Day three of the Goderich extravaganza started with very dark and stormy skies and 5-6’ breakers coming off the lake right up the channel. Now, when we came in here on Monday I saw 2 feet on my depth sounder in the channel added to our keel depth of 5’ means either 7 feet of water or there were weeds throwing the depth reading off. The marina staff is telling me they sounded the channel at 12 feet earlier this year but that can always change with sand bars moving around. If we attempt leaving with 7 feet of water and a 5’ wave hits us, we end up with 2’ of water when we’re in the trough, which is 3 less than we need. So, here we are for another day.
We took Finn for a walk in the morning and tested our handheld VHF at the top of the hill and it seems to be working and we got weather reports on the weather channel so our radio mystery seems to be solved. We did the tourist thing and saw all the historic sites, walked the beach and read.

A nice couple with a 35’ catamaran moored in front of us showed this afternoon. This is their home port and they sail out of here each summer as they are both teachers. He is a big guy at 6’7” and reminds me of Patrick Warburton so we’re calling him Putty from the Seinfeld character. We got some good advice on the weather and conditions for Lake Huron as well as a good marina in Sarnia to get a slip once we arrive there.

On Thursday we decided to try and make a break for it. We had been using the Passageweather.com site which shows us wind and wave patterns for several days for virtually anywhere in the world. Unfortunately it understated both the wind and wave height on Thursday. We departed before 8 am, ran the gauntlet of the channel out into the lake and got approx. 3 miles off shore. We had hoped once we got away from shore and the shallow water the waves would diminish in size. Au contrare mes amis! We saw 6-7’ waves and took some over the bow and the dodger so we decided to turn back. That was a bit of a tricky maneuver as the period between waves was short and I had to time it just right to get the boat turned around without taking any big waves broadside! Managed to time that and headed back to the harbour.

Now, we had the sun’s (the first appearance in days) reflection on the water in the channel right in our eyes on approach. Luckily Sam had reminded me that green buoys are flat on top and reds are peaked. With markers being totally obscured while the troughs of the breaking waves in the channel, sun reflection and just general chaos, we managed to get the boat back into the harbour.

So, we’re here for another day, or 2 or ?? days! Speaking to a nice couple also moored here we found out that this weather situation is caused by the jet stream coming further south than normal over the Great Lakes. Everyone else from here says they’ve never seen it like this before for so long.

As I type this on Friday evening, the sun is shining and the wind is light, but it has shifted over 100 degrees throughout the day. The waves too are coming out of the southwest right now as well and have settled down a fair amount. According to the website this won’t last but if it’s reasonable in the morning we’ll try to make another break for it. Leaving now would be great with low wind and waves but I’m not crazy about being in the lake at night with the changeable conditions we’ve seen here over the last few days. I guess I deserve this as I have previously complained about not having enough wind. A little moderation would be nice.

The WiFi here is flaky to say the least so we have not been able to post on the blog for a few days. I’m using my Blackberry WiFI Hotspot service to post this as I don’t want any of our Trekkies (groupies, that’s you guys!) worrying about us and sending out the search party.
While in port I spent some time and disassembled the winches, cleaned the hardened grease out of them and relubed them. I don’t think they have ever been done since they were new. What a difference!!! Aside from that we’ve done all the local sight seeing and trail walking we can around here...in other words, been there, done that in Goderich!

Finn, is taking it all in stride and continues as head of security aka The Welcome Mutt, as seen in today’s photo. No one passes without a treat as a bribe!