Sailing the Great Lakes: Hope Island to Collingwood

Wednesday June 30 - Got up early and wind was still blowing. I was up a few times last night because of the rock-n-rolling (the boat in the waves of course) as the wind was varying between the West and the Northwest, and Hope Island Sand Bay is not really protected from the West. Finally really to up by 8am, and made coffee. We are out of our Gevalia (I know we are such elitists), and broke into the Dunkin Donuts coffee that Kathi wanted to buy. Now she is complaining it is not very good, but says “It is good at Dunkin Donuts!” We called Wayne Hunter (Commodore) at Collingwood Yacht Club about the availability of a slip for us, but the cell coverage was intermittent and we lost connections often. I texted him a couple of times, but no confirmation of a slip at that time. Well, we knew that we had a space at the public dock (no services) so we headed to Collingwood anyway. Kathi did talk with Wayne, but he still had to get to the club to see if anyone had left yet, as many had postponed departures due to the strong winds and waves from the Northwest.

Well, we had a great sail after fighting the nasty wind and waves getting out of Hope Island and heading around Christian Island’s north tip. I was a woozy and avoided the southern route through the Lighthouse Point gap that only had 10ft to 16ft of water. I was worried about the waves and depth in this northwest wind. We pushed 8.5 knots on a broad reach – we were flying with a reefed main and partial unfurled Genoa out! When we got here, all the CYC members we talked to said “we always go through the gap without a problem... it has 10ft of water!” Well, I am still glad we took the northern route. Although the waves were a little high (some definite 2 to 3 meter rollers did come through), but we were taking them on the starboard rear quarter so it was not that bad. We put a single reef in the main to start, but of course I did not outhaul it hard enough and when Kathi started cranking on the main sheet, I looked up at the Bimini and saw the impression of the boom end. We did pull out a few inches of seam stitching and scraped cloth a bit, but I stopped her and we loosened the main sheet and cranked the reef outhaul tight. Everything was fine after that, but I need to either temporarily repair the stitching myself, or get a canvas guy to stitch in a new protective layer of Sunbrella and fix the stitching while we are here in Collingwood (probably not a chance since tomorrow is Canada Day).

Yes, as we were pulling past the Collingwood Yacht Club we got a VHF call – “A’Ghrian are you looking for overnight dockage?”… So we are here at CYC. We went straight to the pump-out dock first. It was not easy, but we backed into the spot. The wind was pushing us off the dock and onto another boat. Kathi threw the bow line properly, but the “dockhand” missed the line. At least the stern line was secured. Kathi made sure the bow was kept off the other sailboat and the dinghy helped! I went forward of amidships and grabbed a line that was thrown to me from the dock and pulled the bow back in. We did the self-serve pump-out with instructions supplied by the CYC member. We also took the time to fill both our forward and aft water tanks – “we have some of the best water here. They spend millions on a reverse osmosis system to filter lake water!” We had three CYC’ers help us get off and then into the available slip. We are here until July 5^th.

The clubhouse is a walk from the slip, and the bathroom and shower are limited, but the up-stairs lounge is impressive: cable TV, kitchen, nice couches and chairs, and WiFi. The connection out at the boat is weak, so I may have to do my internet work tomorrow morning up in the clubhouse lounge. We walked into town and went to Molly Bloom’s Irish Pub for dinner and watched a Toronto Blue Jays/Cleveland Indians game! We drank Keith’s Red and I had “bangers and mash”. We did make a last minute run to the LCBO before it closed and got some booze… we have been dry for 9 days essentially. Sailors love their Port and Rum!

I texted Aaron and he and Maggie were still in PA on their way to Niagara Falls. He indicated they would be staying an extra day there. We were hoping he would be here tomorrow. Kathi called multiple car rental companies, but since it is Canada Day tomorrow, they are all closed. We will try a taxi if we cannot find another alternative ($15 one way to Club Intrawest). Tomorrow is another day… we will see what comes.