Adventures in no wind
09 August 2010 | Georgian Bay
Ian, clear hot
Once we had our boat s/v Windreaper in the water we had to lots to do get her ready. She has not been in the water almost 15 years.! Awful, yes, I know. Just call it life. She finally became a watercraft in July, and the month was spent making sure our little outboard would get us out to the main bay.
Today we travelled the first trip out to the bay, 3.9 nautical miles out, then seeing the wind out near Snake Island, we motored further to try to see if our sail boat would become a sailboat again!,
In very brief puff of wind our Genoa was unfirled, the main up and we shut down the engine, Oh what a momment!!! we were doing it. Sailing. Kate our daughter and Jen my first mate were experiencing what I had been telling they would enjoy so much!
But..... just as that happened, poof the wind died as some nasty looking storm clouds arrived. Though travelling south of us they somehow killed the wind. So, motor on again and push on for the Sandbar.... and swimming.
The motor didnt like that so after serious consideration and little wind we shut down to wait for some wind to come.
In about a half hour a small breeze came up.... but not enough to take the wrinkle out of the sails. SO I said we wold try out our Drifter/reefer Spinaker.
Oh how pretty it looked, hoisted and softly filled with this little breeze. The GPS suddenly shot up to 1.2 knots. Wow, sailing again!
We sttod like this for about another half hour and finally decided our day of sailing was not going to happen. Decision made and our crew was getting hungry we fired up the outboard motor and headed back into port.
As we neared Victoria Harbour we saw people diving and swimming from another boat, I think it was a Tanzer 22, they appeared to be having fun.
Another change of plans, crew was hot in the sun, lets swim, so at 26 feet on the depth sounder, we drop anchor, fired the grill, and spend the next 3 hours resting and enjoying our achorage!
Next effort we agree, make the sandbar.
by for now
Ian
PS, getting caught up and learning this blog stuff, hope this posts.