Adjusting our sails to the winds of change
I got Captain up at a reasonable hour so we could get Kona to shore and get underway. We had some chores to ready the boat like taking down the sun shade and making sure everything was stowed away. Right before we left we called the marina to see if we could get a slip. Our thinking was since it is going to blowing hard Tuesday and we have to come in today that we should just enjoy a day at the dock and visit Little Current. They couldn’t offer us a spot to our liking so we pivoted to a plan B. That plan would be to get what we needed done at the fuel dock and then head over to the protective cove nearby for the next two nights. We would have to a little out of town, but we have scooters and we would be ok.
We woke Cory for lifting anchor and were on our way just after 9am. I was laying the anchor rode on the deck to dry underway when I spotted something odd. There was this jelly like blob on deck with lots of green dots inside. At the time I had no idea what it was and was totally fascinated by it, prodding it with the anchor chain in amusement. After some thought, I figured it must be an egg mass that got attached to our rode. Frogs maybe? Google later told me it looked like Caddisfly eggs. I looked up said fly and they look eerily similar to our large mayflies. It could be either/or. Neat, and I’m not feeling too bad for unborn frogs at least.
We lifted sails as soon as we were clear of the anchorage and underwater obstacles. Captain was so happy as we had wind to sail and for the first time in awhile, we shut off the engines.
Sailing downwind is a very comfortable point of sail. Because we are a blunt object we can’t go any faster then the wind and we are moving with the water. It often gives the feeling that you aren’t even moving but just bobbing along. We were moving, although a bit on the slow side to make it to Little Current before they closed around 5pm. I was already unhappy that we had a 6 hour sail and the time push so we pivoted for the 2nd time and decided we would come in as late as it took us and just go to the cove. We were pretty sure we had enough water to get us to Wednesday morning and we would be right there first thing when the winds were low to do the deeds.
With our minds eased on time we settled into one of our favorite sails in the world; sailing (and we got to SAIL!) though the Whalesback Channel. I’ve written about this passage before. Hundreds of islands, larger and smaller for over 5nm. After the channel opens up a bit it continues to be just as spectacular. Instead of feeling like we are on a great ocean we feel like we are on an inland lake. Eventually it looks like we are going to run out of water just as an opening appears between islands and we sneak between only to another “inland lake.”
As we came into the first of these inland lakes we could see, off in the distance, the first cut would we have to make. Perfectly angled we could see our friend Dax’s boat on his mooring. We met Dax last year as he was sailing home at the same time we were passing by. We barely had any wind and we were just floating along. He came up along side us and we offered him and his crew beer which we exchanged in buckets while underway. A great friendship instantly created. They had invited us to their camp where we met his wife and parents and had the time of our lives on Arid Island. I had reached out to Jenny, Dax’s wife, a few days ago but they were to be in Toronto while we came by. I decided I was going to blow my conch as we passed by.
We came through the cut and were coming up on the camp when out came a Boston Whaler power boat from the camp. Dax! He came screaming up to us “I know that boat!!!” I guess they hadn’t quite gone to Toronto quite yet! He invited us to join them at camp for a bit and we simply couldn’t refuse. We made pivot number 3 and decided we would stop for just a short bit as we still had four plus hours to go and it was already noon.
As we were going downwind and needed to lower our sails Captain turned upwind just a bit to pull in our jib (the front sail). But the sail wasn’t coming in. He sent me up deck to see if it was wrapped around the forestay, it wasn’t. I checked the drum at his request which appeared to rotate but I was uneducated to what he was looking for. Turns out the cable had pinched itself inside the drum and not locked. Not good.
With Cory up deck with me we had to lower the full jib to the deck. Both our sails are huge, nearly 500 square feet of canvas to catch the wind. Whenever you need to bring down a sail in these conditions a lot of bad can happen fast. I made sure Cory understood the order of events, made sure we were both fully aware where our feet were in relation to lines and we let her drop. She came down fast and Cory and I would able to douse the wind from the sails quickly and get all of it on deck without a bit in the water! Captain came up with some life jackets so we could bundle the sail on deck and keep it from blowing over. That was no fun at all. I’m sure we made quite the show for our friends on shore who must have known that wasn’t a normal sail take down. Thankfully the main sail came down with no issues. Except one, of course. I had, apparently, not correctly secured the main halyard (the part attached to the sail and lifts it to the top of the mast. I usually take a reusable zip tie and secure it around the pin and shackle rendering the pin unable to screw itself loose. When the main came down the pin was gone! (this is a vital boat part!) By some grace of King Triton Cory found the pin nested in the sail with my zip tie attached only to itself. In my defense, it is a semi blind maneuver to put on the safety and we were in semi rocky water when I did it. Nonetheless, the blame was fully on me and I will forever be triple checking that for the rest of my life. Nine years doing that and that was a first that I will not let be a second.
Cory and I took a deep breath and then readied our lines to grab their extra mooring ball. We fumbled a little as we don’t do this too often but, in the end, Cory grabbed the ball on the first try and we secured it with enough grace to get the job done.
With the boat secure Captain went to work right away fixing the jib while I readied the dinghy and grabbed goodies to take to our friends. Captain was able to fix the drum pretty quickly and with a bit of manpower we got the sail back up and furled back to its proper rigging. We headed to shore and were greeted with open arms by Dax, Monica and Jim. Jenny was “at work” in one of the cabins. Kona flocked and played with their dogs as we walked to their screen porch/sauna and socialized. We told them we had run out of water and were on our backup jugs which is why were pushing to Little Current. They offered to fill our jugs for us bringing our tanks back to nearly full. They have this neat little RO unit they just got and can take the lake water now and make it safe and giving them unlimited water themselves. With that offer we pivots for the 4th and final time of the day and decided we would go to the Benjamins for the next two nights and get to Little Current early on Wednesday. Even though our water situation is secure, by Wednesday we will still most definitely need our poop tanks emptied. Being off the dock for a week and half is a good run. If we can get a RO unit like that and some bigger poop tanks this winter, we could probably go multiple weeks. Those tanks would need to be custom built. I guess we will see how ambitious we are this winter. There is a lot to be said for not having to have a deadline on a sailboat, be a schedule or a full poop tank that demands you move when you don’t want to. With our new anchorage only about an hour away we settled into a long visit. Three hours later we said our goodbyes. I’m so happy we got to see them. Monica and Jim are in their 80’s and spy as ever, I can only hope to be living as well if I get to those golden years.
We dropped the mooring ball and left while Dax wind surfed nearby. Sails up again, Captain was happy. The winds had picked up quite nicely. It wasn’t long before we had to go through Little Detroit which is a cut only 150 feet wide! Really cool history here and narrow enough that we have to make a ship radio announcement that we are coming through. We listened for a response but it seemed we were clear to be the only traffic around. After we cleared Little Detroit the waters start to open a little and exposure from more water and less land meant bigger waves. I was still running a bit on nerves from the jib incident so I put on my foul weather life jacket just incase we had issues and I needed to go up deck. I also put on my crokies because I learn slowly and could have easily lost my glasses earlier today as well. We had a broad reach instead of a downwind so now we were heeled over and humping along over 7 knots. What a happy Captain. I felt like a whimp.
Thankfully I didn’t have to stay brave long. The Benjamins were upon us before we knew it. Last year we got brave and learned that we could make it in the cut between the north and south island so we felt confident taking it this direction this year. It saves us almost an hour as we would have to go all the way around the island otherwise. We lowered the sails and creeped through the 75 (!!!) foot wide cut. We were greeted by six sailboats and one motor yauht at the North Channels most popular anchorage.
Captain found a good spot and we dropped the anchor with no issues. We know everyone is watching us; it’s a favorite past time of all seamen, to watch others. As Cory was finishing up with the anchor I looked over at the boat nearest us and read the name “Arabesque.” Arabesque!!!!
You may have noticed I have added a bit to the blog this year and one goal was to start making small videos. A one a day challenge. I decided to use the TikTok app to make the videos as it seemed to be easy enough for this Xennial to learn. Cory had told me I needed to find some folks to follow and to help the algorithms do their things. I have barely got a grasp on these things. However, one of my “TikTok friends “ I had found was this family out of Whitehall, MI (so close to my old music camp, Blue Lake!). They have been sailing the Great Lakes for years with their boys much like us and this year they got a new boat named Arabesque. We had been chatting and following each other. We were leap frogging each other all the way to the North Channel. Last I heard they were down in Meldrum Bay and no where near us or our path. I was delighted to see them! I sent her a note on TikTok saying “Hi Neighbor!” She had been down below when we came in so she was shocked to see my message. “No way!!! You’re here???” Just as we got Ciara all settled in, I got Kona set up to play ball from the boat. It was hot and she needed a swim. The family from Arabesque was headed over on their dinghy just as Kona jumped from the bow for her first of many rounds. What a fun way to greet new friends.
We invited them aboard and actually exchanged names as we only knew each other from our boat names. Julian and Gabriel, my first TikTok friends! They enjoyed some drinks aboard, got a tour and we enjoyed their company like they were lifelong friends.
Eventually everyone needed to go to their boats for dinner so we said goodbye and made our own dinners as well. Cory finished up the left-over curry; Captain and I shared a Kielbasa.
Dishes were done and we were packing our shore gear around 8:30pm. Everyone was going to meet on shore for “rock-tails.” You know…drinks…on rocks! Hahaha. I packed my trumpet. Captain packed beers, a bottle of G&T and his chainsaw for a fire. Turns out there is a fire ban so the chainsaw sat unused.
On shore folks from many boats joined us. Everyone was happy to throw the stick for Kona who continued her water play from earlier well into the evening. I walked to the top of the granite that slowly rises from the water and played Last Post at 9pm. As I walked down I was greeted by the kids. They were awe-inspired. Never seen anything like that before and were just full of wonderment and complements. I was touched and impressed with the engagement. The kids later took me around and showed me all the frogs that were near by. The little girl we must have met last year as her parents remember us from Rock-tails at the Key hole last year. I was embarrassed that I didn’t remember them, but that was also a large party that night if I recall and we were the strangers amongst that crowd. So happy to reconnect this summer and while I got the little girls name, I failed to get her parents, again.
Around 10:30 most folks were headed back to their boats. We had an invite to wind down the late night on Arabesque which we happily accepted. We took Cory and Kona back to our boat and enjoyed getting to know our friends to past midnight where we all finally called it a day and headed “home.” Captain and I had a short dinghy ride but we enjoyed looking at the stars which were clear and bright, the milky way streaking through the middle of the night sky. Ah, the North Channel. It sure seems that days get awfully full even when we least expect it. I expected today to be a long unwanted, uneventful sail to do chores and it ended full of friends, old and new, unexpected adventures, good and bad, and more precious memories.
