Canadian Soil

It was a perfect day for us to cross Lake Ontario.

By times there was enough wind to fill our sails, but generally the engine and autopilot took care of it all. Many sailors would disagree. They would say 'not enough wind'. That's fine with us. On all our major passages on this trip, we waited for calm weather. Though our comfort level grew, we were happiest to head out on big water knowing that there was no imminent front, no unsettled weather in the area. So far, it has worked.

We were only out of sight of land for about two hours. For the first five hours of the trip, the smoke stacks at the power plant in Oswego were visible on the horizon. It was not too long before we could make out the shoreline of Prince Edward County with the help of binoculars. The closer we got, the more details we could see. Trees, houses, and eventually the lighthouse on the pier at Cobourg.
Jessica was the first to step ashore. Greg stepped off, and laid on his back in the grass, arms outstretched, smiling!

After clearing in with Customs, we headed to the beach. As we walked along, I observed all the Canadian flags on the boats, I was astonished by how many Ontario license plates there were, all the people on the beach in bathing suits wading in the frigid water, how much it looked like .... home!!

It was the same beach we sat on last August, looking south, wondering what was in store for us. The girls called it their last beach of last year's endless summer, and the first beach of this summer.

We celebrated with dinner at a local pub, feeling almost like tourists. We had no Canadian cash, remarked about the spelling of words and the selection of beer available, and felt the chill a little sooner than the locals.

This morning we are out on the water early again. The lake is again perfect (for us).
We hope to pull into our last anchorage tonight, somewhere in Toronto Islands. There we will savour the last fleeting moments of this adventure, enjoy being just the four of us for one last night, raise a toast to King Neptune!

For those of you who have asked, we expect to be in Port Credit around noon tomorrow. We will update the blog in the morning, once we are out of Toronto Harbour.