We’ve been watching the weather and wind forecasts for Lake Ontario closely. It’s about 70 miles from Cobourg to Port Dalhousie and the most efficient way is a direct line between the two.
This morning started out overcast and turned to rain around 9am. It rained fairly hard until about 11:00. Thurston and Lovey departed our company around 10am. It’s always a sad fairwell as we enjoy their company onboard and their skillful help in the locks.
After gassing up and pumping out, we departed Cobourg at 12:45pm.
A South South East wind created some good rollers for a short time but soon died out providing relatively calm seas. I had plotted a waypoint on my chart plotter at Port Dalhousie. I plotted a route directly from Cobourg to Port D, set the throttles, turned on the Auto Pilot and never touched the steering wheel or throttles until an impending rain storm hampered our way. Luckily we were a little East of the cloud. I adjusted our course due south and was able to skirt the outside of the storm. Ramble On, having been further West than us, drove right through the heart of it. Captain Dave said the wind and rain were intense but they came out the other side, though a little soggy.
The two boats ended up approaching the Harbour entrance together. The wind had picked up as we approached Port D promising to make the docking a little tenuous.
Luckily we were greeted by many of our fellow boaters on the docks at the marina. They all grabbed a line and made docking a breeze.
No matter how fun a trip is, it’s always nice to come home. The sunset this evening did not disappoint and Captain Dave finally go the Chinese food he has been craving for two weeks.
At the end of it all, we traveled from Port Dalhousie to Kingston, out the St. Lawrence River to Lachine Quebec, up the Ottawa River to Ottawa, down the Rideau Canal to Kingston and back across Lake Ontario. We spent 62 hours cruising, travelled 680 Nautical Miles over 15 days. It was a lot in 2 weeks but a great trip. Check.
This chart shows the triangle we did but also the trip we did last year down to Watkins Glen and the Trent Severn Waterway which we have traversed to Georgian Bay and back. What’s next??
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