So things are speeding up. We've got miles to make and an open heart surgery to make things interesting. We had a fantastic time in Toronto and made good time in Erie and the Welland but it's game on till end of September.

We're trying to take baby steps but our foot print needs to get bigger if we're to complete the 1500 nm path that lays ahead of us. We've covered 1200 nm so far. We decided since lake Ontario is the last piece of unobstructed water till the atlantic we needed to get an overnight passage under our belt.

So after my first oil change by myself we were underway on a planned 24 hour 165 nm trip - Toronto to Kingston, the gateway to the thousand islands national park. We got away by 1330 or so and I believe Pamela eluded to the size of the marina in her post but it was compact. One L fairway with 5 finger piers that dead ended about 10-15 meters wide, we are 14. We were on the wall on the long side of the L and the fairway was no more than 10 meters wide with a boat on the wall and there was one extremely wide boat that made it feel more like 5 m between him and the boat at the end of the finger pier. I had dreamed about a backing move that used our prop walk to our advantage and the fairway just across from us as a turning point. So, on a busy Sunday afternoon in the summer while everyone was enjoying a walk on the quay and all eyes seemed glued to us I completed the perfect three point turn and left on our way for our first big overnight passage.

We're still getting used to long times on board with the whine of the engine or the nagging of a flogging sail. Truth be told it's a full time job when on watch to keep the boat moving forward to our destination. At least 4 times an hour you have to take a 360 degree view of your surroundings so no one sneaks up on you. You'd be amazed at how you can miss a small fishing boat that is only a half mile away. We do a mile every 10 mins. The other thing is big container or ore boats that haul ass and can run you down if you don't watch behind. Not to mention the buoys that have a habit of sneaking up you. On the hour we began to take GPS readings for back up and also charted them on our paper charts to be sure when the sun went down, regardless of the chart plotter or the nav software on our ipads (we have two) we'd know where the hell we were. Call me a skeptic but it happens. The guy who did our survey, Fredk and old salt and pro from RI scared the shit out of me when he told some stories about electronic navigation and/or energy production and storage capacity going down in Malaysia while he was on a delivery. Malaysia is a notoriously crazy tidal and traffic area so that makes it count double.

The winds were light and we have a policy if under 4-5 kts we run the engine when we have a place to be. That may change, especially after we get to the Caribbean but for now we HAVE to be to cape cod by end of September lest we begin to run weather risks and we have to leave for the Caribbean by the first part of November. We have a surgery in the family at the end of Aug so that has no timeline - it is what it is. Sort of like sailing.


Pamela and I talked about the watch schedule that allowed for each of us to gravitate to our natural biorhythms and for sufficient sleep. Its pretty much the same schedule we stuck to for driving long trips. I drive as late as I can, Pamela takes over the early morning and I grab the just after sunrise shift then we just trade off as needed. We had an early dinner together before the sun went down and I stayed on watch till around 2130, after a half an hour of tutorial on the chart plotter, radar and autopilot Pamela took over till 0100. I was out in two breaths and awoke with a start when Pamela beaming ear to ear grabbed my foot for my watch at 0100. She told me what an exhilarating watch she had. The first thing that happened was she almost hit a lit uncharted buoy. She ran through the current 'targets' she was tracking, including one mystery ship that had been following us for some time only visible via radar and no AIS signal. Then like that she dove into the 'posha palace' which is our guest quarter berth that we have stuffed wall to wall with pillows and a comforter. It has two portals that open into the cockpit so you can communicate with the on-watch person without effort and sucks you in producing coma like sleep that one needs when traveling just the two of you, running Big Frisky 24 hours a day. I've never felt more alone.

I looked out of the cockpit and the winds were still out of the SSW at 5-7 kts and waves built from flat to 1-3s. There was no moon out and I almost threw up it was so disorienting. The jerky boat movement, the pitch black sky over the pitch black lake. Its hard to explain but my heart was racing. I settled into the work that needed to be done every 15 mins, check 360 with binoculars, check the chart plotter for course, check the radar and AIS for targets. I would get about 5-7 minutes I could do something else like read the radar manual or the guidebook to see where we might go in the next few days unless it was on the hour then I'd get the wind speed and direction, grab the GPS position off of chart plotter and then hand chart it on our maps. In any given hour only 15 mins was not doing something to keep the boat moving. The 3 hours flew by. As Pamela's next watch began at 0400 we were beginning to near shore for our only major turn for the trip but an important one as we had to thread the needle through the reef on the east end of lake Ontario on our way to the thousand islands national park where we intended on staying on the hook for a few nights.

After I settled in I began to really look hard at the lights marking the northern shore. Lights travel and amazing distance over water. Nav lights are set up on a specific pattern of flashing or a sequence and they are marked on the map so if you are having a hard time differentiating a light you can check the map and see what pattern it is or timing and then make an educated guess. There was one big headland point that had a large light that we would pass just before our 0630 turn and I was trying to pick it out before I handed it over to Pamela so she had an idea to what to expect. In addition there was maybe 4 or 5 'minor points' with lights and none of the normal channel markers. Cities make a glow from a distance too. That and the erry hiss of the water as Big Frisky charged along at 7.5 kts when you had your head out the bimini/dodger. Really the only way to check 360. Made the three hours magical.

I awoke Pamela for her 0400 watch and gave her the run-down of what was going on including the giant container ship that had just ghosted by on starboard. We normally run just off the shipping channel a safe distance so you aren't asking for crossings with the commercial traffic. We listen to the VHF ship-ship channels so hear the traffic controllers that the commercial traffic check in with to get updates on who is coming and going. Even with all the electronics its still an observation that is what counts. I had been tracking this ship heading towards us for the last hour and at a distance you can make out the ship's lights. Red for port, green for starboard and white for stern. So if you look out and see green/red and white it's heading towards you, if it's white only its heading away from you. This one was coming out of the pass in the reef we were heading for so the sea room was tight. Our AIS gives vectors for headings for 'targets' and this one was bearing off to our starboard for the trip down the lake. Still a close passing in a dark night gets your attention. After a brief exchange with Pamela I was headed for the posha palace and had her awake me early for the turn at 0630.

The sun was up when the tug on my foot came and cheerily Pamela greeted me and we hot-racked, which as our buddy chef Todd would say calling back his navy days is when you are sharing a bed with on watch crew. The wind was up and our turn allowed me to get the headsail up in addition to the main that was already up and kill the engine. The next part of our passage was easy sailing through well marked channel into Kingston.

We arrived around 1000 to a beautiful day in a city teaming with tourists on the edge of the Thousand Islands park. We had covered 165 nm around 17.5 hours and had our first night passage under our belts. More importantly it put us within striking distance of Montreal and a few hours sail from our planned few days of exploring the anchorages between here and the start of the Saint Lawrence river.