Friday, June 27, 2003.

Loaded up the PommieB and headed out into the Kingston Harbour Strait...  The jib raised itself when we turned head to wind, so we decided to go ahead and raise all sails a few minutes early.  The topping-lift snapped, and caused the main halyard to twist itself around a shroud, but was easily fixed after some inventive un-twisting.  We were under sail within minutes.

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A strong blow from the Southwest helped us pick up some speed as we neared the K9 buoy, and we experienced various wave heights from 6 to 12 feet, and a 30 degree heel.  Yeeehawww!

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Arrived at Main Duck Island, and found an empty dock on the south side of Schoolhouse bay.  Tied up, barbecued some steak…excellent.  Took a quick walking tour of the island, and found the Western shore to be made up of millions of tiny shells.

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Woke up, shook off a slight hangover, had a Guinness for breakfast, and set out on a light Westerly wind heading due South once rounding Yorkshire Island.

I stepped down below to make a log entry and plot our position, as I glance back up through the companionway, I see this...

Kevy at the helm...tough job!

The sight of land disappeared, about an hour later, weather was clear, moderate Westerly, wave heights lightened to about 2 to 3 feet.

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Spotted the Nuclear Plant just East of Oswego, and the old coal plant to the West.  This was the first sight of land since about 1000. Arrived in Oswego, stayed at Wrights Landing – 25 dollars US.  Wright's is an excellent facility.  Picked up a few more groceries and some beer, then had wings at a local pub.  Crashed out early, as we knew we had to set out early.

Wright's Landing Marina
41 Lake St
Oswego, NY 13126
315-343-8430

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Woke up, prepared the vessel for another Lake Ontario crossing.  Left dock, headed 355 degrees once rounding the breakwater.  Nice sunrise to the east, light south wind, left the motor run for about 45 minutes. Discovered that the stove below did not work, so we shut down the engine, sailed on just the jib, and boiled some coffee on the barbecue.

With Galoo Island to our East, we continued northerly sailing for a bit, motoring a bit, and took turns taking quick naps.  Tons of horse-flies, we killed as many as possible, but for each one it seemed that 20 came to the funeral.

Finally in Canadian waters, the cell phone worked so we called Ahoy Rentals to let them know we’d be a bit late getting the Pommie B back to Kingston.

Our course brought us east of the South Charity Shoal as the skies began to darken.  When the shoal light was about half a mile to our West, it suddenly disappeared.  I made the decision to drop the sails, and the sky grew jet black all around us.  We could hear the strong rumbles, and then the rain started.  Kevin was going to try to steer for a bit, but when lightning struck very close behind us, he came below.  We watched as the rain pounded the deck outside, but at least it washed off all of the horse-fly guts.  The wind picked up to around 40 knots, but then diminished very quickly as the storm passed.  After about 35 minutes, the sun started coming out again.

Arrived at the Simcoe Island Strait, and took the inside route back into the Kingston harbour strait.  We then sailed across on the jib, and docked about 45 minutes later.  We signed off on the vessel, and this concludes our journey on the PommieB.

Kingston - Main Duck Island - Oswego

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