Golden Horseshoe 2010 by the numbers

The last two days of the cruise we spend at anchor in the lagoon at Aquatic Park Sailing Club on Toronto's Leslie Street Spit, a terrific anchorage only one hour (at 18 knots) from Frenchman's Bay. Click on any image in the blog for a larger view.

Back at the Fairport Yacht Club dock in Frenchman's Bay, we sum up the cruise in numbers of note:

Length of cruise - 15 days 14 nights
Distance - 131.34 nautical miles
Shortest day - 0.3 nautical miles
Longest day - 28.6 nautical miles
Engine hours - 16 to 17 hours, including charging time
Average speed - 8.8 knots
Cruising speed - 18.0 knots

Number of ports of call - 8, as follows:
Anchorages - 1 (free)
Mooring wall - 1 (free, should have been 50 cents per foot)
Yacht clubs - 6
- Island Yacht Club: first night free, additional night at $1.50 per foot
- Harbour City Yacht Club: first night free, additional night at $1.50 per foot, ice cubes $2.50
- Queen City Yacht Club: given first night free (Fairport Yacht Club not listed with reciprocal privileges)
- Dalhousie Yacht Club: first night free, additional night at 50 cents per foot, ice cubes $2.50, pump-out $20.00
- Fifty Point Yacht Club: first night free, additional night at $1.57 per foot, ice cubes $2.80, blocks $4.00
- Port Credit Yacht Club: two free nights, ice cubes or blocks $2.00

Average daily cost - $46.70 per day including fuel (!)

Bacardi Rum Mojitos - 1 bottle
Bacardi Orange Breezers - 3 mini-bottles
Red Wine - 7 litres
Beer - 4.5 litres
V8 juice - 24 cans
Fruit punch - 12 TetraPaks
Water - 18 litres plus 20 500-ml bottles

Steaks - 4
Sausages - 10
Hamsteak - 1
Salmon cakes - 4
Salmon fillets - 4
Couscous - 2
Whole wheat linguine - 1

Eggs - 2-1/2 dozen
Bacon - 6 slices

Cheese - 5 (St. Albert, Bright, Danish Blue, Vermont Ayr & Thornloe Casey)
Pork liver pate - 1
Chorizo Iberico sausage - 1
Baba ghanouj - 1 tub
Peanut butter - just a bit of one jar
Sour cream - 1 tub
Smoked oysters - 3 cans
Potato chips - 2 bags
Multi-grain crackers - 1/2 box
Granola bars - 6
Trail mix - 1 bag

Bread - 2 loaves light rye
Butter - 1 pound
Breakfast cereals - 1 box Kashi Crunch

Memories - more than we can say.

Click here to visit the recap of a 2008 Golden Horseshoe Cruise when the ports of call were almost entirely different. See the links at the lower right of the blog under the heading Golden Horseshoe 2008.

Incidentally, the photo of At Last! that adorns our TomCat Tales banner at the top of the blog was shot by the Admiral from Carousel Cafe at Centreville Amusement Park in the Toronto Islands.

It's hard to believe that in late September, on the final morning of our cruise, we are able to enjoy French toast with a side of pork sausage sitting in the cockpit of At Last! wearing only shorts and T-shirts.

From bikini babes to great grilled cheese

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit North it was not but a pleasant diversion nevertheless. Click on this or any image in the blog for a larger view.

Saturday September 18 1000 hours
Aquatic Park

We wake up to another sunny day in paradise.

It’s so quiet and peaceful here. While enjoying our leisurely breakfast of eggs with bacon, home-fried potatoes and rye toast, we decide to stay in the anchorage for our last night. The original plan was a possible return to the public mooring wall on Centre Island.

But wait! Who’s that coming into the basin? We watch a sailboat about 50 feet enter the basin and drop anchor nearby. There are several people aboard. We are thinking, there goes our peace and quiet. But, lo, out comes a slender young woman in a bikini. It’s a photo shoot! In fact, there are several young women in swimsuits aboard. The Captain rushes out to the cockpit with his binoculars and camera. Not the type of view you would normally expect in an anchorage.

A short while later, the Captain’s heart rate rises again when a highly modified Tomcat 6.2 named “Basket Case” sails out of the club moorings. The TomCat 6.2 is a sailing cat unrelated to our Tomcat.

It's a highly modified TomCat 6.2 sailing catamaran but unrelated, except by name, to our own TomCat 24.
Catamaran means At Last! has two hulls and a stable stance on the water, the result of boat design that harkens back thousands of years to Polynesians in the South Pacific.

