Hi All,
We had a wild ride up the lake, leaving Friday morning about 0915, just
motoring out past Snake Island while we tidied and organized a little
and made distance straight into the usual SW wind. Once out there we
unrolled the 135 and hoisted the main for a port tack fetch that almost
let us clear south of Emeric Point on the south side of
The wind was good and building. We continued on port up into the bay
well south of Waupoos and tacked out between
Point to get into the lake proper. Somewhere along the way we dropped
the 135 and put on the cocktail jib, a partial hoist sail with about
115% LP. The wind was building and clocking around,
eventually getting
to be NW, so that we eventually wound up going a little south of west on
starboard. We reefed, then late in the evening rolled up the little jib
and motor sailed under reefed main alone. The boat was getting wetter
and wetter, so we put on our foulies and harnesses as the sun was
setting for warmth and safety. I thought I would have looked very
familiar to some of you because I was wearing the exact same outfit you saw me in most on Rengade, right down to the
boots. The only change was my blue Mustang harness instead of one of the
Renegade red ones.
It was a long night, with about 20 to 25 knots of wind and us
motor
sailing just low of close hauled into it. We had a lot of water over the
bow which made it really clear how many leaking spots really need some
attention. Waves smacking up against the hatches have a little more
penetrating power than a simple thunderstorm ;-) Bofore
we caught it a
bunch of things got soaked, including my stack of Ports books and a few
other things. They are slowly drying in the sun as we flip pages to keep
them from gluing themselves to each other. It was an incredible contrast
to look away from the waves on the deck and up into the bright clear
starry sky -- peace amid chaos. The moon rose behind me and was a
brillant orangish crescent on the horizon that I just happened to notice
while sweeping the area behind for freighters. We had a few pretty close
passages by freighters in the night, but only one other sail boat. One
of the freighters altered course to avoid me at exactly the same time I
tacked to get out of his way. Usually you can count on those guys to
just hold their course and leave avoidance up to the rest of us. So I
tacked back and on we went.
Dawn found us about 8 miles north of
below 20 apparent, the sun warm and the sky a beautiful blue. It had
gone even farther north and we were able to carry both sails on a close
reach going much faster than we could through the night, when cracking
off more would have taken us down to the shore. I pumped lots of water
out of the bilge and got about and hour and a quater of much needed
sleep -- I felt like a new man. Things got lighter and lighter and
around 11 we gave up and switched on the engine. As we motored towards
matched the boat speed. Mid afternoon we stopped everything and spent 20
or 30 minutes having a swim in the green water just off the mouth of the
little after six.
We gassed up, then settled in on slip 105 easily in a
spot of minimal
current. We toasted our arrival with a little tasy Scotch and the words
"To Arrogant Bastards, Fast Women, and Faster Boats. We had steaks and
salad for dinner, with cheesies on the side. We were both exhausted, so
naturally Laura and I went to watch the fireworks, postponed from July 1
due to high winds.It was a great wrap up to a long passage from
-- what can I say, strip loins were on special at the A&P!
Later on I will continue my quest for a net connection and try to send
this off before Adam joins us around
sometime tomorrow. Wish you were all here, except that would make it
pretty crowded.
More later in the trip,
Rick / Dad