Thursday, September 12 promised moderate south westerlies, so we departed Rochester again at sunrise (6:45am) and headed west planning on stopping at Oak Orchard. The seas were very calm with about 5 knots if breeze dead on the nose, we made very good time, arriving off Oak Orchard about 11:45 am. With the weather so benign we decided to keep going and head for Olcott, about another four hours and only 32 miles from home.

We were about ten miles from Olcott, a bit stiffer breeze and some serious bouncing, when the engine lost power and quit..... Damn, we were well below 1/4 tank and suspected that the bouncing had introduced some air into the fuel line. We turned around, unfurled the jib and Heather steered while I dumped about 4 1/2 gallons of diesel through a filter-funnel into the tank... Lots of fun, but she started right up and we were on our way again.

About 2 miles from Olcott she did it again. This time we sailed for a bit, tacking back and forth along the rhumb line with me musing about how the hell we were going to sail her into the narrow, shallow entrance to Olcott harbour.... I tried her again and she started, so we proceeded at reduced speed and made the harbour, tying up briefly at the Yacht Club but moving to the marina because strong Northerlies were forecast and the wall at OYC is dangerous in any kind of north wind. We got a deep slip at the well sheltered town marina .

The wind came up overnight, a sustained 20 knots that blew all day and into the evening. We knew we weren't going anywhere, so we slept in, went got a local greasy spoon for brunch and I spent the afternoon on the engine.

It was pretty evident that we needed to change the fuel filters, something I did, with much help from Phil and Rob, at the beginning of the trip. I removed and replaced the secondary filter, mistakenly thinking it was the primary. I also removed the water pump and put in a new impeller. I stated the engine up and ran it for 10 minutes.

Satisfied that all was well, I was about to suggest that we adjourn to the yacht club for happy hour and dinner when there was a knock on the hull. It was Tom Oldham, the broker from Wilson NY who sold us Dragonfly and Peregrine, our previous boat. I had emailed Tom to let him know we were on the south shore and to see if he could find us a slip for a week in the event we were stuck by weather (which he did, thanks Tom!). We spent an hour or so chatting and catching up and then Heather, Cara and I headed for Olcott Yacht Club for a lively dinner and after-dinner drinks. They are a small but wonderfully hospitable club with a very good restaurant. We watched the waves roll into the harbour, often spilling onto the top of the breakwall.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny but cool. Clearly fall is here. The wind and waves dropped considerably overnight and we figured by 10am it would be OK to make the trip across. As we were getting set up, I decided to start the engine and let it run for a bit, glad I did. After less than 5 minutes it quit, I must have air in the lines.... I also suspected the other filter.

So over the next 45 minutes, with the assistance of the text book from the marine diesel course I took last winter, I replaced the second filter (which I discovered was the primary) and the went through the tedious task of bleeding all the air out of the fuel line, a task that was made more difficult by the mistake of not opening the fuel cock when I finished installing the filter!

By 11 o'clock we had her running again, letting her run for a good 20 minutes before casting off and setting a course of 300 degrees true 32 miles to Buoy T 2 at the Leslie Spit Headland. At 16:47 we passed the buoy and crossed our track, thus completing the Down East Circle.

We are proceeding to Toronto Outer Harbour Marina to unload the boat and we'll sleep in our own beds tonight.

Tomorrow we'll move Dragonfly to her slip at Queen City Yacht Club.
I'll post some more summary blogs in the next few days, and we are planning to do a slide talk later in the fall for friends and family in the Toronto area.yc