We enjoy grilled cheese two ways: St. Albert Extra Old cheddar (above) and St. Albert Extra Old with Rosenborg Danish blue (below).

With all this action, we have a late lunch of grilled-cheese sandwiches two ways. One with St. Albert Extra Old cheddar and the second, a combination of the St. Albert and Rosenborg Danish blue cheese. The latter, the spunkier of the two, is our favourite.

Time for the Captain to nap and then kayak around the basin.

The Captain takes Finally!, the Puffin Saco 12, for a paddle around Aquatic Park.

Dinner tonight is grilled pork sausages, peaches and cream corn, garlicky sauteed mushrooms and grilled orange peppers.

As the lights of Toronto start twinkling in the distance, we savour Lindt dark chocolate with hazelnuts.

On the hook in Aquatic Park

Soon after arriving in Aquatic Park, where about 100 boats are moored, the Captain enjoys an afternoon Newcastle Brown Ale while awaiting his grilled-Limburger sannich. Click on any image in the blog for a larger view.

Friday September 17 1400 hours
Aquatic Park

The skies are bright blue this morning, a welcome sight after rainy yesterday.
A clear blue sky is all we see above the impressive clubhouse at Port Credit Yacht Club.

Our plan is to head towards the Toronto Islands for the last two nights of our cruise.

Captain takes one last bike ride on the trails around PCYC, and to pick up water, fresh bread and a cappuccino mix. Meanwhile, Admiral gets the boat ready for departure.

It’s a smooth ride to the Islands. We decide to anchor out in the basin southwest of the Aquatic Park Sailing Club, which is on the north shore of the Leslie Street Spit bordering Tommy Thomson Park. Facilities are minimal and access to the essentials is difficult, but the basin is a quiet spot to spend a night.

In one direction, we have panoramic view of the Toronto skyline. In the other is the mooring field of the sailing club. Off the bow, a cove full of birds. Behind us if a fishery pond of some sort and the Leslie Street Spit, popular with birders, bikers and runners.
The Admiral has outdone herself with Limburger grilled-cheese sandwiches that we devour in quick time.

We arrive in time for lunch of a buttery grilled-cheese sandwich, made with the last of the Limburger cheese along with thinly sliced English cucumbers. If that wasn’t enough, we also have a sliver or two of garlic pork liver pate on the remaining toasts.

We enjoy the 360-degree view from our cockpit. All is quiet and still in the basin. The only noises are the sounds of the different birds in the trees. Great place for bird-watching but we forgot our bird book.

For dinner, the Admiral makes home-made wild sockeye salmon cakes with lemon and green onion faux aioli with a green salad.
The Admiral's own salmon cakes are a superb way to close a super day on At Last!

Hunkered down and loving it on a rainy day

Thursday September 16 1100 hours
Port Credit Yacht Club

We wake to our first rainy day of the cruise. The skies are dark, it's pouring and we are hunkered down aboard At Last!

This type of day calls for comfort food. Brunch is hot corned beef hash and diced potatoes topped with gooey eggs and sliced tomatoes on the side.

Good day to be curled up in bed to catch up on reading and to listen to the pitter-patter of the rain on the pilothouse roof. As we’re connected to electricity at the dock, we’re able to run our small ceramic heater which keeps the humidity down and the cozy factor high.

We wait for a break in the weather to bike around the Lakefront Promenade trail. PCYC is a great stop to walk or bike the trails.

A Rabba supermarket is about a 10-minute bike ride. We pick up buttered croissants to have with our thinly sliced San Marino prosciutto.

After several hours at the MacBook Pro, we are finally current with the blog and emails to friends and family.

Dinner is a simple Saskatchewan smoked-ham steak, see-it-again couscous with diced tomatoes and green onions.

For dessert, the Captain has picked up two small Ste Julie sucre a la creme (cream fudge).

The rain has stopped, skies are clearing and tomorrow promises to be another gorgeous day in September.

Much ado about nothing at PCYC

Port Credit Yacht Club is an impressive, visitor-friendly facility just west of Toronto. At Last! is docked in the center left of the photo. Always click on images in our blog for a larger view.

Wednesday September 15 1400 hours
Port Credit Yacht Club

We clear Fifty Point Harbour at 1230 to begin the return leg of the Golden Horseshoe Cruise 2010.

