Iceman Cruising
| Vessel Name: | Iceman46 |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Sea Ray Sundancer 400 |
| Hailing Port: | Ecarte Marime , Port Lambton , Ontario, Canada |
| Crew: | Wayne Franklin and Lori Tratnjek |
| About: | yearly cruising of between 1000 & 2000 kt miles thru Lakes Huron & Georgian Bay and/or Lake Erie and/or the Eire Canal , Hudson River , Lake Champlain, St. Lawrence River , Ottawa River, Rideau , and/or Trent-Severn Canal systems |
07 January 2021
October 21st & forward
I returned to the boat on the October 21st and with Gerald's help the batteries were removed and I cleaned under the battery cases and applied a layer of gel coat. I also looked for a way to run power from the new to be installed inverter to the power panel in the boat cabin. It took quite a while but [...]
31 December 2020
September 14th to September 21st
We left at sunrise for Kincardine and had good seas and were able to cut straight south instead of following the shore line for protection as we had done last year. We visited with Rick and Cheryl and left before sun up in order to miss an early afternoon wind direction change that never happened !! You've got to love weather forecasts !! We were in Sarnia before noon and stayed for a week. I rented a car and we drove to Ingersoll for Lori's car and visited friends a bit before heading to Ecarte Marine for winter storage.
29 December 2020
August 27th to September 13th
We got an early start crossing Rice Lake and up the Otonabee River to Peterborough by 1pm. We plan to stay a week as we enjoyed our stay before and were always on the move. Shopping , walking , dinghy rides and of course wings at Riley's on Tuesday night. The local boaters were always on the dock in [...]
26 December 2020
August 23 to August 27th
On the 23rd we headed for Napanee for a couple of nights and hoped to see boaters we met last year. Not much going on here , few boats and the town was not busy . We walked a bit both days.
26 December 2020
August 19th to August 22nd
We up early and left for Kingston Mills Locks in order to arrive for the first lock . We had to wait about an hour and then locked down through the 4 locks and into Lake Ontario basin at Kingston and we headed for Picton arriving at 2pm and Marianne picked us up and took us to their place. We were there [...]
Aug 28th to Sept 6th
It was still cloudy and raining a bit as we got ready to leave Midland at 6:55am and headed to Thornbury . The weather was warm and as we got out in the open past Christian Island the wind had picked up and 3's became 5's and soon we were in 8' to 10' waves and no way to turn back . It was not scary but was not where I wanted to be . We continued on for 2 hours and then it subsided as we turned toward Thornbury . When we arrived we discouvered a lot of mess in the boat including a broken TV and a 2 hour job to clean up . W then decided to walk up town to the Home Hardware which the marina staff said was a 20 minute walk !! 2 km later we bought a hook to reattach the step on the boat which was damaged by the rough waters . On the way back after checking out the 1 block downtown we found an ice cream store and had a treat after our long walk .
The next day we were ready to leave at 6:55 am and with dark clouds in the west we headed for Tobermory with only a short stretch of 4's in mostly sunny skies . Lori was surprise how deep parts of Georgian Bay are seeing some at over 400' .We were fiueled up and tied up for the night by 11:40am . We had lunch at a bar and then walked the town for a while before watching a movie annd relaxing .
We were ready to go by 8 am and headed for Kincardine in 13 C sunny morning. A lot of the time we were in 4' + waves . We were looking forward to the seafood platter at the Erie Belle hotel and were disappointed to find it was no longer on the menu so we left and enjoyed Chinese food instead . I called Rick and Cheryl and they came to the boat for docktails and catching up on the past year .
We were up and ready to leave for the last long days sailing for the 2018 boating season back to the St Clair River and a weekend with friends in the Bridge Harbour Marina in Port Huron . Lori took some sun rise pictures as we left Kincardine . It was a little rough and cool for about 1 1/2 hours and then the sun came out and the remainder of the sail was great . We arrived at the marina by 12:30pm . We rode our bikes to the parcel pickup and got the fuel treatment I had ordered . Our friends showed up late in the day and we socialized for a while before retiring for the night .
We were up early and I baked muffins for the whole gang and they were gone in no time .Lori and I walked to Menards and on to Sam's Club and back to the boat (50 min each way) and then partied for a while and then to bed .
Wow , couldn't believe we slept in so late . We made a huge pot of chilli and biscuits and went and visited and played games annd got our 1st sunburn of the year. There was a large group this year and well behaved kids . Great time .
In the morning we all went up to Bob Evans for breakfast . Not much happening so we returned to the boat and began packing . We said our goodbyes and left about 10:55am and arrived at Sarnia Bay Marins by 11:45 am. Greg annd Alecia came to the boat by 2:00pm for docktails and then we ended up going out for supper. We had an early night as we were going to be busy the next day .
We got a ride to Enterprise car rental , returned to the boat and loaded everything we could get into the car and headed for Ingersoll . We unloaded the car and Lori followed me back to Sarnia , turned in the car and back to the boat . We put all the laundry into Lori's car and we headed for Port Lambton - Lori driving her car and me the boat .I arrived about 5:30pm and we began packing .
The next morning a Cat mechanic came to fix an oil leak . We then headed to Algonac for fuel before we put the boat away . George came with us . Upon our return I changed all the oils and took samples of the oil and antifreeze to be analyzed . We packed up all we could and loaded it in the car .
Sept 6th we were up early getting everything loaded in the car and doing the final cleanup of everything . we then took the boat to get pumped out and it was hauled to the shed foor storage . I disconnected the batteries and we left for home to get ready for our next adventure - DRIVING TO NEWFOUNDLAND and visiting friends along the way , there and on the way home . Our summer trip was 1659 kt miles .
