Mile 1052: Goderich

We finally broke 1000 nautical miles (1948kms).  That's a pretty good haul, and we still have 400-500 more to go.

Getting out of the harbour in Tobermory was a bit of a waiting game.   Initially, the morning started off overcast and nice, but the next time we looked out of the cabin, the whole harbour was shrouded in a thick fog.  It thinned at times, and they thickened.  We were trying to get underway shortly after our Beaver Tails, and shure enough, the fog cleared around noon.

We immediatly cast of our lines, and with a little difficultly in extracting ourselves from our tight mooring spot, we were on our way.  We motored out of Tobermory, and headed out the channel to the West.  We had a brisk following winds and grey skys.

Once we got into clear water, we rounded up, and hoisted sail.  It turns our we were in for a great ride, even if a little bumpy.  The wind and wave were quartering the whole trip, and the wind built to near 30kts by midnight and then started to ease.  We eventually double reefed and then furled the jib to keep the boat managable, but even still, the seas had grown quite large, and we had that uncomfortable corkscrew motion most of the night.  The boys soldiered through it all, and we all found it hard to get any sleep during our naps.

Boaty boat boat also had the ride of it's life.  Skipping along behind us as we almost hit 10kts through the water (the GPS said over 10kts).  Later in the evening, and the wind eased, we had a hard time managing the dinghy, and it kept trying to surf down the following seas, and catch right up to Ramble On, often coming to a snapping correction as it's painter was pulled tight. I was sure that the painter would part or pull out of it't attachment point.  If it had let go, I'm pretty sure we would have left Boaty boat boat to it's own devices, and it was a pitch black night, the moon set to a beautiful orange crecent, shortling after showing itself, and we were left with the stars, and the continuum of red flashing shore lights from Kincardine, through the Bruce Nuclear power plant, and all the way along to Goderich.

We passed by the reactor just as the sun poked below the clouds to give us a very nice sunset.  It reflected of the various industrial buildings along the shorline and made them almost glow in contrast to the grey sky to the East.

We continued out romp down the East shore, at times surfing along at near 10kts, pretty fast for a boat full of crusing supplies.  As it was during our other night passages on Huron, the cool of the lake required warm clothes and toques at night, and we kept our selves energized with snacks, warm soup, and other goodies.

Most of us were feeling queasy at various points, and it took vigorous work at the wheel to keep the boat on track.  The waves would easily swing you through 50 degrees if you didn't pay attention. Andrew was eventually able to fall asleep and didn't awake until after we have docked, but the seas got the better of Ben at one point, but after which, he felt much better, and took over the wheel and did a masterful job at night navigation while I sat and monitored the shore lights.  He intuitively figured out how to assemble the information from GPS, depth, compass, and visual sightings, and  kept us right on course.

Linda and I traded off the wee hours (I napped, and Linda trooped on in my absence).  Goderich is a significant precence on the night time horizon.  The various harbour lights, grain elevators, and moored freighter make it a very obvious port of call.  We aimed ourselves at the breakwater entrance, and headed in the the protected waters of the harbour.  Our charts and Ports book indicated there were 3 marinas, 2 of which were private.  We thought about going to the inner harbour marina, but as we approached (about 5am),  there was a freighter loading up on salt, and it had it's unloading arm extended over the channel to where we wanted to go.  There looked to be out clearance, but not wanting to risk a judgement error, we just tied to a part of the public pier and we'd work things our after morning had come and we had some more sleep.

It turned out that the place were were going was populated only by tugs and Coast Guard boats, and the marina we really wanted was in a narrow channel to the north of the piers, best navigated in daylight.

The freighter was still loading up on salt when we awoke at about 10am.  We wandered along the pier, to find a nice beach, park, play structures, marine museum and other public facilities.  It was all very nice, but oddly situated right at the busy port, where freighters, elevators, transport trucks and other machinery generate a
continuous mechanical din.


The marina we ended up at is clean, and the staff pleasant, and it has a pool (which I plan on going to shortly, as the boat is getting near 30 inside).  Tonight looks to be a rib night followed by a viewing of Cowboays vs. Aliens at the local theater.

Our plan for tomorrow is to wake early, get underway, and try to make it as far down the Detroit river as possible.  We've got a schedule to keep!



Chris