Toronto to Port Whitby, ON via Crawfordsville, IN - June 1–6, 2011

Our original plan was to anchor for free in the Toronto Islands, being a good way to avoid the cost of expensive marinas in the big city.  At first we anchored in a wide spot where we thought the various

Courtesy of AirCanadaCentre:
http://bronteshore.ca/c/c15e2bc7e61cffb5c21def83365cd8d6

boats, including several tourist boats, could easily have room to get around us as they motored to and fro.  Within minutes of setting the anchor, the skipper of one glass covered boat motored within

hailing distance to suggest we anchor at the end of the Long Pond, in front of the grandstand.  He said that was a better place to anchor, as we'd be out of the way of all the boats.

We pulled the anchor, moved east to the water in front of the bleachers and settled in there.  It took about an hour, but we were hailed by a friendly Toronto Police boat.  They let us know that we could not anchor anywhere, but we could tie up along a seawall at the far west end of Long Pond along Blockhouse Bay.  The policemen were very cordial and kind which made the pill of moving again quite easy to swallow.

This time we slowly motored west, then north throughout all of Blockhouse Bay, but did not recognize the seawall described by the Police.  They did confirm that there was a cost to tying up, so it didn't matter to us whether we tied up along the illusive seawall or at one of the yacht clubs or marinas.  We had noticed a sign saying that Island Yacht Club (IYC) on Mugg's Island (the eastern shore of Blockhouse Bay) had slips available, so we maneuvered into an open slip.  While Jack & Jim secured Kelly, I went looking for a harbormaster.  She happened to be eating her dinner on the clubhouse deck, so Katrina was easy to locate.  She confirmed that we could stay for one or several days and that the rate was $1.75 per foot.  The rate seemed reasonable, given that we were at a nice private club in a big city and we had no reciprocal privileges.  Also, it was only .$25 more than the seawall we finally saw.  Katrina pointed across the small bay and we could just make out a wooden seawall.  It had seemed to be a mud bank when we sailed by earlier, so we never recognized it.

A picnic table floating through the marina was corralled by Murph.
Photo by Jack vanArsdale

We had some logistics to resolve, specifically, that Jack, Jim & I all had to connect with various transportation centers at one time or another over the coming weekend.  Early Friday morning I had to get to Toronto's Pearson International Airport so I could attend my 35^th Wabash College Reunion. 

Toronto View from IYC Slip at Mugg's Island

Jack had to catch a bus to Erie mid morning on Friday, while Jim was planning to go home via bus to Erie on Monday, June 6.  Since the Island Yacht Club is completely isolated on Mugg's Island, the only way ashore is on our dinghy or the club's tender.  The tender proved to be a great way to get to and from downtown, but the schedule wouldn't enable any of us to make our travel connections.

IYC proved to be very nice, so we decided to stay put through Wednesday, while we used the club's tender to play tourist in Toronto.  We also enjoyed their clean facilities for showers and laundry.  Unfortunately their clubhouse wasn't fully open for the season, so we didn't get any meals at IYC.

View of the IYC and islands from the CN Tower

CN Tower shadow

While playing tourist, we visited a number of interesting venues including the Hockey Hall of Fame, Fort York, Pier 4 (fancy restaurant on the waterfront), the Music Garden, streetcars, and the CN Tower.  Since we were taking the water taxi from the IYC to town and back, we felt very nautical! 

Kelly IV Crew at Marina Quay West

On Thursday afternoon we moved Kelly IV to Marina Quay West, which is downtown on the waterfront.  That meant we could all catch cabs right in front of the marina for our various points of departure.  And surprisingly, this marina was only $1.50 per foot!

At 4:30am I caught a car to the airport and enjoyed a terrific reunion with 30+ classmates from 1976.  I even got to stay with a former roommate from the class of '77, since he lives in C'ville.  It was all over much too quickly and I found myself checking into my return flight at 7am bound from Indianapolis to Philly and finally back to Toronto.  Since I arrived Sunday midday, I was able to take public transportation, including a streetcar all the way to the marina.  While the car on Friday morning was a bit pricey, the public transit was only $3 for the entire trip from the airport, so the cost, on average, was very reasonable.

Jack caught his bus and arrived safely at home in time to email me several photos which I'll share with you as soon as I get a good WiFi/internet connection.  Jim stayed through the weekend, so he and I got to share a couple more meals together.  Then early Monday morning, Jim caught his cab to the bus station for the return trip to Erie, where he had left his truck.  As I write this, I expect Jim is already well on his drive from Erie back to his home.

Meanwhile, I had loaded new waypoints and routes into the GPS/Chartplotter, so I was ready to slip the lines.  Since there was no breeze, the trip was a simple motoring along the northern shore of Lake Ontario.  While there was some occasional haze, the visibility seemed to be at least a mile and was often over 3 miles, as I could see land most of the trip and the shore was 3 – 5 miles away.

There were no freighters observed on this leg, but there were a few sailboats, so I'm still getting good practice understanding the little blips on the radar screen.  I radioed the Port Whitby Marina for a

Port Whitby

transient slip and topped off all my fuel, including the jerry cans.  For the first stretch of this trip we have done 100% motoring, which is expensive (diesel in Canada is running about $5.30/gallon).  But it also means we've had very smooth rides with no waves.  So there is always a silver lining!  :-)    After doing a little math, it seems we're burning about 4/10ths of a gallon of fuel every hour we're running the engine.  With a total of 51 gallons of diesel on board, that means we could motor as much as 127 hours or up to 630 nautical miles!  It would be nice to start sailing and using the free breeze, though.