Cobourg - an unexpected pleasure and marine insurance

We were now held up in Cobourg because of the weather. Running on a single engine, I wanted flat calm waters simply because we would not be able to generate enough speed to overcome rough seas. Thankfully Cobourg really developed their waterfront properly. Within walking distance of the marina was the main street with many shops, restaurants, and cafes. The Marina had bicycles that you could sign out and borrow for the day which we used a few times to pick up supplies and groceries. There is a large network of waterfront trails that bring you through some beautiful terrain. There are public gardens that are placed throughout the area and we really took the time to relax, unwind and just get some exercise – all of which we both needed.

While at the marina, I took the opportunity to contact C-Map and had a new set of electronic charts sent to me.
I then thought about the entire situation with the engine and figured, this was really an accidental situation that led to the demise of the starboard engine, so I called my insurance company and asked if this would be covered. It was a long shot, but isn’t that what insurance is for? To my surprise, the underwriter indicated that he thought that perhaps we would be covered. I filled out the insurance reports online and submitted them to the underwriter. Now this is where we got into a bit of a disagreement. The insurance company wanted to have me return to
Toronto which was some 80 nautical miles away from our new home port. To be fair, they wanted to have the engine out, repaired and back into the boat as quickly as possible so that I could salvage my summer. I didn’t want to throw away my summer waiting for the repairs to be completed. Finally I was contacted by a marine surveyor who proved to be extremely helpful. After speaking with the surveyor over the phone, and convincing him that Whitby was in the wrong direction, we decided that making my way to Trent Port Marina was a reasonable plan. Once there I would have access to my vehicle and I would not be too far from a few repair facilities that could handle the task of rebuilding the engine.

After a week in Cobourg, we finally had a weather window open up. I had been looking at the wind and wave forecasts on www.windfinder.com, www.weather.gc.ca , www.weather.gov. I had also been watching and monitoring the wave buoys that are placed throughout the great lakes. We would have a 24 hour window that would give us enough time to make it through from Lake Ontario to the Bay of Quinte via the Murray Canal. Early that morning we shoved off and made our way East from Cobourg. The water was like glass and I had been able to adjust the helm to running on a single engine. For the most part, we were the only ones out there on the water. We eventually came across a few fishermen and on our entry into Presqu’ile Bay we came across a sailboat. I tried to hail them over the VHF to inform them that we were running on a single
engine and had some difficulty manoeuvring. No answer from the sailboat…this was frustrating. Presqu’ile Bay is tricky, this is a shallow bay and you really need to keep to the channel. Add to this that we had been warned about low water levels and excessive weed growth so on the approach to the Murray Canal, we were a bit stressed. Having a Sailboat that ignored our hails ahead of us and heading across our path did not help. We finally made it into the Murray canal where we hailed the swing bridges and requested an open explaining our situation. The bridge operators were quite helpful and made sure that we would not need to stop while they collected the toll in a tin cup attached to a long pole. We made it through the first swing bridge while slowing our approach to allow for a smaller sailboat to go through first. We overtook the small sailboat and radioed ahead to the next bridge giving them our estimated time of arrival. Once again the bridge operators were ready for us and the bridge swung open ready for us to pass through. We thanked the operators as we passed and were soon on our way into the Bay of Quinte.

Not being familiar with the Bay of Quinte, we kept to the channel and made sure to follow all of the markers up to the Trent River. We had already notified Trent Port Marina that we would be arriving that day and as we approached we hailed them over the radio…they answered! The most difficult part was just ahead of us. We already had an idea as to where our dock was and Trent Port Marina staff was on hand ready to help us dock. Slowly I made my way into the marina, past the breakwater and into the slip trying not to scuff up the hull or run into the dock. The thrusters really helped! Once we were tied up, we settled in to our new port of call.

The Trent Port Marina is by far the best marina we have ever visited. The facilities are top notch, the staff always friendly and helpful, and the manager walks the docks every morning before his shift. The marina manager had given me the name of the manager of a large repair facility and dock yard in Belleville who could make the repairs that would be needed. I called the surveyor and arranged for him to come out and have a look at the damage as well as put together a report for the insurance company. Mr. Thompson was very helpful. He was a retired Commander from the British Navy and he quickly understood that I was a competent seaman. I’ve spent plenty of time on the water from being a commercial diver to sailing dinghies, keelboats and multihulls and now operating power boats. While I was a diver I had the opportunity to operate various tugboats, barges, skiffs, and so on. Mr. Thompson and I went through the events that led up to the incident. He had a look at both engines, the chart plotter and so on. He asked many questions and took notes. He also noted the condition that I kept the boat in as well. At the end of his survey he made the recommendation that the repair be covered by insurance. He also mentioned in his survey report that we wanted to hold off on the repair until the fall so that we could enjoy the summer aboard our floating cottage. Suddenly a heavy weight was lifted from my shoulders.

Karen and I enjoyed the rest of our summer at Trent Port Marina. We took many long walks along the waterfront, watched the Trenton Airshow from the aft deck of Tropical Horizons, marvelled at some of the most spectacular fireworks we had ever seen, enjoyed an intimate Calum Graham concert, and spent lots of time meeting cruisers, making new friends and simply enjoying life. As summer passed us by we took stock of what improvements we wanted to make to Tropical Horizons and decided that she was indeed to become our retirement home. Before we knew it, fall was already nipping at our heels and it would soon be time to pull out Tropical Horizons and begin the engine rebuild.  As with out previous posts, you can watch the slide show on our YouTube Channel by clicking on the following link:  Cobourg to Trent Port Marina