Day 61, Thursday August 22 Goderich to Sarnia

Day 61 Thursday August 22 Sarnia bound

Well an early start to make the 50 plus nautical miles in daylight today.  Initially the forecast was not great, but the winds were at least a suitable direction to sail.  After about 30 minutes under sail we decided to put a reef in at it was pretty gusty and we were heeled quite a bit.  After 30 minutes of being reefed the wind died down and we shook the reef out.  What a lot of work……

Brown Bat on canvas

Our speed started dropping so on came the iron genny.  We were now about 5 nautical miles from shore and Dawson noted the bird right on our stern flying  beside us.  As he pointed it out I realized it was a bat.  Well the bat needed to land, it was getting tired of flying.  By now Julie had a dish towel on her head.  Luckily the little guy landed on the canvas and crawled between 2 layers where he was quite content to hang out literally the whole trip to Sarnia.  We could observe him quite well through the layer of plastic so it was kind o neat.  We thought about waking him up a mile of Sarnia shore but then decided against it.

Playing kings cribbage whilst underway

As we motored along our new AIS (automated information system) alarm went off.  It detected a boat on a collision course.  Sure enough a 50 foot power boat was about a mile off from us and not changing course.  Julie called him about 3 minutes from impact and we veered courses, but we don’t think he had seen us cause when Julie said she was the sailboat off his bow he paused then said, “Oh ya I see you now.”  Needless to say we were glad he had AIS and was transmitting so we picked him up.  We will be transmitting soon, but right now we are just receiving.

Dawson with Sarnia bridge in background

By 4:00 we were of Sarnia shores and by 5:00 we could see Julie’s mom and brother Mark waving to us.  We were now wing on wing but decided to drop sail before getting into the current with the freighters.  Next thing we knew we were heading down the St. Clair river and under the Blue Water Bridge which was quite cool to see the perspective as our mast went under the bridge.

Our mast going under Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia

We had made arrangements to stay at a private dock at the Venetian Village condos, so would be on our own to get into the slip.  As we approached the slip we realized that there were pylons on one side and the finger docks were about 6 feet above the waterline.  Not very good for putting out fenders.  The depth we hoped would be sufficient but had been warned it may be a tight fit.  Luckily there was next to no wind and with a few forward and backwards maneuvers got into the slip perfectly.  Roma and Mark were now at the dock to greet us as we stepped onto dry land.  We gathered up the dirty laundry, locked up and were off to Roma’s for a nights sleep in a house.  It was early to bed for all of us.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson