Lake Erie Interclub Cruise, Canada, Committee Boat - Day 3, Port Colborne to Point Abino

There are no photos of the start from Port Colborne because somewhere in the rush to pack up from the hotel, get to the marina, grab a coffee and muffin at the pavilion and get the gear moved on to Vision (the Committee boat of the day), I miss placed my camera. Norm came along with us again and Paul was the skipper of this lovely sailboat (larger than the "crabber" from the previous day). We motored out 2 miles to a navigation buoy and set the tetrahedron. Flew the "come within hail" flag and checked that we had everyone. Canace was no longer racing having only planned to race the 2 days.  Both fleets had a clean start, Paul and Norm pulled up Visions anchor, we retrieved and deflated the Tetra, and headed back in to Sugarloaf. Thanked the guys and loaded everything on to a buggy and took it to Jacjui's truck. After a quick stop at Tims for coffee I drove straight to Port Abino (about 30min away). Karen and Jacqui had to pick up some supplies for a couple of the boats. At Point Abino I found Ruth (in charge of maintenance for the Buffalo Yacht Club Summer Station) just finishing power washing the docks so that our racers would not have to deal with the "goose poo". She let the 3 vehicles in and contacted "C'est la Vie", our next Committee Boat.

C'est la Vie. Her owners Del and Kate are not sailors and were excited about their involvement. They were willing, helpful and constantly curious about the race process and sailing in general.

The wind had built during the day and it was quite choppy setting the Tetra

and anchoring the boat.

The wind had increased and shifted so I could no longer easily have a good view of the finish line. Kate insisted on tieing me to the ladder to the fly bridge when I put one leg over the side of the boat to get a good view. The finish line is technically from the race committee flag to the tetrahedron and I had to be able to see the exact second that each boat crossed that line.

And here they come, Sheets and Giggles,

some under Spinnaker (Sequence and AElektra, I think)

and some not. (Pegasus maybe or perhaps Messenger, the photos are not clear enough for me to be sure)

Taking photos into the sun makes the water look like polished silver. Enigma

Sea of Dreams ?

The last thing a sailor wants to see - a ripped Spinnaker. Promise

Not easy to get down

They looked like they were headed for Buffalo.

By the time we had finished all the boats (Islay did not finish) the waves were about 6ft high. The electric windlass struggled to get the anchor up, making ominous clanking noises. Retrieving the Tetra was also a struggle and we bent C'est la Vie's boat hook in the process. There were bumps and bruises and 3 of us nearly went over board in an effort to bring the Tetra onboard by deflating it.

Inside, the cabin was a mess. Doors had sprung open and their contents littered the floor. Kate and Del were both dismissive of it saying they had been out in worse.

Because I had a workshop to go to the next day I missed the Point Abino Bay race. I drove home, happy to feed Rasta and sleep in my own bed, returning to the fleet for the final day.