The winds continued to lay down overnight while we were in Cobourg and we decided to head for Oswego, NY in one jump. Oswego is located at the south-east corner of Lake Ontario about 77 miles from Cobourg. This means a long leg of about 12 to 13 hours but we had a hunch that our weather window was starting to collapse and likely wouldn't be as good for several days. So we set the alarm for 4:30am and left the dock at 5:15. We cleared the break wall and found the lake acceptably calm and we headed across the lake on a dark but star-filled night. The sun came up about an hour and twenty minutes later and the sunrise on the water was truly glorious and we looked forward to what the day would bring us.

With the sun came a slight breeze and short waves in the water which made the first 20 miles rather choppy. We found the boat handled well in these conditions but with the mast down it did "wallow" more that usual and so we felt the choppy water much more than usual.

As we left Whitby the other day we discovered that our autopilot (our trusty crew member Helmsley) was not working because it is integrated with all the other instruments on board and with those disconnected with the masts Helmsley wasn't working. This was something we hadn't anticipated (and a quick cell phone call to our favourite boat technician quickly confirmed that he hadn't thought about it either) and so we ended up hand steering for the Cobourg leg. Since this so-called "Smart Pilot" wasn't working we thought for the Oswego run that we'd dig out our back-up unit which is an old "Dumb Pilot" and working off the wheel is not nearly as powerful and gets it's directional information strictly using a fluxgate compass to hold a predetermined direction. Well as it turned out, our "Dumb Pilot" is just plain stupid these days and refused to work and so we had to set up 1 hour watches whereby we each hand steered for a while and then was relieved by the other. This allowed us to fight off fatigue and boredom that often accompany the helm duties.

Despite this the day got better and better, the sun came out and we both changed from jeans and sweaters into shorts and tee-shirts and enjoyed a return to summer for a while. The wind died and the water became more like glass and we enjoyed a beautiful crossing on a very deserted lake - we didn't see another boat all day. But you couldn't have asked for a nicer day and a better crossing.

About 4:00 pm the sun decided to take a sabbatical and we both returned to our jeans and sweaters for the last couple of hours. We arrived in Oswego at 6:00 pm for a crossing of 12 hours 45 minutes which considering the conditions was a fairly quick crossing. We checked into American customs and got both our clearance into the country and our cruising license to proceed on south. We then joined the very friendly members of the Oswego Yacht Club, who had extended us a free dock for the night, for a drink at the bar. However, after just a few minutes, our fatigue began to catch up with us and we returned to the boat for a quick supper and were in bed by 9:00 pm to catch up on our sleep.

Tomorrow promises new adventures and places we've never been before on the boat.