 We were greeted by a very foggy morning. It was pretty obvious that we were not going anywhere today. Off in the distance we could hear a freighter going by, occasionally blowing its fog horn. This is not the kind of traffic we want to be messing with blindly—even with radar. |
 Fog is no fun to be in at any time—whether you are in a car or on a boat. Better to stay put and be safe—especially when you have the choice! |
| While we were disappointed that we could not proceed with our trip, we decided to take advantage of our situation and catch up on some other chores. I changed the oil and filter for the engine—the first time since I left Goderich on June 19. I have been tracking the engine hours closely, keeping the oil topped up, etc. Oil changes for this engine are recommended every 200 hours and our arrival in Cap-a-l’Aigle marked about 210 hours on the engine, so the time was right for this maintenance. |
| Once the oil change was completed we decided to stow the dingy away inside Ananda for a few days. We have not used it since we left Montreal and while it is convenient to have on the davits it is also a bit of a pain in rough weather because the side to side motion of the boat makes the dingy want to swing like a pendulum on the davits. |
| After a few weeks of hauling the dingy around I have learned quite a bit about what it takes to manage it on the davits. I have tried several approaches to binding it up and have arrived at a workable solution but it is a clumsy arrangement and does not provide me with full confidence that the dingy will behave itself in really rough seas. Chris figured out a way to safely stow the outboard on the dingy davit arm and I agreed to take in a new roommate in the forward v-berth. She doesn’t snore or complain about my snoring so I am happy to have the company. I also prefer to have the dingy inside as stowing it on the deck clutters things up and takes away some of the nicest spots on the bow for relaxing and sight-seeing. |
| With the dingy tucked away my next challenge was to see if we can get the radar working. It was working fine last year but now it would not produce any images from the radar scanning sweeps. The display unit was fine, and all of the adjustments are working but no images. Perhaps the rotating sweeper unit is stuck inside the radar dome that is mounted on the mizzen mast. This unit is too high to reach from the deck of the boat and I am not interested in having anyone use the mizzen sail halyard to hoist up in the bosun’s chair. |
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This halyard handles a pretty small sail and I don’t want myself or anyone else to attempt a lift up using it—it’s just not worth the risk. A couple of summers ago in the Goderich Marina we witnessed a person falling from their main mast because they did not use their bosun’s chair properly and their halyard line failed. That person is very lucky to be alive today and not horribly crippled from such a fall.
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 I attempted in my best French to ask the marina manager if he had a ladder that I could borrow but it was clear that he did not understand my request. Joan went on a mission to try and find a ladder and with her charms, she returned a few minutes later with a 10-foot aluminum extension ladder–the perfect solution to our problem! With the ladder securely in place, up the ladder I go and begin to remove the radar dome cover. Once the cover is off we start up the radar unit and the sweeper is rotating as it should but still no images show up on the screen. After checking out all of the connections we conclude that there is nothing mechanically wrong with it so the cover goes back on and we move to plan B (whatever that is). The user’s manual is pretty plainly written but it still does not tell us much about trouble-shooting. After a few hours to fiddling and tweaking and telephone calls to the manufacturer, we admit defeat for the day and decide to try to drown our disappointment in canned suds and other libations. |
 The sun is now out strongly and it has burned off all of the fog. It’s tempting to reverse our “no-go” decision but we decide that it’s best to stay put for another day, rest up and then try to make up some lost distance the next day. While exploring the marina Chris and Joan find two more Nauticats tied up. One is a 36’ very similar to Ananda and the other is a 38’. Both are in great shape and I am amazed that we find two of Ananda’s cousins in such a small marina. |
 Sadly, neither of the owners are around so I don’t have a chance to say hello and introduce myself. I leave an Ananda boat card on each boat with my “tres biens” compliments to their beautiful boats. Of course, I do have a bias and a great big soft spot for Nauticats. The marina has a small restaurant above the office so we decide to go out on the town for a night and dine there. We had a great meal with a very nice French-Quebec ambiance. Time for bed—a new day awaits! |