- No more truck (the lease was taken over today),
- No more phones (both contracts were taken over),
- No more problems!
Going for a walk after taking the dinghy to shore at Prinyers Cove.
Salad is not good for you, if you are a cormorant that is, who decides to get stuck in it. While involved with another sail repair (don’t ask), we looked out off our boat and noticed a bird in the water that didn’t look quite right. With a bit closer inspection we came to the conclusion that the poor bird was stuck. As neither Rebecca or I can stand seeing injured animals, we had to figure out a rescue plan.
As usual, we were docked “stern to,” which meant that getting our dinghy in the water wasn’t quite as easy as normal. Ultimately we did it though, by lifting it, and the engine, over the dock and dropping it into the water on the other side. With boat hook and leather gloves aboard, I set off to free the bird. He was well stuck, and obviously very tired when I got there. I think he might have also injured a wing during his struggles to free himself. The boat hook did the trick though and with a bit of work, he was on his way. Where did he go? He swam across to the next dock and got stuck all over again! Yes, rescue effort two was undertaken and he was again set free. I turned my back on him after that though. If he really wanted to commit suicide, who was I to stand in his way?
Just so that you don’t think that I get all the fun “salad” jobs, here is Rebecca doing her part to remove a bunch of it from our rudders and engines, just prior to raising sail:
Where do we stand in the big getaway-plan? Reservations have been made at Oswego Marina for this weekend and I have ordered our Honda 2000 generator from Mayberry’s to arrive there by Friday. We expect to leave here Saturday or Sunday, weather depending.
As the days tick by, we have been quite busy saying our goodbyes to our friends and family. Today we are off to Ottawa to visit with our daughter Cass. Yesterday we were treated to dinner by our friend Mike (Thanks Mike. Dinner was great!), and had a surprise visit from one of our old students, John. And we had a huge surprise out on the water yesterday too. After just dousing our sails, we looked up to see a large catamaran coming directly at us. Unsure of their intensions, we slowed down, only to see when they got closer that is was our boat’s previous owners, David and Jackie in their new-to-them Lagoon 380. We rafted up briefly at the mouth of Collin’s Bay to chat and get a quick tour of their vessel. The word palace comes to mind when I think of that boat. Those two have been so helpful to us throughout that last year and it was great for them to pay us a surprise visit to say goodbye. It made us very happy.
We said our goodbyes and they sailed off into the sunset (not really the sunset as it was still morning, but you get the idea).
Barring any gales or typhoons, we are just about on track for our August 1st departure goal, which is a good thing considering we are only paid up at our marina until then. We actually went and gave our notice to the owners of Collin’s Bay Marina yesterday. They pretended to be sad that we were leaving and loaded us down with all kinds of marina swag. We are very happy that fate pointed us to Collin’s Bay as we have had many great experiences there. But alas, it’s time to move on. But where to?
Our first destination will be Oswego Marina, although we may end up stopping off at Main Duck Island on the way across the lake. We wrote about sailing to Main Duck last January but have still yet to do it (although we did sail quite close by it). The Oswego Marina is right at the beginning of the Oswego Canal System, which is also where we will have to take our mast down. We’re still not 100% clear on how we’re going to carry our mast but hopefully we can sort that out this week (it’s on the list).
Here is what I found about the marina: Yes, they have a slip that can accommodate us, at $1.50/foot (note that once we cross the border all currencies discussed will be US dollars). They charge $2.00/foot to take the mast down although we found out last night that is based on the mast length, not the boat length. Stupid tall mast! The lady I spoke to at the marina also told me that they would be able to accept the shipment of the generator that we want to order. That is good news too. I think I will put the wheels in motion and get that ordered today.
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?
With a draft of only just over 3′ (that’s how much water we need or we touch bottom) it is only natural that we end up in the shallowest part of the marina. Along with the shallow water though comes weeds, or what we like to call “salad.” Plenty of salad!
Near the end of last season the weeds were so bad that even we, with our 3′ draft, needed to move to a deeper area of the marina. I’m sad to report that we think the weeds are as bad now, or even worse than they were in September 2009. On our previous two trips out sailing we have had to stop our boat at the mouth of the bay and dive underneath to clear the weeds from the engines and the rudders. The first time this happened we didn’t realize how bad it was until we got the sails up and had difficulty steering. Yesterday, while taking a couple of friends out for a day sail, we decided to play it safe and dive down to check before messing with the sails. Good thing we did. There were so many weeds I actually came out of the water laughing and asked Rebecca to go get the camera so I could take pics. The following photo shows only a small fraction of what was down there. Crazy! I think it’s just about time to head south.
