Launch Day For Santosha

43°44′53″ N 81°43′5″ W

Ahoy there!

After many months on the hard, Santosha is finally back in the water!

She has been stored outside on jack stands since last October. It was a pretty tough winter but she came through it well – other than being filthy with wind blown dust (turned to mud by the spring rains) & quite a few bird droppings on the flybridge b’cause the bimini frame was a perfect roosting place for them. Oh well, a couple of hours with a pressure washer & scrub brush resolved those problems.

Now she’s sitting pretty at her dock & almost ready to go.

It’s been a struggle these past 8 weeks. In April I caught a miserable cold and am just now starting to feel “normal “ again.

Meanwhile, I had several projects on the go, including installing new packing for the propeller shaft, a new battery charger, new vanity taps & new electric flush toilets in the fore & aft heads and new taps & drain connection for the galley sink.

While I was working on those things Catherine was busy with getting all of the cushions for the galley & the mattresses for the beds recovered and she made new curtains for all of the windows.

Just about everything on a boat takes 3-4 times as long to do (compared to doing the same things at home) but that’s part of the fun of boating, eh!

Anyway, we are in the water now & gearing up for departure from Goderich next Monday or Tuesday.

Mike & Pennie Meadows, long time friends from Goderich Yacht Club will be traveling with me on the first leg of the journey from Goderich to Port Stanley. Mike has also been helping me wrap up the last of my projects. He & Pennie will now be able to enjoy all of the new conveniences.

Our passage to Port Stanley should be lots of fun. Keep an eye out for daily postings on the blog.

Cheers!

Planning The Next Cruise

Now that Christmas and New Years are past my thoughts have turned to planning Santosha’s cruise for this coming summer. I have some broad goals in mind and, if the boat performs well and the weather co-operates, then I am hoping that we can cruise extensively in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. I intend to take my time and linger in interesting places along the way as this may be the only summer that we cruise in this region. Our trip is set out in the following seven major segments:

Segment Origin & Destination Ports Travel Time Approx. Dates Some Of The Stops Along The Way
1 Goderich to Port Stanley 6 – 8 days June 16 – June 24 Sarnia, Windsor, Pelee Island, Erieau
2 Port Stanley to Toronto 4 – 8 days June 24 – July 2 Port Dover, Port Colborne, Oakville
3 Toronto to Kingston 5 – 7 days July 2 – July 9 Whitby, Cobourg, Presqu’ile, Trenton, Belleville, Picton
4 Kingston & The 1000 Islands 5 – 7 days July 9 – July 16 Wolfe Island, Gananoque, Thousand Islands National Park, Ivy Lea, Mallorytown
5 The Rideau System 18 – 21 days July 16 – Aug 6 Seeleys Bay, Westport, Smiths Falls, Merrickville, Kemptville, Manotick
6 Ottawa River to Montreal 7 – 10 days Aug 6 – Aug 16

 

 South Nation River, Papineauville, Montebello, Hawkesbury, Hudson, Longueil
7 Montreal to Morrisburg 6 – 8 days Aug 16 – Aug 24 Chateauguay, Valleyfield, Lancaster, Cornwall, Long Sault, Upper Canada Village

On our cruise last summer from Jacksonville, FL to Goderich our rate of travel averaged about 50 nautical miles (NM) a day. Some days we did much better than that and on other days we only made 30 – 40 NM. Major factors that influenced our travel distance each day were: currents, waves and winds; weather; distance to our next most desired destination; and the amount of daylight available. I expect that, weather permitting, our rate of progress from Goderich to Toronto will be very good as we will have currents running in our favour on the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers. Plus, I have travelled in these waters from Goderich to Port Colborne a few times before, so there will be much less mental effort for choosing overnight stops, etc.

I am using Navionics’ Web App to help me plan all of the segments of the cruise. This free app is really easy to use over the internet through your web browser software – just set up a free account  with Navionics, fill in a few details about the boat such as: draft, cruising speed and rate of fuel consumption, then identify your starting and end points. Navionics’ software will rapidly plot a safe course for you complete with all necessary course change points and it will also indicate anticipated travel time and fuel consumption.

Navionics Web App – Using Safari Browser on a MAC

You can also save each plotted course with a unique name. Navionics will allow you to export the routes to certain brands and models of marine chart plotters. Additionally, for an annual subscription price of less than $100 you can load Navionics’ navigation program and charts onto an iPad or Android tablet and then import (download) the plotted courses for “real time” use.

Navionics Web App Plot On iPad (GPS Not Activated)

I used it on my iPad mini last year while I was travelling from Jacksonville, FL to Goderich, ON and it worked great. I also had the iPad paired up with a Bluetooth GPS device so my position and other statistics were constantly updated. As far as I am concerned the Navionics app for my iPad is worth every penny of the subscription fee!

