frclarke
09-21-2009, 06:46 PM
Ed and I were out on Lake Ontario on Sunday. Ed. fired off these pictures to me so I thought I'd share. These are from his cel. phone.
Ed, his daughter Shannon and son Patrick, Deb and I went out from Humber Bay Park at the base of Park Lawn Rd. (Toronto). What a beautiful day. We went through Humber Bay and into the breakwater toward Ontario Place. Kinda slow but that was pretty much how we took it.
Back out on the main lake we made our way into the inner harbor. Ed got some great pictures of the skyline. We dodged sailboats, power boats, ferries, brigantines, lunch cruise boats and planes from the Island airport and made our way into the Toronto Island. For me this was new and interesting, I’ve taken chartered cruises on Ontario but never taken a little boat out.
We had lunch at Centre Island. The food was terrible. That’s one thing that would make this jaunt nicer – we need to find a good restaurant with dockage.
So far so good I thought – Made it this far.
After lunch we navigated out through the other gap (Eastern Gap?) and began making our way around the islands. I was heartened by the number of sailboats and some small power boats. What I noticed but didn’t take heed was that most of the little boats stayed in the lee of the Islands headland. As Ed and I had discussed, we’d head out around the Islands towards the Scarborough bluffs. By the time we got around the lighthouse, at the tip of the Island (we were travelling east southeast into the prevailing wind), the waves were getting bigger. I was on plane ahead of Ed’s Criterion… doing pretty good I thought. We were getting a lot of spray but still OK. It wasn’t long before I had to slowdown; Ed was on plane overtaking us. I was reduced to going down one side of a swell and climbing back up the next.
As you know an 18 has no windshield and runs pretty flat. It wasn’t long before we had water rolling over us into the cockpit. I was soaked, Deb was soaked – water coming in at every angle – Ed. was blasting along 300 meters ahead. Shannon says they lost sight of us in the waves. My comment to Deb was “Ready for a dip darling”. I was thinking “oh sh*t we’re gonna sink, drown, die…!
I got her turned around – that was interesting, remember your Coast Guard boating course about waves broaching a boat when sideways… A couple of times it felt like the 18 was embedded to the gunnels in the wave. I’d guess that the waves were 1.5 to 2 meters high.
We made it back into the lee of the island; we were good; wet but good. I had to trim port and starboard, back and forth as the extra water sloshed around the bilge.
We made it back fine. Ed. was a good sport-I don’t think he knew what the problem was until we were docked. On Ed’s Criterion, Shannon, who was in the front rumble seat, was dry and toasty.
We had an exciting day. 18’s don’t belong on the open stretches of Lake Ontario.
Ed, his daughter Shannon and son Patrick, Deb and I went out from Humber Bay Park at the base of Park Lawn Rd. (Toronto). What a beautiful day. We went through Humber Bay and into the breakwater toward Ontario Place. Kinda slow but that was pretty much how we took it.
Back out on the main lake we made our way into the inner harbor. Ed got some great pictures of the skyline. We dodged sailboats, power boats, ferries, brigantines, lunch cruise boats and planes from the Island airport and made our way into the Toronto Island. For me this was new and interesting, I’ve taken chartered cruises on Ontario but never taken a little boat out.
We had lunch at Centre Island. The food was terrible. That’s one thing that would make this jaunt nicer – we need to find a good restaurant with dockage.
So far so good I thought – Made it this far.
After lunch we navigated out through the other gap (Eastern Gap?) and began making our way around the islands. I was heartened by the number of sailboats and some small power boats. What I noticed but didn’t take heed was that most of the little boats stayed in the lee of the Islands headland. As Ed and I had discussed, we’d head out around the Islands towards the Scarborough bluffs. By the time we got around the lighthouse, at the tip of the Island (we were travelling east southeast into the prevailing wind), the waves were getting bigger. I was on plane ahead of Ed’s Criterion… doing pretty good I thought. We were getting a lot of spray but still OK. It wasn’t long before I had to slowdown; Ed was on plane overtaking us. I was reduced to going down one side of a swell and climbing back up the next.
As you know an 18 has no windshield and runs pretty flat. It wasn’t long before we had water rolling over us into the cockpit. I was soaked, Deb was soaked – water coming in at every angle – Ed. was blasting along 300 meters ahead. Shannon says they lost sight of us in the waves. My comment to Deb was “Ready for a dip darling”. I was thinking “oh sh*t we’re gonna sink, drown, die…!
I got her turned around – that was interesting, remember your Coast Guard boating course about waves broaching a boat when sideways… A couple of times it felt like the 18 was embedded to the gunnels in the wave. I’d guess that the waves were 1.5 to 2 meters high.
We made it back into the lee of the island; we were good; wet but good. I had to trim port and starboard, back and forth as the extra water sloshed around the bilge.
We made it back fine. Ed. was a good sport-I don’t think he knew what the problem was until we were docked. On Ed’s Criterion, Shannon, who was in the front rumble seat, was dry and toasty.
We had an exciting day. 18’s don’t belong on the open stretches of Lake Ontario.