June 30, 2011 Port Credit

Gretchen was pretty sore this morning and had trouble walking on her swollen ankle. She asked Kerry if she would sail with Lew to Port Credit since I had Gerry Maguire to go with me. Kerry took her camera in the hopes of getting some good shots of Excalibur. We left the dock at 10:00. The wind was light which made it easy for us to maneuver out of the tight area we were in. It also made it difficult to sail. Kerry’s attempts to get a good picture were thwarted by the jib collapsing.

Gerry and I had a good time chatting for the 8.4 nautical miles of the trip. We did sail some, but mostly motored. Quite a change from the past days. We could not contact the Port Credit village Marina by phone or radio. Windchaser ventured in and commented the depth was short. Too short for Excalibur for sure as we stopped short of our destination. So, we backed out of the narrow entrance channel and decided to go to the huge Harbor Marina right next door. It is an industrial looking place, not pretty at all, like the Village Marina. Still the water at the dock was 23’ deep, so Excalibur was happy. The redeeming feature was that the Marina Office was closed for Canada Day so we got a free night’s dockage.

Gerry caught a ride back to Oakville. Somehow my nephew Michael and his family, Kristy and Jordan, found Excalibur. We had a great visit with them. Jordan helped fill the water tanks and learned how to tie a square knot. We drank margaritas and martinis, and then had taco salads for dinner. A trip to town for ice cream followed.

We decided to leave at 7:00 in the morning for Hanlans Point. I was worried that it would be full if we did not arrive early and Michael was happy to leave early because he wanted to make a stop on his drive to Lancaster to see his parents.