Hurricane Irene is heading towards New England, and though that’s still a fair distance from here, the local winds on Sunday are forecast to be strong, so we decided to head for Dunkirk, NY, 42° 29’.30N 79° 20’.42W, for a couple of days before crossing the lake towards Port Colborne and the Welland canal. It was a great decision. We had light winds but were at least able to motor sail most of the way. We arrived at the Dunkirk Yacht Club and were warmly welcomed. The Dunkirk YC have an interesting club – it’s entirely over water. They had planned their annual race from Port Colborne, (on the Canadian side of Lake Erie), back to Dunkirk, but unfortunately, the winds were too light to complete the race. That didn’t stop the steak dinner from taking place however, and we were invited. We had a great evening and met some very nice people, notably Carl and Debbie, and Tony who gave us detailed directions for a bike ride on Sunday.
On Sunday we woke up to 25-30 knot winds, and so opted for the bike ride. It took us through several beautiful roads with vineyards, and gave us a good workout up the hills to the watershed. Water from the north of the Watershed drains into Lake Erie, but despite being so far north, water on the south side drains, eventually, into the Mississippi. Needless to say, we had great views from the top of the watershed. (Thanks Tony for the route!) Richard, a Brit living in Buffalo, NY with a boat in ON and Des, a Canadian, joined us on Quinita for dinner. They were in the race the previous day and were hanging out in Dunkirk till the weather improved so they could sail back to Port Colburn. A fun evening (hic).
Today’s log: 45.1 nm, season total: 1189.4
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