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.