2008 Shakedown Cruise

June 2008

We arrived at the boat on Sunday night June 22nd and spend a few hours moving things onboard. This was our second truck load of stuff and because the boat was in Parry Sound, Ontario which is only 5 hours away from our home in Ottawa we were able to move aboard this way.

It was very rainy and damp. We were attacked by very hungry mosquitoes Sunday night while we were at the dock, we made the mistake of opening the screen door to lock the glass door and about 1000 of them flew in. The night was spent going from room to room with the fly swatter trying to kill them all before they ate us alive. Tuesday morning we were ready to go, we spent a while going over all the systems, then discussing how we were going to get away from the dock. I was a little intimidated by the look of her at the dock (at first!)

We reversed perfectly out of our slip and were about 25 feet away turning the bow towards the channel markers when our port engine stopped working!! So back into the slip we go, I had enough time to tie the mooring lines back on and we made it back no problem. Turns out it was only a loose wire (thanks Mike!) , an hour later we backed out again and were on our way. We had a great first sail in 9 - 10 knots of wind where the boat sailed at 4 - 5 knots. We tested the electric winch to hoist the main sail. It worked beautifully. Press a button and up it goes! (yes we know it will break at anytime but it is fun while it lasts).

Our first night we anchored in Kilcoursie Bay, our first attempt at anchoring didn't work so we pulled it up and tried again, 2nd time successfully. It sure is easier on the back having a electric windlass then pulling it up by hand! It was a gorgeous anchorage, it had the mandatory beach for the kids. There were only 2 other boats in the anchorage, the wind died down and it was a great night to test the BBQ and eat outside.

The next morning it was clean the boat time, after taking apart all the floorboards and about to start cutting wires to figure out why the pressure wash wouldn't work, we found the ON switch in the anchor locker and voila, no more hoisting bucket after bucket on board to clean a dirty deck. Of course we have excellent crew who were very willing to help (well 2 out of 3 ain't bad)!

Our tank tender showed our starboard water tank empty and our port water tank full, so after a few hours of trying to figure out why the water would not come out of the tap, we concluded that the tender must be wrong and we are completely out of water. In the afternoon we raised the anchor and sailed to Huckleberry Island, we were the only boat in the anchorage, we were told summer doesn't really start in Georgian Bay until July 1st. It was a beautiful anchorage surrounded by huge cottages.

The wind died completed so we had a very restful sleep. The next morning we had to be back at our slip early so we pulled up the anchor and motored the short distance back to our dock at Sound Boat Works. We realize that there is going to be a lot of fiddly things that need constant fixing on the boat, but we had a great time and the boat is an absolute gem. In three weeks we will drive from Ottawa to Parry Sound one more time, but this time it will only be one way!