Another great sail today - from Picton to Belleville. We only motored through the Telegraph Narrows. Today we met Mark and Robin from Mimico Cruising Club. Robin is the granddaughter of Harold S. Robbins - who our tender is named after. They have been following us around the lake and recognized the boat. After dinner we had a visit with Tina and Susan, who left QCYC when they moved here. While we were enjoying a drink, Robert and Teresa from Blue Streak came by on their dinghy with their children Sarah and Peter. We all enjoyed a visit in the lovely Bay of Quinte Yach Club clubhouse.
We had a great sail from Kingston all the way to Picton Bay. We stopped at the Picton Bay Marina to get fuel, and stayed the night on the wall, since they had space. We took a walk to the Prince Edward Yacht Club, where we admired their mast crane. The new QCYC mast crane is a similar design. PEYC had a great feature - a steering wheel to use rather than a crank handle for raising and lowering a mast.
We had a great sail on Saturday, almost all the way to Kingston. We turned the engine on when we passed Wolfe Island, and needed to head into the wind. We didn't have a reservation in Kingston, and all the marinas were full. We pulled in to the 'day docks' just as a large power boat was leaving, so we had a good spot on the end of a row of docks. Good thing, as the docks are very short - less than 20 feet. Despite the name, we were allowed to stay for 2 nights, although had no power or water available. I was hoping to see my friend Pat from university, who lives near Kingston, but she had company for the weeked.
We spent Sunday doing a little shopping, and Ed got some new toys for the boat - an antenna for the TV, and a booster for wi-fi, which he then spent a lot of the day trying to get working. We did walk over to the Kingston Yacht CLlb, and enjoyed a beer in their lounge, while watching our first bit of the summer Olympics in London.
We woke Friday morning to strong winds pushing us onto the dock, but the forecast looked good, so we waited a couple of hours, and headed out with the wind again coming from the direction we wanted to go. We did motorsail for a while, and made good time to Sackets Harbour, arriving under sunny skies, just after Solitude. Danno and Tina had made reservations at a local restaurant, and invited us to join them for dinner. After cocktails aboard Solitude, we made our way down the main street to Tin Pan Galley. The restaurant was set in a lovely garden, with live music, and a long line up to get in. Fortunately, the reservaton meant we were seated right away. Ice cream at the local ice cream shop finished off a great evening.
We arrived in Oswego on Wednesday, and got one of the last spots available at the Oswego International Marina, now run by Wright's Landing Marina. It's Harbourfest this weekend, with a regatta at Oswego Yacht Club. On a walk through town, we crossed the bridge, and got to see a power boat locking through lock #8.
The forecast for Thursday was for severe thunderstorms coming in the afternoon, along with damaging winds and large hail, so we planned to stay until Friday, rather than move on to Sacket's Harbour on Thursday. Solitude arrived just before we did on Wednesday, and we enjoyed a visit aboard their boat before heading off to the midway in the evening,where Hannah and Danno braved some of the rides. We took our chances with our arteries, and shared a funnel cake - huge, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, and topped with apples.
As I sit here in the clubhouse on Thursday, enjoying a $2 beer, the sun is shining, and the severe weather seems to have passed both north of us (through Sacket's Harbour) and south of us. Not complaining.
As we were leaving Rochster, someone called out to Ed. Turns out it was someone he knows from work. Dan on Solitude was also heading towards Sodus Bay, and arrived at the Sodus Bay Yacht Club about the same time we did. This was my first time docking the boat outside of our home club, and in all the excitement, I didn't check the Sodus Bay chart, and hit ground before we got to the club. No harm done - just embarassing. After dinner, Dan, Tina and Hannah, along with Watson (named after the IBM computer on Jeopardy) came by for a visit. Danno is a Waterloo BMath 1984, so he was there when Ed and I were, and now works for IBM, with big banks as clients. Tina works at TD. What a small world. Solitude is also heading eastbound, so maybe we'll run into them again on this trip.
On Tuesday, we enjoyed a lovely stay in Sodus while the winds howled. Quiescence, from National Yacht Club came in and moored beside us. After dinner we had a nice visit with Kim and Cathy, who are on their way back to Toronto after almost a month of cruising. We've seen the boat at QCYC in the past, and will look out for them this fall.
Ed and I started out on our first sailing vacation without the girls. We left Toronto at about 4:40 in the afternoon on Friday, for an overnight sail to Rochester. Friday had been very windy, and although the wind was calmer by the time we left, the waves were still a little uncomfortable, and coming from the direction we were heading. We arrived in Rochester after 17 hours on the water - a new record for us. We did actually sail for several hours, and the conditions were really good after the first couple of hours. After lunch and a nap, it was off to visit Kathy, Ajay and Sarah in Webster. We spent the night there, and after brunch, returned to RYC to enjoy an afternoon by the pool.
We joined about 35 other boats from QCYC in a cruise to Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club for the July long weekend. Ed, Katie and I set out on the Friday, with a brisk SW wind, and had a quick sail to NOTL. Emily and Gurhari came by car the next day. The weather was great, and we enjoyed good company. There was lots of hype about the town basically being in gridlock because of a Tragically Hip concert on the Saturday night, but it was not that big a deal. The next day, Canada Day, was busier in town. We got to enjoy the great fireworks from Fort George. The trip back was not quite as quick, and we motored for the last half of the trip. Great weekend. We even got to enjoy a short trip to Niagara Falls (and the Fallsview Casino for me) courtesy of Gurhari.
