Thursday September 6, 2007

The weather on the Great Lakes picks up in the fall. The water is warm and the air temperature cooler. Winds (predicted one meter or less) and waves from the South today. We are traveling north, so it is a go day. The nice thing about the Southerlies is they bring warm weather. Huron has even stronger southerlies today with waves up to two meters. We would not travel South in these conditions. Next week Bill and I will be traveling South and will need these winds to shift North and lighten up.

A beautiful sunrise this morning while we had breakfast on the deck. Take a deep breath and feel so fortunate to be here. We sailed wing to wing most of the day. That is a very relaxing and soothing point of sail. Little to no heeling, and the winds are pushing you along. We sailed across the channel between the North Channel and Georgian Bay. The seas at this intersection point were very confused. Five footers from the South East (Georgian Bay) and four footers from the South West (North Channel). This caused considerable yawing as we sailed across. We had a preventer on the Main to give the boom some stability. Shirley was reading. But these are conditions one has to be on board a few days and become accustomed too.

The furling line needs replaced again (bad line from West Marine!), the Auto helm stopped working yesterday (loose wiring connection, fixed), and today part of the block on the Mainsheet fell apart (I am hoping to fix this one before departing again). Always projects on sailboats.

We are now back in Killarney (two days early) and have completed Georgian Bay. So we plan on exploring the local area, do a few boat projects, and stock up on provisions for the last leg of this years Great Lakes venture. Bill arrives on Sunday. We will be out of touch for a few days after departing Monday morning.

Expect an addendum to the Log from Shirley in the next few days….

Paul..