August 15, 2011 Rondeau Bay

The rain stopped when we returned to Excalibur last evening. We were able to open the front hatch and sleep very comfortably under one blanket. At 4:15 a fishing boat went by, seemingly with the intention to wake everyone who was asleep at the time. He got a special bridge opening as the stated policy is to only open on the hour and half hour.

I slept to 7:00 deciding not to get up and update the blog. I probably would have done it if I could get wifi in the boat, but I would have had to go and sit on the marina steps to do the posting. Sleeping seemed like a better use of my time. We called the bridge tender on channel 6 informing him of our intention to make the 8:00 bridge. It opened on time and Excalibur and Finnbar were off to Rondeau Bay. Windchaser would join us when they returned from Dalhousie.

The promised wind was 15 knots from the North. We actually started out sailing and did so for an hour until the wind got so light we were only making 4 knots, too slow to go 40 miles, so on came the motor. Excalibur always pulls away from Finnbar sailing the way Finnbar pulls away from Excalibur  motoring. After about an hour of motoring the wind picked up and we started sailing again, and sailed the entire remaining distance to Rondeau Bay. It was a pleasant surprise, and great. At the end of the voyage the wind was 15 knots and we were sailing in the 7+ knot range, even hitting 8.1 once. Other than the sailing the most memorable part of the trip was flies. They covered the cockpit almost the entire way. I have never seen so many. I think we delivered about 300 from Stanley to Rondeau. They even stayed on Excalibur when were in port – usually they are kind enough to fly off once we arrive.

Lew called while we were underway. They did not get back from Port Dalhousie until 11:30. He said they got the car back 3 minutes before they would be charged for another day, much to their great relief. They had gotten up at 4:30 AM to get Jennifer back and were very tired and had decided to stay in Port Stanley today. They planned to nap and then tour the town and join us in Rondeau Bay tomorrow.

Rondeau has my favorite combination of stores. In one building there is a beer store, a LCBO and a marine store. How good is that! It also has a nice marina. It is well maintained and equipped. The manager, Cathy, is very nice and maintains the place to a very high standard. The trip here was 42.5 miles and took 7 hours. We enjoyed an arrival rum and tonic, then went to the pool. Kerry did two loads of laundry while we played in the pool and then took showers. Cocktails were on Finnbar. We grilled chicken on the marina grill and ate at a picnic table on the dock. It was a very pleasant evening.