The trip has finally begun!

Finally, we're off!  

After two and and a half summers of work we finally left the dock FOR REAL!!  Saturday morning September 9th we finally left our nice snug berth in Whitby and headed out onto the lake! 
Bye Bye Whitby!
The morning started out cool and calm with virtually no wind at all.  So we all bundled up with sweaters and fall coats to keep warm!  Of course Ryan used my gloves when we first cast off, so my gloves were wet while his gloves which were still nice and dry!  As the day continued the wind built up a bit, but not to much.  we only managed to see 8 knots of breeze on average. Our boat needs a bit more breeze to really get going We motor sailed the whole way across.  11 hours of watching this
Anti-siphon discharge "peeing"

is enough to make any trip seem soo much longer and trips to the bathroom more frequent!!  For those of you that don't know that's the discharge from the top of the anti-siphon loop for the engine!  It serves as a visual indicator that the cooling water is flowing, and when the engine is stopped it also ensures that the cooling water can't backup into the engine by allowing air in to break the potential siphon!  

As we got closer to the middle of the lake the waves unfortunately started to build up a bit,  getting to 4-6ft in height with a fairly short wave period and coming from the port aft quarter.  This meant that the boat wanted to corkscrew about as we sailed towards our destination.  No worries, the captain had it under control...except when I thought about that anti-siphon discharge. 
all that dribbling water has me thinking...

The rest of the crew has a relatively easy passage.  Ryan stayed below and watched the "Lord of the Rings- Two towers..extended edition" twice and a couple of seasons of the "forensic files" to pass the time.  Sarah and Tracy stayed in the cockpit chatting away (when they weren't napping)

Around 5:25pm we arrived at the entrance to Rochester harbour and called into the "Port of Rochester 
Marina" on our VHF and arranged for a berth for the night and some help to catch the lines.  We were greeted by one of the most helpful and friendliest marina staff we've come across so far!  Bob not only helped us dock (I can't dock port side to so save my life!!) , cleaned the dock for us (Cormorants on this side of the lake too!), got us checked in, set us up with Wifi access ( thereby quelling the crew!) and gave us lots of great hints for places to eat and shop in town!  


Never Monday at Port of Rochester Marina
Now we wait while we get the CBP to come out (hopefully Monday) to do the inspection for the cruising permit.  

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