Home To The Storm

Drive not too rainy, but once back on Manitoulin...heavy rain, slashing wind, and occasional thunder.  

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Cold in the house on arrival, but half a dozen splits in the stove along with a carrot cake, and now all cozy, though the rain continues to hammer the roof. Swales filling and rivulets running.  

We are in the zone... between southern warmth and a big northern cold front. Lake level rising.  

Heading to Pinebox soon for a foul weather chicken dinner.  

Highly Humid...

...after last night’s early morning rain. Concrete entry porch pretty much a puddle. But good for growing grass.  In spite of recent little rains the river is just a pale vestige of its spring self.

Saw one salmon trying to get up river but not making it  

Lake Kagawong shoreline folks are ticked at Billings Twp. for letting the local hydro company drain down more than their allotted share. Can’t say as I blame ‘em. 

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Mostly cloudy but with occasional bursts of sunshine.  

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Epic Sail

A wild end to the season.  Since Mark wanted to sail with us, we scheduled the trip to Gore Bay for today, Sunday. The long-range forecast seemed okay. But when we left the dock at 10:30 conditions were kinda bad and getting worse.

On the way out of Mudge Bay, while we were reefing the main, the snap shackle holding the main sheet to the traveler broke, letting the boom swing free. That was not good. So we dropped the sail and scrounged a replacement shackle. Once that was fixed we went to re-raise the reefed main only to have the halyard shackle come free of the headboard and swing around the backstay. That of course required turning around and heading down wind, digging out the boathook, and then performing some aerobatic snagging-type gyrations.

The idea of turning back flashed by all of us at that point—but with the main finally sheeted in hard and a scrap of jib rolled out, we carried on, beating into gusts of gale force wind, and ever increasing seas.

By pinching up in the gusts we were able to keep windward enough to make the green turning buoy at the start of the Clapperton channel. At that point is was: roll in the jib, drop the main, hoist the mizzen, turn down wind, roll out a slightly bigger scrap of jib—and then…take off!

Seven and a half knots occasionally, and once out in the big water, seas of perhaps 5 feet, on the quarter, with Heliotrope doing some steep rolling. Mark tossed a ginger cookie, but otherwise we were all fine, except for the cold. We were shivering and shaking by the time Gore Bay hove into view, where John and Mary Ellen came to pick us up in car with a heater.

Once back in Kagawong, at the marina, as we were picking up our car, The Geisers pulled up, and all of us, of course, started talking about the crazy weather. That’s when George said, “And if you can believe it, this morning we saw some idiots out in the bay in a sailboat.”

Wonder who that could have been.

Photo by Mary Ellen

Photo by Mary Ellen

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And, finally.

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90 Kilometers...

...per as the Environment Canada special weather statement says. That’s a lot of wind. 

Stepped outside this morning, after a night of rain, into a sauna. But then the wind started to kick up, slowly building and slowly clocking around the compass from east to south to west.l Just back from ckecking the boats at the marina, and what a wild a crazy scene with spray flying, the docks pitching, and the boats bucking and rolling.

Power out several times today.

Below, a followup on yesterday’s blog comment on Sue’s plum cake.

Ready for the oven

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven

Out of the oven

Ready to eat

Ready to eat

Internet intermittent, so that’s all for today.

Pumped...

...then down and dirty. Septic tank pumped for the first time since installation, and, as it turns out, rather in need of it. Then a load of topsoil, 6 cubic yards (minimum order). 

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Almost done shoveling and ready for seed. The sunken hollows filled, and possibly enough soil to support grass and not just weeds.

Lovely cool weather. Morning wind fading  to evening calm.  

Fast

Powerful south wind today so some high speeds attained on the Windrider. 

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This well after Irene’s morning departure for home. (And what a quick week it was.) 

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And then,  with the season winding down, the sandbox under deconstruction. Septic pump out happening Wednesday, and following that, a new sandbox, like the Phoenix, will arise from the remnants.