Kerr Bay to Confederation Basin Marina

We had a lazy start, leave Kerr Bay around 11am and slowly sailed towards Confederation Basin Marina in downtown Kingston. We had a few errands to run, and our fridge stopped working along the way.

Early morning mess

It wasn’t a great start. I forgot to put the stopper in the bathroom sink while running the shower sump. It pumps all of the dirty shower water into the same drain as the sink. If you don’t have the plug in, it will flow up and fill the sink.

Of course I had my clothes and towel in the sink. They became waterlogged and the water overflowed and created a second issue. The water filled the bottom of the cabinet behind the sink. Later on in our trip, I used butyl tape to seal the inside bottom edge of the cabinet to prevent this from happening again.

I probably also spilled my coffee somewhere that morning. It was becoming my daily ritual.

Leave for Confederation Basin Marina

The anchor came up relatively easy in the morning. A bit of a surprise. There was a lot of pressure put on it the night before during the storm. A few weeds but they pulled off easy with the boat hook. We motored out and then immediately unfurled the genoa. Wind was coming partially from behind on starboard side (SW wind). It worked well, we drifted along at 2-5 knots.

We sailed past the Brothers Islands. I call it stinky bird island. A place you want to have the wind blowing away from you, or you will need to hold your breath for the 5-10 minutes to avoid the stench from the birds on the island.

Nova Kool Fridge Fan

I noticed the fridge compressor was running a lot. It was also quieter than usual. The little computer fan that pulls air through the radiator stopped spinning. I used my finger to give it a kick start and after a few attempts it started spinning but made a terrible time the whole time.

Our fridge is a Nova Kool LT200 and it has never really caused us any problems before other than draining the battery when we didn’t have solar. I unscrewed the four screws and removed the fan to see if there was anything I could do.

I couldn’t figure out how to further disassemble it so I just sprayed it with lots of silicone lube. It felt a little bit better, but it never really worked much better. It would start a little quicker but still made terrible noises.

Reservations at Confederation Basin

We called ahead to receive our slip assignment at Confederation Basin. They are packed but had one slip left for us, E9. If you haven’t read our 2018 experience at Confederation Basin you may want to check it out now, Stuck in Kingston. E9 sounded familiar, when we checked the map we realized it was the exact same one the sailboat grounded themselves on the rocks near shore. We panicked, we’ve always struggled at this marina. Check out our other Confederation Basin experience, Leaving Thousand Islands Early. It’s a tight marina, the docks are a maze and the large hotel causes some interesting wind patterns.

Amadeus on the VHF

As we approach Kingston, we hear a friendly voice on VHF Channel 16.

They are hailing various boats and then switched to a working channel. So of course we snooped. They were full of energy and sounded friendly. Letting the other boaters know they had taken a picture of their boat and offering to e-mail them a copy. My ears perked up when I heard them mention they had a CS sailboat. I hailed them and we had a brief chat. They were on their way to spend several weeks in the Thousand Islands, no wonder they were so happy!

Arrival at Confederation Basin Marina

We cautiously entered the basin and hailed the staff on channel 68. They directed us towards our spot. We were nervous. Wind was picking up, but not as bad as previous times here. We took it slow. And my backup plan was to push against the dock if I need to. A little mark on the hull would be way better than going backwards hitting the prop and rudder on the rocks! As we started our turn into slip E9 I saw three staff on the dock. Made us feel a bit better, but also nervous not to mess it up. Foggy performed perfectly, we came to a slow stop right at the slip and Lori stepped off handing lines to the staff. A huge sigh of relief!

We head into a trip into the office to register, use the washrooms and drop off some of our empties. I was bit surprised when I saw a small ladder next to the garbage bin and then a friendly face popped up and smiled at me from the garbage. This was Henry, a kind soul with piercing eyes. We chatted for a while and I handed him a bag of empty beer cans. I wish I could have recorded some of his stories, he’s had a tough life but just kept bouncing along. I looked for him again the next day with another bag of empties but didn’t see him.

I walked up to Kingston General Hospital. I needed to have my leg looked at again. I reduced the antibiotic dosage as directed but the redness and swelling was coming back. Meanwhile, Lori did some errands around town. On my way back to the boat I was excited to see the Ornge Patient Transfer Helicopter take off from just a few feet away.

That night, Lori and I went into town for dinner. There are so many great places with outdoor patio dining to choose from. I can’t wait until we can see and listen to live music again! Downtown Kingston is a fantastic place for food, beer and music! We eventually decided on the Black Dog Tavern (google maps). Ordered a few appetizers and some beer, it was delicious!

We enjoyed the sights of Kingston from the wharf. It’s a beautiful city to visit!

Sailing Statistics

Total time: 3 hours, 39 minutes
Time under motor: 30 minutes
Time under sail: 3 hours, 9 minutes
Distance travelled: 11.7 nautical miles
Average speed: 3.7 knots
Weather: partially cloudy, 10 knots SW wind, nice warm 23' Celsius

Day Trip to Simcoe Island

The next day we have visitors, Lori’s sister and brother-in-law. We decided to head over to the beautiful beach anchorage just North of Simcoe Island. We put up the sails and tacked a few times to get to the beach. Dropped the anchor and spent the day just hanging out on the boat and swimming (except me, I couldn’t go in the water). But that’s alright, it was a great visit with family.

If you don’t already know this, we go for simplicity in our meals. We now have a new favourite easy meal for guests. In the morning we opened up a few cans of tuna, mixed in some spices and some green onions and made a big bowl of tuna sandwich mixture. For lunch we served a few snacks and then had a fresh loaf of pumpernickel rye bread. Everyone would just take a scoop of the tuna mixture and make their own sandwiches. Super easy and super tasty!

At the end of the day we sailed off anchor for the first time. Lifted the anchor, the wind slowly pushed us away from the beach. We then unfurled our genoa and then slowly drifted back towards Confederation Basin Marina. It was a great day.

As we approach the marina, we saw another boat with full sails coming from the West. It passed behind us and then turned into the same direction as us towards the marina. I looked away and then looked back at the boat and it had somehow magically dropped the main and had it packed away with sail cover on. Now running with just a foresail it quickly gained on us and passed us on way to marina. I was in awe. Whoever this was, they obviously knew what they were doing! I wish I got the name, or a better picture. This is all I have of this boat from the following morning.

That night we were assigned to a different slip. We were given a nice open spot at the end of H dock.

Which was great, until night. Another storm came in after dark and we were exposed here.