Sailing adventure on RENE 2013 and beyond: Toronto 7th to 15th October

Maiden Hair Fern in its element

Our adventure for 2013 is quickly coming to and end. Only three days until our first grandchild's due birth date. Once the baby is born we intend to spend a day or two in last minute preparations for leaving Rene, two days in Sydney admiring the new baby and then Peter flies to Townsville to visit his dad and I fly to Perth and then Albany for an extended holiday at home. Peter will spend two weeks in Townsville and then he too will fly home. From then on it will be gardening, house maintenance and brushing the cobwebs off the BMW's (motorbikes) for the summer.

I remember, it seems an age ago in Port Fairy, where we thought that trekking to the shower was an adventure. It was about a 1km walk around the river/harbour to the yacht club passing the early morning fishermen, birds, walkers and the view up and down the river ever changing. People are very friendly in the morning and greetings always exchanged. Here in Toronto the scene is altogether different, but still a time of the day to look forward to. We usually take the dinghy trip to the bathroom after dinner and at that time have the luxury of the showers to ourselves.

With the shower paraphernalia in the backpack we pile in Lily and motor across to the dinghy dock in front of the yacht club. The lights of Toronto on the hill above the moorings cast wiggly golden stripes over the glassy water. There is a long fluorescent blue light running down one side of the yacht club that throws a shimmering reflection across the bay. A fish jumps and plops back in. Perhaps the Great White Shark reportedly in the lake is chasing it in the inky depths. The marina is quiet now. Perfect! We tie Lily up and wander up to the yacht club for one of the best showers ever - no water saving devices here, and hot! Then we return to Rene in the darkness. Tom, our neighbour, has his cabin lights on glowing softly across the water and we easily find our way home. A party is in full swing in one of the houses on the hill above. They've got a trumpet!! The lights of Belmont and Warners Bay shine over the water from the east.

RMYC Toronto Jetty

This is such an easy place to park for a while. Crossing the bar (easy in the right conditions), organising a bridge opening, negotiating the shallow waters of the channel (touching the bottom not uncommon), is worth the effort for a couple of weeks engaging in happy exploration of this beautiful lake. We have discovered, by talking to the locals, that sand in the channel builds up in ridges due to the current and eventually gets high enough that keels scrape as yachts make their way through. By the time we noticed a slow down we had already taken the top off a ridge and were through. Whew!!

This week we motored around to Marmong Point Marina to fill up with fuel as the fuel dock there is easy to access. Also Peter wanted to purchase some good quality rope at the chandlery to attach our new canvas shelter that covers the main cabin and hopefully prevents any water leaking into the interior of the boat while we are away. We have been told that when it rains here it pours, summer having the highest rainfall. Being able to leave the vents open should help prevent mould and mildew to some extent.

Today we have brought Rene alongside for our free night at the jetty in order to do some maintenance. While we were on the way to Marmong Point the echo sounder stopped working. After some examination Peter found that there was a loose connection in the sealed plug - corrosion had occurred!!!! All the minute wires are encased in an earth shield with the main wire about the thickness of a hair. It has taken two trips by bus to the Warners Bay light industrial area where there is a Jaycar outlet, a few hours of tinkering and swearing etc and Peter has successfully (it appears so far) fixed the problem by soldering the offending wires to a new plug. Most people would have chucked it out, but he has been persistent and we hope it will continue to work for a long time. By the way, the Jaycar people were very helpful and had a huge range of electronic equipment.