Sailing Lake Ontario

After arriving on the Great Lake Lake Ontario in August, Grace and I had just two daysails. This was because I broke a bone in my foot.

A couple weeks later, Grace and I hopped a train going west. We travelled west to L.A. for her fall semester in mid-August; stopping in San Francisco to visit Brynn and Matt for a few days.

After returning to the boat, I decided to improve the Single Side-Band (SSB) radio reception. The SSB radio is a long range radio. While on the ocean, this radio system will make it possible to receive email, and more importantly current weather charts of the Atlantic Ocean. I could already listen and talk to people in Barbados, Amsterdam and the South Atlantic. However, I was not receiving the digital data (email, Weather Fax, etc.).

To use or test this radio system, the boat must be in the water. So, I wanted to do as much as possible before the boat is hauled out for the winter.

For the past few weeks, I have changed the emphasis from maintenance to sailing. Autumn was settling into Central New York. There was an unusual amount of colour along the lake. Typically, the wind is from the Northwest, which blows the leaves off the trees as they turn. However, this year, the winds have been consistently from the south.

Preparing Distant Horizon to go sailing

Leaves are just starting to change October 11, 2016

Sterling Bluffs

I sailed solo much of the time. On this day, October 11th I ghosted along the bluffs for a while. When I tacked and headed back, I saw Majic Journey coming out to the lake. Tom Leach had Dave Crast onboard as crew.

Tom Leach, greeting me as I approach Majic Journey flying the spinnaker

Tom Leach of Majic Journey was sailing with Dave Crast.

Tom approached with Majic Journey from astern (behind). Tom and Dave tossed me ginger snaps... one-by-one for an afternoon snack. Sorry, no pictures. I was busy catching my snack.

Since it was late in the season, many boats had already been taken out. After a daysail to Sodus Bay and back with my son Matt and a new friend John, I decided to put the boat on the end of another dock; making it easier to come and go when I single-hand. In hind-sight, I've re-thought the wisdom of that decision.

Distant Horizon (far left) sitting at the dock

You see... with winds primarily from the south and the boat being on the end of a dock, that being the south end of the dock, I get blown into or pushed hard against the dock. This makes it difficult for Distant Horizon to get away from the dock.

A few days later on another daysail, I had Ron and Peg onboard. They were in the process of winterizing their boat. While I was preparing to depart with Ron and Peg, Dean had arrived to sail solo on his boat. We convinced him to come and sail with us. We had a fabulous day; sailing out to Ford Shoal and back.

Ron and Peg relaxing with Dean at the helm

A couple days later, the wind was blowing strong (20-25 knots) from the south. Distant Horizon was pinned to the dock by the wind. It took an hour to get the boat off the dock. I decided to sail to Oswego. With wind from the south, I set a reef in the mainsail; making it smaller for the stronger winds.  I had the heavy weather staysail ready, but it would not be needed right away because the wind would be from slightly behind. The staysail is most effective when the wind is directly from the side slightly in-front of the boat.

In just a few days, the bluffs have burst into autumn colour.

I made it to Oswego in under 3 hours. Even though the winds were strong, there were just small 3-4 foot waves because of the southerly breeze. With the wind slightly behind the boat, I could just relax and enjoy the moment. The wind and waves were coming from behind. The sun was shinning. The air warm. In fact, it would be the last day of the year when the air temperature would reach 80 degrees!

The return trip was something else. It took almost 6 hours. The waves were not the issue. It was the wind. The wind wasn't too strong. I had a reef in the mainsail, the smaller heavy weather staysail, and a reefed jib. All that means is that I had a good combination of small sails for the stronger wind, so the boat wouldn't be over-powered. Actually, I was too conservative with sail size and could have used larger sails, but this was far more relaxing and the loss of speed was negligible. The actual problem was the wind direction. Little Sodus Bay is west by southwest of Oswego. The winds had veered from the south to the southwest.

A sailboat can not sail directly into the wind. In fact, Distant Horizon can barely sail at 40 degrees to the wind and prefers 50-60 degrees. So, a maneuver call a tack must be performed. It goes like this...

From Oswego, I sail due west (45 degrees to the wind). The shoreline is slipping farther and farther away as it follows a west-southwest direction. Sailing west, the wind is coming from in-front of the boat on the port side (left) at about a 45 degree angle to the bow. So, I turn the boat to port (left turn) until the wind is about a 45 degree angle from the starboard side (right). Now, I am sailing south; towards the shoreline, but not towards Little Sodus Bay which is southwest of my current position. As I get closer to the shoreline, the water gets shallower. So, I must tack again. This time I turn to starboard (right turn). Once again, heading west. In doing this, I sail west for 60-90 minutes. and sail south for about 30 minutes. This continued for a total of 6 tacks before reaching my destination.

I was a lot busier on the return trip. I didn't care. I was out there to sail... not just go for a ride. All-in-all, it was a glorious day of sailing!

Having just completed the sail to Oswego in 20-25 knots, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to kick it up a notch. The forecast was for a full gale. That is, 34-45 knots of wind. To make it real interesting, the wind was coming from the northwest. The forecast had the winds gusting to over 60 knots.

A full gale on the Great Lake Ontario

As it turned out, I did not sail on this day. There were several factors leading to this decision. First, to go out into a gale is foolhardy. The proper way to gain this experience is to go out prior to the gale's arrival. That way, I would go through the proper sequential progression of reefing and changing sails as the weather deteriorated. To do this, I would have had to depart in the morning's predawn darkness on Saturday. The next safe window to return would be around midnight Tuesday morning. Fundamentally...

1. I did not plan far enough ahead to find a kennel for Emma. 
2. The boat was slowly and systematically being de-commissioned for winter and did not have provisions for three days. 
3. Leaving or returning at any other time would not be safe based on the latest weather forecast.

In hind-sight, I was glad. Distant Horizon was sailing so well, I did not need to stress her and possible break something at a time in the season when it would be difficult to make repairs.