Summer of Vicki

Once again the summer has come and gone and we are only left with memories.  You must agree though that this summer has been much warmer and drier then last year.  We had a great first summer on Zingara with many trips on Lake Ontario.  We have sailed to Toronto Island and Coubourg a number of times and have day sailed out of Whitby harbour as well.  We've made many new friends as well as reacquainting with old friends. 

Some of our new friends are David and Karen on the boat named Coracle.  Coracle is a Bruce Roberts designed sailboat of steel construction.  David and Karen built the boat by themselves in the town of Mindon, Ontario and trucked it to Whitby to launch.  They are leaving shortly to sail their boat to their new home in Nova Scotia.

As well as meeting David and Karin we reconnected with Bob and Connie Benner and their boat Meredith.  I met Bob and Connie about ten years ago during a Power Squadron course I took back in London, Ontario.  Vicki and I bumped into, or should I say sailed into them, in Port Stanley on lake Erie a few years  later.  On one of our sails to Toronto this year we called into the Marina to confirm our dockage, and we were told to dock at dock 40 beside a sailboat named Meredith.  Vicki and I both looked at each other and said it couldn't be the same Meredith.  There is no mistaking the lines of a 38' Cabo Rico sailboat and sure enough we were once again docked beside our old friends Bob and Connie.  I will add Bob and Connie's blog, Benner Adrift, to our  Links.  They have spent the last few years sailing up and down the east cost of the US, as well as the Bahamas and Cuba.  Bob has a way with words that at times will have you crying with laughter. 

Boat Projects!
I have taken it easy this summer, Vicki says too easy, when it comes to working on Zingara.  I have been sizing up the work that needs to be done.  A lot of the projects run into each other, I mean in order to do one thing you first have to do another project first. 
One project I did do this year was to install a Tank Monitoring system.  I have read with interest how boaters have problems with their Heads and the ensuing crap they get into when they go to fix the head.  The problem we had on Zingara was we didn't know when the tanks were full or empty.  This caused the forward holding tank to overflow into the boat.  The tank lid was cracked which allowed it to overflow into the bilge of the boat, not a pretty site or even worse SMELL.  Not to get into a lot of detail the tank is fixed and a Profile Tank Monitoring system is now on board Zingara.  I spent a week continuously washing my hands after the project was done.
Winter 2010/2011
Vicki and I have decided to pull Zingara out of the water for the winter instead of living aboard her.  I have to strip the bottom and also change the plastic through hulls and valves to bronze, as well as redo the electrical, move the A/C, the hot water tank, and the water pump, add an accumilator, install my SSB, re-bed the hatches and windows, S@$**$@*%T.