Not a Bad Weekend

Not a bad weekend. Weather in Toronto has been funny the last week or so with thunderstorms rumbling around. We have had storms come up around 4pm on both Thursday and Friday. Saturday there was a thunder storm advisory on the lake so we didn't go out. The dark clouds came in around 4pm, but the storm went around us. We slept on the boat Saturday night and although it didn't rain we could see flashes of lightning in the distance. Other than the ducks and geese quacking all night, it was a nice evening.

Sunday was a hazy hot day with light winds. We went out Sunday around 1pm for a few hours with the kids and Chance. I think we saw at most 9 knot winds. A pleasant and a non-eventful sail.

A Pretty Terrible Weekend

A pretty terrible weekend for sailing. Saturday it rained all day, and Sunday there was a severe thunderstorm watch for most of the afternoon. We satisfied ourselves with a picnic lunch on Sunday on the boat before the heavy rains arrived. We'll try again next week.

And So It Ends - A Beautiful Weekend

An so it ends, a beautiful weekend in July. Lots of wind on the lake and lots of sun. We took my sister in law Sharon for a sail Sunday. Winds were 12-16 knots and the lake was flat.

It was the Regatta Weekend at PCYC, so lots of action at the club. On Saturday, by the time we got down to the lake, winds were gusting up to 25 knots and it was getting late, so we elected to just enjoy the evening. We saw a few boats get themselves into trouble docking in the high winds. With the strong winds blowing off our slip, I was glad to be tied firmly to the slip.

Sailing on the Miracle

Hi folks. No pictures of VICTURA this week. We were off on a 7-day cruise in the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Miracle.

We left Tampa on July 2nd and had stops in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico. We returned to Tampa on July 12th and to Toronto via Air Canada later the same day.

We had a great trip and recommend this to anyone considering a cruise. The following are just a small sample of our many pics. We swam with Stingrays in Grand Cayman, visited the Turtle Farm also in Grand Cayman, toured Mayan Ruins in both Belize and Mexico, and saw beautiful sunsets every evening.

The Miracle is one of Carnival newest ships launched in February 2004. It's what they call a "Spirit" class vessal weighing in at 88,500 tons, with a capacity of 2,100 passengers and 930 crew. It has 11 decks and cruises at 22 knots.

Our one adventure on the trip was in Costa Maya where winds built to gusts of 40 knots while we were docked. Despite deteriorating conditions and 40 knot winds blowing on the beam, the captain was able to easily power the ship off the dock and sail away. Quite impressive. The Miracle's engines are mounted in pods (Azipods) that can be fully turned in situations like this. I'm sure on an older boat, this would have ended up in a disaster.