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Well…. All fun things must come to an end. Time to head back to

Toronto. Arrived in Kingston before the big blow from some powerfull

thunderstorms went through. The trip back wasn’t all that easy, with

winds almost on the nose at 22knts gusting to 32knts. So there was a

bit of pounding into the waves.

So let’s see what I need to update you all about since the last time I

posted a blog entry.

We pretty much stayed the whole time in the navy islands it was a

great spot with great holding. Why move :). Colin decided yesterday

to jump over to another island for the night but I decided not to

since the weather forecast was calling for strong SW winds and where

he was going to drop the hook was wide open to the south. So Colin

ups the anchor and starts to head out when he notices no water is

coming out of the exhaust. So drops to hook again to look into why.

Finds that his filter for the water which cools the engine was full

with grass and weeds. With that cleared out and off he triesg again

the hook comes up and all set to move onto a new island.

Not so fast. Water still not coming out as it should so drop the hook

again. He finds out that the thru hull is packed with weeds and grass

(I’m watching this unfold from huck). So he manages to clear that out

and is ready to pull the anchor up when all of a sudden the windless

stops bring up the chain. Not a problem with windless but the anchor

it won’t come off the bottom. I jump into the dingy to see if I can

help. We rig a line from the chain back to the massive port side

winche he has. I cranked and cranked and what ever it was, wasn’t

going to let the anchor go. By the time we couldn’t bring it up

anymore the bow of the boat was a good 7-8 inches below the normal

waterline. We did manage to bring it up to 15ft below the surface. By

this time some Americans going by decided to see if they could help

out and using a diving mask was able to look down and see he snagged

on a cable. A unmarked cable. Colin looked all resources he had for

charts as I did later and none showed that there was any cables in

that area. Lovely, the American offered to dive down to rig up a line

looped around the cable we decided to rig a line around the cable

and tie it off to a cleet on the boat allowing us to drop the anchor

down and free it. $300 anchor saved and 300 feet of chain. After all

that I cleaned my filter and it was full as well.

Now back to me leaving this morning. I headed out and came around the

narrows between two islands when I noticed that the alarm for the

engine over heating was going off (not very loud either. Another item

to replace with something louder). Pop the engine out if gear and ran

to the bow to drop the anchor and about 100ft of line in about 30 ft

of water(have 40Ft of chain as well) and off the engine goes. I know

that the engine isn’t getting water. I check the filter and it’s full

of weeds again. It wasn’t enough to stop the flow of water. I open

the thru hull and not a drip of water comes in. This is a problem no

question I jam anything I could find into the thru hull but that’s not

going to work. I have but one choice and that’s dive. Not like I was

looking forward to take a swim at 10am. But no other choice. I tied a

line to myself inCase the current or wind decided to take me for a joy

float down the lake. Good thing I had a pair of swimming goggles

(mental note keep swimming glasses on board at all times.). Once I

relaxed from the shock of the cold water at that time of the morning I

manage to find the thru hull and with a wire pluck out the offending

grasses. Open the thru hull and we were back in biz

And that brings me back to Kingston

Where we docked up with two other eyc boats. One heading back to

Toronto and the other to the islands for the week.

Next stop

It’s been a few days since I updated the blog.

We stayed in Lindsay island for one night. It was a nice spot. But

could get very noisey quick with all the traffic in the channel behind

us. It was calm most of the night until about 3am when

I woke up because I could hear something banging on the mast woke up

and could hear that it was really blowing outside I went outside to

set my alarm for the depth in case the anchor was dragging. When I

noticed that the house boat wasn’t where it should have been. They

were up near shore. I could see that they had lights on and people

were awake. I guess their anchor didn’t hold and they went floating

into the rocks. No damage was done as far as I could tell because in

the morning I saw a powerboat pull them off and they reset their

anchor in the bay(I’m sure to have a nap after being up all night ;) )

In the afternoon we got a hold of Colin from eyc(who is race with) and

told us he was heading upto the navy group of islands so we decided to

join up. I had thought of moving to the navy islands anyways.

We have been in a bay behind stave island for two nights now. It’s

been pretty busy with traffic but over all not too bad. Finding the

enterance to this place became alittle tricky. And yes I did ask

another sailboat for directions. They looked like they were trying to

find the enterance as well. Figured they might know the way in. The

charts were tricky. They all seem to have different readings for how

much water was below the surface. We did go into the US for a few

mins without knowing it. Only later looking at the chart plotter did

a realize I wondered over that unvisable line.

We went into town yesterday to grab supplies and load up on some fuel

and water and get a pumpout Which became the most expensive pumpout

yet $30!!!! Talk about milking the boaters.

There is about a dozen boat in the bay I’m sure it will get busy with

traffic with people enjoying the long weekend. We have been invited

to move to another spot but I kinda like it in here. The water is

shallow and water than in the open river.

Plus yesterday Amanda was able to catch her first fish, well actually

she managed to get 2. The first from the dingy and the other from the

side of the boat while getting it cleaned up for the evening.

Looks like it’s going to be an awesome day today with sun all day.

We finally made it to the Thousand islands !! First night at anchor

just behind Lindsay Island. There are about 6-7 others here tonight.

Water Is calm(let’s hope it stays that way). Talk about tricky

navigation. Water depth goes from 30ft to 6 feet in no time.

Sent from my iPhone

Arrived in dandy cove from cobourg. It’s located just east of

belleville. Trip over was wicked. Winds over 15knts with big big big

rollers. Waves where above out heads at times when we were at the

bottom of the waves. Did over 6.3 knts most of the time. For the

first time we sailed for a good chunk for the first time. Next time

thousand islands !! About time !! :)

Sent from my iPhone

Arrived in Coburg save and sound much better day than yesterday. Wind

was perfect in the right direction but just not enough of it. Ended up

Motor sailing most of the way did sail as well but when the speeds

dropped down to 4knts I decided we needed to power up the universal

and get moving to arrive in time to coburg and have a spot. It looked

like a convo of boats heading in this direction. Off in the Morning

towards Murray canal.

Sent from my iPhone