Our First Overnighter
from Toronto to Port Credit
(click to enlarge pictures!)
For our first overnight trip, we chose a destination that was close but had its own charm. Port Credit seemed to fit the bill. If you aren't from this area, Port Credit is a small town right near Toronto (technically it is in Mississauga). It is a little cutesy town, with restaurants and shops, and of course, a marina on the water. It's less than an hour drive from Toronto's city centre, and via sailboat, a 2-3 hour sail. The marina we chose (Credit Village Marina) received good reviews, so we booked it and headed out mid-day on Sunday.
We drove down to the club in a car2go (which is a car share program we are members of, all smart cars). It's always fun to see how much stuff we can get into a smart car trunk :)
We got down to the boat and got it in the water with minimal incident. We will have to make a post soon about the drysailing issues we have come across, mostly involving the backstay. But we will leave that drama for another day. We kept a close eye on the weather, because storms were expected to move through. Luckily we didn't hit anything more than a few sprinkles on the way to Port Credit. The wind was coming mostly from the south west, and the sail went well, averaging about 5 knots the way there. It took about 3 hours to get there, but that was with some little detours (we went out into the lake a bit more when we saw the storm passing near the shore, and practiced some other things while we were out there).
Here's a pic of Toronto, getting smaller and smaller in the distance...
We drove down to the club in a car2go (which is a car share program we are members of, all smart cars). It's always fun to see how much stuff we can get into a smart car trunk :)
We got down to the boat and got it in the water with minimal incident. We will have to make a post soon about the drysailing issues we have come across, mostly involving the backstay. But we will leave that drama for another day. We kept a close eye on the weather, because storms were expected to move through. Luckily we didn't hit anything more than a few sprinkles on the way to Port Credit. The wind was coming mostly from the south west, and the sail went well, averaging about 5 knots the way there. It took about 3 hours to get there, but that was with some little detours (we went out into the lake a bit more when we saw the storm passing near the shore, and practiced some other things while we were out there).
Here's a pic of Toronto, getting smaller and smaller in the distance...
We had to motor slowly through a channel to get to the club. Luckily the spot we were given was towards the front of the marina (I have no idea how some of those boats manuver through the twists and turns! Impressive.) The majority of boats at this marina were power boats, and LARGE ones. Here's a comical picture of our boat next to our neighbour...
Once we got settled into our spot, we relaxed a bit at the boat and went out for dinner just in time for a gigantic storm to pass. It went very quickly, but was really intense (including a downpour, thunder, lightning, and intense wind). Good time to be eating pizza!
We came back to the boat after the storm and sat outside in the cockpit. I got to finally use the cute solar powered lights I got for my birthday! Love them.
We came back to the boat after the storm and sat outside in the cockpit. I got to finally use the cute solar powered lights I got for my birthday! Love them.
We both were unsure how our bodies would adjust to sleeping in the boat. We are happy to report that overall, we slept really well. We did both wake up around 3am, just because of the unfamiliar noises of the boat. But both of us went back to sleep and slept well until about 9:30. It was a warm night, but not too hot, and we left the screen on the companion way opening as well as the hatch, so we could have some air flow. Here's our view in the morning out of the hatch :)
Before we left, I made some easy crepe batter and put it in a condiment squeeze bottle (that part was Jeff's idea... brilliant!) so we could easily make crepes in the morning. Jeff made some wonderful coffee, and we worked together for the lemon sugar crepes. Our butane stove top worked really well (and gets REALLY hot!)- that was a great purchase for $19!
The summer heat was hot in the morning, and I was getting grouchy because of it :) Jeff to the rescue... here's our makeshift sun tent he created with a sheet! It was so great, and cooled the cockpit down substantially. We are going to look into making one with some better waterproof fabric, but for now, it was genius.
We headed home mid-afternoon on Monday, and the waves were pretty big on the way back. We had some good wind though, and got back to the club in 2 hours, and on one tack. Very exciting. When we got back to the club, we picked up a couple friends for a quick sail in the Toronto harbour before the sun went down. Here's some odds and ends pictures from our trip and from the sail. Click each of them for captions!