ZippySails

Some people think of excitement as something like getting ready for their trip to Hawaii or perhaps expecting a new baby. Well our excitement the last 16 hours has been crossing Lake Huron in 30 knots winds and giant waves and starting it unexpectedly at 2am last night. There we were sounds a sleep feeling good when Doug had a feeling something wasn't quite right outside. We always set an alarm for depth and GPS location when we anchor to sleep in case the boat is moving during the night. Last night he woke up before any alarms, poked his head out the door to see us about the hit the rocky harbor wall. Up I jumped put on my foul weather jacket over my PJs and followed him out the door. Our anchor was dragging on the bottom full of weeds, we had the rocks on one side to dodge, boats and docks on another and shallow water on the 3rd side. The wind was blowing us out of control in the small space of safety we had. We were in a protected harbour but the wind direction changed and was blowing through the entrance and we were in its path. I tried to keep the boat in the safe space while Doug tried for an hour to get the anchor on the boat. It was quite exciting (see what I mean by different types of excitement!) As soon as it was up we knew we had to start sailing, there was no other place to stop. Since we had already planned to do a crossing off we went. Up came the sun that morning which is one of the beautiful things about sailing during the night. We spent the next 16 hours sailing in the strong breeze and big waves. When we saw land we headed to an island near Port Elgin. As we got closer we hit an unmarked rock! See more excitement as if the rest didn't qualify. By now we were ready to stop so we headed into the marina of Port Elgin, called in to clear customs, paid for a slip and headed to bed early. The good news is we have internet we weren't planning on so I can do this blog.