Kicking back in Jordan Harbour

The dominant visual at Jordan Harbour—whether you’re approaching by water or zooming along the Queen Elizabeth Way—is the rusting hulk of a 16th century ship sailed by Jacques Cartier. It’s a replica built to serve as a restaurant that was looking for a new home when vandals set the vessel on fire.

Beacon Harbourside Marina is a lovely quiet harbour to spend two days in. It’s small—only 88 slips in all—but it has a fuel dock and all the other facilities, and a friendly harbourmaster in Marsha.

What it does not have is Harbour Estates Winery only a 15-to-20-minute walk away as stated in the popular Ports Cruising Guide for Lake Ontario and as cited on the Jordan Harbour website. In truth, it’s about 40 minutes away on foot.

Our plan is to taxi to Jordan, the village about five miles inland, where we’ll tour the highly regarded Cave Spring Cellars after lunch at the highly praised Inn on the Twenty. Then we’re picking up a famed Rueben at Zooma Zooma Cafe for eating back on board at supper before Canada Day fireworks this evening.

The marina is part of the Best Western Beacon Harbourside Inn so we have excellent WiFi here. The hotel restaurant is well known in Niagara for its $14.95 prime rib dinner. Needless to say, that was our fare last night.

After a glass or three of surprisingly excellent shiraz from the Konzelmann Estate Winery in nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake.

One sidelight: Montreal Canadiens great Yvan Cournoyer was dining two tables over. He and the three companions talked return on equity their entire meal.


Why is it that all cruising sailors seem to take sunset photos night after night?

Blues, beer and buds

Maria Aurigema (right) was the guitar player and singer who was the guest artist playing with the Odyssey Blues Band at the regular Saturday afternoon jam at the Lion Tavern.

The blues and beer gave us an opportunity to meet up with old friend Joe from Niagara Falls, but, man, was it hot and humid in the 150-year-old tavern!

Besides the blues, the other compelling reason to visit Port Dalhousie is Anna Olson’s Foods & Bakery operated by the Food Network dessert queen.

At lunch, the Admiral had Anna’s All-Time Favourite Sandwich: two thick slices of whole wheat/walnut bread with roasted beef sirloin with lettuce and tomato dressed with caesar. The Captain had sweet pulled pork and red cabbage slaw on a grilled bun. There wasn’t enough pork and too much bun, but the beef sandwich was tasty. We were surprised the tomatoes tasted like winter tomatoes from Mexico, and that none of the hired help knew whether we were eating focaccia or ciabatta.

We couldn’t leave Anna’s without a sampler-to-go of her famous desserts: homemade butter tarts, triple chocolate brownie and chocolate fudge almond square.

At our slip near the breakwater, we were visited by geese, ducks, gulls and a host of other birds.

Frenchman's Bay to Port Dalhousie

Perfect conditions for the two-hour run from Frenchman’s Bay to Port Dalhousie, 5 knots of breeze, not much than a ripple on the water. Smooth, safe and fast, running 22 mph at 4,200 rpm for a fuel burn of 10 gph.
Before we got under way, there was a feeling that we may have brought way too much stuff.

In our slip at Port Dalhousie Pier Marina, with the Admiral dressed up and ready to go to Jimmy Buffet Night at Dalhousie Yacht Club. At the friendly club with the great view the margaritas were weak but the cheeseburgers excellent.

The view from the pilothouse at sunset.

At Last!

After close to two months of waiting for tradespeople who specialize in lettering boat names to show up, we found a good man right in our own neighbourhood. By that time, it seemed so much more appropriate to name our powercat At Last! rather than merely At Last. Here, she rests in her slip at the Fairport Yacht Club dockominium, unfortunately, with a shadow across the name. When we can, we'll replace the photo.

The Trawlers & Trawlering List burgee adorns the port side of At Last! while the Fairport YC burgee is on starboard.

Art Devilliers is the artist who helped us dress up the boat with a name, burgees, hailing port and a Canadian flag. Now, she's ready to start cruising—which we'll do right after the Captain returns from riding a Harley-Davidson from Phoenix to Anchorage for a magazine he's developing.

At Last is launched

More to follow.

Farewell, Goose!

Spring has finally come to Frenchman's Bay. Yesterday, as we started preparing our TomCat for launch, the last ice on the bay disappeared.

Here, the Admiral uses a hair dryer to remove the name Goose, the name Ed Devlin gave the TomCat when he bought it new in 2002. We'll be renaming it At Last.

Boat-handling in rough seas

That's not a TomCat in the photo, but a Wildcat in the stormy Irish Sea. It's one of several dramatic photos posted at Power Catamaran World to illustrate an article by Larry Graff, founder of Glacier Bay Catamarans, on how to handle small powercats in heavy weather. It's worth a look.