Day 22 - Sun 19 Jun 2016
Anchored - Bay of Quinte, ON

[photo: Prinyer's Cove marina where we cleared into Canada]

We had a very restful night that started out a tad warm for me, but got comfortable by morning. It was clear again with a light wind from the SW that promised to give us a decent ride across Lake Ontario. I would have liked to leave at 0530 or so to get part way across before the waves would build, but were stuck S of the last lock on the Oswego Canal and had to await their 0800 opening.

Only a few other boaters were up at 0730, surprisingly, so I could not get a good sense of how many expected to lock through with us, but assumed it would be no one. That proved true and we got through quickly, but saw 2 of the PDQs still at the wall when we passed. Vagabond hopefully just wanted to leave later, but Peregrin's (yes, there is no final 'e') captain was on deck and told us he discovered water in the oil on one of the engines, so his cruise is over before it really started. He has to return to Winter Harbor in Brewerton to get some diagnostics and potentially serious work done.

We feel bad for him and those family and friends that traveled to join him. I admire his optimism, but I could not imagine picking up a new-to-me boat in a far-off location and expect to take it on a long cruise within a week. I guess delivery captains do that all the time, and I am sure collectively they have countless horror stories to tell.

As soon as we exited the breakwater at Oswego, we were rocking side to side with waves that looked and felt a lot like boat wakes, but there were no boats nearby. That continued for several miles and then it smoothed out quite a bit. We crossed in relative boredom in our high-speed mode at 12.5 kts. At just over the halfway point to entering the Bay of Quinte and protected water, the wave action picked up to almost a foot, but fairly choppy. It was not uncomfortable, though, and much better than the first time we crossed last year.

I had secured the yellow quarantine flag on our RADAR mast while it was calmer, and about 1015 we crossed into Canadian waters. I had pre-registered with the border service via email, and had received an acknowledgment that they now had all our info on file. That was to help expedite the process of clearing in when we get to the first marina where we can do so.

There were quite a few sailboats out enjoying the 10-12 kt WSW breeze, which was stronger than forecast. As we rounded Cressy Point and headed W into Adolphous Reach, we were impressed with the beauty. Before long, Prinyer's Cove Marina hove into view and although no one answered our VHF radio hails, we spoke to a local slip owner and tied up in an appropriate spot.

The first thing Diane noticed was that in 10 feet of water we could see the bottom clearly. I got off the boat, used the telephone in the office thanks to the nice proprietor, was cleared into the country, secured our Canadian courtesy flag, and within 20 minutes we were casting off. It was very painless. We have our Canadian friend, Bud, to thank for the insight of stopping there. We will get to see them either Mon or Tue evening.

Back on the main body of water, we were motoring into the teeth of the freshening breeze and the long fetch of over 10nm produced waves over 1 foot even in this protected area. We stayed at our low-speed, fuel conserving mode for most of the 1.5 hour trip to our anchorage of choice. We were both enjoying the beautiful scenery as we cruised, but we know there is much better yet to come.

Our anchorage off Witlow Point is perfect for the WSW going to SSW winds we expect. The only thing was finding a spot without massive weeds on the bottom. They reached up almost to the surface and confused the depth sounder numerous times. We finally anchored in 10 feet with no weeds at the anchor, set it well, and opened the windows (you can't call them hatches) to get a nice breeze flowing. On land, it must be about 85F, and the large glass windows in the boat make it much warmer if we don't close the curtains and keep some ventilation going.

We had showers off the stern which helped cool us off for a while and we tried to stay in the shade while getting some of the breeze. You can't control the weather, of course, but it is amazing how often you go from being excessively cold to excessively warm in a short time frame. Supper was the chicken fajitas I had prepared on the grill a few days ago, and it was very good, but hot spicy food was not what we needed on such a hot evening.

By 1900, we had had enough and I ran the generator for 2 hours until bedtime with the A/C on. Fortunately, the sun was setting on our starboard side where we had the curtains closed, so the massive forward windows (without curtains) were not letting the sun blaze inside. On one hand, we feel hedonistic to be running a generator for A/C while at anchor, but if you look at it economically, we are saving about $50 not staying at a marina tonight, so it is a net savings by far.

We have been gone from home for a month, but underway just 3 weeks. It feels like much longer, but in a good way. By the way, I should have mentioned that until we get to Trenton and get access to marina Wi-Fi, or secure a new SIM card for the phone in order to get Internet, we will not be able to use email or post to the blog. Once you are reading this, of course, it will be a moot point.