Day 2, Sunday, Lake Ontario 300 Update

We we did a good job going out to the middle of the lake, had good wind all night, and did not get wet at all. The boats that stayed in had similar wind, but got rained on. We gybed in, and around the scotch rocks. At about 3:30 AM, A sail boat in the race, almost hit us mid ship. He was about a boat length away, and heading bow into our mid ship. We were yelling starboard, since we had the right of way. He must have seen us, as we had our blue spreader lights on which light up the whole boat, and  running lights of course. It was a close call, I thought we were going to get holed, and sink the boat.

We made all right time in the rounding of Main Duck Island this morning at around 8 AM. This is 12 hours ahead of our time last year. However the wind has been amazing this year. It was blowing 18 knots true from a stern, about 12 knots apparent. Then the spinnaker just blew out. We ripped it in half. I wonder if it caught on something on the spreaders through the night. It was luffing against the radar reflector all night, and its the only thing we did not tape off.

At this point Folichon was right behind us at about 1 mile. We rounded Main Duck Island, and then it was an up wind close haul leg to Oswego, Ford Shoal Mark. The wind was 15 to 20 knots, close hauled, and 5- 8 foot waves beating. Actually our boat loves this. We took off from Folichon and the fleet behind us. Between Main Duck and Oswego, we put about 3 miles between us, and passed 3 boats in the race, and caught up to our fleet again.

We are now still in an upwind close haul to Niagara, we should slowly gain on some boats. The wind forecast is showing it will die down by this evening, at which time I will try to upload some photos.

** Hoping most of this race is an upwind race, so we won’t lose time by not having our spinnaker any more. **

** Second year in a row we blew a spinnaker, read about last year on this blog. **

** Lost the SPot, updates through this site, on FIS Tracking only **

Safe Arrival to Toronto, Home port of PCYC.

Just completed close to a 1,000 kilometer trek back to Toronto. Continuing up the Hudson River to the now familiar Hop-o-nose Marina in Catskills, New York. Very friendly, professional staff and ownership. The only place I would recommend on the Hudson for stepping your mast and storing your wooden mast supports, or even building them right on site. We had left ours here for safe keeping in the barn. I found them just as we left them. I was on my own now for a couple of days, and it took me about 1 day to set up my mast supports, take down my sails and boom, disconnect all the mast wiring and electronics. Then the very capable and always willing to help staff stepped the mast down for me in no time. I was ready to leave the next morning.

My next stop was Albany, NY. This is where the new crew would be meeting me to assist in navigating the Erie and Oswego Canals back to Lake Ontario. The crew this time around was my mother in-law, Mary Hook and her sister Judy Horvath. I had pretty much tapped out all willing and able crew personnel from the Black Diamond crew bank. So these ladies were nice enough to volunteer their services. We had successfully made it through 33 locks, escalating a total of 460 feet above the Hudson river, and then back down about another 100 feet to Lake Ontario.

At first I wondered if these ladies could handle this, but Judy was one of the best fore deck hands for going through the locks you could ask for. And my mother in-law, well you could not have a better cook in the galley stirring up your favorite meals one demand. All in all, I think we enjoyed the trip, the weather was perfect for the whole trip through the canals. We made a few stops in a couple of towns. But mostly kept a steady pace back to Toronto.

We arrived in record time of 5 days from Albany to Toronto. On day 4 we started at about 10am, and went straight through for about 8 hours to Oswego, and just kept on going without stopping from Oswego at about 6PM straight across the lake to Toronto in 19 hours for a total of 27 hours non-stop motoring. It took us 22 hours last summer to cross the lake, this time in 19 hours. This record time was due to a 20 to 25 knot wind on our back, 6 to 8 foot seas pushing us along from behind, hitting speeds of 8 knots under power. I felt like I was back in the Ocean, it all looked to familiar. However the seas were 4 degrees celsius, almost freezing, and it was a cold windy ride home right through the night and most of the next day. 

The next couple of days I plan to step the mast back up, unload some cruising toys, clean her up, and on Friday night we are entered into the Susan Hood Race. This race is from PCYC Mississauga, to Burlington to Niagara and Back to PCYC. This is a 75 knotical mile non-stop, over night race, starting at 8PM and finishing sometime the next morning.

Cruising the Caribbean and then without missing a beat, arriving just in time to hit the Toronto Racing scene. I love this sport!

Day 1 – PCYC, Toronto to the Oswego Canal

August 21st, 2008 – Port Credit Yacht Club to Oswego across Lake Ontario.

Dear Friends and Family,

Our friends and family have expressed an interest in our trip and asked that we keep some sort of a blog to keep in touch. We thought that we would send periodical e-mails about our whereabouts, and the whereabouts of Black Diamond, because the two won’t always be the same.

I spent the last week and a half putting the final details on Black Diamond for the trip, while Roxane on the other hand, was trying to figure out what to pack. Normally we would pack for a week or so, to a certain location. With this trip we had to think ahead and stock the boat for our future trip to Bahamas as well.

 

Taking care of a few things up the mast!

 

Black Diamond was at the Angus dealership’s port during this time, I must say they have treated her well, and have taken care of all the details. She had the last few warranty items and installs taken care of, plus an oil change and all systems checked. We can not sail all the way to New York City due the many low bridges, therefore, we had Angus take the mast down with a crane. It was then mounted on a cradle that was designed and built by Angus.  Once we clear the last low bridge, around Catskill New York on the Hudson river, we are scheduled to meet Uncle Paul Thornton. He will help us raise the mast, and ensure all the electronics are re-connected properly. Uncle Paul just happens to be in Catskill working on his own boat, which is enroute from the Bahamas to Lake Ontario. His final destination is Port Credit Yacht Club, where he is now a new member.

Lord willing our trip will go something like this….

August 20th Port Credit Yacht Club to New York City by Sept 1st.
October 27th to November 8th (Ed and crew) New York to Florida (off-shore)
December 1st to January 15th Cruising the Bahamas Islands with the family.
March Break working our way home north along the US east coast.
April to NYC
May to Lake Ontario and home.

Yesterday, we started our first leg of the trip from the Port Credit Yacht Club at 10PM in the evening. After a nice dinner and a swim in the pool with the kids, we packed the final items in the boat. The boat is loaded down, the water tanks are full 400 liters, the fuel is topped up 130 liters, and the head is pumped out! The storage room is loaded with Sails, a new Dinghy and Electric Motor, Scuba Diving gear, Tools and Safety gear. The Bilge is loaded with 100 bottles of water and drinks, and all the other storage compartments are loaded with clothes and linens. Amazingly, the boat does not feel crowded at all, there is a spot for everything! Not the same as a week-end on the MacGregor, a lil’ R&R.

Ready to set off across Lake Ontario.

 

Last night the lake was calm. 4-5 knots of wind on the nose, but no worries since we are motoring. We averaged 6 knots at 2100 RPM. The trip to the Oswego Canal will take a total of 22 hours non-stop. By 9 AM this morning we covered 1/2 the distance with out complications. We only used an 1/8 of a tank of fuel. We encountered no containerships or traffic until about 7AM, at which time Roxane spotted three. The auto pilot did an amazing job, while we watched David Letterman in the salon, mind you, we did poked our heads out to have a look around every 10 minutes. Roxane went to bed at about 1AM, while I stood watch in the cockpit until 5AM. Then we switched positions, while I got some shut eye until about 8:30AM.

Enjoying Lunch in the middle of the lake.

 

The remainder of the day we did not see a single boat until we were about 1 hour from Oswego. There we encountered 40 recreational fishing boats, dodging trolling boats into the harbour. At exactly 8PM and 22 hours later, we radioed the Oswego Yacht Club, and we were guided to the visitors dock. We met the friendliest husband and wife, they invited us into the clubhouse to sign in, very informal. With our PCYC membership we are allowed free docking at the Oswego Yacht Club for the night. After some refreshments, they offered to drive us to the Customs Check-in. We never would have found it otherwise. After the video phone check-in with customs, we were dropped off at the local ice cream shop, then walked along the main street along the river back to the club. Oswego is a really cute and happening town.

 

The rig sailing away from the sunset.

22 hours, 136 knotical miles which is about 250 kms, the boat is getting about the same gas economy as my car. Actually it would have cost us more to drive around the lake, and not as much fun.

Day 2 – Oswego Canal to Lake Onieda

August 22nd, Oswego to Lake Onieda NY

After our morning coffee Roxane cooked us a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs, we set out to the town dock. There we hooked up to shore power and charged our batteries for an hour or so, because the Oswego’s Yacht club does not provide power or water for visitors. We walked to the local bakery and stocked up fresh bread, while I took advantage of the free Wi-Fi to send out the last e-mail. A short stroll down the waterfront back to the boat and we were off to the first lock by noon.

We hoisted the US courtesy flag once we cleared customs.

 

Today we motored through the locks until about 9:30PM. We completed a total of 9 locks, and made it to the mouth of Lake Oneida. We never really got off the boat today, we had lunch on the boat, and even fired up the BBQ for dinner, while underway. We sat in the cockpit, eating dinner, while the boat motored along at 6 knots up river, in auto pilot mode. I was able to make subtle adjustments to the course with the wireless remote control while still enjoying my pork chop, rice and salad.

 

Enjoying a BBQ, while under auto pilot and wireless remote.

 
The kids noticed an ice cream shop on shore in Phoenix, NY. This quaint little town is on the water right by lock number 1. If you ever come this way you must stop here and visit the “Bridge House Brats”. This is a little group on entrepreneurial kids ages 8 to 13, they have a little clubhouse at the base of an old light house, called the “Brat Shack”. Essentially, they run errands, and service the boaters that stop here. They took the trash from the boat, and would even clean the boat if requested. If you need anything from town, such as groceries, or if you want to order food from local restaurants, they will take care of it for you. They call in the orders for you, they then race over on their bikes to pick it up. They even have picnic tables on a patio, on the water, to eat at. It’s really cute to see these little ones placing orders to the restaurants and serving all their customers. We had them fetch us some ice cream and ice for the boat, while we enjoyed the boating museum in the upper levels of the lighthouse. For more info on the “Brats” Check this site out. Www.bridgehousebrats.us

 

Alex is Loving that Cone!!!

Thomas now wrote his own business plan for how he might be the PCYC Brat, club members could call him on the VHF radio, and he would fetch them a cart, take their garbage to the bins, or pick up their orders in the chartroom and deliver it right to their slips. He can’t wait to ask Commodore Robin Ball if this sort of thing will be cool with him! I said, maybe if you give the Commodore a piece of the action, then there should be no problems.

 

Bridge House Brats stop in Phoenix, NY.

The Bridge House Brat

We are spending the night at the last lock before Oneida lake. The lake is 23 miles long and will take us about 3.5 hours to navigate to the other side. There we hope to spend a few hours at the amusement park and at the beach before continuing on. We are on a tight schedule until Catskills NY, once we get the mast up with Uncle Paul, we can slow the pace down a little. I was also told that the Hudson river is a lot more interesting, although, we are enjoying the beautiful scenery so far. The Oswego/Oneida river reminds us of the cottage country of the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario.