August 12, 2011 Port Dover

I had the blog update done before Kip and Kerry got up. Wandering on deck I noticed that one of my flag halyards had twisted. That in itself is no big deal, but the reason it twisted was a concern. It could only have twisted if the turnbuckle on the shroud had twisted since I run the flag halyard through the turnbuckle. Sure enough, when I looked at the cotter pin that is supposed to hold the turnbuckle from twisting, it was mangled and bent. I must have used one that was too light.

I started turning the turnbuckle to untwist the halyard, but only succeed in making more twist. By this time the racket I was making, which was much amplified below decks, had Kip and Kerry up. It was difficult to get the mangled pins out, but once we did I realized that I did not have the correct size replacement on board, which necessitated a trip to the marine store.

We debated whether to have omelets or blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Kerry decided on the pancakes which meant that I was the chef. I do pancakes, she does omelets. The pancakes turned out really good. We sat in the cockpit and enjoyed them and also chatting with our fellow sailors.

After breakfast Kip and I put up the bikes for a ride to town. Kevin and Lew decided to join us. I was able to get the correct size cotter pin at the marine store. We stopped in a service shop where the man said he could straighten my bent stanchion, but not today because of a funeral. Still it was good to know that it could be straightened.

After the marine store we hit the hardware store, a discount store, the theatre to pick up tickets, the LCBO and then the boat graveyard. By that time we were ready for a beer and ended up at a place on the beach under an umbrella table near a palm tree. We discussed what they must do in the winter with the palm trees, which are pretty good size.

The ladies had all walked to town to shop. We met up with them and agreed to carry packages back to the boat for them on our bikes. Kerry came back to Excalibur tired and with a headache. I made a rum and tonic for her and then part of another.

We cooked a delicious dinner on the grill at the PDYC. It was the same dinner Gerry McGuire had cooked for us in Oakville. Kerry even called him to double check how he did the chicken wings. We chatted for a while to catch up. He was glad to hear the Big Boy Jim was doing so well with his cardiac rehab program. Along with the chicken wings we enjoyed roasted peppers, portabella mushrooms and asparagus, and of course, martinis and wine. It was wonderful dinner, setting and evening.

We went to the 8:00 theatre for a show called “Dating by the book.” It was a cute play about a divorced woman getting back into dating for the first time. She used a book to guide her written by her cousin, who disregarded everything she said in her own book. While it was good, we agreed that we liked the Gananoque play better.

It was hard to get to sleep with all the partying coming from the porch of the yacht club, since we were only about 20 yards from there. Finally at midnight I turned on the air conditioner fan just to drown out their noise. It seemed like I was up all night. We had set the 6:30 bridge as our departure time. We rose at 5:45 to get ready for our 80 mile trip to Port Stanley.