It’s a bumpy ride at the start and the Admiral makes an executive decision to head straight to Port Credit. The original plan was to check out Burlington Bay and the yacht clubs there.

As soon as the Admiral makes the decision and the Captain turns the boat north, the seas calm down and it’s a smooth ride all the way to Port Credit Yacht Club.

The Admiral checks in with the Dockmaster and is elated that we are given two free nights. We are staying in Slip #C5.

Mid-afternoon snack is the chorizo Iberico and smelly Limburger cheese on multi-seed crackers from Costco. We are sitting in the cockpit and enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Dinner is a whole-wheat linguine with basil pesto and buttery garlic toast.

Sounds as if we didn’t do much today. Which is exactly what we did. Not much.

The Captain does a double take upon entering Port Credit Yacht Club. There's the Latvian flag flying from Paradize, which is Paradise in Latvian, his mother tongue.

Dreaded laundry and other cruising delights

Watch your back bacon, Berkshire, there's a new pig on our plate: pata negra from Spain.

Tuesday September 14 1300 hours
Fifty Point Yacht Club

Another sunny warm day with mid-day temps 24C in the shade.

Breakfast is a Bright Brand cheddar cheese omelette with green onions and light caraway rye.

When you are cruising, the laundry hamper builds up surprisingly quickly. After 10 days on the water, we finally do the dreaded laundry. Three loads in total. $2.50 for wash cycle (31 minutes) and $1.00 for dry (20 minutes). You can top-up the dry for 25 cents for each additional five minutes.

We run out of the home-made muffins that the Admiral baked for the trip, so off she goes to the Marina coffee shop for freshly baked blueberry, banana and raisin bran muffins. Cost is $5.65 for the four jumbo muffins. Ice cubes are $2.80.

Lunch is a romaine salad of cucumber/tomatoes/green peas and Fermin chorizo Iberico, a dry cured sausage produced from the famous Iberico pata negra pig. Watch your back bacon, Berkshire, there’s a new pig on the block, the black foot from Spain and he’s ready to take a rightful place at our table. Hoof, hoof!

We plan to go for a 1/2-hour hike around the fishing pond and check out the rest of the conservation area.

For the past two days, we are the only visiting boat at FPYC. You just can’t beat off-season cruising. We cannot imagine being in the marina with all 330 boats and 70 campsites in use.

Dinner today is a delicious New Zealand Spring Lamb shoulder blade chop with grilled potato and sauteed mushrooms on garlic toast.

Port Dalhousie to Fifty Point

Monday September 13, 1100 hours
Fifty Point Yacht Club

The weather forecast indicates wind building in the wrong direction in the afternoon; thus, we have a quick breakfast of Kashi Crunch cereal and head across to DYC to pump out and pay for the third night. Cost of the pump-out is $20.00.

It’s another perfect day on Lake Ontario for the Admiral. It is flat and calm. It’s also a hot, sunny day with temperatures 26C in the shade.

An apple a day keeps the Captain, above, feeling hearty.

Fifty Point Yacht Club is located in the Fifty Point Conservation Area operated by the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority. It is an 80-hectare conservation area with a sandy beach, playing fields, fishing pond, modern campgrounds, restaurant and marina.

Fairport Yacht Club has reciprocals with Fifty Point Yacht Club. First day is free. Additional nights are at $1.57 per foot. We are here for two nights at slip #20.

Fifty Point Marina is a delightful place to lay over for two days on the south shore of Lake Ontario.

Lunch is double-smoked bacon and eggs with toasted light caraway rye. The bacon was purchased from Scheffler’s Deli & Cheese in the St. Lawrence Market.

We get on our bikes to check out the conservation area. Admiral is a little nervous riding the trails that are close to the water’s edge but otherwise we do just fine.

BBQ’ing is not permitted on boats, but there are communal grills to share. Dinner is perfectly grilled pork chops, green peas and garlic/tomato/green onions couscous.

It’s been such a balmy night sitting outside, we don’t realize the time. We finally return to At Last! at 9:30 p.m.

Treadwell does brunch well

Perfectly poached free-range eggs with Cumbrae pork belly, rosti potato and Hollandaise sauce is what Treadwell Restaurant calls eggs benny. We call it yummy. Click on any image in the blog for a larger view.

1400 Hours
Sunday September 12
Dalhousie Yacht Club

We decide to stay for a third night in Port Dalhousie. We plan to do some grocery shopping and maybe laundry, maybe not.

We brunch at the Treadwell Restaurant known for it’s farm-to-table cuisine. We are not disappointed.

