August 2, 2011 Sodus Bay NY

For the first time this trip I am writing yesterday’s blog post while at sea. The forecast was for showers and storms last night and then ending this morning. We planned to wait out the storms and head for Pultneyville or Rochester later. The storms never came. When I flipped on the weather radio I learned the forecast had changed, and storms were possible until late morning when they were likely. I called Gretchen with the update and we decided to leave as soon as possible. So now, we are three hours from Rochester which puts us in about noon. We are motor sailing into a purple sky.

Today started like everyday. I did the blog post while Kerry lay in bed and listened to Fox News and dozed. But when she did get up she made a nice bacon and egg breakfast for me, a nice surprise. When breakfast was done, we took our bikes and headed off to explore. There is really not too much to explore in Sodus Bay. The town of Sodus is 5 miles away. Still, we had a pleasant ride past marinas and other facilities, many of which are closed. At one time this was a major coal shipping point.

We did stop at the Lighthouse Museum for a tour. It was interesting for sure. The guide seemed quite lonely and followed us around explaining everything in great detail. One interesting thing about the light, was that they made it appear to flash by putting a cover around it, like a lampshade, that had open areas. It wound like a grandfather clock from the ground floor. The weight system pulled the cover around the light, making it “flash” to those at sea.

After the tour we rode to the bay and sat in the shade watching a guy harvesting seaweed. We returned to Excalibur for lunch. Now it was time to clean and store the Annie M. it took a while to do it, but she is squeaky clean and stored for her trip through the Welland and home. By this time, Gretchen had learned that we could not get into the Rochester Yacht Club because they were holding the junior sailing Olympics and space was not available. We took a rum and tonic over to Windchaser and explored options. The best option appeared to be Shumway Marine right next to the RYC. Pultneyville would work too. We called and checked depths, but it is only 10 miles from Sodus Bay and we wanted to go further. We decided to wait for the weather Wednesday to decide what to do. We also decided we wanted to get to Port Dalhousie by Sunday.

Kerry made a delicious spaghetti dinner for us. The pasta was Italian pepper pasta and was delicious. Gretchen made a great salad with homemade blue cheese dressing. Lew provided fudge for desert, which we washed down with coffee and sambuca. It was another pleasant evening.

During the night the wind shifted behind us and waves regularly slammed into the stern making quite a racket. Fortunately we sleep in the forward cabin so it was tolerable. On our way out of the channel today Kerry suggested, that if we come again, one night in Sodus is enough, and we should add a stop in Pultneyville if depths permit.