Monday July 27 dawned bright and sunny with winds predicted to 30
knots from the northwest. We thought that this would not be too bad as
the fetch in this direction, on the north shore of Lake Superior, is small.
Even so, we once again left our anchorage by 8:30 in order to try to get a
jump on the wind.
The day started with about an hour of slow motoring through Walker's
Channel. This is a very scenic area with island, rocks and shoals
passing slowly on either side. Once we got out into the open lake we
raised the full main and jib to start our planned 15 mile day. The start was
fairly slow as winds were light on a beam reach. We weren't
complaining as the scenery is spectacular and the sun was warm. As
the morning progressed though the winds began to pick up as predicted
until we were once again under a double reefed main with the working
jib. The waves also became quite large with the occasional gust
generated rogue. As we were crossing a five mile expanse east of
Shaganish Island it became apparent that we were over powered even
with this sail combination. We continuously had to spill wind from the jib
and had a luffing main to keep the boat under control meanwhile we were
still travelling at a good pace. I suggested to my wife that we should take
the jib down but asked her who was going to go onto the fore deck.
Neither of us was willing to volunteer. Please note that we do not have a
jib downhaul and although we do have safety harnesses it still would
have been pretty scary working on the foredeck of the potter. This is
when we learned how to take down the jib from the cabin. First release
the halyard while standing in the companionway (do not let the halyard go
but tie off the end on the jib halyard cleat after uncoiling the line). Second
go to the forward hatch and after wriggling through until your waste line
is at the deck pull down the jib. The tiller person can help with this by
making sure that the jib does not blow into the water through control of
the jib sheets. This worked fine and we found that after the jib sheet
was down the boat sailed really well under double reefed main alone.
Ultimately we reached Root Bay where we explored under power for
awhile and then found a secure place to tie the bow and anchor the
stern. We all jumped out for a wonderful time in the sun, and out of the
wind, on a remote Lake Superior island.
We spent two nights at Root Bay as Tuesday dawned with a thunder
storm and both a thunder storm and wind warning. We elected to sit
tight. The day was hot with hourly thunder storms blowing by so we
were happy to be secure. These two evenings were our first two nights
alone of the four which we had on this 11 day trip.
On Wednesday we travelled to CPR slips. More later.
Ray
P-19 #953 "Water Wings"
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior