2,500 nautical mile Cruise, May - September 2011 (Click thru the "Newer Posts" at Bottom)

This is the track for the entire cruise, over half was singlehanded.  The series of blogs begins here, below.

Two Great Lakes and a Great Canal, May 27–May 31, 2011

Jim Clark and Jack VanArsdale arrived Friday evening and we stowed our gear, a couple days' provisions, and made sure all was ready for our night sail from Erie, PA to Port Colborne, ON, about 60nm across Lake Erie to the southern end of the Welland Canal.  Our eventual destination for the

week was Toronto.  The weather forecast was for a less than 10 knot breeze from the NE, just the direction we were headed.  Fortunately, the waves were forecast to be less than two feet or rather calm.  Since Kelly IV is now a full-time cruising sailboat, she is focused on moving on to the next port as much as she is on sailing. 

Since we were all eager to get moving, we completed the last minute project of securing the dinghy with two PVC pipes across the forward and after lifting eyes.  These two pipes would prevent the lifting eyes from pulling inward towards each other and possibly distorting the

CaptMurph, Jack, Jim

inner sidewalls of the dinghy.  Once this last project was completed we raised the dinghy into the stern davits, tied off the two small spring lines for the dinghy and took a photo of the crew just before departure.

By this time it was 11pm.  What the weather forecast did NOT say was that we'd experience significant fog for the entire trip, especially for the first several miles as we left Presque Isle Bay and pressed forward through the channel.  As luck would have it, we had to share the channel with a large dredging vessel headed into the Bay, as we were finding our foggy way out.  We swapped single horn blasts to confirm we'd pass port to port, then each of us disappeared his own direction into the inky fog. 

Frankly, if we did not have the new radar, we would have delayed our departure.  Visibility was well under a quarter mile and the lights on the aids to navigation were the only things visible at that range.  Given the fog and darkness, we couldn't even make out the US Coast Guard Station less than 100 yards from us as we passed it by.  We departed at night so we'd arrive the next day in full daylight.  

Jim Clark

It is my very strong preference to arrive at our destinations in daylight, especially those that I have not been to recently or ever.  With the new radar telling us we had nothing except the land behind us, we motored off in to the wind and darkness.

Our watch schedule had me wrapping up my watch at midnight so Jim began his watch at that time.  Jack had gone to his bunk soon after we cleared the channel, since he'd have to be up and alert by 2am for his own watch.  My preferred watch schedule for a 3 man crew is for 3 hour watches from 6am through midnight, then 2 hour watches from midnight until 6am.  This gives the off watch 4 to 6 hours to rest or sleep and only a 2 hour watch during the wee hours of the morning when it is most difficult to remain awake and alert.  I had taken a nap during the afternoon while waiting for Jim and Jack to show up, so I found myself wide awake and enjoying Jim's company as he steered us through the small but quite bouncy waves and into the teeth of the northeasterly breeze.

With the fog and dark we couldn't see the stars or even the water very far from Kelly, but the radar assured us there was no one nearby as we gradually ticked off the miles towards Colborne.  Jack came on watch at his appointed time and Jim went below to enjoy a well-earned rest.  Unfortunately, we discovered that my efforts to seal the forward overhead hatch had failed as water was leaking profusely into the aft end of the v-berth, soaking the small cushion that covered the space between the port and starboard sides of the aft or “head” end of the berth, assuming you would place your feet into the pointy end at the forward end of the berth.  Thankfully that seemed the extent of the damage, so we directed the leaking water off the berth and directly into the bilge using a small tarp.  The second berth in the main cabin was still open so Jim was able to bunk there.

Instead, Jim decided to keep Jack company and the two stayed in the cockpit while I caught some rest before my watch began at 4am.  By the time I woke up, Jim had decided to get some rest himself and was climbing into the port-side main cabin berth for the night.  Jack also went below for some well-earned rest and I had the cockpit, fog and darkness to myself.  Fortunately, Kelly would hold her course pretty well when I locked the wheel, so I would do that regularly and stand above the bimini and dodger for a 360* look around.  Of course, with the very limited visibility, there was nothing to see, so the radar was very important. 

Dawn came early, but not the ability to see anything.  The dark gradually went away so that by 4:30am an even light gray made the small waves and water around us visible, but only for some small distance from Kelly IV, maybe a couple hundred yards or so.  The small breeze was even less by now, so the waves were disappearing to almost nothing.  This meant that no more water was forcing its way through the leaky forward hatch and things were already beginning to dry up in the v-berth.

