BAD DAYS - the dark side of cruising

While most of our cruising has been enjoyable (or, at least tolerable), there have been SEVERAL days that we would not choose to do again.  These range from bad to really-bad.  Lest anyone think that cruising is all smooth sailing, here's a summary of the worst we have gone through:

Ontanagon-to-Keewenaw. Lake Superior, June. Great day of sailing on Lake Superior. Wind 18-22 knots off the port quarter, large but survivable waves. All day. Jim Kimmet aboard, who has had experience sailing in this stuff.  Full sail!  SCORE: Fun-1 Learning Experience-1  Did not enjoy-1.

Georgian Bay crossing. Killarney-to-Britt, July.  Large waves on our port bow. All day, about 45 NM, 10+ miles offshore.  Got to work the diesel. Lot of slamming into the big waves. SCORE: Okay but a lot of tension and hard work-1. Did not enjoy-1.

Trent-Severn Canal, Ontario. August. Got stuck aground and towed off. TWICE in one day.  1. Charged almost C$300 by a local marina for 10 minutes of towing, reimbursed by TowBoat-US [YES. You must have this insurance. ~15o per year, includes offshore, unlimited towing!] 2. Low water in Grass Lake. Towed off by local fishing boat.  Won't do the T-S again with anything that draws more than 2 feet. SCORE: Danger-0.  Not scared-2.

Lake Simcoe, Ontario. August.  Big waves from all directions for a couple of hours. This lake has a very uneven bottom – shallow, mixed with deep – for very confused and dangerous waves.  A bad couple of hours, on a nice day. SCORE: Okay but a lot of tension and hard work-1. Did not enjoy-1.

Lake Ontario Crossing. East side, Bay of Quinte, Ontario – to – Oswego, NY. August. Crossed from the Trent-Severn Canal to the Erie Canal.  Mast down, lashed on deck in a cradle - since we needed it down for both canals. Left at sunrise, dead calm; weather predicted "light winds, best day to cross for a week". Two hours out, out of seven, we got BIG waves off the bow. Boat was POUNDING for several hours into the seas.  Even though we had thoroughly tied the mast down, it was starting to bounce out of the cradle!  I had to go forward onto the pounding bow and use the docklines to add lashing lines over the mast.  Our harnesses/tethers/jacklines paid for themselves that day! A contender for our Worst Day Ever. SCORE:  Dangerous. OMG. Very scary. Will NEVER do this again. – 2.

Croton-on-Hudson, Hudson River, NY. September.  Nice pretty ride past West Point, then hard waves on the nose as we turned south towards the Tappen Zee.  Pounding, full power on diesel for about 2 hours.  Half an hour out of our nearest and chosen marina, Half Moon Bay, we heard a Tornado Warning (not a Watch) on the radio, for where we were at.  Nothing to do but hope that we didn't get hit for the ½-1 hour it would take to make port.  Fortunately (for us), the tornado hit New York City instead. SCORE: Scary, OMG with a lot of tension and hard work-1. Scary, OMG, did not enjoy-1.

Sandy Hook, NJ. September. Left New York City, planning to make an overnight run down the Jersey Coast (offshore, no ICW here) to Cape May.  A few hours out, about 4-5 miles offshore east of Sandy Hook, we got hit with about 8-foot BREAKING waves.  Sails down, full engine – headed directly (fortunately, running before the wind) for an hour or two into the shelter of Sandy Hook bay. Anchored overnight, then continued on the next day. Many boats joined us in the anchorage. [Met a guy later who had done the overnighter; he got knocked down several times, had his bimini and dodger shredded, was bruised from head to foot.] Another contender for our Worst Day Ever. SCORE: Very scary, OMG, dangerous – 3 (with Tom Cronmiller).

Atlantic City, NJ. September. The next day was a long run, wind behind us.  All day.  Turned west into Atlantic City just at sunset, catching the strong winds and waves on our starboard beam.  Exciting for about ½ hour. SCORE: Scary, OMG with a lot of tension and hard work-1. Scary, did not enjoy-1.

Delaware Bay, NJ-DE. September.  Fighting the tide/current for most of the day, up from Cape May to Delaware City.  Rough but not a serious problem. SCORE: A lot of tension and hard work-2. Did not enjoy-1.

Hurricane Sandy, NC. October.  No problem as we were safe in a protected marina. See separate blurbs.

NOW - south Georgia, ICW.  We are only able to travel about 1/2-2/3 of the days.  Fronts come through - strong winds and waves - and we hole up in marinas; then we get a day or two when we can move on.  Definitely are timing our cruising days now.

-- figured we should report this. Most of our blogs make it sound like we are having a great time. Mostly, we are.  But did need to share the dark side.