The less romantic side…
After a slow start to our morning we headed out from Erie Pensilvania with a nice south west wind and sailed wing and wing (wind at our back with our head sail to one side and main to the other. It was a beautiful day until we were besieged by black files!
Jeff says he imagines those files are just laying out there on the water living out their empty lives until a sailboat on a run comes along and they attack. On this tack we are running with the wind and have a virtually still cockpit so the flies hop on board and you can’t get rid of them. They immediately stared biting Jeff so he dressed in his battle gear and wielded his weapon (illustrated in the picture), a battery operated, hand held bug zapper. It looks somewhat Ike a tennis racket and you use it in a similar manner to “zap” files.
It didn’t take them too much longer to find me so I brought out a sheet to protect myself while I watched Jeff whacking files for hours. I also brought out a rechargeable bug zapper that was soon buzzing constantly and generating a burning smell that was apparent while we were sailing along. Wish I had gone below for the video camera, it was entertaining and hard to imagine unless you have experienced it. I am sure many of our sailing friends have been in exactly the same situation. We wonder if this is a Great Lakes phenomena or will we have similar experiences on the ocean?
I spent the afternoon sweeping up the carnage. Your cockpit layered with dead, squished files is not a pleasant place…
All of a sudden, files were the least of our worries. Although there was no significant weather change predicted, the wind shifted to the north and built to 20 to 25 knots. We were close to our destination, Dunkirk New York, now directly upwind, so we took the sails in and started the engine. It is a pretty well protected harbor unless there is a north wind so it was a bit of a challenge getting in. Also, it was after hours at the marina so no dock hands to help with the tie up. Jeff did a great job and I’m happy to report that we are safely tied up to a pier in town for the night. It will be pretty rolly tonight but happy to be here.
If the winds are in our favor tomorrow we plan to cross Lake Erie for Port Coburn, Ontario. This will be where we enter the Welland Canal the following day to move into Lake Ontario. There is a difference of about 300 feet in water level and we will pass through 9 locks to move down to Lake Ontario level, bypassing Niagara Falls. It is our plan to visit Toronto before heading up to Oswego, New York to enter the Erie Canal.
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