Yes, we turned off the engines before I got in the water!
Just a fraction of the “salad” that was trying to go for a ride with us.
Changing the subject, the following video is a montage of clips from our fast sail from Presqu’ile to Waupoos on July 17th. You might want to take some motion-sickness medicine before watching the clip as it was a pretty wavy ride! 
If you’re looking for even more in the way of pics and videos, there is plenty on our Facebook page, including over 80 photos from our recent circumnavigation of Prince Edward County.
Yes, that’s a bastardization of a Bruce Lee quote about fighting but isn’t it really the highest level we can aspire to? Here’s what I’m talking about.
The other day, when I was installing the battery monitor that I described on our blog, I had turned the power on and off multiple times (via the main battery bank switch). At some point during this installation I heard some mystery sound, sort of like “chunk.” I actually went up to the bow a couple of times because it sounded as if something was banging into our port side hull. Finding nothing, I would resume work only to hear it again later. After finishing with the battery monitor, some further investigation brought me down into the galley and then ultimately I found that the mystery “chunk” sound was coming from our refrigerator’s compressor. 
Just what I needed… now the fridge wasn’t working!
Like many things on this boat, the compressor is at least somewhat accessible, in this case either through a hatch in the galley or by hanging upside down like a bat into one of the salon seats’ storage areas. I retrieved the unit’s manual and noticed that the compressor has a troubleshooting LED on the back which, when observed (by imitating that bat), can lead you to determine a possible cause for the problem. What does our LED tell me? Low voltage. LOW VOLTAGE? WTF! How is that possible? I searched some stuff on google, looking for an answer, but all I found was how much money I would have to spend to replace the beast.
The refrigerator’s compressor lives behind that wooded hatch. Unrelated to this story, we had such a rough sail the other day, that banana pealed itself and tried to escape!
Part way through writing an email to my PDQ friend, asking for advice, I had an epiphany. The low voltage reading was caused by… yes, the smart readers might have been able to guess… I forgot to turn the ship’s batteries back on. Duh! Turning the big switch from Off to Both fixed the problem then and there. And that only took 30 minutes of “research” to figure out. Sometimes I really think I have been hit in the head too much!
Some good did come out of all this though. I am a bit more familiar with our boat’s refridgeration system and I got a great tip from our friend Jeff. As a way of foretelling if there are problems with the fridge requiring further observation, Jeff installed an inexpensive outdoor thermometer (the type with the small external probe attached by a wire) to monitor the box’s temperature. The temperature of the reading itself is not so important, as it will vary according to where the sensor is placed in the box. What is important is noting if there are any radical changes in the temperature displayed. Of course, adding a bunch of groceries to the unit, or opening and closing it multiple times will effect it too. Checking the unit in the morning each day should give consistent readings though, if all is functioning properly.
This thermometer runs on one AAA battery and it cost ONLY 9.95 at Canadian Tire!
Like it was made to be there!
It is important that the sensor not move because that will effect the readings. I attached it at a relatively protected spot in the box. The muffin fan beside it was installed by our boat’s previous owner. It comes on when the compressor runs and helps to circulate the air in the fridge, making it work more efficiently.
When I initially wrote about which bank to use down south, a recommendation was made for Scotiabank by one of the commenters. Our friend in Grenada concurred that he also felt that Scotiabank had the best network of ATMs there. So trusting that, Rebecca and I were off to the bank yesterday to open new accounts. We will have two accounts with only 1 attached to the ATM card. When we need cash we’ll transfer money to the working account (online) and then withdraw it right away. In this way, if our card is ever compromised, they won’t have access to any larger sums of money (not that we have such a thing).
Also on our “list” yesterday was visiting our lawyer to update our wills. Our current will is pretty much OK so we only need a small codicil to update some changes.
While running around we also tried to get all of our prescriptions filled. It was harder than we expected. Apparently they had difficulty with the medicinal marijuana although I’m not sure why.
Kidding folks… Drugs are bad, remember? 
