Toronto

We spent the last four days in Toronto staying at the National Yacht Club which was wonderful.  This stop gave us a chance to rest plus we had great restaurants, movie theaters, chandlery, and grocery stores galore.  In part we came to Toronto because we envisioned that it would be similar to Chicago on the lake and we were not disappointed. 

Toronto is a modern city that is clean and vibrant.  We saw a great deal of construction in the downtown area. 

While here we watched a couple of movies and went to the Art Gallery of Ontario, aka AGO.  As one would expect it had several Canadian artists featured and focused on the Group of Seven.  The Group of Seven was a group of  Canadian landscape painters  from 1920 to 1933.  They were famous for their paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.

We walked a lot while in Toronto.  One afternoon we took a ferry over to Toronto Island.  This is an Island about six miles long and ¼ mile wide only about 1/8 of a mile off the shoreline.  Although there are about 200 small residential homes on the island about 90% of it is park area.  It has beaches, tennis courts, petting zoo for kids and lots on picnic tables.  Several people took bicycles over with them on the ferry to ride the quite streets.  We just walked and enjoyed the near perfect weather.

On the island is the lake Light.  This is one of the earliest light houses on the Great Lakes built in 1808.  Originally only 52 feet high but the walls were six feet thick.  No wonder it has survived over 300 years. 

Sunday morning we left our slip and went to a nearby marina to fill up with diesel.  After pumping about 100 liters of fuel we cast off and motored through the bay between Toronto Island and Toronto.  Toronto Island also has a small airport and because they never had a mayor like Mayor Daily it is stilled used for what appeared to be small turbo prop commuter planes, small cargo turbo prop planes, helicopters, and some personal aircraft.  As we motored through, we watched a couple of airplanes land.  There are markers in the bay to create a restricted area keeping out boats so the pilots don’t have to dodge any masts sticking up in front of the runway.

I’m writing this as are sailing to Whitby Harbor from Toronto.  The wind is only about 6 – 6.5 Kn but we are sailing at 5.5 Kn with only the asymmetrical spinnaker up.  We got it up this time without incident.  The boat is flat, temperature about 75 degrees and the water is gurgling under the boat as we make progress.  

What a GREAT day.

Have Fun, We Are,

Jeff

PS – If you didn’t read the blog why we named our boat Grace, please check it out.  I also wrote about a worthy cause and again would like to ask if you can make a donation to help fund cancer research we would be very grateful.  Thank you to those that have already made a contribution.