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: <htmills@bright.net> To: "M-list" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> 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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