For starters:

• roasted heirloom beet and cherry salad with Best Baa Dairy Feta and a dill and hazelnut vinaigrette
• tree and twig heirloom tomatoes with Monforte Dairy Toscano garlic croutons, with basil two ways, one of which was a sorbet.

The lobster club at Treadwell features lobster chunks on duck-fat fried bread with Best Baa Dairy sheep’s milk cheese, Vik’s watercress and lemon mayo.

For mains:

• lobster club on duck fat fried bread with Best Baa Dairy sheep’s milk cheese, Vik’s watercress and lemon mayo
• eggs benny: poached free range eggs with Cumbrae pork belly, rosti potato and Hollandaise sauce

A warm peach cobbler with local peaches and home-made vanilla ice cream puts a happy face on the Admiral.

Dessert is cobbler made with local peaches and home-made vanilla ice cream and a selection of artisan cheeses with home-made date bread and fruit preserves:

• Monforte creamy Little Prince
• a very nice Best Baa Ouda
• tangy 10-year-old Le Silo cheddar

It’s not a cheap brunch but if you want great food, great service and great view, Treadwell is the place.

After the big meal, the Captain takes a half-hour nap before he bikes to the local No Frills for fresh produce. Admiral is finally catching up with her newspapers from last weekend. When we’re cruising, you would think we’d have time to read. There’s always something to do or see. Books that we bring along always return home unread.

It’s such warm evening, we enjoy a light dinner of wild sockeye salmon with green salad in the cockpit.

A bluesy, beersy reunion at the Lion

After more than 40 years, Ron, Joe and the Captain, are reunited at the Saturday afternoon blues jam at the Lion in Port Dalhousie. Click on any image for a larger view.

2000 Hours
Saturday September 11
Dalhousie Yacht Club

We wake and remember the ninth anniversary of September 11. It is such painful memory in history. We were all affected in some way or another. We pause for a moment of silence.

On a brighter note, it’s another hot, sunny clear day with blue skies. We are sitting in the cockpit sipping our freshly brewed coffee and just purchased butter and cheese croissants. Here it is mid-September and we are in our T-shirts and shorts. Unbelievable!

This afternoon we will meet up with the Captain’s oldest male friend, Joe the Hvil, at the Lion Tavern. Every Saturday afternoon at the Tavern is a blues jam.

Admiral is taking it easy today and the Captain is out exploring in his kayak.

Lunch is a simple carrot and coriander soup with a toasted pita bread.

The Lion Tavern is just a walk up the street from DYC. Mid-afternoon we meet up with Joe and his wife, Barbara. We listen to the Odyssey Blues Band. To the Captain’s surprise, Ron, a long-time photographer with the Niagara Falls Review, shows up at the tavern. The Captain has not seen him in more than 40 years. Ron, now a sprightly 80, is a regular at the blues jam.

The Captain, Joe and Ron all worked together at The Review in the 1970s.

After a terrific concert, we say our goodbyes. The Captain craves a burger. It must because of the extra beer he had for sister-in-law Terry, a Lion regular in her teens.

We head up the street to the Kilt and Clover Pub for an 8-oz Big Blue burger which is topped with Danish Rosenborg blue cheese, mushrooms and carmelized onions. The Admiral has the home-made shepherd’s pie with Sysco cheddar cheese.
At Last! at the Dalhousie Yacht Club docks, bedecked like the cruiser she is with bicycles and a kayak.

Lake Ontario how the Admiral likes it

Daily chores include window washing. Click on any image for a larger view.

1100 Hours
Friday September 10
Port Dalhousie

It’s a hot, sunny morning with clear blue skies on our mooring wall at Centreville.

We spend the morning tidying up the boat, airing the sheets/towels and writing the much-delayed Family and Friends email. We also take a final bike ride to Hanlan’s Point. It’s the last of our bike rides. We have taken our bikes end to end from Ward’s Island to Centre Island and to Hanlan’s Point.
Before any run of more than one hour, we check the oil levels in our Yamaha outboards.

We have lunch of the leftover lemon poach salmon with pita and cucumber slices. We are looking over our shoulders: Any toll collectors?

Nope, no toll collector. So, it’s a free night for us.

This shot of the Centreville ranch is for the horse lover in our extended family, Mara of Sunshine Meadows.

Farewell to Toronto. Excuse the tilt in the horizon. The Captain's hand is less steady than the Admiral's.