Suddenly, I noticed a radar target NW of us and about 3.5 nautical miles away.  Since we were moving along our own course to the NE, it was important to allow for our own movement as we determined our Closest Point of Approach (CPA).  At first it seemed as though the target was not moving, then it appeared to be moving very slowly to the SW.  It finally dawned on me that the target was probably not moving, but rather we were moving past the target.  The radar image of the target seemed large to me, so my assumption was that we were passing a freighter that was at anchor for the night.

Jack prepared a great breakfast of hot tea, coffee, mocha with bananas and hot fruit turnovers of raspberry and cherry.  A few hours later we spotted another radar target, when Kelly was just 5 miles from Port Colborne.  This radar target was on the screen at a position about 4nm away NNE of Kelly.  Like the previous target, this one remained stationary as we passed it by.  This target was in the designated anchorage just south of Port Colborne, so it made sense that it was stationary.  Our closest approach of this target was 1.5nm, but even then, we never saw it visually.

As we approached the coastline, we first saw it on radar, but soon could make out the larger buildings and trees.  The fog was much thinner and easier to see through near the coast, so piloting into the

marina at Port Colborne was a very simple matter.  We checked into Canada Customs and were legally permitted to raise our Canada Courtesy Flag on our starboard spreader.

Jack and Jim both brought food, so we only needed some eggs & pretzels from the grocery store in Colborne.  A phone call to the Seaway Administration told us that if we were at the Colborne dock phone before 5am, then we might have a good chance of moving quickly through the Welland with minimal delays.

We accepted the challenge and were up at 4:15am, slipped our lines from the marina and were on the Seaway phone by 5am.  They told us to move to the first lift bridge and lock so we were

off!  The lift bridge is a girder bridge with two large towers at each end of the bridge.  Before 5:30am, the operator rang his sirens to begin our trek through the Welland, and to clear traffic (there wasn't any at this hour on a Sunday morning!) then the entire bridge span rose straight up climbing the two towers until it was well over the height of our mast (about 45 feet), creating a clearance over the water of maybe 75 feet.  We weren't permitted to use our sails at all so the sail was under its cover for the entire day.

We motored into the first lock which lowered us about 4 to 5 feet, a leveling lock.  The rest of the

locks, seven more, would drop us approximately 45 feet at each lock for a total drop of almost 350 feet!  It was great to have Jim and Jack to help out as it made it possible for me to steer Kelly into place at each lock, while Jack would get the bow line and Jim the
stern line from the lock attendants.  Then we'd push on our boat hooks if we drifted to close to the wall, or pull on the lines if we found ourselves drifting to far away from the wall.  It was quite the experience and all the personnel at the locks were very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.  We had no trouble at all and cleared

through all the locks without a hitch.  We did pass a few large freighters as they made their way south and we pressed northward,
but there was plenty of room for us to move to the edge of the channel.  On a couple occasions, Kelly had to wait a few minutes, but we merely turned lazy circles at the side of the channel until the Seaway radio told us they were ready for us to continue on our way.

Our passage through the Welland may have been one of the quickest for a small recreational vessel.  We were through the entire canal, all 8 locks, in 6 hours, start to finish.

Once clear of Port Weller at the Lake Ontario end, we steered due west for Port Dalhousie, the nearest Canadian port with depth for a sailboat. 

Dalhousie proved to be a bit of a tourist town, and they were very boater friendly, with many transient slips along the seawall at the town park.  A walking harbormaster came over soon after we tied up and signed us up for the night.  He had his entire office in his backpack so the paperwork was all done in a few minutes.  We took a short walk through the town, ogled the sailboats and powerboats tied up, and had a drink at a local establishment.  We decided to have dinner on board as the menu for a Sunday evening was less enticing than our own provisions.

The forecast for Monday was calm and the trip across Lake Ontario proved to be one of the calmest rides we've ever taken.  The waters were “oily”

flat without the smallest of ripples for much of the trip.  We also had extremely thick fog, so the radar and fog signals were very important for the entire trip.  We passed a very large freighter, a small fishing boat and a small sailboat, and saw none of them except for a very brief glimpse of the sailboat when we closed to within ¾ nm. 

It wasn't until we were about four miles from Toronto that we could make out the 1800 feet tall CN Tower.  Gradually the city skyline

came to us through the mist and we made an uneventful landing among the islands of Toronto's Inner Harbour.