De Tour Village, MI to Gore Bay, Ontario (Canada)

Wind, wind, and more wind! The morning started off relatively calm; which was good. Because, we had been pinned to the dock for the past two days in De Tour Village, MI due to high winds. Really high winds.

We we both up at 5am this morning. A little coffee and a few eggs to get the morning started and we were off. Our neighbors in the Catalina 400 that came in the day prior with quite a commotion warned us of storms forecasted for today. We knew about them, and by our best estimates, they would hit further south; as we were headed north. We were wrong!

After about a mile of motoring into the De Tour Passage headed north. We could definitely tell that the storms were catching us and not staying further south as the weather models were predicting earlier. To top it off, the forecast (now around 6am EST) was stating that there was a squall watch in affect for our vicinity and the area that we were headed for; The North Channel. It wasn’t long after turning on the radio and listening to their predictions that the first bolt of lighting lit up the sky. I was excited. My dad was less than enthused.

The storm that caught us was brief at best. There was some great lighting and the wind was definitely howling. Fortunately, the breeze was on our tail and we did not feel the full effect of it’s force. I think the highest we saw the winds at during the storm were around 30 knots. Definitely enough to get your attention!

With the initial front off in the distance further East, we were left with some great sailing winds. The breeze was at about 60 degrees off our starboard bow (close reach) at roughly 15 knots. At that angle, we were able to squeeze about 7 knots out of the sails without being too hard on the equipment. Carpe Diem sails best from about 45 to 65 degrees to the wind. With the sails trimmed, we could have squeezed out 8+ knots easily.

The sail was short lived though. With the squall watch still in affect, we caught a glimpse of something in the distance that was a cause for concern. We couldn’t determine if it was just fog or if it was water whipping off the surface from super high winds. They always say that when it’s time to reef, it’s too late. So, we aired on the side of caution and furled the sails. With 40 more miles to go to our destination, motoring wasn’t such a terrible thing.

Under motor, it took us about 9 hours to get to Gore Bay, Ontario. Overall, it was a blustery ride east with winds consistently over 20 knots, gusting to around 30 again. The one nice thing was that the winds were out of the south and brought with them warm air. Much better than the past few weeks of constantly cold air.

We didn’t hang too close to shore during the trip. But, from what I can see, The North Channel is very beautiful. The tree line extends forever with lush green contrast to the deep blues of Lake Huron. Quite fantastic. The colors really came alive when the sun would peak through the clouds and highlight little areas of forest against the dark.

I predicted that the winds would calm once into Gore Bay. Turns out I was wrong! We had 20-30 knots on our nose our entire way into the bay. It did not look like a very favorable docking situation; which made both my dad and I nervous given the events of the past few days we observed in the De Tour marina. But, as we got closer, it looked like there were a few slips on the outer most part of the marina that were unoccupied on both sides. It’s so much easier to dock in high winds when you have space!

Docking the boat was successful without too much excitement. There were sailboaters that saw us coming in and came over to the dock to lend a hand. Very much appreciated! With the boat tied up, we checked into customs, ran the power cables, and sat back with a cocktail and a little Wisconsin cheese, and a few potato chips. It felt so good to relax and have a beer; as I was in kind of a grumpy mood. I’ll blame it on the weather 🙂

It’s off to bed early tonight. We had an early start today. Hopefully more to come tomorrow as we explore Gore Bay, Ontario for the next two days; as very high winds (50+ knots!) will be keeping us at the docks. No promises though. We may just want to relax!