Kelly IV Track: Toronto to Kingston |
Tuesday was much clearer, but still only a light tickle of
breeze, not enough to push Kelly IV without the aid of the motor. I did raise the mainsail as there was a
regular swell pushing through the otherwise calm waters of Lake Ontario. The mainsail sometimes provides a little
extra lift or drive, reducing the fuel consumption, or other times it just
keeps the boat from rocking as much as it might without the sail raised. Tuesday's light wind was mostly from the
south, so the mainsail provided both drive and stability. For an hour in the early afternoon the breeze
picked up to about 7 knots and we were able to sail with full main and jib at
over 4 and a half knots! It was great
while it lasted, but the breeze disappeared and we were soon back to
motorsailing with the main.
I also learned from my brief talk with my neighbor headed to
Portugal that I could tie up for free
Cobourg Seawall |
Planning my waypoints and route for the next day is an
important activity. Currently, this
involves a number of relatively easy, but somewhat tedious tasks, including
checking the weather, reviewing the paper charts (easier to see the overall
course vs the eCharts), loading new waypoints on the chartplotter, copying the
waypoints to the computer, connecting the waypoints into a route (or routes, if
I need options), copying the route(s) back to the chartplotter, then copying
waypoints and routes to the handheld GPS's for backup to the chartplotter. It is necessary to do all this because the
Garmin software I currently own is unable to load the charts, while the
chartplotter seems unable to create routes (this may be user-error). I need to buy a different planning software
from Garmin (TripManager) that should be able to use my charts. If that works, then I'll be able to do all my
planning (I'll still use the paper charts for the overall view) on the laptop,
then just copy it all once when I'm done.
Once I spend a couple days in port with a fast WiFi, then I'll download
the software and make the switch.
The course to Belleville, Ontario included half the trip
through tight channels surrounded by rocks or shoals so I made an early start
to enable the piloting to be done in the clearest weather. The wind was forecast to pick up so I had
hopes of sailing, but it didn't work out.
In the morning, while I was in the open lake between Cobourg and
Presqu'ile, the breeze was too light to move Kelly along. The wind increased to 10-15 knots when I got
to Presqu'ile, but that is where the tight channels began. I felt it was safer to negotiate the twists
and turns, especially through the Presqu'ile Bay shallows and the tight
confines of the Murray Canal.
The Murray Canal was a very interesting step along the
way. I entered from the southwest with
the breeze behind me. Even at slow idle,
Kelly IV was making 3 and a half knots.
It was easy to make 5.5 knots with little fuel. The canal seemed only a few boat lengths
wide, so it was important for me to stay focused on the wheel. If I let my attention wander for even a few
seconds, I'd find myself headed into the sides of the skinny canal. There are no locks on this canal, but two
swing bridges. The bridge tenders are
very skilled and had me maintain my speed as I approached their bridges. When it seemed like I was certain to plow into
the unmoving bridge, it would swing smoothly out of the way, blocking traffic
for well under a minute as I passed through, then the tender immediately closed
it again. The toll ($4.90) for the canal
was collected at the southeastern corner of the southwestern bridge by the
tender. He had a telescoping pole with a
brass cup on the end of it. He extended
it to me as I passed by and I dropped in the appropriate coins. All communication was via VHF channel 14.
Upon exiting the Murray Canal, I found myself on the Bay of
Quinte, south of the Trenton Aerodrome.
The chart identifies it as an airport, but I didn't have any other info
on the place. I did, however, see some
dramatic aircraft displays while I was underway across the bay. The first thing that appeared and caught my
eye was a large yellow and red helicopter.
I saw them fly over the northeastern end of the bay, then hover just a
few feet over the water. Later I saw
that there was a bright orange liferaft in the water and the helicopter was
practicing picking up the people from the water. I also noticed a very large, grey,
four-engine cargo plane that was landing, only to see the same plane just
minutes later landing again. It finally
dawned on me that the pilots must be practicing their “touch & go”
landings. I suspect that the Aerodrome
is a military facility.
The depths were now very different from the open lake, since
I had entered Presqu'ile Bay. While the
depths in Lake Ontario (only 3 miles offshore) were about 200 feet (Lake
Ontario exceeds 600 feet in places), the Murray Canal presented the deepest
water at about 20 feet (it did vary some) while most of the depths were closer
to 15 feet. While it was blowing pretty
good at 15 knots, I never did raise the sails due to my concern about staying
in the channels. In hindsight, I
probably should have gone ahead, at least with the mainsail. With the piloting all line-of-sight, the
bouys easily visible, and lots of points on shore to keep a steady helm,
raising the sails would not have been a problem.
Looking ahead to the very high bridge over Route 62 at
Belleville did give me pause as the gaps
Belleville, Ontario |
I dropped the new aluminum Guardian/Fortress anchor with its
35 feet of 5/16” chain and about 150 feet of rope rode once inside the
harbor. I wasn't aware that
thunderstorms were on the way, so I opened up the hatches and portlights for
the cooling breeze. While I was on the phone
with my wife, the black boiled over the water and the rigging began whistling
as the 40 knot blast burst though the anchorage. The anchor held well, then the wind veered
180*, popping the anchor out of the bottom.
I had some room, so I waited a couple minutes to let the anchor reset,
but it never happened. As we ran out of room,
I fired up the diesel and motored to a new point where I could reset the
anchor. When I pulled up the anchor to
reset it, I discovered that 3 sticks, each about 1 inch in diameter, had jammed
into the flukes of the anchor. As you
know, those sticks were the reason the new anchor couldn't reset. As a backup, I deciuded to also set the CQR
anchor on 200 feet of rode. Another
storm blew through a few hours later and both anchors held just fine, no
dragging.
The forecast for Thursday was for some rain and possible
thunderstorms so my plan was to just settle in, maybe visit Belleville. When I got up in the morning, the forecast
was less certain about both the rain and the thunderstorms. Also, the
forecast for the weekend was looking worse, so I decided to keep moving
towards Kingston, where I pick up my next crew.
Raising anchor took a little more time since I had two to
bring up and secure, but the breeze in the anchorage was pretty light, so I had
no troubles. Once in the main bay off
Belleville (just east of “Big Bay” if you're following on the charts) the
breeze seemed about 12 knots from the stern (west), so I raised the mainsail
for a run down the bay. The breeze
wasn't enough by itself to keep our speed up, so I motorsailed, but we were
sailing!
The passage through the Bay of Quinte took us through the
Telegraph Narrows, a skinny body of water, in both width and depth. There are a number of shallow rocks, so
boaters follow the well-marked channel, staying between the red and green
bouys. Another large bridge (Route 49)
raises itself 93 feet above the water, so there was plenty of room for Kelly IV
to pass beneath, this time under sail!
The wind stayed mostly out of the west so when we turned
southwest into the Long Reach, we killed the motor, raised the jib and sailed
close-hauled the entire length of Long Reach, about 5 miles or 1 hour of
sailing. There were some hills so there
were a few spots where the wind was blocked, but we also got some nice puffs
when the valleys let the air through. It
was a very nice sail, heeled about 15-20 degrees, so we really knew we were a
sailboat!
Our course took us to the northeast up Hay Bay and the wind
dropped while a very light rain began
Ram Island Anchorage |
The wind is supposed to change to the northwest, but so far
we haven't seen it. I'm writing this
while the cool breeze makes this a very comfortable setting. North of here I can see huge thunder storm
clouds, but they seem to be many miles away.
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