A little late getting this entry posted due to falling asleep early last night.
When thinking about relatable posting titles "Living on the hard" came to mind. When a boat is pulled out of the water and sitting on a cradle it is known as being 'on the hard'. To my surprise nothing came up on YouTube, however "on the hard" was used on a forum called the Cruisers Forum. If you would like a glimpse of what it's like then the following link will take you to a thread that is comical in its own way while giving a good peek at life on the hard.
Cruisers Forum : https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f74/liveaboard-on-the-hard-238159.html
One thing that was a bit concerning for me about the forum thread was how limited a time scale most posters recommended as their record length of time that they were living on the hard. It was much less than my best case expectations of at least a few weeks and worst case 5-6 weeks. There was the rare one who spoke of a 6 month upgrade, yet in the 3 page thread there might of been 2 such posts. Perhaps you could call me a minimalist at heart as this is feeling like a nice vacation rather than a drudgery.
Today was a little bit of TODO item completion, garnering needed supplies and being a tourist.
Woke up somewhere before 9am. After portage with sliced bananas, chased down with a coffee and some internet check ins, eventually headed up to the marina's facilities and had a shower. On returning aboard repacked my backpack for land adventures and took a taxi to the local Go Train Station and connected with a big green choo choo heading to Union Station in the heart of downtown Toronto.
My final destination was the Nautical Mind Bookstore mentioned previously. They had the Sail Canada text books on Sail Canada's syllabus. Picked up the text which Jason, the instructor, had recommended entitled Basic Cruising Skills. He thought it a good idea to refresh myself with the basics before we begin lessons together.
Perhaps it will change, yet much of the information is known to me; at least for a passing grade; which is encouraging. As the name implies it covers all manner of the basics of cruising skills broken up into Ashore Knowledge and Afloat Skills. Ashore Knowledge covers such things which might be taught in a class like language and terminology of sailing, basic sailing theory and equipment used. Afloat Skills are more hands on. Practical things to know while sailing like knots and uses of the different lines onboard.
Another title caught my eye, and to be honest is getting more of a read, called Passage Making which is published by the US Sailing associations which is the equivalent US version of Sail Canada. It is broken up into Inshore and Offshore Cruising. It covers everything you could imagine of planning, preparing and executing Inshore and Offshore cruising.
As supplies are getting low onboard thought to stock up on a critical one which is only superceded by coffee; edible cannabis. It seems to me with the privatization of the cannabis outlets in Ontario, compared to the virtual government monopoly in Nova Scotia, that it has lead to a greater variety in products. To find oreo cookies (or what certainly could pass as them) in edible cannabis form blew my mind!
Then it was time to play tourist for a bit. It is a lovely port city located on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario.
No tourist experience in Toronto is complete without coming across this big boy...
By mid-afternoon Makina was calling me and as always the return trip was made easier by knowing the way. The rest of the afternoon was spent digging into the new books which was momentarily paused for a late supper of a yummy chicken shawarma at the marina's pub.
It was then back aboard for more reading and then an early night for my tired old bones.
May the wind be at your back!
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A chronological listing of my sailing posts:
@novacadian/novacadian-s-blog-index-sailing