(Please Note: I do not receive any compensation from Navionics for my comments on their software or charts – I am simply offering my experience in this post as a satisfied customer!)

You can read more about our cruise plans (as of this date) for 2018 by following this link: Planned Cruise Points of Interest.

 

September 22 – Haul Out & Winter Storage

43°44’53.7″N 81°43’08.1″W

Sept 22 – On the Hard, Maitland Valley Marina

Today was the big day – our little boat was hauled out and set up on jackstands for winter storage.

It seemed a shame to end the boating season on a day when the weather was so beautiful but it’s also a good time to do this work – as opposed to in the pouring rain or snow.

The marina staff gave the bottom a good powerwash before the boat was set up for the winter.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much on the bottom except slime & that came off pretty easily.

After the bath, off we go to bed.

The whole process took about 90 minutes & then the boat was sitting pretty on blocks & jack stands.

Next week I’ll winterize the boat’s plumbing system & the engine’s fresh water cooling system.

I’m not sure of the boat’s entire history but I believe that this winter will be the longest time it has been out of the water since it was first launched in 1993 – & most definitely the coldest!

Cheers!

September 19 – Back “Home” in Goderich

43°44’51.6″N 81°43’05.6″W
Sept 19 – Maitland Valley Marina

I arrived at the marina at 4:00pm. The trip from Sarnia to Goderich was approximately 58 nautical miles & it took 9 hours.

The first hour out of Sarnia was very slow going because of the current but once I was a few miles beyond the mouth of the St. Clair River my speed went from 2 to 7 knots. That’s not very fast for most power boaters but it was a major jump for a little single engine trawler!

It started to rain about 9:00am but it was not heavy & was coming straight down so it helped to flatten out the waves. That made my ride a lot more comfortable – even if I was confined to the inside helm.

The trip to Goderich was very straightforward. I set the autohelm on a direct course to the marina entrance & then didn’t have to make any course adjustments for the next 6 1/2 hours! During that entire time I didn’t see another boat.

The rain was intermittent so every hour or so I went up to the flybridge to take in the fresh air & enjoy the solitude.

Even in the rain I had good visibility & could see for several miles all around me. By 2:00 I started to get glimpses of the huge salt storage building in Goderich Harbour but as you can see in the photo below, the sky was very low & overcast & the shoreline is barely visible in the distance. By this time the lake had also flattened out like a millpond.

At 3:45 I was finally approaching Goderich Harbour & began to navigate towards the channel to the marina

Catherine & her Mom drove up to Goderich to take me home. But first we celebrated our reunion by going out for dinner at a local restaurant across the road from the Town Beach. We finished our meal just in time to enjoy another beautiful Lake Huron sunset.

Even though it was not part of my original plan for this year, I enjoyed my impromptu voyage from Port Stanley to Goderich. It brought back a lot of memories for me of my trip on Ananda – in the other direction – in 2010. My first real adventure on a boat.

I’ll go back to Goderich on Friday to have the boat hauled out of the water & set up on jack stands for winter storage. It will be a bit of a sad day but I’m ready for a rest & I’m sure the boat is too.

Cheers!

September 19 – Sarnia to Goderich

43°11′52″ N 82°15′57″ W
On Lake Huron – En Route To Goderich

I left Bridgeview Marina in Sarnia at 7:00am this morning. No sunrise today as the sky is heavily overcast.

My “climb up the hill” into Lake Huron was pretty much the same experience I had yesterday except that the boat steered a lot better – plus I met two freighters in the channel.

I met one of them right under the Bluewater Bridge & would have loved to have gotten a photo but I was kinda busy at the helm. Maybe I’ll get a GoPro camera for next year. Better check with the Admiral on that first :).

The lake is much calmer today. Still a bit lumpy, but not rough enough to slow me down or to motivate me to turn back again. Plus the forecast for the day shows the wind changing direction favorably & dropping in the afternoon so that helps.

It started to rain about an hour after I left Sarnia. Its not raining heavily & is coming straight down so that helps to flatten out the waves. This is when having a second steering station inside the cabin really pays off. I can stay warm & dry through bad weather spells.

I still have lots of visibility & can see several miles in each direction. Plus I’m nowhere near the freighter shipping channel so I’m not likely to encounter other boats.

The chartplotter shows that I now have about 6 hours & 39 nautical miles to go to reach Maitland Valley Marina in Goderich. With any luck I’ll be tied up on the dock by 4:00pm.

The boat is scheduled to be hauled out of the water for winter storage on Friday morning so Catherine is coming to Goderich to pick me up this afternoon.

Once I got past the Bluewater Bridge I started to travel in a straight line for the next 50 nautical miles to take me to the marina’s entrance channel in Goderich. Thank goodness for autohelm! It would be a really long & tiring day without “Otto’s” help!

Cheers!