Leg 27 of our 2022 cruise up north
(to read my previous post, Clearing into the US with the ROAM App, click here)
This morning we saw a few boats depart before we did. One was a really nice new 50 foot powerboat with two satellite dishes on top. Unfortunately, the skipper was one of the ones who had lots of difficulty dealing with both US and Canadian Customs, partly due to a lack of planning. He made another embarrassing mistake this morning.
When departing his slip, he “forgot” to verify one of his two engines had started before backing out. The resultant loss of control… and his frustrated attempts at fighting the asymmetric thrust… caused him to collide with a 6”x6” piling on the dock with a loud “crunch” and break it off. He came within inches of ramming a nice trawler belonging to some Loopers.
I’ve made plenty of stupid mistakes when docking, and my gelcoat probably has more scratches than most as a result. I guess I expected more from a boat with two satellite dishes.
Today was a little frustrating weather-wise. I’ve said many times, sailing in light air with relatively large waves is pretty miserable, and that’s what we had today once we entered the open water of Lake Huron.
We had northeast winds around 6 knots, which was strong enough to fly the spinnaker. Unfortunately there were six foot swells left over from the strong south winds two days ago. The resulting cross motion in the boat was pretty annoying, regardless of tack or whether or not the spinnaker was up. We actually broke a shackle on the boom vang from the slatting and pumping movements the mainsail made.
Knowing the weather would be very manageable for several more days, we threw in the towel and anchored in Government Bay in the Les Cheneaux Islands by mid afternoon. We don’t need to hurry home.
I really want to have a boom vang for our trip home, but unfortunately I don’t have any spare shackles that are the proper size. Instead, I cannibalized a slightly undersized shackle from the clew line for the second reef. If we really need the second reef before we get home, I can cannibalize a shackle from the spinnaker sheet block.
