled that far in that time at that speed - so I used an estimate of speed and distance over that duration - it produced a much better result.

We made good time once again and arrived in Cobourg at 1845. After a bit of a clean up, Franklin was kind enough to take us out to dinner for a very nice steak and a glass of wine at Marca on the Wharf. On the way back to the boat we decided to pop into the Cobourg Yacht Club to see what was happening. We had passed their boats out racing on the lake on the way in.

Didn't have to do much to announce ourselves as visiting members and got a glass of wine form the bar. Time to turn on the heat and get into bed - and hopefully some sleep.

Day Four - Thursday, 11 May 2017 - 65 nm

After a night of little sleep - don't know why - got underway at 0650. The seas were a bit bumpier, laid in a course to the Toronto Islands, rolled out the headsail and hunkered down for the miles ahead. It was partly cloudy and the winds were forecast to pick up from the East as a following wind. That would help to push us all the way to Toronto.

It seemed to be colder today so I put on my offshore gear to stay warm. The wind was more off the bow and after a while the waves were about 2 to 3 feet which threw us around a bit. After a time we rolled in the headsail as it wasn't helping too much.

For the longest time after the skyline of Toronto came into sight we had the little emerald kingdom to steer by until finally arriving at the waypoint of the spit at about 1700. Not much farther to go now.

The sun came out, the winds seemed stronger for the final run into Etobicoke Yacht Club.