Chapter 1 - Our Journey Begins

We've been logging our travels at www.svgreatescape.com, and this is the first chapter of our sailing adventure!

A calm night in the Marina made for a well-needed rest. Maria and I woke up slowly, as the sun penetrated the uncovered windows and hatches. When we could no longer slumber through the rising heat, we got to our feet and went through our routine of putting away our bedding and converting the area back into what is normally our table.

The sound of bacon sizzling in the cast iron pan accompanied the smell of a savory breakfast. Maria's cooking is fantastic, and she's always adding a flare to her recipes. We settled into our normal spots, and enjoyed our breakfast and coffee.

Once our breakfast routine was finished, it was time to start our voyage - the moment we've been waiting for. With the twist of the key, the Atomic 4 fired up in her usual ambitious roar, and we cast off the dock. Having refilled the water and fuel tanks, spare Jerry cans, and emptied the holding tank the previous day, we motored out of the marina's protective walls and into the open waters of lake Erie.

With the autopilot on the helm, we pointed into the wind and raised the mainsail. The winds were light and from the North, the calm surface of the lake no more disturbed than the protected waters we left behind us in the marina.

An hour and a half of easy sailing brought us around the tip of Point Pelee. The Pelee Passage has a long history of sinking ships, so we kept a respectful distance from her tip. The submerged portion is known to drift during storms, and running aground in such an undertow prone area is something we'd like to avoid.

Upon rounding the point, the wind died to nothing and we were left with fluttering sails, moving at no more than one knot.  We were becalmed. We had quite a distance to travel before we would arrive in Rondeau Bay, so we furled in the genoa and motor sailed for a couple hours.

The wind picked up from the South West around 2:30pm and we sailed wing-on-wing the rest of the way. As we sailed further from the southwest shores and wind picked up, the waves followed suit. By the time we made it to Rondeau, we were running with five foot waves at our back. Needless to say, we had a rough turn into the protected harbor as we steered to Port with our beam to the waves.

We fired the engine and waited for a couple smaller waves to approach and made our maneuver. "Hold on!" I yelled to Maria as the boat healed over and nearly dipped our rail in the water at the crest of the wave. A couple more uncomfortable rolls and we were behind the harbor wall in a calm channel.

We lowered the sails and motored into the mouth of Rondeau Bay where we dropped anchor for the night. Some popcorn, red wine, and a bit of guitar kept us entertained until we lowered our table into a bed and drifted into a world of dreams. Our first leg of lake Erie was a success.