Day 12 Monday, June 1, 2015

Presque Isle to Harrisville

I just couldn't get myself out of bed and on deck this morning, it was freezing cold outside. I took my time with breakfast and read a little before I finally braved the cold. It was sunny though, and with enough layers of clothing it was nice.

Winds were nice, almost straight from the back, so I rigged the gennaker before leaving the harbor. Once out and on a good course, the gennaker worked very well, driving me at a nice speed, and the autopilot did well. The wind was slowly dying though, and my speed diminishing.
I'm using a web based AIS application to look for commercial shipping, but I had my doubts when I was passing through the Manitou passage in fog and one ship showed on the display, but he was talking to another one on an opposing course that wasn't displayed. I decided not to trust the AIS program and stay clear of the shipping line then. Today I saw two large lakers on opposing courses passing me about a mile off, plus a giant tug with a barge in tow. The only one that showed on the AIS program was the tug! Clearly that web app doesn't work reliably, and I'll use it just for fun in the future. A real AIS receiver will probably work correctly, I think.

Once I'd passed Thunder Bay light I turned south and promptly wrapped the cruising spinnaker around the forestay. This can be a very stressful problem, especially if one is alone and the wind is high. Fortunately the winds were already very low and the autopilot was able to keep a steady course while I cleaned up the mess on the fore deck. I couldn't untangle the thing without lowering it on deck altogether, and because the wind was almost gone I didn't bother resetting it. I generally love the cruising spinnaker though, and with its sock it's not hard to manage. However, in harder conditions I will not want to use it.

I kept on slowly drifting south over across Thunder Bay, and since visibility was excellent and the sun shining I just continued like that, until the wind completely died and I was forced to use the engine to make it to Harrisville before dark. I got into that little harbor at last light and anchored close to the breakwater. My anchoring light isn't working anymore, I suspect the cable or connector is loose, so I tied some LED lamp to the mast, but since it was a beautiful almost full moon it felt unnecessary.