I uploaded our sailing pictures (click the image above), plus a GPX file you can drop into Google Earth.

We set out from Put-in-Bay at about 7:30am. The wind was 15-20 mph out of the North-northwest, so we set the 120% jib (instead of the 155% we’d used coming down) and put the first reef in the main. We motored out of the bay and took a couple of short tacks – the GPS proscribed bearing was almost directly into the wind, and it looked like it was going to be a long slog . It had been blowing all night, jerking the boat around even at the dock . . . my Dad said he would stress out every time he woke up and heard the wind howling.

The waves on the lake were big and we were getting hammered, but soon wind shifted and we were able to take a long beat right on course. About 2/3 of the way across, we ran into some weather that looked a bit menacing. We literally battened down the hatches and prepared for the worst, but we ended up slipping past most of it and only had to deal with about 10 minutes of rain. Unsurprisingly, the wind shifted after the rain passed (you can see this on the track) and this knocked us off course enough that even when it subsided more tacking was required. It seemed to take forever as we worked ourselves over to the mouth of the river, and it was a big relief when we finally made it at about 4pm. The tacking had probably cost us about 2 hours.

We decided to take Amherstburg channel back in hopes that the current would be weaker, and were able to reach for a while the beginning. This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, silently sailing up the flat river, with cars driving by just a few yards away. We were only doing about 4 knots against the current, and so decided to try something we’d never done before: motor-sailing. We dropped the Jib and started the engine . . . I think keeping the main up only added a knot or so, but it saved us some gas and at least an hour on the water. We were doing 5-6 knots consistently as we made our way back upriver. We stuck to the Canadian side on the way back . . . . motoring for 5 hours, On the way, I made some bean dip on the stove while underway (its viscosity an asset in the slightly rolling boat) and we saw a boat coming from a race with a bent mast . . . glad it wasn’t us. We pulled into Neff Park at about 9pm, exhausted. Total trip length was 119 nautical miles (137 statute miles).

We took the essentials off the boat and drove home. I took a quick shower and shaved off my man-time beard before leaving for the airport with Dave to pick up Cynthia. She was starving on west coast time, so offered her the leftover bean dip to finish. I might have also had some, and maybe a leftover slice of pizza.

Today we slept in till 11, and then I did some wash and we got the remaining gear off the boat. One of the powerboats belonging to a neighbor down the street in the harbor had sunk overnight, and we watched a salvage team recover it with come-alongs and pumps (the second boat recovery of my sabbatical . . .)

Tonight, my Dad has his Wednesday night sail race, so I think we’ll crew for him so Cynthia can experience one of those things I used to do all the time when I was a kit.

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