August 13, 2011 Port Stanley

The solar lights were still on when I got up. That’s the second time this week we have been up so early. It also happened on out Welland Canal day. Everyone was pretty quiet as we went about our duties. I get the outside ready for sailing, Kerry the inside. Kip does the power cord, warms the engine and whatever else he can do to help us get ready.

Kevin called the bridge on channel 6 and told them we would be there at 6:30. We pulled away from the dock at 6:15, which was a little early but we needed to give time to Lew and Kevin to get off the dock and back down the river. The bridge opened right on time and we were off. Predicted winds were SE at 10-15 knots, then going south and diminishing.

The weatherman was right today. We motor sailed 17 SE miles to get to Longpoint, then turned west for the rest of the voyage to Port Stanley. I always photograph this lighthouse, and today was no exception. This is the longest cruise we do. It covered 77.5 miles and took us 10 ½ hours. We motor sailed all the way as we just could not make enough speed sailing alone, especially for such a long distance. We ran Excalibur’s motor at 3000 rpm’s but still could not stay with Lew and Kevin. They made the 4:30 bridge while we passed it at 5:00. I am not sure we could stay with them even if the pitch was correctly set at 20 instead of 18, but we will see next year.

Not too much to say about the cruise itself. It was pleasant and pretty on the lake. The water was a pretty green and it was cool. The trip itself was long and unexciting but excitement is not always good. We thought we were going to miss the 5:00 bridge so Kerry and I took the sails down and cleaned up the boat, then made a delicious rum and tonic to sip while we tooled around waiting for the 5:30 bridge. But the current we were fighting ended, our speed went up and we did make the 5:00 bridge.

Fiona who runs the Kettle Creek Marina and the Windchaser crew were there to help us dock. Shortly after we signed in Lew had a batch of frozen margaritas made on Windchaser. We sat and enjoyed them and some great snacks for about an hour. Then it was time for wine, hamburgers and baked beans on shore.

Some fisherman came by and said a big storm was coming so we put up a side curtain, buttoned up the cockpit, put out some more docklines, closed the boat up and turned on the air conditioner. We showered and called it a night rather early.