On Wednesday morning, while the remains of Hurricane Beryl were dumping all over southern Ontario, the 403rd Toronto Sea Scouts were out on Lake Kennabi in Haliburton sailing and having a great time.
When we woke and looked at the forecast, we were a little concerned, but using our eyes and local weather sense, it just didn’t look to be a show-stopper. We put on our water shoes and rain gear and set out from our campsite at Kingfisher Point in Haliburton Scout Reserve (HSR) to make our first sailing session at the main dock. The winds were steady at about 6 knots and though not everyone was eager when we set out, by the time we had been sailing for 10 minutes everyone was having a great time despite the rain.
The CL Echo dinghies had crews of 3 each and the Sea Scouts were speeding and weaving past each other and practising the skills they learned at QCYC this June. Sadly, the rain eventually soaked us through and we began to get cold, but there were no regrets and many smiles as we snacked, danced and warmed up in the Program Shack before heading back to camp.
It was too wet to hike to High Falls that afternoon as we planned, but it will still be there next year and we had a good afternoon in our campsite making our supper of pan-fried perogies.
The next morning had no rain, but the gusty weather meant there was quite a bit of swamping and bailing and one capsize in our sail. We had even more fun than Wednesday and sailed and bailed until they made us come in two and half hours later.
Sailing was just one of many activities at Haliburton, but it was one made so much better by our sailing experience in June and the support of QCYC.
In addition to sailing, we rappelled down a cliff face, climbed, kayaked, swam, made strawberry jam, built a flag mast, made amazing food, gazed at the stars, competed in the HSR regatta, sang at the whole camp campfire, and canoed absolutely everywhere.
We had flag ceremonies with bosun’s pipe every morning and sunset and we have plans for a new mast next year that will let us fly the our burgee prominently for all to see.
Our mornings and evenings were also beautifully supplemented with a natural soundtrack provided by the loons and frogs on the lake. We had a wonderful time and have already booked ourselves in for a return trip in July 2025.
