Appreciated you're description and pictures of a interesting sail,
sounds like you and Bilbo have had some good times together.
Wayne
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "M-list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 8:35 PM
Subject: M_Boats: yesterday's sail
Once again, buoy number 45005 has eluded my grasp.
This time Bilbo and I headed up to the lake Saturday evening....didn't
get started until after eleven....and set the boat up in the dark.
Normally I leave her up there rigged, but I hadn't been up since my
Chesapeake trip in June. Was out on the water by three am, in search of
weather buoy #45005. Only thing is, I forgot my charts. Oh well, it's
out there somewhere! My gps is an etrex mariner and it has some buoys
loaded into it, but no other data, so it is hard to tell if you are
looking at the right buoy without comparing the gps to a chart, and did
I say I had left mine at home?
So, I picked a likely looking one and set off in that direction. We had
a marvelous wing-and-wing run all the way out.
Sunrise in the middle of the lake was quite nice, much prettier than
this picture suggests as all the vivid reds seem to have been washed
out:
http://www.bright.net/~htmills/LF-LEsunrise.jpg
There were no other boats in sight.
Not long after that, I hove-to for 20 minutes to try to catch a few
winks, but was still too wound up. So, I poured myself a cup of coffee
from the thermos, had a sandwich, and set off again for the buoy which
was another five miles or so away.
Finally it came into view, but it wasn't the buoy that I was hoping to
find. Buoy 45005 isn't programmed into my gps. I guess I've ruined my
chances of being known to future generations as "Tod the Navigator".
Darn.
http://www.bright.net/~htmills/LF-SEshoalLight.jpg
I knew I was at the Southeast Shoal Light, which marks the eastern end
of Pelee Passage. I turned back for home, choosing to beat over to the
lee of Pelee Island first so as to take advantage of flatter water.
At this time, people who had sailed across for the weekend were now
returning. There was a fair amount of traffic in this area connecting
some Ohio cities with Leamington, Ontario and a few other Canadian
towns. One boat I saw should've been knocking Busca's socks off but they
were barely able to pass us. I saw why:
http://www.bright.net/~htmills/LF-NWTS.jpg
Their boom was sheeted WAY to weather.
By the afternoon, black flies were thick and very annoying, despite a
decent breeze. I spent no small amount of effort shooing them while the
sheet-to-tiller kept course.
Eventually, I saw that we would be arriving back at the marina way too
late, so I reluctantly dropped sail and motored straight back, cutting a
few hours off and allowing us to arrive a bit before dark.
This was Bilbo's last sail. I probably shouldn't have brought him along;
he's just getting too infirm to appreciate the way the boat moves over
every wave. I laid out my cockpit cushions to pad him a bit, but I could
tell he would have preferred to stay home where he can sun himself in
the grass and wander down the to creek to cool off when he wants. He has
some arthritis, a bone malignancy on his snout, is mostly blind in one
eye and half blind in the other, and is deaf in one ear and mostly deaf
in the other. But he seems to be in good spirits and he has a good
appetite. I leave the door open for him so he can come and go as he
pleases and usually when I come home from work I can see that he's been
down to the creek at least once, . He sleeps a lot.
Tod Mills
M17 #408
BuscaBrisas
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