Back in the Saddle Again

"Come on!  I'm waiting...."
                          -Madonna




     I'm back.

    Now, where was I?

    For those  wondering about my absence from this (occasionally) ongoing saga lately, I've been on a honeymoon, and enjoying almost every minute of it.

    No, not that kind of honeymoon.

    The honeymoon phase of new old boat ownership, when every experience is new and fresh and nothing expensive has broken, failed, or fallen off.  The honeymoon has lasted far longer than I expected it would, especially considering that we did absolutely everything wrong when we purchased her. (more on that later.)

   SWMBO and I have just been thoroughly enjoying NextBoat, buying other new old boats, (more on that later,) I've been racing two nights a week,  (more on that later, too,) volunteering the other nights of  the week and life just got in the way.

   There has just been so little spare time, and so much activity, that I found myself bunged up with reverse writers block.

     It wasn't that I didn't know what to write about.  

    Exactly the opposite, in fact.

    I simply had too many topics, and the plenitude of material caused my mojo to lock up.

    But, with the end of racing season (yeah, more on that later), I have been able to half-assed organize a hazy scribble plan.

    It's been a weird season.  The water level is well up, which is good,but the weather was...  unreliable.  

   Which is bad.  
  
    Spring felt like winter, July felt like April, I think we had a new month, Augtober, and we swam in the lake at the end of September for the first time in memory.

    And some days it felt like we were in the Marina of Despair, with this foreboding flock  ruling the roost atop the light at the Marina mouth: 

    But, we got some solid time on the water,  got some time off the Dock, had some great sunsets, met some great new friends, and I sold a story to Good Old Boat.

    More on that later.

    October is shaping up to be a month with some sailing promise.  

    Hopefully, the Dock will hold together for another few weeks.  We've had higher sustained winds, more often this season than usual, and the prevailing winds out of the West and Southwest blowing against a tall boat on a slip running East/West  have taken it's toll on the Dock cleats and the decking underneath:

      We've picked up some new gear, got some updates on old gear, and low-buck projects past, present and future.

      Check back soon.  Please?

      As always, thanks  for reading, and don't forget to

     "Talk the Dock!"
   

    

    

SODA: State Of the Dock Address

   "All this debating goin' 'round..."
                      -Kim Mitchell


   The parking lot is almost empty of boats  and the docks are almost all full, so this is as good a time as any to take a look at how the season is shaping up.

   Good news:  The Dock is full.

   Booked up.

  No empty slips.

  The view from the deck of Whiskeyjack:

   Popularity is a double-edged sword- full slips mean more marina revenue which hopefully translates into steady rates and improved amenities.  But, increased demand also meant that, this year, the "balance -due" date was strictly enforced- if you didn't have your slip bill  paid in full by mid-May, you didn't get a slip.
   That has meant at least one change to this season's starting line-up.

  Dock Six isn't the only full capacity Dock this season.   Every dock in the Marina is fully booked, or near enough to it.

  More good news:  Water level is up.

  A wet May has helped ease some of the concerns sparked by low water earlier this spring.  Depth has increased by about 20 cm. in the last three weeks or so.   The Lake is still down from last year, but we're heading in the right direction.

WEEKLY WATER LEVEL BULLETIN

  For the week ending:  10/06/2013

  SUPERIOR     HURON      ST CLAIR      ERIE     ONTARIO   MONTREAL
                                         PORT
 THUNDER BAY  GODERICH   BELLE RIVER   STANLEY   KINGSTON  JETTY NO.1

 Last daily mean available
    183.25     176.03      174.95       174.19     74.99       6.64

 Latest weekly mean
    183.23     176.05      174.95       174.17     74.99       6.53

 Highest water level during the week
    183.30     176.16      174.99       174.25     75.04       6.67

 Lowest water level during the week
    183.14     175.93      174.90       174.08     74.91       6.35

 Latest weekly mean relative to chart datum
    + 0.03     + 0.05      + 0.55       + 0.67    + 0.79     + 0.97

 Change from previous weekly mean
    + 0.02     + 0.03      + 0.05       + 0.02    + 0.07     - 0.38

 Change from last year's weekly mean
    + 0.08     - 0.05      - 0.03       - 0.08    + 0.12     + 0.62

Dock conveniences can still be captured in a single photo:

    But, there is now a bike rack in the picture.

    We also have a new porta-potty...

 which appears to be a two-storey model, according to the pictograph on the door:

   Men, unfortunately, are confined to the ground floor, apparently.

   Redshirts were busy last week installing solar lights on the Dock, a nice touch.

Got an email earlier this week:

   "Marina Management Services, Inc. has been hired by Norfolk County to develop a Marina Sustainability, Development Strategy and Business Plan for Port Dover Harbour Marina.

Please join representatives from Norfolk County, Port Dover Habour Marina, and Marina Management Services, Inc. on Saturday, June 22nd from 8:30am to 10:30am.  This will be an informal "meet & greet" with the staff and the consultant as well as an opportunity to sign up to participate in the process.  The meeting will be held in the Pavilion at Port Dover Harbour Marina."

   Those of you who have skin in this game, those with boats on the Dock, or any of the lesser docks, please attend this meeting, or email Tim Keough at tim@marinamanagement.com to let him know you are interested in being part of the solution.

   *insert clever segue here*
   *if clever segue fails to appear, revert to default workmanlike style, below*
  Right then, with the business side of things out of the way, who does have skin in the game this year?

  Many of the usual suspects are back for another season:

   Jim and Mariann  have both boats in the water, looking as perfect as ever.

  Gordon and his lovely wife have returned with Quidi Vidi  .

   Rick has docked 20th Hole- rumour has it that his boat has left the Dock more than once so far this season.  This shot is from last year- no one can verify it has actually happened this year...

