Oswego to Kingston Current Location: Kingston Date: October 5-6 Mile: 2888-2934 Locate: Ramble On Locate: Finnish Line 2.0 Google Photo Albums:
Oswego,
Kingston
Lighthouse on Oswego piers
We arrived in Oswego on Thursday at early afternoon. Our plan was to put masts back up on Friday, and then head to Kingston on Saturday. Earlier, Sunday was forecast to have gusts of 50+ kts, so it was either Saturday, or a few days later. We're all a little itchy to get home, so we're really gunning for Saturday.
We even tried to see if the Bernie, the guy who does the masts (and everything else) could do it Thursday afternoon as the wind was light, but he was too busy with other tasks. The winds on Friday were forecast to be up in the morning, possibly too strong to do masts, and then ease a little in the afternoon, so that looked like our target window.
Nine mile point power station. We
can usually see the steam from Kingston
We've done our masts the "KYC way" for 13 years with Ramble On, but Bernie had his own way. Even though I might have done things differently, he knew what he was doing, and was careful and methodical. Boaters with experience on their own boats get into patterns and habits about how they do things. It is rarely a good idea to disrupt someone's way of doing things unless it's really unsafe. Suggestions and helpful hints are best left until afterwards. So after trying to offer Bernie some suggestions on how I do things, and him indicating that he wanted to do it his way, I just shut up did as I was told. All went smoothly after that!
Bernie was friendly and funny too. In the end all went well, even though I had to lower once and re-hoist because the forestay toggle had flipped in a bad way at the top. It was easy to sort out and we were back in business quickly. Once the rig was on and stays tight enough, we put the bimini back on and then it was just a matter of tightening and re-rigging enough to cross the lake. We didn't rig the sails, but everything was ready for that in case we wanted or needed to do so. It was cold enough, and we were tired enough, such that neither Finnish Line or ourselves really felt the need to sail home.
Departure Day
We knew it would be cold on Saturday, but we woke up to darkness and frost on the deck. We were leaving at 7am, and at 6:45 it was only just first light, and sunrise it at 7:08, so it quickly got brighter as we headed out through the Oswego piers.
Cold, did we mention it
was cold?
The harbour was pretty quiet and it was just a light chop outside the piers, but within an hour there was maybe 15 kts from the east, and a beam-on swell developed that kept the boat rolling around for most of the morning.
Finnish Line comfortably clearing the passing freighter
A motor boat we had chatted with before in the locks, "Sherri Lynn", was also waiting in the harbour to cross this morning. As we were leaving the marina, he shouted from the dock asking if he could radio us about the conditions out there. This was a 50' motor boat, so I wouldn't think the conditions would have bothered him either way given the forecast. I said "sure!" and sure enough he called once we were a hour north of Oswego. The conditions were fine for us, and certainly for him. He would be in Kingston in 2.5 hours. Not sure if this guy was aware of weather forecasts and that you can get wave height info from the weather buoys?
Barge full of what?
As we passed Galloo Island, the fetch for the east wind was reduced and the seas got flatter. They built again a little bit once we passed Galloo, but then the wind began to fade and the conditions became almost flat by the time we got to Simcoe Island. We passed a freighter and a really ugly looking barge heading for Oswego (we had to do a dodge to avoid as they were heading straight to where we came from), and Sherri Lynn and another motor boat passed by, but it was otherwise quite out there.
Home!
As we approached Wolfe Island, we saw a mast in the distance, a tall one! I commented that it looked like a sailboat, and Linda noted that a recent Facebook post indicated that Signature was out for a sail and would be greeting us. Sure enough, as we got closer, Signature was heading our way as we approached the Boat Channel. The wind was fading, so they were slowing down, and we did the same so we could say hi and offer appreciation for their welcome as we passed. Finnish Line did the same. This was a very nice surprise and the warm welcome was much appreciated. We also received a radio call from Valkyre offering welcome back to KYC!
Once we cleared the Boat Channel, we did a pass-by of Valkyre who had a cockpit full of people enjoying a nice sunny sail. Again, nice to see familiar people in familiar waters again.
Finnish Line and Ramble On entered KYC harbour one after the other and we had teams of welcoming hands at both docks to catch our lines and offer hugs and congratulations on our return:
It is certainly nice to be back home. Once docked and having shut the engine down, we headed in for a long anticipated pint of 8-Man to really make it official. We ended up having dinner at the club (no food at home, and not much in the boat) and enjoying the company of friends until we all started to fade out and felt a "nap" calling our name.
We headed home, leaving the boat more or less as it was to see how our tenant had left the house. We were pleasantly surprised and relieved that the house was clean and tidy, and ready to move back into including flowers on the dinning room table. We will certainly have our work cut out for us over the next days as we unpack the boat, and pull all of our household belongings out of storage.
We picked up our little old kitty cat from Andrew, and we'll get Madei back next weekend and then things will really start feeling like home again.
I'll probably summarize the trip in a while, but to be able to do such a trip, while Linda and I are both working stiffs, is a really incredible opportunity. It was a busy trip, and a really great way to explore an enormous amount of coastline. We've seen parts of Canada and the U.S. that we might never have seen, and doing it by boat makes it even more unique. The four and a half months allowed us time to explore many seaside towns and cities, even though there were quite a few places we weren't able to get to. We have made so many wonderful memories that we'll cherish for years to come.
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