July 11, 2011 Stella Bay

There was a mosquito hovering overhead when I awoke. Quickly I grabbed the electric bug zapper that Bruce and Carol Fletcher gave us when we started our retirement cruise. CRACK was the sound of the bug being zapped. What a great way to start the day!

I was up early, so I sat out and typed a blog entry into Word for later posting, then tried fishing for awhile. Lew and I went ashore to this tiny marina but it was not open yet. It was a great day to travel so we decided to go to Stella Bay, a little anchorage 9.3 miles east, and closer to Kingston. We sailed the entire way for the second day. This time it was windier and we used both sails. We hit 7.6 knots on the GPS once while towing the Annie M. It was a great sail. We were anchored near Lew at 12:45.

Then I noticed that we were in 40’ of water. I should have stayed but decided to move closer, into 18’ of water. I tested the anchor and determined it was not holding so decided to move again. When the anchor came up it was covered in seaweed, really covered! I had prepared for this, though, after my last trip here. I opened my locker and pulled out a very sharp machete (thanks Jacque)! After a couple of whacks most of the weeds were gone.

So we anchored again. More boats had come in so we ended up in 47’ of water. I thought that’s like anchoring in the middle of Lake Erie. But the anchor held with 200’ of chain out. Then some of the boats left, so we moved a final time before cocktails into 35’ of water and a more protected area. It’s a good thing I have a loving, patient crew and a wash down pump. Lots of mud came up each time in the anchor chain.

But we did not have the worse day in the anchorage. Final Draft, a sailboat from Kingston, ran over their dingy painter line and wound it around their prop. I heard this huge scrunch, looked over and thought they had run over their dingy as the bow was under their boat. Then I realized what happened. I offered them our machete to cut the line off the prop but he took the offer of a young man from shore that dove under his yacht and unraveled the line. Where was he when I ran over the dock line in the Welland 3 years ago?

Lew invited me fishing at 4:30. I declined as we had just finished re-anchoring for the 4^th time and I was ready for a martini. I watched him and if he was successful I would join him. No success.

I rowed Kerry to Windchaser for dinner at 6:00. We had a delicious appetizer of fried perch and bass. Gretchen does the best job of cooking fresh fish. Lew grilled hamburgers and lobster ravioli and brussel sprouts completed the dinner. Loons (pictured) swam around fishing as we ate. Kerry rowed us back to Excalibur. We decided to leave at 10:00 for Kingston. First we will row to shore to see the small village of Stella.

A couple of more items need attention. My Sears 19.2v battery charger for my drill, flashlight and Kerry’s portable vacuum seems to have died. The microwave must be on its last legs as it took 5 minutes to warm Kerry’s tea water and refused to pop a bag of microwave popcorn. And the water in the stern shower wants to keep dripping. Oh boy . .