   Ivan and Rick and Grant and the rest of the serious fishermen are back.
   Jordan has docked  Saphira in the shallows.
   Cholita returns with Len at the helm.
Ralph and Julie are back beside Rick...

 and beside them Mark and Erica have returned.
Hilary is back, and his boat still doesn't have a name.  This may become a contest.  More on that later.
Eric has splashed After School, and Bruce has brought Prolific back for another season, but moved farther down the Dock,

  Other Jim has classed up the joint by slipping his Bluenose, Carpe Diem:

   Brent has slipped Lady Dee,

      Cocobliss and most of the other bowriders and pontoon boats are back and of course Jack is in, with Blew Orphan:

BUT...
   JD and Wheelin' & Dealin' are MIA.
   Bryan and his Siren are not in.
   Will's Tanzer is on the hard.
   Ed decided to trailer sail his Siren this year, looking to get more time on the water in more places.

   For the first time in years, there is not a single Siren on the Dock.

   Marco and Dee have moved back to Sarnia, which opened up a slip, which means we have new neighbours:

   Frank and Lorraine  have moved in next door with their Northern 24,

  Beside them is another new good old boat, a Tanzer 7.5,  in the hands of returning boaters,  Randy and Monique.  Welcome aboard!

                Down toward the end of the dock is another newcomer, another Jordan, and his go-fast boat,
        Boss Nova,

     The sailboat count is higher than in any previous year, Siren absence notwithstanding; Team Tanzer is certainly making up the difference.

   In short: Some old friends, some new friends, some old characters, some new, some wild cards, some old favourites, and some gone, but not forgotten.

    There will be new stories told, adventures shared, lies swapped, rum consumed, food eaten,  songs sung and laughter laughed.

Forget the hokey-pokey.  That's  what it's all about.  Come on along.


"Talk the Dock!"

 

Small boats, Great Lake, Big Picture.

     "But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime..."
                                                                              -Big Country

     When I started scribbling this (mostly) non-fictional account of doings on the Dock, I figured the Chronicles might be a way for the Docksters to keep in touch during the off-season,  keep up on local gossip while the boats are hull-wet and document our refit projects throughout the year.   In the interest of getting some feedback and connecting with other local sailors, I flogged my shiny new blog on  www.sailnet.com , www.anything-sailing.com , www.cruisersforum.com , and www.sailboatowners.com , forums that I have haunted for the last few years, picking up and throwing out advice and information.  My thinking was that if a half dozen or so of the folks on and near the Dock read what I wrote and added their own contributions, then  the Dock Six Chronicles would  be doing what I expected when I came up with this brainfart. 

Well, here we are, a month into this trainwreck, and the results are in:

More than 3000 page views!

THREE.   UNPRINTABLE.  THOUSAND.

Wow.

The adventures of Gavin and Sylvia and Jack and Jim and Jim and James and Maryanne and Brooke and Jill and Steve and Jordan and Bas and Inky and Finn and George and SWMBO and me and all the rest have been read by people in the United States (our biggest audience), Canada, the UK, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Russia (!), Norway (?) and Guam (!!??!!)  to name the top Ten.

How cool is that?

This Rebecca Black-like instant popularity has presented a challenge, however- context.  Or, more accurately, lack thereof.  See, I figured I was writing largely for an audience who knew what and where Port Dover was, and understood the basics about Lake Erie, or at least the Great Lakes in general.  As it turns out, apparently Port Dover, Norfolk County, Lake Erie, and Ontario for that matter are largely unknown quantities in Guam.

So, in the interest of desperately holding onto our audience, this would be a good time to take a break from plot development and focus on fleshing out the setting of this saga.

   There seems to be something about the extreme southern regions of every country that makes them a little different from the rest of the surrounding nation. The Riviera is nothing like Normandy, Brixham isn't Cambridge, Melbourne's not Sidney and New Orleans sure as hell ain't Kansas, Toto.  

    I am not going to theorize on the reasons why this downward-bound eccentricity occurs, I just know that it seems to hold true.  Maybe it isn't a matter of direction as much as it is proximity to a large body of water, but if it was only water, Baffin Island would be much more interesting than it actually is.  So, it seems like the "south" part is an integral component of this spell.  Adding more empirical evidence to this theory is the fact that Norfolk County is not like any other place in Canada.

Norfolk County is on the South Coast of Ontario, which puts it on the North shore of Lake Erie.  "Lake" is a misnomer.  At almost 26 000 square kilometers, Lake Erie  is more accurately a freshwater sea.  In fact, as seas go, Erie is a contender.

The Dead Sea is smaller. 

 The Aral Sea is smaller.  

The Chesapeake Bay is smaller
Long Island Sound is smaller.

                                                                             Here's the Lake from space, courtesy of NASA.

As much as Erie could be considered a sea, an argument could also be made that the lake is simply an extraordinarily large pond.  What bragging rights Erie claims in area, she gives up in volume- the Lake is the shallowest Great Lake, with a maximum depth of 210 feet and an average depth of 62 feet.

All that area and so little depth is some nasty math.  Storms roll in quickly, and  the waves are like ex-wives- square and mean. Prolonged winds will cause the whole lake to move, resulting in water level fluctuations measured in metres over less than a half day.  Over the last four centuries, Erie's furious weather has accounted for hundreds of shipwrecks.

                                                                                       Image courtesy of www.lakesuperior.com

    When the weather starts to howl a prudent sailor heads for shelter.  Good shelter means that a port will inevitably grow.  Shelter-wise, it doesn't get much better on Lake Erie than Long Point Bay.  We zoom in on the Bay in the next post.  Stay tuned.

   Thanks for checking us out!  Get the newest posts first(ish) by becoming a follower, and please spread the word.  Feel free to link the blog everywhere!  It makes a great Christmas gift!