It’s a perfect crossing of Lake Ontario for the Admiral as we head out for Port Dalhousie. It’s sunny, calm and smooth all the way. When we arrive, it’s 25C.

In about 80 minutes, we are at Dalhousie Yacht Club. We have several slips to choose from. We take Slip #7 across from the yacht club. It is closer to town but 100 yards from the washroom/showers. The first night is free and additional nights are at 50 cents a foot—which means, for us, all of $12. Laundry facilities are available at $2.50 per wash and dry.

Appetizers are smoked oysters on multi-grain crackers. It’s a warm day, so Bacardi Rum Orange Smoothie Breezer and Bacardi Rum Mojitos are in order.

We can’t seem to get enough beef when we cruise. For dinner, we have a juicy rib steak smothered with cremini mushrooms in a sour cream sauce with tomato slices on the side.

Skyman arrives on the ferry—finally!

Skyman skips toward us after finally arriving on the ferry from the city. Dad's in the background. Click on any image for a larger view.

1100 hours
Thursday September 9
Centreville

We hope to surprise our great-grand nephew, almost-3-year-old Skyler, who attends Waterfront Montessori Children's Centre on Algonquin Island, when he arrives on the ferry from the city.

We wait as the ferry pulls in but no Skyler is to be found. There are so many children getting off, we think we just missed him. Luckily for us, At Last! is at Queen City Yacht Club, three boat slips from the ferry docks. We wait for the second ferry of the morning, but still no Skyler. He must be sick today. Maybe we will catch him the next time.

We head back to At Last! to make breakfast. With all the back and forth to the ferry, we didn’t get to eat.

Lo and behold, we get a voicemail from Kris, Skyler’s father. The boy isn’t sick today. He missed the ferry and Kris is bringing him over.

We head out to the ferry for the third time. Skyler rushes off the ferry in excitement and greets us with a big hug. We show Kris and Skyler where we were docked for the night at QCYC.

We can’t visit too long as Skyler needs to get to school. We walk him to his school and go inside for a quick look-see. Skyler is sad to see us leave but after a little snack, all is good.

We have cappuccinos, a delicious home-made banana muffin and a soft oatmeal raisin cookie with Kris at the Island Cafe before he catches the ferry back to the city. The Island Cafe is open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
We pass under the Centreville Alpine Ride as we head toward our mooring on the wall at Centre Island.

It’s not a long cruising day as we head to the Centreville Amusement Park—about 20 minutes away. We tie up by the public mooring wall across from the Carousel Cafe. There is only one other cruiser here. We are told it should be 50 cents a foot here without service, that is, no electricity or water. No toll collector is in sight yet.

The mooring wall on Centre Island is our favourite overnight spot so far.

The nearby washrooms and showers are open 24/7. Clean and free of charge, too!

Occasionally, we see traffic in our lagoon, just enough for a nice change of pace in the idyllic setting.

Dinner is salmon poached with lemon and accompanied by grilled red peppers, potatoes and the last of our spicy Macedonia leek sausages. Call it surf and barn.

After spending so many years away from the Toronto Islands, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable stay. One can explore the Islands by foot, bike, kayak, or your own boat.

From our first time at reciprocal yacht clubs to the public mooring walls, we’ve slept well every night.

An added bonus was meeting up with family: Kris and Skyler. We did take photos this time!
The salmon poached on the grill is just about perfect.

Where to eat on the Islands? There are a number of snack bars and restaurants in addition to the dining facilities at yacht clubs:

Island Cafe - Ward’s Island
Rectory Cafe - Ward’s Island
Carousel Cafe - Centreville Amusement Park
Upper Deck and Grill - Centre Island

It’s not about having to go somewhere far on your vacation, or how much you spend. It’s the experience you make for yourself that makes memories.

From HCYC to QCYC via a failed attempt to Med moor

At Harbour City Yacht Club, we are tucked into the trees at the club house on Centre Island. Click on any image for a larger view.

1330 Hours
Wednesday September 8
Queen City Yacht Club

We spend the morning at Harbour City Yacht Club as Captain catches up on email. Lunch is a garden salad with artisanal ham and Breezy Ayr and Thornloe Casey Blue cheese.
Our lunch salad features Breezy Ayr from Vermont and Thornloe Casey Blue from Ontario.

