Today we got lucky!

Yesterday I saw the bilge pump not working and drawing amps from the battery. So installed the new bilge pump. It seems to work ok. Then I installed the water pump for the sink and it seems to work ok. Last night I reinstalled the new solar power controller and it worked this morning. Also yesterday I installed the rebuilt alternator. NO WORKY!!!  This morning I got lucky and spotted a diesel mechanic! These are very rare sightings this time of year in this area but I saw him and I caught him! What luck. I saw him working on the boat on the slip across from me so I asked him if he had time to look at my alternator. He came over and found a few problems and so he's going to check the internet tonight for the wiring for our boat engine and come back in the morning. While I was reinstalling the alternator I dropped one of the nuts, like I always do! I found a leek in the dripless stuffing box. That's where the shaft comes through the bottom of the boat and the stuffing box stops the water from coming in. Well I found water coming in. I asked the mechanic if he knew someone that knows how to repair dripless stuffing boxes. Yes he said, ME! What luck! So he will look at that tomorrow.
So the solar stuff is all connected and ready to go so I gave it a test today. NO WORKY! The inverter will not turn on. I will wait until Monday when Doug comes back and have him have a look at it. Then I wanted to relax with some music tonight so I turned on the stereo NO WORKY! I will look at that another day.

Waiting
So Tuesday night Doug came to look to see if he solve one of the problems. Yes he did. The night before he found that there was a 2 amp draw on both engine battery and the house bank batteries. We also found that there was no charging coming from the alternator so I took that out for Doug to take with him. He called this morning to say it was defective. It will be rebuilt and brought back on Friday. So another mystery solved. Now he wants to eliminate all the unnecessary wires. For some reason I have two battery selector switch's and we don't know why it was installed like that. My new inverter and house bank should have never been install with out understanding what all this wiring is for. Yesterday I was also busy installing a new engine exhaust fan and rewiring the fridge to the house bank batteries. Installing the exhaust fan was a challenge. I had to squeeze into the back of the boat and around and under all the wire and hoses. Now I know the meaning of "TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE"! Wow it was a tight spot. So todays assignment from Doug is I have to take out all the house banks batteries so he can remove all the unnecessary wires and this could solve some of our problems. Now I have also found a short in the wire for the bilge pump, so it goes on and on. Before I leave Gananoque I'm sure every part on the boat will be replaced.
I have some pictures of last weekend in the Islands with some friends.

Dave and Eileen

Brian and Renata

Laundry day

Back to the marina

After three days relaxing in the islands we started to loose power. So we are back in to have Doug look again and while we are in there we can stock up the fridge. I think I am looking at more that one problem and I have a suspicion the alternator or regulator is not working right. I also have to buy some plumbing parts for our new water pump. Its going to be a few busy days.

We are crossing our fingers!
We are back out in the islands and Doug Booth had fixed our solar problem. This thing was never installed properly. As Doug explains it that the engine battery should never be connected in parallel with the inverter. This is why the engine battery over heated. So we are back in the Island's and relaxing and enjoying our solar power.
Here are some pictures of our stay in the marina

Then we went back into the islands and we were anchored close to a party boat. Which turned out to be a good thing!

 

 

 So we are back in the Islands and relaxing because our solar power is finally working as is it should. I always wondered why we never had enough power, and  it is clear now why this never worked as it should. This caused a lot of grief as we over heated a battery and always wondered why power on the  boat was never what it should have been. Doug Booth fix the problem because he under stood how it works and how it should have been installed. Doug Booth save us.

Thanks Doug!

