Entry #29: To view my blog’s first entry scroll down to ‘Entry # 1’. Sorry for the inconvenience, I will eventually figure out how to reverse entry order.
Poseidon Bowsprit
Poseidon bowsprit installation completed over the weekend! Thank you Bryan for helping to cut and drill holes in the steel reinforcement bar. When the temperature warms up, I will be completing sealing and painting the wood bowsprit.
Great Lakes Wind & Wave Observations
Over the past several weeks, I have been perusing wind and wave patterns for each of the Great Lakes and thinking about potential effects to my projected course and travel times. I find ‘Windfinder‘ a great app for this type of analysis.
Last night I observed an unusual (to date) predominate wind direction. The winds were coming from the East at 15-25 mph for Lakes Erie, Ontario, Michigan and Superior. I was not happy with the impacts to sailing Lakes Erie and Ontario. When sailing Lake Erie from the Detroit River heading East to the Welland Canal it would mean a ‘dead beat’. With the winds in excess of 20 mph, it would be slow and pounding! It would be the same for Lake Ontario when heading East. On the other hand, my returns heading west on both lakes would be great downwind runs on my boat!
Curiously, at the same time on Lake Huron, those same winds were coming from the South/SouthEast at 20-25 mph. Another great downwind sail on my trip up the Michigan coastline!
For Lakes Michigan and Superior, the winds (as with the two lower Great Lakes) were coming from the East at a solid 20-25 mph. In those winds, ‘Never Too Late’ would be “flying” on a beam reach on Lake Michigan! And “flying” downwind on Lake Superior! I would probably need to ‘reef’ my mainsail on both lakes.
Finally, boat is going into the water this Wednesday!
Never Too Late For 