Needless to say, there were many things to prepare leading up to this trip, but must admit we didn’t help the situation.  An eleventh hour decision to tear down the cottage while we are away and build a new cabin meant we were running around finalizing plans, picking out fixtures and finishes, as well as repacking everything we had moved from the house in Toronto when we sold it.  All that said and done, we arrived exhausted at the boat in Cobourg, Ontario on Monday, August 20th at around 7pm following a day of moving and packing things up for the trip south. The next day was spent organizing and trying to find room on the boat to put things away, as well as the last boat preparations. Karen Gartner arrived around mid-day for a send-off visit and Nancy Harris, picked up Jackson in Toronto and brought him to Cobourg and she joined us for our last meal in Canada at the Oassis Bar and Grill in downtown Cobourg.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22nd — LAUNCH DAY!

We had an early start. Lee was up at 6am to take the dog, Leo, for a run before he had to spend 8 hours on the first leg of the trip which was around 50 miles to Rochester, NY.  It was a lovely cool day. We’d been lucky the last few nights that it had been cool and good sleeping weather. No air conditioning on the boat. Regardless of that, we had a restless night’s sleep. Randy was waking running through final preparation and clearing customs in his mind. Even still, we were on the water by 8:10AM, only slightly shy of our 8AM target.

Around 8:30AM when we were a few miles off shore, Randy’s mobile rang. It was Fred Gibson.  He, Lindsay and Alex were at the dock in Cobourg to see us off.  They missed us — bummer!  Would have been fun to do a real send off!

The winds in the morning were dead calm — probably one of the calmest days we’ve ever seen on Lake Ontario, so we motored.  The wind picked up a bit mid-day allowing us to get a few hours of sailing in before we gave up and motored on.

Before leaving Cobourg, Randy checked the website for US Customs to see what we would be able to take into the US. Ugh!  No fruit, and no vegetables or meat other than beef.  So a passer-by on the dock in Cobourg was the lucky recipient of a bag of groceries. At lunch we tried to eat up any remaining fruits and veggies.

We arrived in Rochester, NY arround 5PM. The harbour and club in Rochester were a real surprise. Lovely! Upon arrival, the first thing we had to do was head to the video phone on the outside of the marina building wall and call into US Customs. Interesting experience. Between the surly voice on the other end of the phone and the very poor connection that made it very difficult to hear him, getting through the process was a bit of a challenge.

That night we had a fantastic dinner in the diningroom at the club (Jackson had Antelope!), after Randy and Jackson hit the pool for a swim. Probably one of the nicest, if not THE nicest place we’ve ever docked the boat.  Pretty sure we’ve never had a pool before!