 

Back to the Marina

I knew this day was coming, we both feel like nothing can go right. We are still having problems with the charging. Both the engine and the solar. I understand the boat is old and there's going to be a few problems but they seem to come every day. I think our charging problem goes back before we arrived at Picton. When the battery over heated that's when things started to go wrong. We came into the dock last Wednesday to charge the batteries and see if Doug Booth could look at our problem. He never came and I think I found one problem but that wasn't the main problem. My exhaust blower was draining to much power so I was hoping that was my trouble. So Saturday morning we left for the Islands. This morning we had no power and the starting battery was almost dead. The wind came up very strong and while I was looking at the problem the boat started to drift. The anchor hade come loose from the bottom and we were dragging. This was a serous problem. If I could not start the engine I could not lift the anchor fast enough. The engine started and we tied up to a mooring ball. Lifting the anchor is very difficult in the area because of all the weeds. When you lift your anchor it looks like you have a bail of hay on the end. It's very heavy and takes time to remove all the weeds. So now we are back in the marina hoping we can get some one to look at our problem.
 We did have a great night at anchor the night before.

Lets Bypass Kingston!

We left Collins Bay around 8am and headed for Trident Yacht Club. We had another day of motoring the whole day. It seems the wind always comes up after we get into the dock.

Kingston Penn

 

Fort Henry

 

We arrived at Trident Yacht Club around 1pm. This is about half way between Kingston and Gananogue. It's a small club and it's very quiet.

Trident Yacht Club

 

 

We left Trident Yacht Club around 12pm because we had about a two hour sail to our first anchorage. Of course we had to motor all the way. We anchored behind Lindsay Island near Gananogue for two nights. The weather was very hot and swimming was on the top of the list to do. Here is few pictures of our anchorage.

 

 

We have come into Gananogue for supplies on Thursday and Friday. We certainly got our exercise for the day. It's very hot in town and we have walked 8 kilometers with groceries. It's a great little town with lots going on.Tomorrows Saturday and we are stocked up and ready for 4 or 5 days at anchorage. I hope we can find a good spot because lots of people have arrived at the marina for the weekend. So we will update the blog then.

 

 





HELP ME!  HELP ME LAURIE!!!!

July 9 was a very hot and muggy day.  We were relaxing on the boat in the heat of the afternoon In Picton  Harbour when I had the urge to get a cold bottle of water from the bottom of the fridge. What was I thinking! I don't know anything about what's going on in the fridge.. So as I reached down into the very bottom of the deep fridge my arm got stuck! YES stuck....in the fridge!. The lettuce container slide over towards my arm and locked me in. My arm was stuck in the fridge! I called Laurie for help and she didn't understand why. So Laurie had to slowly unpack the fridge to get my arm out. This sailing stuff can be very dangerous!

Friday and Saturday were very hot in Picton. Friday we did a grocery shop and Saturday we were invited to Deb Milford's for dinner. Deb and Brooke made up a great diner and what a great night it was. It's always great to see friends when your on a long trip. We had a great dinner and a great time.

We left Picton on July 10 and made our way to Collins Bay Marina. This is a great place to settle for the night. Tomorrow will try and make it to Trident Yacht Club just east of Gananoque do to laundry. Then off to the Islands.



We left Cobourg at 8 am and passed by the HMCS Goose Bay anchored just off the town pier.

We motored all the way to the yacht club at CFB Trenton. We arrived in time to join the racers for BBQ burgers. It was great, $4.50 for burger and all the salads you want. We also met some very friendly people. The next morning we walked into the base for breakfast at the mess hall. At 9 am it felt like 25 decrees C, it was going to be a hot one. We left CFB Treton around 10 am and motored to Sandy Cove just past Bellville. We set the anchor and got into the water as fast as we could. What a great day. We spent the day relaxing and swimming. The water temperature was 79 Fahrenheit. Today we motored to Picton where we are staying for two days. The weather looks like rain for Friday night and Saturday. I'm having another small problem with the starting battery so this break gives me time to do some trouble shooting and find out where my problem is. Also Laurie has been steering the boat about 95 percent of the time.

 

She wont let me drive!

