Adjusting to Island time, well almost

Hello All:

Sorry for the long overdue Blog update. Vicki and I have been busy adjusting to life aboard Zingara over the past few weeks and getting back to a work routine, YUKKKK!

Trip high lights
Total miles covered - 630 Knt. miles
Total moving time - 102hrs. 42min..
Total stopped time- 39hrs 32 min. 06 sec.
Total travel time - 142hrs 15min.
Total Hang overs - ????

Most memeral Moments
The look on Vicki's face when I talked her into sailing through the night on Lake Huron.
The look on Vicki's face after her first night watch, priceless!
Getting stuck in Sarnia, and getting unstuck by ourselves.
Bow wake of a frieghter close up!!!!!!!!!!!
Sailing into our old home port of Port Stanley (Vicki had her sunglasses on but I know she had a tear in her eye). and the joyous reunion with old friends.
Surviving the Welland Cannal.
The sights, sounds and smells, coming out of the companionway, when Terry and Vicki were cooking in the galley.

Lessons learned
Never ever, ever ever ever ever, get directly behind a Frieghter. This happened entering the first lock of the Welland Cannal. I thought the frieghters wash would push my bow into the lock as he exited the same lock. It did push my bow around, and around and around. A hard reverse and 3000 rpms from Sweet Pea (our 44 hp Yanmar diesel) kept the bow out of the 15 foot concrete wall infront of us. My ears are still ringing from three deck hands yelling REVERSE, REVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures of out trip, enjoy

Sunset on Lake Hurom

630 Nautical Miles!

Just a quick blerb here, as we are in the midst of CELEBRATION!  We arrived in Port Whitby safe & sound around 16:00 hours. What an awesome, awesome experience, the weather was great, thank you Poseidon for calm seas, Thank you to Christine & Terry, thank you to all of our Family, especially Meg & Dea for looking after their "brother" Brisket, Our sister Deb for all she's done, and for Mom & Dad for meeting us as when we sailed into Whitby.  Thank you to SPOT, for showing everyone our whereabouts, we felt with everyone being able to see where we were, that we were in safe hands. 

Continuing to Live the Dream....

Becoming Crew

Hanging the dingy

We joined Zingara in Port Stanley with enthusiasum and excitement. After a 2 hour train ride, we were anxious to meet the MacDonald's and get on the water. We meet at the train station, happy to relive the trip from Georgian Bay to Port Stanley. The excitement mounted. We decided to stay an extra night to catch up with the crew at "Port" and we were off early Tuesday morning to catch the 6 am bridge. Dressed in our foulies, we headed out. We were on watch all morning looking out for fishing nets, gas wells and logs. By 2 pm, we were stripped down to our shorts and t-shirts, by 5:40pm we landed in Port Dover pulling in to the Harbour Marina and greeted by the staff that went that extra mile to make us comfortable. Not only did we get a great spot but we were also provided a ride to the LCBO as it closed at 6 pm. They also provided laundry soap for us the next day. Port Dover Rocks!! We stayed 2 nights to reprovision and to have the World famous Perch dinner at the the Erie Beach Hotel. We left Thursday morning heading to our next adventure being the Welland Canal. Stay tuned......
Terry and Christine Vos

Port Stanley - Fog & Fish Nets

Hello All, 
We left Erieau after staying one nite, and set off for Port Stanley.  The weather was hot & sunny until we got away from the harbour when it turned like pea soup!  Doug thought he would be fishing and I thought I'd be scrubbing the deck, making her all shiny for arriving in Port.  However, plans change, we sat our buts down, Doug on the starboard side, and Myself on the Port side, and took watch.  We saw several fish net flags which was very irritating trying to figure out in the fog as they are marked by a black, green, and sometimes red flag, between the flags are buoys, white, green, orange, any colour, and then you see a second set sometimes which you have to go inbetween, it's a gateway to go thru, however, it's still scary knowing that you prop & keel could easily get entangled. 
We finally saw the Port Stanley Lighthouse as it eventually cleared up. We sailed in as the sun was going down, beautiful!  All of our friends met us on the dock, helping us with our lines, just like old times.  We were presented with a glass of red, and sat by the fire after giving the grand tour of Zingara.  Good Times.
Brian & Lorna made us a delicious champagne breakfast the next morning, very nice.

Later in the afternoon, we picked up our good friends, Christine & Terry in London, as they have joined us for our next exciting week of sailing Zingara home.  We all had a big dinner at the Marina, it was a Pork Chop Potluck!  Thank you Mike & Margo for joining us for dinner also. The weather has been hot, hot, hot, and we are all getting brown as berries! Thank you everyone in Port Stanley, it was nice to get together again.

LIVING THE DREAM

Hello All, We are doing well so far bringing Zingara home.  We have experienced so much during our journey.  We are currently docked in Erieau on Lake Erie, shortly heading to our old home Port of Port Stanley, where we have our friends' Christine & Terry joining us for the second week.  We have travelled 401 nautical miles so far, that's over halfway!  We've been from Georgian Bay to Lake Huron, St.Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, Lake Erie.....Wow, lots of water, love it!
Dougie just purchased a fishing pole, he is reliving his youth! Well, better get our ship together and press on.

Tobermory or Bust!

We made it!!!  We pulled up anchor at Christian Island at 5:15 am and headed Northwest for Tobermory.  After 12 hours of motor sailing, we arrived safely. : )  Beautiful weather, Georgian Bay was calm, thank the Lord! We had opportunity to do some jobs that needed doing, such as, putting in the reef lines, etc.  Both of our faces are red, it's cool out on that water!  We pulled into the fuel dock at Tobermory and the dockmaster asked how big our boat was, Doug answered 40 feet, he answered "ah, looks like 20 feet to me" and gave us a deal, sweet!
We are getting up before sunrise again to get a head start on the day, we are heading to Bayfield.  Let's hope the weather stays in our favour for the rest of our trip.
Meg & Dea, we are at the same dock as the ChiChiMan, remember we took that when you girls were just little farts, and Brisket too?  Ahh, the memories : )

Zingara back to 16.......

FINALLY!!!

Just a quick note, we are finally ready to let the dock lines free.....it's 1:30pm Sunday afternoon, skies are blue & we are applying sunscreen!  We took so long to get ready, get last minute stuff....but we are Sailors, and on holidays, so I believe we are officially on "Island Time" , we'll keep in touch, ciao!