We left the little marina at Rock Harbour bright and early for the approximately 35 mile open water trip to Loon Harbour in Ontario. Winds were light again and pretty much directly behind us as we set off. There was a pretty large swell aft of the beam which made things just a little uncomfortable. We had a reefed mainsail up to help steady the boat as we motored. The following wind and the swell increased as we approached the offshore islands of Ontario. The seas became confused like they were running in two directions as we began to enter the channel that would lead to Loon Harbour. Very quickly the wind went from 15 knots dead astern to over 20 knots on the nose. Before we knew it, the wind had increased to about 30 knots, gusting 35 to 40. We were motoring into what were now fairly substantial breaking waves. We weren’t paying much attention to the dinghy being towed behind when the boat speed dropped from about 5 knots to a knot and a half. Looking back we noticed that the dinghy had flipped over and was trying to dive below the lake. We were able to get it flipped upright and we continued on, only to have a repeat performance. So…… now we have a dinghy named “Flipper”
After the dinghy drama we managed to get the mainsail down and find our way into Loon Harbour. Loon Harbour is an area between Lasher, Spain, and Borden Islands that is very protected and allowed us to hide from the strong winds. We ended up spending three nights at Loon as we got pinned down again by fog and strong winds. It was a beautiful spot but we were definitely ready to move on when the weather allowed.
Travels of Team Noodin 