We left Cape Vincent this morning with a favorable forecast, or at least so we thought. Having never spent any time on Lake Ontario, we have nothing to compare it too, but holy crap was it nasty. It took us 5 hours between untieing the lines in CV to dropping the hook in Henderson Bay. Again, no frame of reference, but I was exhausted. Had a bite to eat, and then layed down for a nap. The winds weren't that bad, 16 knots according to the weather man, but the seas were sharp and tall, reportedly up to 6 ft. I know some of them were well over that. Poor Vita got tossed around like a rag doll. Coming out of the St. Lawrence we were beating into a north-west wind, forgot to close the seacock for the bathroom sink, and end up washing down the bathroom. When the bow would slam into a wave, it would shoot water up through the sink like a fire hose. Live and learn, but the bathroom (head) is cleaner.
Our first Lake Ontario freighter, met us coming out of the river. Once we had enough westing from the river mouth, we turned south, taking the seas and winds on the beam. Serena lasted about this long "-". Her second trip to the head was enough. I guess we found out where her sea sickness level was. She fed the fishes a couple of times, and than layed down in the cockpit for the rest of the trip, in no condition to do anything else. I managed to be okay, even after several trips down below. One of those trips I was body slammed into the door frame between the salon and the galley, knocking the wind out of me, and letting me know that I need to hang on just a little better. Live and learn.
Chance meeting at sea. This tall ship was coming out of where we were headed. Exactly where I don't know because we were in the middle of nowhere at the time. Pretty though. And they were bashing into headseas at the time. Pretty impressive. There was a little Bristol 27 headed to Sackets Harbour, on the same course as us, and they got tossed around pretty good to, they were beating us most of the trip, and then they separated ways closer to our destination.
We were sailing with a single reefed main and staysail. The yankee was furled, which is good, because it would never have survived the trip. We put the bowsprit into the water several times, hit over 8 knots more times than I can count, and Vita's hull speed is 6.3knots. We had one accidental jibe that tried to rip my arm off, Vita got tossed on her beam ends a few times, and our coffee pot did a double flip with a twist from the stove across the boat. A great adventure by all accounts. If fun can be measured by adrenalin and exhaustion, this was it.
By the way, I think the weather man lies through his teeth.
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