TRIAL RUN

So today is day 6 of our trial sailing voyage on the St. Lawerence, Lake Ontario and surrounding areas. We are anchored off Amherst Island which is around 20 minutes West of Kingston. A ferry brings residence to and from the mainland. The anchorage is called Kerr Bay. There are currently 5 other boats anchored in the bay also. As I write this Sal is doing a workout on the deck to keep in shape for his upcoming police examination in the End of July.

I haven’t written in the blog in a long while, this is partly due to having dial-up internet at my parents place, being very busy with boat preparations and work and a hint of procrastination. Over the past few months we installed 2 water tanks in Second Wind, one that holds 15 gallons in the bow, and one that holds 26 gallons under the port setee. We also installed a holding tank for the head under the cockpit. This turned out to be quite a tense day as the tank took 2 weeks to arrive and though I had sworn the measurements I took were correct, it was about ½ inch too long. I got lucky in that we were able to do a bit of trimming along the edges of boat and it just fit with two people maneuvering the tank to various angles. Other jobs included painting, putting in locker dividers, installing a water pump for the water tanks and creating an anchor locker in the stern for our Danforth.

My parents have also been very busy getting their boat Chautauqua ready for launch, hopefully mid August. My dad has recently painted the decks, we painted the bottom and a new waterline. The galley was redone, holding tanks, water tanks, new interior cushions, etc. etc. The list goes on. Last time we spoke they had put in the new engine and propeller.

So Sal finished work mid May, and has been doing a lot of travelling between Kitchener and Brockville and getting things organized for his application to RCMP and Regional police. I worked on the neighbours dairy farm until the middle of June. We are planning to have this trip last approximately 1 month to see if #1. It’s possible, for us to live together in tight quarters #2 get the bugs out and find any improvements before we go on the ‘big adventure’ and #3 take some time to enjoy the summer since we haven’t really had a summer together for the whole time we’ve been together.

We launched the boat Thursday June 24th in Gananoque between the periods of rain. The engine started, we got all our food stores packed away and we awaited a break in the rain before motor sailing around to an anchorage off Leek Island. We spent the rest of the day putting everything away and getting used to ‘life afloat’. The next day we had a great sail up to Brakey Bay, followed by a wet sail to Navy Bay (between RMC and Fort Henry in Kingston) and then the following day motored to Confederation Basin where we got a slip in the day docks for the night. My parents came up for coffee and to check that we were doing ok. We left yesterday and had another great sail past Kingston up to Kerr Bay where we’ve spent the whole of today relaxing and catching up on some reading. Our plan is to head to Picton and then up to Belleville.

Next post will hopefully be shorter in both time and length.