We left Niagra On the Lake around 08:00 with a westerly around 10- 15 knots. Bright sun, beautiful breeze and Lucky Bird was flying on a broad reach. It was time for our Hydrovane, our wind driven self-steering device, to earn its keep so I pulled the pins, set the vane and we were off. The vane steered Lucky Bird unassisted most of the way down the lake. We jibed several times which meant resetting the vane and after a while I started to get the hang of it. Later in the evening the wind died down to where the seas and light winds were a little too much for the vane and we would wander a little more than we felt comfortable so pins back into to lock the vane and the rudder and we steered the rest of the night.

The Lake Ontario 300 race is this week end and we found ourselves right in the middle of it. These guys all had their chutes up while we were just jib and maining it at 7 to 8 knots. Around 04:00 this morning the wind picked up to 20 knots so we shortened sail a bit and watched the racers round the eastern mark at Main Duck and Yorkshire Islands. For us the rest of the sail was a tight reach into Kingston; the trip was 24 hours for the length of Ontario.

Showers, a little sleep and then we'll tour Kingston and learn more about Canada.

Now that we are using the Hydrovane and it has become a working member of the crew we'd like to give it a name. How about helping us out; send us an email with name suggestions.

Cheers,