On Tuesday 23-Aug-2011 we set out from Toronto to sail across Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is one of the 5 Great lakes and is the 4th largest fresh water (by volume and the smallest by size) lake in the Great Lakes.

We started out trying to calibrate our auto-pilot compass. This consisted of shutting the compass off, driving around in circles and waiting for the “deviation” screen to come on. After one hour of trying to calibrate it, we gave up. No auto-pilot for this trip.

We have 3 of us on this trip; Bob Buckley, the owner and captain of the boat, Joe, a native pastor who is involved with various ministries in the Toronto area and myself.

Our boat is a 30ft sail boat with a 24 HP diesel engine, a main sail and a jib. It was built in 1986 by Ticon Yachts in Oakville Ontario.

The original purpose of this trip was to test out the system in our trans Atlantic trip next year but the extra equipment is delayed until next week before it is installed. The other purpose was to test Joe and I to see how we make out on a continuous sail.

Our plan was to sail 48 hour straight and we take turns every 4 hours sailing. That was until a weather front decided to visit us around 2am. We almost made the other side of lake Ontario and made it as far as “this side” of “Main Duck Island”. Our original goal was to hit “Main Duck Island” in the morning when it was light out. There are many shoals and we really didn’t want to navigate that in the dark. At 4:30am, at the beginning of my shift, we decided to turn around and head back to Colburg Ontario. The winds starting hit up to 30 knots and so we took the sails down and drove under diesel power.

After battling to get the sails down and tied up, Joe and Bob went to bed and I kept my eyes on the compass and headed 272° west. The wind started to create some good waves and there were lots of swells 3-4 meters high. I did get wet from time to time.

After a few hours, the winds started to slow down a bit I started to put the jib out which prompted Bob to bolt out of bed and make sure the rookie knew what he was doing. I was so sleepy that after 3 hours of my shift, Bob took over and I slept until 11am. I then got up and took over again and brought the boat close to the harbour using the compass on the GPS. At 2pm we fuelled up and took a berth to spend the night. Bob finally got a restful sleep knowing that his baby was docked and not at the helm of a couple of rookies in a major squall.

One thing we noticed was a broken cotter pin and a pin partially pulled out of a cable holding the main mast. We fixed it but were fortunate that it never let go during the high winds, when the sails were up.

After a fairly rough night weather wise, we got up at 6am and were heading back to Toronto at 7am. We started out with up to 2meter waves but ended the day with a fairly calm lake. We arrived back at the harbour at 7pm.

I found a good charter fishing company if you want to fish Lake Erie in Ontario Canada. The captain is Dean Donovan and his company web site is http://southcoastcharter.com. He can give you a good time, teach you how to fish or both.

4 Season Trango 2 Tent with Fly

I am planning my next mountain climb and I want to practice winter camping. It is supposed to be -16^oC tonight so I want to try out my warmest sleeping bag.

My shelter is a 4 season tent made by Mountain Hardwear and the model is Trango 2. It is the same tent used by many exhibition to Mt Everest. I set it up today in about 4 inches of soft snow.

My sleeping bag is a Peregrine made by Feathered Friends in Seattle and is rated for -25^oF (-32^oC). It is made of 800+ goose down with 4 ounces of over fill.

I am also going to try out my new stove an MRS wisperlite international.

Peregrine Sleeping Bag In Tent

This is a picture of my sleeping bag in my tent. I also have a foam therma-pad and a 3/4 self inflating air pad underneath to help insulate my body from the cold ground. There is not much insulative capacity with the sleeping bag, on the bottom, because your body compresses the down and it is the airspace that gives you the insulation factor.

Learn to be Self Confident

We are starting a new toastmasters group in Sarnia. This will be every Thursday from 7-8:30pm at River City. We are chartering a new club and it is exciting to be a charter member. Only 20 members can be a charter and we already have 6 charter members confirmed. This would be a great time to improve your skills while being part of something exciting.

If you know of anyone else that might be interested, please let them know.

The club runs every Thursday. The fees are $120/year. The annual dues are due Sept so to join now, you only have to pay $90 till September. This includes 2 manuals.

Competent communicator. This manual has 10 speech projects. The first one is an easy one; just talk about yourself. It is designed to get you up there and see what skills you have. The next module teaches you how to organise a speech. Other modules include, vocal variety, how to say it, using visual aids and more. Each module is designed to teach you one aspect of presentation skills while building on past skills. After you have completed the 10 modules, you can earn your designation as a Toastmaster Competent Communicator.

Every week we will also have “table topics.” This is where you have the opportunity to do an impromptu speech for 1-2 minutes. These are fun and really help you to gain confidence about having to say something “off the cuff.”

The other manual is the Competent Leadership manual. This manual has 10 leadership projects. Examples of topics are listening, critical thinking, giving feedback, time management and more.

If you are interested, please let me know as we want to make sure we are prepared to receive all the people that plan to attend.

Do It Yourself Fence is a unique concept. If you want to put in a vinyl privacy fence, a vinyl pool fence or a vinyl picket fence, this it probably what you want. The hardest job of putting a fence in, let alone a vinyl fence, is having to dig the holes, set the posts, pour the concrete and get rid of the extra dirt. With the Do It Yourself Fence system, the vinyl posts are digless. The post consists of a metal pipe that you pound into the ground with a pipe pounder. You then slide over a donut that you can adjust to compensate for any misalignment of the pipe. Then you just slide the vinyl pipe over the top. Wow! Some clever guy named Joe thought of it 14 years ago and has been pounding pipe ever since.

Do It Yourself Vinyl Fence – Vinyl Fencing – Vinyl Picket &a: http://digg.com/d31a8WA?t

Across the road from our flat is a playhouse and we noticed that Kenny Rogers was playing. We really were not that interested in watching an American show while in Scotland but we decided to go anyway.

When we arrived, we had a very interesting lassie named Rosemarie sit beside us who gave us our Scottish fix in an American show. She was very interesting to listen to and to try and decipher what she was saying between her choice of words and her accent. We fell in love with her. After one of the songs, she said that she was greetin’ (greeting) after that song, which means that she was crying. She talked about her hooose (house) and going oot (out). She told me that she was sitting in a registered house all day and it was freezin’. I assumed that meant the house was air conditioned. We really enjoyed our evening and were glad to have gone just to have met her.  That concert was over at 10pm and I took these pictures at 10pm with my phone camera. While not the greatest, it was still fairly light out for me to do it. The sun rises at 4:30 and sets at 10pm this time of year.

The concert was great, Kenny at 72 years of age did a great show with an 8 piece band. While I only knew about 4 of his songs, Janet knew pretty well all of them. She saw him in concert about 37 years ago in Vancouver - years before her and I ever met.

Here is a poor recording, from my phone of Coward of the County

Janet In our Toyota Rental in England

Janet and I are in the UK for two weeks with our primary purpose to do a show in Edinburgh Scotland for our business. (www.calmnatural.co.uk, www.naturalcalm.eu, www.naturalcalm.nl )

We decided to go for two weeks because we could obtain free tickets through our visa points. CIBC had a special 15,000 points for a ticket to London versus the normal 40,000 points. We just had 30,000 so that was a sign for me to take Janet. Of course, you have to pay the taxes, which worked out to $900 for two tickets. Oh well, I guess even free is subject to being taxed.

We flew into London Heathrow on Saturday and decided to stay in a hotel for two nights to get over jet lag and to take a Sabbath day rest from our busy lives. With the 5 hour time difference, and leaving at midnight, you in effect miss a whole night of sleep so picking the first day of our trip to be a Sabbath rest is really more like a Sabbath day sleep.

On Monday, we travelled to our warehouse where we picked up the product for our show. We then spent the next few days travelling up to Scotland and visiting some of our customers on the way up.

Out of Order sign on a vending machine

We stopped in a Travel lodge and I saw a very odd sign at the hotel desk which it said,

Are plumbing cold water has a problem.
We have a plumber right on it.
Now, that meant that the cold water was not working. Now I am not one to profess my prowess for the English language but Are plumbing… instead of

Flat Front Door

Open Mouth, Insert Foot http://bit.ly/cdYEVB via @AddToAny funny WamBam Post

Negative is a “take away”. A positive is a “add to”. Do you want more or less. Be positive.