Lakeview GS Implodes - June 28, 2007

On June 28th, Lakeview Generating Station was finally imploded ending an era of sorts. Lakeview was one of the largest coal fired generating stations in the world. It's been out of service for 2 years; and the tall smokestacks were knocked down last summer. The original plan was for the building to be imploded on MOday at 7:30am, but they had to wait for the winds to be blowing just right. So on Thursday, it was finally brought down. Now the clean-up begins. They say most of this will be recycled.
There are plans to build a natural gas fired generating station on the site in the futures, but there will be lots of objections and this won't happen anytime soon. And whatever replaces Lakeview won't even come close to the size of the old facility. I won't miss this relic from the 50's, but will miss her as an aid to navigation as you could see her for many miles.

Sunday Sailing

We sailed on Sunday over towards Toronto Island. Conditions were beautiful on the water with lots of sun and wind. Wind was a steady 15 kts, and we got Victura going close to 8 kts on a beam reach. Everything was terrific, until I realized that somewhere a few miles offshore my wallet managed to slip out of my pocket and fall into the lake. Weighed down by a bunch of credit cards, I'm sure it's now resting in 100 feet of water at the bottom on Lake Ontario. Boy what a hassle; now I have to replace everything ... and I'm out a few bucks too. I guess it could have been worse. At least I didn't have my Social Insurance Card, Birth Certificate or Passport with me or I would be in big trouble. I cancelled all my credit cards Sunday night, and I'll try to replace my Drivers License, Health Card and Bank Card Monday morning.

Cruise to Mimico

We went for an overnight cruise to Mimico Cruising Club on the weekend. Mimico is short run down the lake towards Toronto. There were about 26 boats from PCYC that made the cruise. The trip down and back was uneventful. Lots of boats were out and about with the good weather. The wind going down Saturday was a bit better than on Sunday. Winds on both days were light 8-11 kts, with temperatures in the high 20's and sunny. Etobicoke Yacht Club (which is right beside MCC) had sailpast on Saturday so things were pretty busy in the harbour. At MCC, they have great facilities and docks. The fairways are wide with lots of room to manoeuvre, and a 35 foot dock is really 35 feet long ... The docks are also a bit higher making it easier to get on and off the boat. All in all a great weekend.

Shakedown Sail

A beautiful weekend in Toronto. We managed to get VICTURA out for our first sail on Saturday and again on Sunday. With the kids busy (Jamie working and Sara out west), Barb & I took the boat out ourselves. Winds were light and variable on both days. I think we saw 11 knots of wind, just enough to move us along nicely. We sailed down towards Toronto, where we had a beautiful view of the Toronto skyline. The pics are complements of Donna and Peter Howells (Cassis) and Vince & Julie Wong (Peas & Carrots) who we sailed side by side with. The boat in the video is CASSIS. All in all a glorious weekend.

Back On-Line - New Batteries

Hi folks .. I've been off-line for a couple of weeks dealing with a problem with the batteries on VICTURA. Shortly after launch, I noticed that one of the house batteries was leaking acid. Not sure what caused the problem, as no obvious signs of cracks or damage from freezing. I suspect some cells went bad maybe over the exceptionally cold winter we had here, and couldn't accept a charge. On shore power, the battery boiled over spilling acid. (If anyone has any other theories let me know). The boost cycle on the factory charger (CRISTEL CPS300) is putting out 14.3 volts and float cycle is 13.3 volts, so things seem to be working ok at the charger. In any event, the acid made a terrible mess and took a while to clean up. You can see below a picture of the original batteries. The white powder is baking soda that I used to neutralize the acid.
I had 2 problems installing the new batteries. The original factory batteries were HOPPECKE 8560 batteries made in Germany. The batteries have +/- reversed from the North American configuration. This meant the new batteries had to sit in the box reversed requiring some adjustments with the cables. Another problem was the size of the batteries. A standard Group 24 marine battery (very popular here) is too tall to fit in the battery box. I was leaning to putting AGM (leakproof) batteries in anyway, but these were the only ones that would fit. I finally settled on some DEKA Intimidator AGM batteries that I found for a good price at Bass Pro Shops just north of Toronto. These put out 750 CCA and are dual purpose deep cycle.
I finally got everything back together on Saturday. The picture below was taken from our new location in the club Saturday night. Today (Sunday) it poured rain, so hopefully will get out for a sail next week.