Up before dawn, 3:30am to be precise, pack up, load up, fill up with diesel and off we go. The weather forecast for Port Elgin, Sauble Beach and Tobermory all agreed that the winds would be light; 5-10 knots at best and would fall off in the evening. We’d bite the bullet and motor the 11 hours north.
The sunrise was gorgeous as we left at 5:15am, an hour late and the winds were already picking up…
Morning: Lighthouse on Chantry Island
Sun rising over Southampton. 5:15am departure from Port Elgin
Bleary eyed girls, not accustomed to seeing the sun rise.
The wind was picking up and out of the northwest so we motored for a couple hours as we woke up. Around 7:00am, the winds were still pretty strong, and still too far north for us to keep our proper course but it was faster to motorsail off-course than to power directly into the wind. The wind picked up to about 13 knots and we began sailing… probably the only time of the trip where we got a good sail-only section of travel.
Sails up and we're cruising.
The wind kept picking up and it was still from a steady 320-340 degrees so we motorsailed… and motor sailed… and motorsailed. The northwest rollers were slamming us, and even though we were slicing through them – thanks to our thin, ocean-going hull design – the big waves would grind our process to a halt if we hit them wrong.
Close-hauled, punching holes through each of the waves, we spent 13:40 hours on a rollercoaster of a ride north. It was a long trip, we managed to take a few naps… I think I had two 40-minute naps, while the napigator also managed to close her eyes. Rossi slept like a baby for most of the trip.
Bravely sleeping in waves of over 1 metre and wind up to 20 knots.
We eventually had to give up on the motorsailing and head directly into the wind to clear Cape Hurd. Bunching 4 hours north directly into each wave at a mere 3.5 knots … that’s less than 7km/h for the land-folks!
We rounded Cape Hurd and expected a wicked down-hill run, which would have been the perfect angle of sail for the steady 16-18knot winds we’d had all day… but, Murphy was watching, and the wind died. Yes. Dead calm. We had our sail out for a total of about 5 minutes before it shut right down. I had to laugh, and smile.
It was a fantastic feeling to finally get to see Tobermory from the water side. It’s beautiful. The islands to the north are begging to be explored, although the charts show perilous rocks just below most of the surface. I hope we get to anchor out there a few nights on our way back! Or maybe even tomorrow…