We left Gananoque marina in the early afternoon on Tuesday and sailed through the 40 Acres (south of Howe Island). It was one of those perfect sails, when the wind is steady 15 kts with barely a wave on the water. As winds were from the North East we decided to tuck into Navy Bay. We’ve always had good holding here and there’s sufficient depth if you don’t go past the Martello tower. We were lulled into sleep by the sounds of Kingston in the distance.
The next day greeted us with overcast skies and we motored with just the jib into Little Bluff. This is always an interesting anchorage as it’s deep right up to the shore with a pebble beach. Often locals come done to the water for a swim, to walk their dog or explore the park at the top of the escarpment which affords a great vista over the bay and any anchored boats. At night it’s quiet and offers good protection from the prevailing south west winds. In order to get well hooked one often has to get close to shore, to set the anchor in the sloping pebble bottom, making sure that the wind is not going to switch to NW over night and put your stern too close to shore. We put lots of chain out and backed down to get a good set. The forecast was for heavy SW winds over night and the next day, but at the time of anchoring we had a slight NE wind which persisted until early morning. So we looked really close to shore. Apparently not close enough though: Another sailboat – out for a sunset sail, people lounging all over the deck – sailed right into Little Bluff bay and under full sail with a lee shore passed between our stern and the shore. Bit of a show off move if you ask me – and he did have to turn on his engine as he got dangerously close to the shallows below the bluff after losing his wind.
The next morning the winds had shifted to SW and were blowing quite hard, so we decided to stay put in our protected anchorage for the day. A dinghy excursion along the shore of Long Point to the Eastern end didn’t look too far on the map – about 5 NM. We would hug the northern shore and be mostly sheltered from wind and waves. At first we went slowly enjoying looking at the steep shoreline thinking that the end was just around the next point. Well, that became a little tedious – it’s a lo-o-ong point. We picked up the pace and after an hour rounded the east point heading now more south. The map showed a sheltered inlet with a dock and a lighthouse called Point Traverse Lighthouse. It was a bit of a wild ride over some larger waves but we were able to turn into the little sheltered harbour, where it was very calm. The walk around the harbour and out to the lighthouse is quite pleasant. On the other side there’s a bird sanctuary to explore and a rocky beach. On the return trip we skipped over the waves working our 15 hp outboard a bit harder, and were back in 30 min. By now the winds were diminishing and our idea to go for a short run from Little Bluff Park along the county road turned into a hot sweaty mess. It felt good to cool off the legs in the 16 degree water of the bay. A little cool for us to immerse all the way, but it was only mid June so the water hadn’t warmed enough yet.
The winds stayed SW the next day as well, but were a little gentler in the morning with 10-15kts and increasing over the day. By the time we were south of Amherst Island even with one reef in the main, we had to role in the jib as it was gusting closer to 30 kts. With winds becoming more westerly we were doing over 8 kts of speed at times, so it didn’t take long to get back to the Admirality Islands. The winds were howling through the Anchorage at Beaurivage we continued through the Wanderer’s Channel and veered south by Polaris Island tucking in behind Forsyth Island. This anchorage is very close to our home slip in Gananoque, but we just were not ready to go back yet. One more night then back to provision for our trip to Brockville for the Tall Ships Festival ‘22.
Sailing Vitae Logbook 