Mixed bag of weather

Sailing is not all about wind and waves. All of that water has to come from somewhere... the past few days have been from the sky. Rain, rain, and more rain. The weathermen are still predicting rain every day this week.

We sailed and/or motored from the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club in Belleville to the CFB Trenton Yacht Club in Trenton. The next morning we headed out towards Lake Ontario through the Murray Canal. It was a nice trip, but the bridge-master wanted boats bunched up as much as possible which delayed us about half an hour waited for two other sailboats behind us to catch up.

There was a sailboat in front of us that said things on the radio like "Tell me when you are opening and I am coming through without stopping". Yikes! The bridge-master told him "If the bridge doesn't open, you WILL stop... Bud". This is the same sail-boater motoring towards the bridge at a reported 9 knots. My boat was going 5.5 knots. I guess he had a super-charged engine in that blue boat.

We motored and sailed a bit for Cobourg, arriving before the rain. Here we met some friends from the Point Breeze Yacht Club. Bob, one of the two skippers used to work at Harris RF Communications with me before I retired. Really nice folks from PBYC.

We decided to take a rain day yesterday, and rain it did... all day. Yesterday I finally was able to get the Internet again to catch up on e-mail from the gang back at GYC. All are back from the 2-week cruise to Kingston, where we met with them for three days. Most of the boats had mechanical problems, up to and including having to lay-over at Cape Vincent and replace his Atomic 4 block. Paul and Sue went on home, and Paul drove back to help Burt with his engine. All is reported to be fixed now, and I expect that Burt and Elaine aboard Orion are back in Rochester by now.

We will head for Whitby this morning. So far no rain but light winds. We are heading west to meet with the Lake Ontario Hunter Sailing Association (LOHSA) Thursday for the annual Rendezvous.

I will try to keep posting as long as we have Internet. Keep dry!

Ken & Ruth & Ernie the dog

Please, please, please teach your spouse to sail

We heard the Coast Guard VHF announcements about a man spotted in the water wearing a blue life jacket, and be on the look-out at the coordinates given. This announcement was given often and understood by this writer only sometimes. That is a subject for a later blog on how poorly the equipment and or personnel in the USCG are understood by you and me, the boating community.

Today we heard channel 16 chatter from a search and rescue helicopter following smoke on the water. Now that I have Internet, I have the rest of the story. Please click HERE to read this story.

If you fell off the boat, would your spouse know how to rescue you? I know mine would...

New race record

I picked up this news on the Internet yesterday. Ray Howe, a GYC member and builder/owner of Earth Voyager picked up another first. Click HERE for a link to the Detroit Free Press article.

Wet & Windy

We are at Kingston's Confederation Basin as I write this. Lack of Iternet access has kept me from writing more. From the image above you can see the rain on our dock. It rained all night with high winds. Thank goodness we weren't out on the lake in that mess.

We met up with the rest of the GYC fleet this weekend. The town of Kingston is very busy with the Busker's Festival and many visitors. We had reservations for slips, but we heard the marina turning others away. Last night was a loud skipper's meeting aboard Harry's boat Gnadige Frau.
Bob and Joyce Peters joined the group Friday night. Bob wasn't feeling good Saturday, and they took him to the emergency department for tests. After several hours they released him, and Bob and Joyce decided to drive back home to check with their dosctor. Bob looked great this morning after a morning swim, so I don't think we should worry too much.

Today we are trying to make plans for a rainy day. Perhaps dominos at the new office/lounge. I'll try to write more as time goes on.

Another day in paradise

We are at the Henderson Bay Yacht Club today. We left Fair Haven Yacht Club at 9 AM and made the decision to sail here rather than Oswego because of the weather forecast. Of course, the weatherman was wrong again, and we didn't get any storm yesterday afternoon. The bad weather is now predicted to be late today or overnight. That means we have to decide to go on to Chaumont or spend a great day here at this nice club.

The winds are very favorable for sailing today, 5 to 10 knots from the south. A 14 mile sail north would be a piece of cake. We did get surprising weather yesterday and was able to sail nicely for half the trip. We were on a broad reach going up to 6.8 knots! That is fast for us, and what made it even better was there were no waves.

Tom McEwen sailed out of Fair Haven with us and headed further north to Cape Vincent. He is still in some pain from his accident, but puts on a strong face. They experienced an accidental jibe a week ago and he fell onto a winch taking the full blow to his chest. He went to the hospital and had x-rays and scans looking for damage, and found nothing unusual (just a heart of gold). He hardly had any bruising.

The picture above is Tom coming from the FHYC.

We try again

I wrote quite a lengthy blog posting only to lose it when my fat finger hit two keys at the same time. Here is a picture I took at the Pultneyville Yacht Club this morning.

Tonight we are at the Fair Haven Yacht Club where we met up with Merrymac. I am going to make this short to see if I can get through.

Cruising Lake Ontario

Only a few days left and we should be on our way. Lists are being made and items being gathered to move to the boat. It is quite a serious adventure for us since the longest cruise we have taken was short of three weeks. A sailboat is small quarters for two adults and one dog.

Ernie, our dog gets super excited when we go to the boat. He is a good sailor, but doesn't take too well in high winds and excessive heeling. Ruth had the vet prescribe an anti-anxiety medication to calm him down. The last time we crossed the lake in bad weather, he panted for almost two hours. Maybe we should have tried a brown bag to prevent hyperventilation.