Our departure from Longueuil the following day was in late afternoon. We had hoped to get away early but there were issues to tend to. We were having difficulties with our depth sounder which was mounted to the stern of our boat. We noticed that as soon as we crossed a bed of seaweed that the sounder would quit working or rather give a depth reading of 0.0 We discovered that floating seaweed was wrapping itself around the equipment and then the sounder was taking its reading from the seaweed producung an incorrect depth of water. The Captain had been addressing this situation using the boat hook and by hanging over the side of the boat to clear the weed away from the sounder. However, he had had enough of that foolishness and decided that he had to remount the sounder to the annoid on the port side of the boat. But that would require a dive into the harbour and under the boat and a plan. The plan consisted of the application of underwater epoxy, securing the equipment to the annoid by locking zip ties around it, the use of a dive mask (which we didn't have) and snorkle (which we did have) and a whole lot of luck. We had the underwater epoxy and the zip ties and the local Canadian Coast Guard boys lent him the mask. They were out scouting about the Montreal harbour but were intrigued by the Captain's ingenuity and kept checking on us to see how things were progressing. But challenges only bring about solutions and as one would come forward the captain devised his next approach. When all the equipment was ready he was into the water. We had tied our round wooden towel holder to line and thrown it overboard so that he would have something to put his foot into to give him some support as he tried to remain stable in the water under the boat. It provided some help but the lack of a weight belt was a hinderance. I was sent to shore to collect a bag of rocks in our cloth laundry bag which he tied to his leather belt and secured around his waist. Keith was dismayed at the number of rocks and their size that I had collected and removed 2 large boulders from the bag. (I did need to reassure the captain however, that the inclusion of so many rocks was not intentional.) Upon re-entry to the water over the side of our boat, the still heavy weight in the bag of rocks took him and the bag straight to the bottom of the harbour anyway. I suspect that is where our landry bag remains because the captain abandoned that plan and the bag of rocks and the additional weight idea as quickly as he surfaced without it. But after many more dives with the snorkle and mask and much persistance the job was done and not only did his plan work fine in the end but so did the sounder.
We were out on the water at 4:30 pm heading to Contrecoeur, 25 nautical miles east where we anchored for the night. Due to the amazingly heavy current and effect of the tide it was a very quick trip with the average speed of our heavy steel boat being 6.2 knots and reaching 8.4 knots in some places. The remainder of the day was much calmer except for all the phone calls the Captain received to wish him a very Happy Birthday.
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