Sorry for the delay in posting

Good morning from the Kingston Marina. we have had a couple of problems.
First the internet on my new Wind Mobile phone did not work. I knew this because Wind is only in the major cities in Canada. I am using it today because I am in Kingston. Between here and Toronto there is no coverage.

I bought the phone to use in The United States and did once hook on to ATT. The single was not strong enough to use the internet. Hopefully it will work better on the big trip.

Then we had trouble getting the Rocna Anchor down. I do not meant trouble getting it to stick, but literally down the swivel would not go past the bail. After some concern we took the swivel off and it is now working.

Then our outboard engine stopped working. This happened before the fridge so I decided not to interrupt the vacation to get it fixed. Thus while we have been sitting around waiting for the fridge we have done nothing about the motor. It will be an easy fix once back at the club.

The next  problem is the big one our refrigerator stopped working. with the help of Roger Netzke and Doug Booth we now have the fridge and freezer filled with freon. The freezer is working fine but the fridge is still not working. Doug is here working on a boat and will come over when he is finished.

While trying to fix the the refrigerator unit the water pump broke. When I got here Sunday I got a new one at West Marine. The pump I took off was a .5 GPM pump which I replace with the smallest they had a 2 GPM pump. This now has created two additional problems. First it makes too much noise and second it uses too much electricity.

Next we were transmitting AIS but not receiving. I finally fixed this yesterday. On the way down I had, by mistake, reset everything to the factory setting. This erased my waypoints and changed the NEMA setting ti the one which does not work with AIS.

We may have found another problem with the batteries. They seem to loose voltage too quickly. This may be as simple as my miscalculating the power loss from running the fridge all the time.

On the positive side Pipe Dream was exhibited at The New Age of Sail Exhibition at the Kingston Marine Museum. They had a lot of activity and a great time. While biased they did feel that many visitors felt Pipe Dream was the high light of the show.

Pipe Dream on her way to The Thousand Islands

Ducks in Gananoque's lake

Kelly headed for breakfast

Irish Mist sitting in front of Pipe Drano

One of the larger yachts we have seen in our travels

Pipe Dream's new tender and electric motor

Irish Mist and Pipe Dream sitting at the public dock in Gananoque

Panoramic view of Picton Harbour

It is a beautiful, while cold summer day in Picton. I got up and decided I would try the Panorama feature of my three year old camera. I will now try to put the result on the blog. I do not know if you will be able to see just how wonderful Picton Harbour is.

Regular view of Irish Mist and Picton Harbour July 16, 2014

Panoramic view of the harbour

Cobourg, Sandy Cove and Picton

We set out from Cobourg at about 7:30 heading for the Murray Canal. It was built years ago to provide access to the Bay of Quintie, which it still does today.

Approaching the Murray Canal

Paying the $4.90 toll It was set at $5 but then the Conservatives reduced the GST by 2% thus $4.90

A parade of 6 yachts 4 from PCYC and 2 from RCYC

Trish relaxing picture taken by Kelly Brennan

 After passing through the Canal we went to Myers Pier Marina to fuel up. We did not really need any diesel but there is no where to get diesel on the Canadian side of the Thousand Islands and we wanted to know how we were doing. As it turned out not badly 60 litters or about 15 gallons for the year so far.

Pipe Dream and Irish Mist rafting in Sandy Cove just east of Belleville

Picton Harbour is on the North side of Prince Edward County which is now thanks to the Murray Canal an island sitting in Lake Ontario south of the mainland. It looks and fields like an eastern seaboard cove. There is no safer harbour in Ontario or on lake Ontario for that matter

Picton Harbour

Tomorrow we are off to Collins Bay which is really a suburb of Kingston.

Off to the Islands

Well not quite we are off to the Thousand Islands with my sisters and Pipe Dream. The first stop was Cathedral Bluffs. It is only 8 miles but it enables us to get away from the lockers and other thing which can delay a departure indefinitely.

We got two docks at the from and went in to dinner. The patio served as an excellent place to take pictures.

We often put the boat on auto pilot and let Kelly steer. She is great at finding boats approaching.

Irish Mist sitting at Cathedral Bluffs

Pipe Dream at Cathedral Bluffs

Brendan, Bella and Lexie are always ready for a party

Irish Mist from the Balcony

From Cathedral Bluffs we went 20 miles to Newcastle. For a number of years friends who live across the river from the marina held a huge party for their RCYC friends and any RCYC cruiser in the Marina. When we started cruising we came to Newcastle every year, but we ave not been here since 2006. It is a well protected storm hole with a very small entrance. They have a yacht club which grants reciprocal docking, but only 2 a night. Even though they were full Pipe Dream and Irish Mist got both free docks for the night. We agreed to have dinner in the restaurant in return.

A very narrow entrance

But once inside very well protected

Getting Closer, but before we head South we head East

Yesterday we fixed the Tack with the help of out great mechanics at the RCYC. We then put the new anchor on and tied down the bitter ends. Then we sold our spare inflatable and motor. The we delivered the boat to Mimico Cruising club to have the solar panels hooked up. While we were at it we delivered the inflatable and motor to the new owners.

We have been very busy. Below i have included a picture of our new Ronca.

We are almost ready to go

Trish and I have been very busy getting the boat and ourselves ready to go to The Bahamas. This week we have arranged to have the final connection for the solar panels done. We picked up the Bimini and panels from Mike Bennet. Checked the chain on our second anchor, bought new chain and line. To day we will get it spliced and put the anchor lockers back in order. Today our new Rocna 33 is arriving. It has been one little thing after another.

This past Wednesday friends Jan Goulding and Gordon Crowe built most of the Mast frame for me. Today we will meet to decide how to tie it on. Below you will see the progress so far.

Jan the principle builder and designer of the system

It was a very long day, but we got almost everything completed.