Today is the big day to head off to the U.S.A. We have a few phone calls in the morning to
tie up some administrative loose ends, like call John who is property managing
our house in our absence and also to chase down FedNor for a letter Julie needs
for Canada Revenue agency. We lose our
phone and internet once we leave Canada until we can coordinate a service out
of the states. Dawson spends an hour
chasing down a company in Buffalo that will take down the mast with a crane,
and where we can dock.
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| Lighthouse east of Port Colbourne on Cdn side |
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| Buffalo skyline |
We then head out of the marina shortly after 11:00 and the
winds are dropping. They are from the
right direction but not very strong so we motor sail the whole way which is
about a 3 hour crossing. Dawson spends
the entire crossing keying in his inventory onto the computer so we have a
running list which is legible. Julie
manages the helm and navigates the distance until it is time to bring in the
main and then Dawson is called on deck.
Julie has already pulled in the Genoa as the flaky winds were being
uncooperative. Our navionics software is
just great as the mapping on it and functions lead us right where we want to
go. We are spending the night at the
Erie Basin marina. They don’t monitor
VHF so we pull up to the wall and Captain Dawson hops onto land to go and clear
customs for himself and the crew (Julie).
We have a lovely binder with all of our documents for the boat, radios,
etc. He finds the video phone and finds
out we only needed to use the 1 800 number as we have a cruising permit for the
states. That will be easy as long as we
have a phone. Fortunately our phones are
still working. We took the blackberry
off roaming, but the Bell signal is strong enough we will be able to stay in
contact a bit longer (same with the telus data plan on our ipad). This is unexpected because in Sarnia, the
Canadian signal is so weak once you even get near the bridge to the U.S. that
AT&T takes over all the services. We
are all cleared and assigned a slip which looks easy to get into so we decide
to back into it to make life easier on the exit. There is no wind so it goes off without a
hitch. So far no regrets on not getting
the 14,000 dollar bow thruster installed.
We spend the evening taking down the main sail, then the
Genoa, then the wind generator and polish off the evening with dinner, coffee
and a game of king’s cribbage. We are
once again tired after a full day outside and being constantly on the move and a full day of new "firsts".
Cheers
Julie and Dawson
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