Our plan is to anchor out behind Forestry Island with the two other sailboats from Whitby. Our first attempt is to drop anchor at the bow and go stern in, but it is too rocky and shallow for our twin Yamaha outboards. On our second attempt, we drop anchor by the stern and go in bow first. From one of the sailboats, the skipper, who hails from Cape Breton, takes our line and wraps it around the man-made pole on shore. An earlier cruiser has left a plank for us to use between land and boat. Wobbly, but it gets us ashore. Carrying the bikes ashore may be problematic.
Lovely anchorage, but . . .

We turn the engines off. After about 15 minutes, we notice that At Last! is drifting ashore. The anchor is not holding. There is too much weed here. Captain decides we should untie ourselves from the shore, bring in the anchor and go to Queen City Yacht Club. The winds are blowing and the water is choppy, but we make it to QCYC with our kayak Finally! still on the roof along with our two bikes tied to the rail on the foredeck.

We are told by Don Ferguson, QCYC manager, that we don’t have reciprocal privileges but are given the night free regardless. We will check with Fairport Yacht Club on our return.

With the rocking and rolling on the slip, it’s bistro dinner tonight: duck cretonnade from Quebec, and see-it-again Breezy Ayr and Thornloe Casey Blue cheese.

It’s not all fair skies and flat seas but we are happy to be here.

From our slip at Queen City Yacht Club, we have a great view of the Toronto skyline—and a strong wind out of the northwest.

At Harbour City Yacht Club, Toronto seems so far away

The Toronto skyline appears in the distance as we depart Island Yacht Club for a cruise of the ponds and lagoons of the Toronto Islands.

1200 hours
Tuesday, September 7
Harbour City Yacht Club

We depart Island Yacht Club. Our plan is to check out Harbour City Yacht Club first. If there were no slips available, we will head to Queen City Yacht Club.

We need to go no farther as there is space at HCYC. We are the only guests. There are only four visitor slips.

Before we head to the HCYC, we poke our nose around the neighbouring ponds. We almost stay at an anchorage behind Forestry Island where we chat with two sailing yachts from Whitby, with one of the owners originally from Cape Breton.

At HCYC, we haven’t checked in as yet. Admiral needs her lunch of see-it-again grilled salmon with a green salad.

We register at the Toronto Island Marina office. First night is free for reciprocals. Second night $1.50 per foot. Fuel is $1.41 per litre but we filled up for $1.27 per litre--plus free pump-out of our toilet holding tank--at Bluffer’s Park Marina en route to Toronto.
We are not certain, but there seem to be almost as many swans as Canada geese in the Toronto Islands. The swans are quite territorial.

We bump into Paul Murphy of Lifestyle from whom we’ve been renting Slip #42 at Fairport Yacht Club in Frenchman’s Bay for the past two seasons. Surprise, his slip here is right next to the Upper Deck lounge.

We feel energetic and take our bikes out for a ride past Centreville. We notice a cruiser who is docked on the mooring wall by the bridge on Centre Island. We chat him up and discover that it’s 50 cents per foot, albeit without service. During July and August, this would be too busy a stop for us but now, in September, we might try it before departing the Toronto Islands for Port Dalhousie once the wind eases up out on the lake.

It is so quiet and peaceful on the Islands, as school has started and the crowds are gone.

For a guy who acquired his first BBQ only last year, the Captain sure has learned how to grill a steak to perfection.

Our dinner is a perfectly grilled rib steak smothered with mushrooms and onions, baked potatoes, peaches-and-cream corn and an Australian shiraz--with the lights of Toronto sparkling in the distance.
Not a bad place to spend an evening when the wind is howling out on Lake Ontario. We’d recommend a layover at Harbour City Yacht Club for anyone with reciprocal privileges and a relatively small boat.

Snowbirds soar to start our Golden Horseshoe cruise

We're able to watch the Canadian International Air Show from the cockpit of At Last! at Island Yacht Club.

It's difficult to believe that a year has passed since we last cruised At Last! for more than an afternoon. But here we are, at Island Yacht Club in the Toronto Islands, having completed the first leg of a two-week cruise of Lake Ontario's Golden Horseshoe.

We arrived just in time to catch the final day of the Canadian International Air Show--and what a show it was, culminating with the famed Snowbirds doing their thing. Both photos above. Click on any image for larger view.
MacENC on our MacBook Pro indicates our location at Island Yacht Club on Mugg's Island. The photo below shows the scene behind At Last!

Today, we're off on the second leg, all of about 200 yards to Harbour City Yacht Club one island over. (If no guest slips are available, we'll go a bit farther, to Queen City Yacht Club on Algonquin Island.)