WHITECAP's

SAILING

EXCURSION

Bobcaygeon, ON to Midland, ON

October 9th - October 15th, 1999
 

1. Day 20 - Oct 9, 99 - All arose at 07:00. Showers for all. Jean stayed on board last night and will travel with us today; her sister in law will pick her up this afternoon. Weather is comfortable, on the warm side although it rained most of the night. This is a nice marina at Bobcaygeon, all the amenities, almost as nice as SYC. Lock # 36 at Kirkfield was another "double bath tub". Made good time and locked through many locks up to lock # 41 at Gamebridge. Made it out into and north across Lake Simcoe (flat calm) to Orillia; only 4 locks to go; number 45 is at Port Severn.
2. Day 21 - Oct 10, 99 - Awoke at 07:00 at the City Marina in Orillia; nice docks, but nothing open yet this morning. That's the one problem with travelling this time of year, the work hours are pretty lax. It rained a little in the early morning hours, but has settled for now. WHITECAP will move out shortly and try to make the Marine Railway at Big Chute by tonight. It stayed hazy and foggy all day. We did a little better than anticipated; went over the marine railway at Big Chute at around 15:30 and continued on down river to Port Severn where WHITECAP locked through lock 45, the final lock in the system and dipped her bow in Georgian Bay at 16:30. She then picked her way across the bay and tied up in Midland at the Bay Port Marina. The good news is that we made better time than we had anticipated; the bad news is that when we lifted out on the railway, the release in pressure on the bottom unsilted our leak and it returned as bad as ever. Nice roast beef supper; couldn't get a small chicken or turkey anywhere. Frank left us after supper. His brother-in-law, Don Leger picked him up. He will be missed as part of the original WHITECAP crew. We sure needed his help getting through all the locks on the Trent-Severn.
   THANKS FRANK!!!
3. Day 22 - Oct 11, 99 - Awoke at 07:45 to clear cool day. We went to the Bay Port Marina office and talked with the owners. They gave us a car to go to town, so we went to MOM's for breakfast. Made arrangements to lift out tomorrow morning. Have spent a little time splitting the log file (note format change) into segments so we don't have to keep loading the whole file on the NET. Lazed around all day and went to bed early.
4. Day 23 - Oct 12, 99 - Up at 07:00, cool and dreary today. Had breakfast and then checked on haul out. There are two boats ahead of us; out at 09:45; they do the whole package here. They have a guy pressure wash you while you're in the slings; WHITECAP enjoyed her bath. Hi and dry by 10:15. Got a first look at the keel, worse than anticipated; took a second look and then checked the center board area. The "fresh" area in the pictures is because a workman has already started prepping for repair. He's busy grinding and drying as I'm writing this. I again want to mention the support afforded us by the owners and workers here at Bay Port Marina, it has been outstanding. Went down town in late afternoon to pick up some groceries. Finally got our Thanksgiving turkey (chicken really) which was a great supper; the menu tomorrow is fricot.
5. Day 24 - Oct 13, 99 - Awoke to rain at 07:00; donner and blitzen all night with heavy rain (picture taken at 09:45). I guess it will be the same all day. Things progressed slowly yesterday as we tried to dry the fiberglass in the damaged area so the new glass and resin will stick; can't rush the job, it must be done properly. Glad we waited to pull out at Midland or we never would have made it through the canal system. Funny how the leak slowed till we got through, then started again just to let us know we couldn't ignore it. Sometimes things happen in strange ways.
6. Day 25 - Oct 14, 99 - Well, we woke up again today. Was windy all night; temperatures are pretty cool/cold (same picture as yesterday taken at 10:45 today), but clearer. WHITECAP really likes her skirt, and so does the guy working on the ground in these temperatures. The major damage portion is coming good, but there is quite a bit more to clean up and repair. There's a scrape farther forward on the bow and then the one around the center board; these need to be healed and sealed as well. Spent rest of day doing general boat maintenance - changed engine belts, put new vent in fuel tank.
7. Day 26 - Oct 15, 99 - Another lazy day - things starting to drag here in Midland. Bad news this morning; the guy working on the keel came early to get started and try to get us back in the water today and he found the repairs hadn't set over night; evidently there's still water/moisture seeping down out of the keel and it caused the glass layers to balloon and not dry. He had to remove all the work he did yesterday and start again. Elizabeth Randall and her husband Brian stopped by to say hello on their way from Toronto to their cottage north of Midland for a mad weekend (HAPPY 50TH BRIAN).