Day 59, Tuesday August 20th Port Elgin to Goderich - the end of the shakedown cruise

Day 59, Tuesday August 20^th – Port Elgin to Goderich – the end of the shakedown cruise

We get up early again for the final day of the shakedown cruise.  Today we are heading back to Goderich, home port for Jazzebelle.  It was June 24th when we left Goderich for our trip up to the North Channel so we are just shy of two months.  The boat has performed well with all systems functioning well.  Glenn the previous owner had done an excellent job outfitting and maintaining her during his 15 years of ownership.  We are heading back to Goderich to get the coolant hoses changed along with the coolant; it is the only items left to be done from the mechanical survey done in the spring. 

Tug Yellowknife Radium off of Bruce Nuclear

The winds are not as favourable as the day before and we end up motor sailing most of the way down to Goderich.  About 10 miles south of Port Elgin is the Bruce Nuclear Plant.  It is quite the industrial complex.  There are two tug boats with barges off of the complex, one which is right in our path.  One of the benefits of the AIS we now have is it gives the name of the vessels so we are able to contact the tug using her name – Yellowknife Radium.  The Tug is pushing a barge waiting to enter the plant wharf and tells us to pass to whatever side we want.  And that is most exciting aspect of the 10 hour trip to Goderich.

Cocktails with a freigther in background

We arrive at Goderich around 7, pull into the marina and tie up at the transit docks.  It is really nice and easy to get into, and we are sipping our cocktails with time to spare before heading down to see the sunset.  Sunset is 8:20pm so we soon are making our way down to the shore and are rewarded with a beautiful sunset complete with a head frame.

Sunset off of Goderich

We are a little sad we are not able to be up in Sudbury as it is our good friends Doug Patrick’s 50th birthday party, but Ross will be there to represent us.   Happy birthday Doug!

Cheers

Dawson and Julie