[Public-List] Un-Misery Trip...

[Gordon Laco]

Hello Gang,

 

SURPRISE had a wonderful pleasure cruise last weekend... the weather here on the Upper Great Lakes is continuing summer-like, so my wife and I decided to go sailing.

 

We packed things up Friday afternoon and set sail in a dead calm (which means motoring) around Midland Point to Penetanguishene Harbour, where we dropped anchor in the old naval anchorage at the Discovery Harbour historic site (still can’t get used to that name... it was the RN’s Upper Lakes dockyard establishment, something in me thinks that’s what it should be called despite public surveys...)

 

Had a nice supper under slowly emerging stars, as the constellations revealed themselves one by one (Thanks, Gord Downie).

 

Got underway motoring again in a very light SW zephyr to rendezvous with friends in their Shark class yacht SCORCHER off Watson’s Point.  Yes, we do communicate with some people who sail those verminous things that infest our B Fleet starts during Wednesday night races.

 

What followed was a repeat of the Misery Trip, but in delightfully mild conditions.  Dropped the hook again at Bone Island, and deigned to allow the Shark to raft up to us.  We took turns rowing our dinghy around the cove... saw turtles, a fat beaver, and something large that disturbed a lot of water as it swam away when we surprised it (giant fish, big snapping turtle?)

 

Had a merry feast, followed by rum and aquavit sampling after.  Terrific stars again, slept with the hatches open.

 

Sunday morning, cast off SCORCHER after she’d hoisted her mainsail, then recovered our anchor (ah, no mud, no weeds, perfect) and glided out of the anchorage under sail.  Acknowledged the approving comments from a couple of fellows in motorboats of the type we call ‘power hogs’ rafted to each other.  My wife commented that it was good we exchanged pleasant greetings with them after the hard thoughts expressed the night before... they’d run their generators for a long time, and held a conversation to each other with voices raised over the diesel throbs about how one of them was going to cheat a soon-to-be ex-wife by fabricating a fraudulent sale of the boat for a very low price...  We didn’t soften our opinion of those guys, but it was nicer to have a pleasanter punctuation to the episode than daydreaming about sinking them.

 

The wind was south, and pleasantly warm as we close reached out of Musquash Channel past Sugar Island again, then Ship Island with its elusive green pin, then we bore away for Minnicognashene’s Z shaped channel.  Passed the spot where earlier this summer we saw a large pike apparently unable to dive and floundering on the surface.... until it produced a big ‘burp’ of air and finally drove purposefully into the depths.  Read later that sometimes those fish accidentally gulp air when in pursuit, and have difficulty expelling it.  Well, we were glad to learn it wasn’t likely injured, and imagined it thinking ‘damn, isn’t it just my luck that this would happen when someone was here to see it...’

 

So away reaching to windward of Gull Rock, to leeward of Penetang and Hotchkiss Rocks, and into Minnicog.  The wind was building but hanging south, making the jog up to the exit channel directly to windward, just as when Pim and I scourged through short tacking a few days ago.   

 

As we approached the turn to windward Caroline said to me ‘don’t we have to run the blower for a while before starting the engine?’    I just nodded and kept watching the jib’s luff.  She sighed, and said with resignation ‘so we’re not starting the engine’. And pushed up her sleeves in preparation for what was coming.

 

We cut inside the first buoy very close, gaining every inch to windward possible.  Three boat lengths later we tacked, holding our breath about pushing outside the indicated channel... and so on till we were up and out of the narrows.  How many tacks?  I forget.    One difference between this time and last time with Pim, was that there was enough south in the 20 knots of wind that we had to short tack out through the narrow exit channel as well as up through the approach to it...

 

As we caught our breath close reaching out into Severn Sound, I said to Caroline ‘good work sweetheart, if we can wiggle the boat through that under sail in this wind, we can wiggle her through anything.   She nodded and said ‘but we wouldn’t have to, because we look after the engine properly, right?’

 

Girls are so practical.

 

So away toward home, taking long tacks port and starboard, past Gin Rocks, the pin off Beausoliel Island we call the ‘Mud Stick’ because it marks a long clay bank that brings 3’ of water nearly a mile out into the Sound.  Remembered again the day years ago in the Folkboat we’d spent a good part of an afternoon hauling a larger fibreglass sloop off the bank, then got stuck ourselves while recovering our three anchors...and the guy took off and left us there...

 

Considered reefing the main as we found we were dipping the rail but hesitated, which was a good thing because the air began softening right away.  We laughed about adjusting the old sailors adage that goes ‘the time to reef is when it first occurs to you’ into ‘the time to reef is after the second time it occurs to you because the first time may be too soon...’.

 

After a slash into Midland Bay past Snake Island, we furled up and motored in, making a pit stop at the marine next door to the club to get a pump out and refuel so the boat will be ready for next weekend’s ‘Other Misery Trip’.     While the cute blond chicky in white shorts was doing our pump out, I made my usual joke while watching debris flow up the hose through the clear section... ‘oh there goes yesterday’s lunch, that was good, ah there goes last night’s supper, pork chops, yum’.   I thought I was hilarious but she was as inscrutable as Melania Trump, behind her sunglasses.

 

So, next weekend, the Other Misery Trip, then haul out and the end of 2017 Sailing... too soon... too soon.

 

Gord

#426 Surprise