FOG....ahhhhh

Sorry folks, no pictures this time. Unfortunately our scenery hasn't been very exciting due to a very nasty thing called fog. This entry is mainly to thank the Olcott Yacht Club for their assistance in getting Meggie, Mike and I safely to a secure slip in the thikest fog I've ever seen. Under the careful instruction of Sue from OYC, we were able to safely come through the breakwalls and into the safety of Olcott's harbour. We somehow found a fishing boat out there that didn't come into view until it was about 15 feet off our beam, and we didn't see the HUGE red flashing light on the end of the west pier until we were about a boat length from it. Without Sue on the radio guiding us in, we don't know what we would have done. I wonder how much radar is???????
So thank you a million times to Sue(for your guidance...literally), Mike (for dinner, drinks and super hospitality), customs officers for not having to rip our boat apart for an inspection and thank you to the rest of the OYC members.
We're now in Rochester, NY and hope to head to Oswego where we get to experience the joy of demasting Meggie....ugghhh. Oh well, it's all part of the adventure.
So, just a quick update for now, when we have some more exciting news we'll let you know.
Ciao (and as always we love the comments, so keep them coming)
Kylie and Mike

Erie....an angry lake.

Well...our sailing abilities have been tested by the angry Erie. Lake Erie is said to have an average depth of 68 feet, and because this lake is so shallow, as soon as the wind blows the waves become so steep and the distance between them is so short, that you get pounded around pretty good.
Our entrance into Erie was great...low waves, not too much wind, and an all in all nice sail to Leamington. (Let me just say that the reason I haven't written in awhile is because I had a feeling Erie wasn't going to be nice to us, so I just wanted to get it done, so we've been going like crazy, early mornings and late evenings.) From Leamington we headed east to Erieau (Rondeau bay) which was about a 9-10 hour sail. We were first introduced to the waves on this sail. We had a great wind and a all in all nice sail although we were outfitted in our foul weather gear and sailed through front after front after front. We arrived in Erieau exhausted and happy to be in port. The next day we wanted to head to Port Stanley. So we were up early listening to our radio weather channel, getting the updated forecast. They were calling for 15-20 knot winds, which sounded pretty good, and the wind direction was in our favor (and I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I really wanted to get lake Erie over with). So off we go to meet the weather for the day. No sooner had we left the harbour, and our foul weather gear was on again and we had a reef in the main and small storm sail up. Before we knew it we had 2 reefs in the main and a reef in the misen and small storm jib up and we were sailing close reached. Hmm...awfully strong 15 knots.
We heard 2 maydays on the water that day, and saw the hurculese airplane and coast guard chopper out looking for the mayday boats. We were tested and pounded by the lake that day. We were both very happy with Meggie's performence and if I must say myself, we were quite happy with our own performences as well. We soon realized that the piece of equipment we were really happy to have and have probably used more than either one of us thought, is our reefing system.
We finally arrived in Port Stanley just as the winds were calming for the evening. We pulled into the Squadron docks for the day and met by fellow sailors that filled us in on the wind speed for the day. They said that in the safety of the harbour they were clocking 28-30 knot winds and we were about 10 miles off shore, so they assumed that we were probably sailing in 30+ knots of wind all day. So, we thought that we were exhausted the night before, well that was nothing...We found the closest bar and after that day I said to Mike "I think I know why sailors drink liquor", and ordered myself a stiff drink.
We are constantly meeting great people. People who are excited for us, and we are constantly told by other sailors that we are living their dream, and we always have the same reply "You can still live your dream". Even though we've only been gone about a month, we have been so fortunate to have met some amazing people. Strangers that have lent us their vehicles, offered help, fed us both with food and liquor. Neither one of us ever expected to meet such great people.
So another 2 days on Erie..Ugghhh......
The next day was a long one. 80 miles to Port Dover, but the original plan was 65 to long point anchorage. Unfortunately the wind was not in our favor as we rounded long point and our new destination was Port Dover. We were on the water for 16 hours that day, so needless to say we crashed just after midnight in the safety of the port. We received great news the next day that we were going to have help through the Welland canal from our ever supportive friends from the harbour, Paul and Karen. We were thrilled and couldn't wait to get going the next day....because you know what the Welland canal means............the end of ERIE!!!!
To our pleasant surprise (well for a little while anyway) the lake was calm as calm could be. We never ever ever thought we would see Erie this way. Finally we arrived in Port Colbourne met by Paul and Karen and Wuhoo Erie was finished.
The next day we entered the Welland canal and proceeded downbound into lake Ontario.
None of us were quite sure what to expect, but to our pleasant surprise the canal was a breeze, and to top it off we followed a tall ship all the way through the canal (Mike was loving life).

Apparently going the other way isn't so much a breeze, so we'll avoid that for a looooonnnnggg time. So a big, huge, ginormous thank you to Paul and Karen who once again have helped us out beyond belief. Now we're taking the day off to catch everyone up on whats been happening and to have a bit of rest. So the next destination is Oswego...the beginning of the canal system which will dump us out in NYC.
As always...keep your comments coming as we love to receive them.
Until next time....adios
Mike and Kylie
PS...Tera, I found my pendant...inbetween the fabrics of my jacket...crazy.

