It's now the 22rd and I am sitting out with a cup of freshly brewed hazelnut coffee looking at Windchaser, Brillig and Finnbar peacefully bobbing at anchor. It's beautiful! Rosemary's chocolate chip breakfast bars add to the enjoyment.
We had some good storms last night. I popped up once to check the anchor which was holding fine, and the rest of the fleet was where they should be. Back to sleep.
The trip over was pleasant. We started out sailing in 9 knots of SE wind which was quite pleasant. Of course there is always a reason not to sail. This time it turned out to be that major thunderstorms had developed on the West end of the lake and were moving fast towards us. After a brief discussion we all decided to hoof it and turned on the motors along with the sails. Eventually the wind moved forward and the sails were furled and we just motored. The storms never did hit is. They petered out at Ashtabula, and what was left went South.
It was 44.5 miles to the anchorage. We made the 7:30 bridge and arrived here at 2:30. I bought $110 of $4 diesel and some ice. We used about 6.8 engine hours.
One problem was that we could not keep up with the fleet. Normally we motor slow, but this was really slow - embarrassingly slow. Lew was here at least an hour before we were. Ken Anderson confirmed he set the prop at the same 18 pitch as last year. We were able to run the motor well over 3500 rpm yesterday which is too high. This could mean we need more pitch on the prop. It was rebuilt over the winter. Something seems different. Jim Zima of Great Lakes Diesel confirms that my diesel is rated to run continuously at 3400 rpm. I ran at 2900 yesterday, which is my normal. He says if it will go to 3800 then I need to set the pitch up a click, to 20. The boat needs to be pulled to do that. Of course, one option would be to just run the engine faster. Kerry and I are going to pull anchor and go for a test motor today to decide what to do. There is a place here that could pull Excalibur for the pitch change.
We all had drinks and taco salads on Windchaser. It was BYOB and all the first mates pitched in to make delicious salads. Lew's oldest daughter Cheryl is with them now. We plan to stay at the anchorage again tonight and move to a downtown dock tomorrow if available. Lots of rain in the forecast, through Friday. I am getting myself psyched for the Welland transit on Sunday. I am already having a hard time remembering what day it is, which means we are already in full relaxed cruising mode!
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