Weekend on the water.

Not the whole time, mind you. But considering I left for the boat on Saturday morning at 8:50 a.m., returning at some time after four in the afternoon.  (Not sure, really) And then did our usual “Fall Series” race on Sunday,  there wasn’t much room for too much else.

I just might have got a wee bit too much sun on the Saturday,  as it was one of those totally cloudless days,  and even though you might *think* you’re using sunblock and trying to stay in the shade of the sail,  the water does a good job of bouncing the sun all over the place. 

It’s not like I was totally fried or anything,  but I did have that “hot head” thing going on.  Just drank copious amounts of water for the rest of the evening.

 

At the start of Saturdays race,  I was pretty sure these guys were going faster than any of the boats,  since the race committee had set up the start line in a bit of a “hole”,  and it took a bit of finagling to get over the start line.

This was a “Pursuit Race”,  with boats starting at ten minute intervals.   We damned near used up our entire ten minutes,  which didn’t bode well for how we faired later on. 

Our destination.  The CCIW tower off East Hamilton or thereabouts.

You can read the brief definition here if you’re remotely interested.  Let’s just say we didn’t finish in first place?  Meh,  my lunch was good.

 

Anyhoodle,  Sunday’s outing was a little shorter,  but no less painful,  as the wind died on the final leg and the crew mutinied.  Well, I’m pretty sure I was the cause of the uprising, since lack of wind for sailing is right up there with waterboarding in the torture department. 

 

Dead as a fart.  And that was before the race.  It got worse.

There comes a time when you have to simply declare, “No mas!”

We radioed in that we were retiring,  which was like opening the floodgates,  since three or four boats decided to pack it in almost immediately.

 

 

I guess they were waiting for someone to cry “Uncle”. 

We discovered that the engine wasn’t getting sufficient water,  so we opted for a tow.

 

 

Unfortunately,  I know exactly what to do.  This is as a result of boatloads (oh,  there’s a bit of a pun) of experience in years gone by with a motor that wouldn’t run.  Need a tow line hooked up?  I’m yer man!

This particular incident was just a bit of a fluke though.  We haven’t had any rain in a while, so the harbour is a bit clogged with crud,  so we figure some of it got into the intake.  That’s as near as we can figure anyway.

When I left the boat yesterday afternoon (had to get home to cook burgers) the skipper was still attempting to back flush the thing.  I haven’t heard otherwise,  so my guess is he was successful.

We’ll find out next Sunday.

 

We’re still having some crazy good fall weather.  Fingers crossed it holds on for a while,  even though I’m curious for a good rain storm to experience the new roof and eaves troughs. 

I’ll suffer the drought though.  I don’t mind.

 

Thanks for stopping by.