St.Clair, Detroit,and the mishap with the mast

It's been an interesting week, which feels like longer. Since I last wrote, we sailed to Goderich and spent a couple of days with Mike's dad and step mom, which was great. We had our first overnight guests aboard Meggie, and although it was a touch cramped we managed just fine. After Goderich we said goodbye and made our way to Bayfield, which is a fantastic little town! All the women who read this must go. We spent a couple of days there, just relaxing and enjoying the lovely town with the most amazing sunsets. From there we made our way to Sarnia. We were fortunate enough to be able to anchor in the St.Clair river, and enjoy the company of our hosts Mike and Monie Holman.
We were then joined by the rest of the fam and had a great weekend. Jason and Tera had a full weekend planned with showers and golf games etc...but we were able to spend some time together which was awesome,

and we even managed to create a new game called shot gun lawn bowling......enough said.
After we said our sad goodbyes to the Holman's it was south to St. Clair lake and then into the Detroit river. We had a fantastic sail across the lake amongst the "lakers"(who always let you know they're coming with 5 loud blasts on their horn) and a lovely cruise down the river passing the city of Detroit.


We spent the evening just outside of the city and were so happy to meet our new friend Ron. Great guy...and so welcoming and hospitable. Then to our surprise we ran into a boat that we had heard of that was doing the same route as Meggie back when we were in Tobermory. "Living the dream" is owned by Vicky and Mark Carey, and like us have been planning this trip forever. So up we go and stand on their dock until finally Mark appeared wondering what the hell these people wanted at 9:00 in the morning. That aside, we hit it off and spent the day with the Carey family including Mark's brother and his wife.

We had a great day, only to be followed by a not so great day...if you refer to the picture of Mike up the mast with a hole where the spreader should be, you'll know what I mean. We were leaving a dock in the Detroit river, and we had used these things called whips that keep your boat off the dock as we were on an outside dock. So, we're still not sure exactly how it happened, but the rear whip got caught up in the shrouds and ended up getting caught on the end of the port spreader on the mizzen mast...we looked at eachother in horror and then at the spreader and all we heard was C R A C K....I looked at Mike and he went white, and I began to panic as I looked at the spreader just hanging off the mast. We wheeled around and came back to the doomed dock and Mike was up the mast immediately. We were very lucky...the spreader didn't even crack anywhere and the screws didn't twist inside the mast...the main damaged was a major dent and a bent spreader tang. We were immediately surrounded by people wanting to help...first thing was first...we needed some douglas fir. Once that was found, Mike went to work chipping out a section of his brand new masts and putting a replacement piece in. We epoxyed it in, straightened the tang, applied a coat of varnish and in the morning put the spreader back on, and then we were off. (I almost put us aground about 5 minutes after we left the dock the second time, but I caught myself...I would have never lived that one down). So...that was the mishap with the mast, but you all know Mike and he did an awesome job and had the repair done in one day and everything is fine.
So now, Erie here we come.
Until next time...
Kylie and Mike

Well...we're in Kincardine now, where the phantom piper resides. Legend has it that a scot family headed out onto the lake to make their way to Kincardine, but when the day turned into night and the bad weather approached the family feared they may not find their way. The father began to play his bagpipes and hearing the pipes out on the water a settler in Kincardine grabbed his pipes and began to pipe back, piping the family all the way into the safety of the harbour. So to this day, upon entering the harbour at sunset, you will be piped by the phantom piper who stands atop the lighthouse at the entrance of the harbour.
So..we've seen the piper. Kincardine is a quaint little village with lots of shopping, and a great little asian food store, where I stocked up. We've had our first visitors in Kincardine (Steph and Andy), and enjoyed a quiet evening in the harbour visiting and catching up aboard Meggie.
For those of you who are wondering...we were safe in "the storm". South, north and east of us were hit pretty bad, but fortunately we were in the safety of the harbour in Tobermory and didn't seem to get much of anything, thank god. We have heard rumors of the wind reaching speeds of 70 and 80 knots. We're interested to know how the boats that were in the regatta faired in the storm. If anyone has any info please email us and let us know everyone is ok.
So our next stop will be in Goderich to return a gps lent to us by new friends that we met in Port Elgin after we had a small mishap with ours on Georgian Bay. From there we'll have a stopover in Grand Bend and then onto Sarnia to spend a few days with the Holman family. We've just received info that lock 10 on the Erie barge canal is closed and plans to open on labour day...so we'll have to look into that for sure.
Anyway, please everyone keep the emails coming, we've been fortunate so far to have been able to receive wireless connection in every port we've been to, therefore we've been able to update our blog and send emails.
So until the next port (or next time we get a connection)...
Ciao
Kylie and Mike

So....we've finally left. Our departure date ended up being on July 31st, 2006. We were hoping to have left earlier, but we just were not ready and really whats another couple of weeks when you've got a life time ahead of you. So we're on our way. We've only been gone 2 days and are sitting in the Tobermory harbour on our boat enjoying the hussle and bussle of this small boating town. The sun has just set, the chechemaun has left for it's last run and the last of the boaters are heading in to the safety of the harbour. Life couldn't be much better.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all of their help and support over the last few months. There is no way to tell you how amazing people have been, it just totally blows my mind. Everyone at the harbour has been so supportive and helpful with their advice, wisdom and loaning of charts, books and other tid bits necessary to embark on this journey. I would list the names, but it would take 10 pages. Our families and friends are among the list of people who have shown us constant support and given us words of encouragement when we felt like the work would never end. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh and not to mention that great sail shop up the road from the Thornbury harbour...thank you to you as well.
So....our sails have felt the wind, Meggie's bottom is clean again and the crew has their sea legs...we're now officially ready (except for a bit of varnish still to do). As always...keep checking in on us as we love to read your comments.
Be well everyone....and until next time
Mike and Kylie