We got in late last night and will be heading out soon. Port Stanley is the only place to stop on this stretch of coast, about 50 miles from Long Point and 40 from Erieau. There’s a sign to call the Harbour Master, but they’re not answering. We tucked into a gap between the rows of huge tires on the wall.
We have the anchorage all to ourselves right in behind Long Point. We arrived yesterday, 2025-06-23, but nobody will see this until we get more than intermittent 3G ;-). The weather is the same as yesterday, 15 from the WSW, sunshine and blue skies. We spent the full day yesterday beating into the short sharp Lake Erie chop and decided we deserve a quiet rest today. I don’t think I will ever again choose to beat into more than 10 knots on Lake Erie, especially with a full Lake of fetch.
The shore shallows quickly once you hit 20 feet, and we are anchored on visible bare sand in 10 feet, but well off shore, about 1/4 mile out.
One of yesterday’s highlights was a little flock of eight or ten purple martins that took over the second spreaders for about 10 minutes just after we anchored. They flitted around and landed repeatedly chirping “look at me” and could have been eating spider’s catch, or just playing. Then they were gone as suddenly as they arrived.
Another lack of detail on the Orca charts — they don’t show the many well heads and pipelines that blanket the bottom of the lake. Navionics do and this helped us miss any hardware with the anchor.
We set off bright and early Sunday the 22nd with a boat full of help. Many thanks to Rosemary for the whole trip so far, and to Jim, Marcia and Nick who made the trip all the way here to help us up the Welland Canal. CSL St. Laurent came in behind us and we held them up the whole day.
They now do scheduled transits for pleasure craft, so we wound up with 4 big power boats and a Catalina 380, making us the smallest and slowest under motor. This was the first time we had rafted in a lock and the crew made it really easy for me to— I just drove the boat…
They also did a really slow fill that made the ride up almost easy. Here’s some of our large companions
Algoma Bear was headed down the flight as we came out the top. We got to the top and tied up about 18:00, Jim went and collected the car and now we’re all alone for the next leg. Thanks All!
The St. Laurent cleared out about 19:40 right in front of us.
Current goes north in the centre of the harbour, but south in the eddy where we are docked. Go all the way in and turn around at the wider spot to approach slip 87. Two nights free for KYC boats. Tomorrow we will move to the wall at the club.
Navionics isn’t as pretty but shows our dock position accurately.
(photo courtesy Rosemary)
We set off about 6:30 to get ahead of the forecast. By noon it was exciting enough that we decided to stop at Whitby, where the waves are cresting the break wall piling in 20-25 knots SSW.
Brand new bathrooms, free pump outs and 2 free nights to reciprocal clubs!
We have a free mooring on the wall, and apparently there are now some reciprocal slips with power.
I’m trying out Orca (top) vs Navionics (bottom). Liking Orca, but the chart coverage is not as good in the north.
We motored all the way but sail assisted some of the time. Lots of weed near the Murray ($5.50 this year), and apparently we picked some up on the way in to Coburg too!
We stayed another night ($1.50/ft) because of zero visibility.
We have really enjoyed our stay on the centre dock at the lovely KYC, almost like a cottage in the city, but we will be headed out this morning for points west and north. Rosemary is joining us for the leg from here through the Welland.
After good wishes from friends on the dock we got away about 10:20. Now motoring in no wind up towards the Bay of Quinte.
2025-06-07 Naming a Heron
More than 20 years ago we used this same short ceremony to rename Anemone II as Dragon III. We sailed Dragon III far and wide for many years, and she is still sailing with Tom and Sue on the east coast. That seems auspicious evidence of a good and proper renaming.
This short ceremony allowed us to safely and happily rename Lasata as Night Heron, ready for many voyages under her new name. We completed the ceremony on the lake following Sailpast with long time crew members Martha Sellens and Mary Wilson on board.
Rick: Bless the vessel Lasata. We now allow this name to go back to the everlasting sea and the Canadian Registry of Ships. Thank you for your service and goodbye Lasata, I toast your service!
(Rick toasts and sprinkles some wine on the bow)
All: Lasata, we toast your service!
Laura: Hail Poseidon! We seek your benevolence upon this ship, now to be known as Night Heron. Poseidon and Night Heron, I toast you!
(Laura toasts and sprinkles some wine on the bow and in the water.)
Both: Oh Poseidon, you spirit God of waters great and small,
On this vessel, by your grace, allow these sons and daughters all,
To pass from port of hailing to their port of call,
And on these sailing subjects let your gentle blessings fall.
(Both sprinkle some wine on the bow and in the water, then toast)
All: Poseidon and Night Heron we toast you!
Rick: Hail Aeolus! We seek your benevolence upon this ship, now to be known as Night Heron. Aeolus and Night Heron I toast you!
(Rick toasts, sprinkles some wine on the bow and spits some wine into the wind.)
Both: Aeolus, whose mighty hand doth charge the wind,
To this vessel gentle zephyrs send,
And we who sail within will bend,
Our heads in awe and tribute without end.
(Both sprinkle some wine on the bow and spit some into the wind, then toast)
All: Aeolus and Night Heron we toast you!
We had some wonderful sailing on Signature from 2014 to the end of 2023, but after 10 years the world had changed. Signature reached the end of the road partly due to old age and partly due to the hassles of trying to insure a unique 40 year old vessel. She was stripped and went to Kimco in April of 2024. Most of our travels over that time were documented with facebook posts that kept our friends and family up to date on where we were.
In the fall of 2023 we bought Lasata, a 2005 Dufour 365 with pretty good performance for a full on cruiser. Peter and Jim and I delivered her from Lake Champlain back to Kingston in May of 2024, once the Erie Canal opened.
For 2025 we are planning a return to the North Channel via the Welland, as 1.7m is still a little deep for the Trent. Some friends have poked me about maintaining an illustrated log of the journey, and I have made absolutely zero commitment to do so (Hi Scott!), however I thought I might try this platform to see if it still works.
