From Wilson to Youngstown

Yesterday morning Bob woke me at 5:30. He wanted to get going and sail all the way to Wilson - some 54 nautical miles from Rochester. We were on the water by 6:30. When I took the water/sky picture at 10:30, it looked as though the sun was going to fight its way through the clouds but no such luck. Instead the clouds thickened until the lake and sky were an unrelieved grey as far as we could see. Was it because the water was flat and the wind light, that hundreds of flies decided to catch a ride on the boat? On the lake, there are days with flies and days without - some days they are in a biting mood and some days they just land on everything and sit stupidly or fly about and bump into your face. Yesterday they weren't biting, rather they were so lethargic that they didn't move - even to escape death. There were crushed flies on the cockpit sole where we had walked on them, and more on the cushions as we sat down unawares on top of them. It was disgusting. After our dreary day of motoring, when we finally tied up at Wilson's Tuscarora Yacht, Bob couldn't get the hose out fast enough to clean away all traces of our fly graveyard.

It's nice to be in familiar waters entering harbours where you know the shallow spots and where to find the visitors' dock at the yacht clubs. Since transient cruisers aren't expected so early in the season, we weren't able to raise anyone on the VHF at either the Sodus Bay or Tuscarora Yacht club - but there's always someone puttering on their boat who finds a spot for us and tells us how to sign in for the night.

Today we motored to Youngstown - just 2 hours from Wilson. We'll spend the day having a look around and tonight we'll have a reunion with Bill and Mary Mursell. They'll sail Vectis across the river from the Niagara Yacht Club where they keep her and we'll do some catching up over dinner tonight. We last saw the Mursells in Fort Pierce, Florida while they were still on Southern Vectis.

Tomorrow those participating in the RCYC Cruising Squadron Youngstown Race will arrive and raft up where we are now - on the wall at the Youngstown Yacht Club - and we'll be there to greet them. It will be fun to see everyone after what seems the very long time that we've been away.

We've been to the Youngtown Yacht Club several times but only for the night. Today we took the time to tour Fort Niagara. This is taken inside "The Castle", the oldest building in the Fort.

Lake Ontario at the entrance to the Niagara River - taken from the North Redoubt (a mini fort) at Fort Niagara.