Dear ZTC Friends,
We have recently retained Leasebusters to find someone to take over the lease on our vehicle 2008-HUMMER-H3. This is the final thing which is preventing us from leaving.
Should you or someone you know be looking for a vehicle, kindly consider our vehicle and we will make the transaction very simple and seamless.
Click on this link to review all the details of our vehicle and the lease package attached to it.
If you have any questions or comments; feel free to give us a call at any time (our telephone number is listed on the Details Page).
Sincerely,
Michael and Rebecca
(Some) drugs may be bad, and expensive, but that didn’t stop us from visiting our family doctor yesterday to discuss requirements for our med kit and to obtain some prescriptions.
As we aren’t going to be too far off the beaten path (at least not for a while anyway), and as mentioned, these things are expensive (and perishable), we didn’t go crazy with medicines. My doctor was extremely helpful though and made numerous recommendations for us, both for prescription drugs and ones that are available over-the-counter. He even gave us his cel phone number and told us to call him any time if we were ever stuck!
Somehow the following drug didn’t make it onto the list though?!?!
One of our biggest challenges this season, as we have been spending more and more time away from the dock, is energy management, and I’m not talking about conserving my energy for all of the workouts that Rebecca makes me do. I’m talking about the electricity available from our battery bank. The battery monitor that our boat came with is the Link 1000. It works fine as the controller for the inverter I suppose, but it is definitely inadequate for a battery monitor.
As you can see in the pic above, the Link 1000 shows the batteries voltage in 0.5V increments. Given that we only have a couple of volts to play with, that isn’t super helpful. It also does not show anything to do with charging current or power being expended. And without this type of info, we were always forced to be cautious and return to the marina to recharge, quite likely before it was required.
Enter the LinkLITE, what we hope will be a much more helpful battery monitor.
Assured by my friend Jeff that installing this unit would be easy, I took the plunge and bought it. My initial plan was to wait until we got to the US and install it while on route but the ease of having Pride Marine right around the corner from us swayed me to do the installation now rather than waiting. So, just to clarify, even though I was assured this job would be easy, I have to say that any job that requires me to wrestle with 2/0 wires (those are BIG-ASS WIRES) in small cabinets is not what I consider easy. Now with that off my chest, the job was completed in 3 hours and with only 1 HUGE electrical shock (@#$%^%@ that hurt).
Note: when you keep turning the power on and off to test things, it’s easy to forget whether it’s on or off.
Rebecca’s turn to take pics while I work.
A wicked lightning storm did blow up here while we were installing the LinkLITE but this mess was caused by me and not it.
Done (but not yet programmed)!
We got a fair amount accomplished on our first day of “we need to get ready to go,” and Rebecca was especially busy. One task that has been on our “list” for some time is fixing the leech cord on our Genoa. What is a leech cord, or rather, what is a leech? The leech on a sail is the rear edge and a leech cord runs the length of it, inside the sail, allowing us to adjust the tension. Without a leech cord the rear edge luffs or flaps in the wind. So, what happened to ours that required fixing? Well, I cut it. Yes, on purpose.
More than a month ago, on a failed tack on a gusty day, the leech cord became entangled on the flag halyard hook. As I was pretty certain the sail was going to be damaged from flogging so violently, I made an executive decision and quickly cut it away. Immediately after doing so the still-attached portion of the cord was sucked up inside the sail, just like the drawstring on a pair of PJ pants is sometimes lost into the waistband. Unfortunately, fixing this was a tad more complex than restringing a pair of pants.
We started the repair process by dropping the sail onto the trampoline. A close up inspection showed that the cord hadn’t been drawn up into the sail too far so we simply cut away some of the stitching, retrieved the cord, tied a new length onto it and fed it back down through the sail’s leech. Rebecca then busted out her shiny new sewing machine and repaired the stitching that we had removed. As an experiment we disconnected the boat from shore power during this time to make sure the sewing machine would run properly on the inverter (it does). The sail was repaired good as new and then re-hoisted to the top of the forestay.
After completing a couple of other sewing jobs (mending our main sail cover, altering some clothing) Rebecca moved on to another important task: painting our License number onto our dinghy. This is not at all important for Canada but it needed to be done before we head to the states. Although she told me that she was never very good at “staying inside the lines” while colouring, I think she did a stellar job!
What was I doing while she was doing all this work? Taking photos, of course.