YAHOOO NO LEAKS TODAY!
Tuesday was a great day, there were no problems with the boat. It looks like everything is settling down. We left Whitby Yatch Club around 8am and had to motor all the way to Cobourg. The temperature was very nice on the Lake. Because there was no wind we were swarmed by biting flies. You wonder where they come from? We arrived at Cobourg around 3 pm to a warm reception. There were fire trucks and a marching band. I thought to myself, I wonder how they knew we were coming!!

 

 

 

Of course they were all out there because HMCS Goose Bay was arriving. So the ship pulled into harbor and then a fly bye from a Hercules from CFB Trenton.

 

 

After all that excitement we thought how can this day get any better. Then Laurie's friend from work Lori came to say hello. Wow what a day. 

 



 

Tuesday was a great day and now we are on our way to the Murray Canal in Brighton. We are going to test out our solar power and anchor out for the next few days. We will stop in Brighten, Bellville, Desoronto and then Picton. We are expecting some thunder storms near the end of the week so we have hope they miss us. We will be away from wireless for a while so we will update from Picton.

 

 

More Leaks!
Another great day on the water and another day fixing leaks. The rudder was leaking again. So I had to unpack the locker to get underneath to fix the same leak as yesterday. It's coming in where the shaft of the rudder comes in under the boat. It just needs a little adjusting until the tightness is just right. I talk to Jim Pollock this morning and he was a lot of help. Thanks Jim! We had a great afternoon and evening at Highland Yacht Club in the Bluffs. It's a great view from the club house.

Highland Yacht Club

We left around 8 this morning to head for Whitby and arrive around 12. It was a short day because we had to re provision the boat with groceries. Yes we lost some of our food because we are not used to out new fridge. A lot of stuff froze overnight. We did a long walk to the Metro to shop  and the rsst of the day was for relaxing. So tomorrow will be a long day to Cobourg I hope tomorrow will be better.

 

 

Passing by the Bluffs

It was a COLD and busy day.
It was a great looking day when we left Port Credit around 9am. We put up the sails and away we went. We were sailing around 6 knots and Laurie noticed the bulge pump turned on. This was not good. After Roy completed all his repairs we repacked the boat and everything was in it's spot. So this ment I had to unpack everything and look for a leak while Laurie sailed. For those of you following us on AIS you could see we were near Toronto going in circles. After unpacking everything and putting it all in the Vbirth I started to check the engine for leaks. I checked every where and couldn't see anything. Finatly I checked around the steering wheel I found it. This took about three hours to find and fix. Both of us were very tired so we stopped at Scarbough Bluffs for the night. When we arrived we fished repacking everything and now we are resting.

 

 

We are on our way!

We got away at 8 AM as planned. What a surprise, before we sailed away we had some great friends show up to say good bye and good luck and it made leaving the dock very emotional, lots of tears all around! We had a great sail to Port Credit Yacht Club to have some more work done on the engine. Thursday we had Angie and Frank come and take us for dinner to say goodbye. Friday Christine and Don came to say good bye and take us out for dinner and we want to thank Dan and Jeanie for dragging us out of bed for a few last drinks to say goodbye and we really enjoy that time with them. To start our big journey and to have our friends say goodbye was very special. We will miss everyone.

Thank you for showing up: Nigel, Sue Dan, Jennie Dave, Eileen Christine, Don Sam, Joan Butch Heather Ken, Paulina and Daryl from the BIG "D".

Thanks you to all and I hope you can come and have a visit in the South.

Thank you all for coming to say goodbye!

See You Soon.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

 

One more day until we leave the dock!

It's been a very stressful month trying to get the boat repaired and ready to go. Also it's been very stressful for both of us saying goodbye to our friends co-workers and family. We began to move our belongings on the boat on Wednesday after the fridge was repaired and it's a mess. If we could find where the camera is we could take a picture. It's a rainy Canada day so we may get a lot put away today. We are looking at all the stuff we have and we are wondering if we have to much. Where is everything going to go? We are still waiting for Roy the mechanic to come and do some last minute things on the engine today. After he's done we will have a few more spots to put things.