Sunday September 2, 2007

We awoke this morning around 4AM to the sounds of waves slapping against the Hull, and the clanging of sailing vessels rigging. For me, exhilarating sounds, for Shirley, sounds to get the nerves riled.

Sailing on the Great Lakes is all about wind speed, direction, and fetch. The winds most of the day were 15 knots on the beam (side of the boat). The fetch (distance the wind travels over water before reaching us) was only a few miles. So the waves were not significant (two feet) and the sailing pleasant. Mid day we had to cross Owen Sound. This increased the fetch to 15 miles, the winds to 20 knots and we felt the force of wind and waves as soon as we came around the point. A wet afternoon, lots of bouncing, how different from yesterday. We get ourselves into a certain rhythm with the winds and the waves continuously rolling in.

The last few hours of the day the wind became more intense (a small craft wind warning was issued) and we had to tack around the wind to get to our anchorage at White Cloud Island. White Cloud was recommended by a sailor that picked us up in his pickup truck this morning as we were hiking back from town with a tank of gas. Nice anchorage location but not ideal tonight. We are into the weather, not much protection, so we’re Rocking and Rolling. Our anchor is deep in the muck and we have a scope of 7 to 1, so we’ll sleep well tight…

Paul..