Friday, August 22, 2014

Lake Erie Passage - Port Maitland to Pelee Island
At 1800 hours on Tuesday, August 5, 2014 as we cleared the piers at Port Maitland, a slipping belt was detected in the refrigeration compressor.  We returned and anchored while Barry replaced the belt.
At 1830 we left again only to find the problem was more extensive.  We returned again and dropped anchor for the night.
Twelve hours later, rested and with the repair made, we slipped through the piers at Port Maitland in a light north wind, heading westward.
170 miles and 34 hours later we dropped anchor at the south end of Pelee Island; averaging 5 knots overall.
We motor-sailed in light winds with hot, buggy conditions for most of the day.  An hour before sunset the wind shifted to the north and picked up to between 12 and 17 knots.  We, and the dragon-flies who chose to spend the night on board, endured a few splashes into the cock-pit as we experienced a fast sail through the cold, bright moon-lit night.
We had a good view of the International Space Station as it passed through the starry sky.
With interest, we note the water currents.  Often we found we'd been pushed of course and our dinghy could oddly be seen sometimes towing off to the side. (?)
As Lake Erie has limited harbours with enough depth for us to take refuge and even less anchorages, plus a nature of acting like a bath-tub with the jacuzzi jets on, we were happy to be safely across the open lake and quietly nestled in the lee of Pelee Island.

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