Port Colborne, Ontario June 25, 2015

It's early as I write this. The Princess and Duchess suggested a schedule change last night that made a lot of sense. The strong east winds and seas predicted yesterday for today have been canceled. It looks to be good traveling today and tomorrow. Saturday is forecast to be rainy and cold. We had planned to go through the Welland on Saturday. Instead, we are going to go to Port Colborne today and through the Welland tomorrow with the good weather. This will also put us one day ahead of schedule.

Annie's course across lake Erie from Erie to Port Colborne

One funny story from yesterday. We arrived at the anchorage and Jim turns on his mighty wi-fi antenna to pick up an unsecured network. He finds a really strong one. I turn on my computer and see his Liberty wi-fi network and ask if I can connect to it. Sure he says, but he is having some trouble actually getting on the internet. I can't connect to the internet on his wi-fi either. So, I ask what network he is connected to. I said it's not Chromecast 5774 is it? Well, it was. Chromecast 5774 is my TV! It doesn't go anywhere, but just lets you cast your computer screen to the TV. So, he was connected to my TV and I was connected to him, a perfect circle - with no internet access!

The trip to Port Colborne was very pleasant. Again, almost no wind and very small waves. I thought that if we had Excalibur we would still have motored the entire way down the lake. We pulled up anchor at 7:00 and arrived at Port Colborne at 2:00. It was a 56.9 mile trip with an average speed of 8.6 knots. There were no weeds on the anchor when it came up, just some mud that we washed off as it came up. I had my machete ready to whack some weeds, but I will have to wait until later.

Smooth waters on Lake Erie

Jim could be having a little trouble with radio reception. He seems to be having trouble receiving transmissions over 5 miles away. We are trying to determine if this is an issue. 

I am a lucky captain. As we were steaming along I heard a squeal from Kerry in the main salon. She just shouted out, "I love our boat!" It did not take her long to get in full power boat cruise mode, as shown below.

The staff at Sugaloaf Marina were most accommodating, and offered us a shuttle to town. We went to the bike shop where I bought a tube patch kit for my bumper and to the grocery. We had dinner at the marina restaurant where we were joined by a friend of Jim's who he works with, named James. James family lives here in Canada and he is riding with us through the Welland. After dinner I dug out my canal fenders and patched my bumper. I wondered if it would hold air. We will see.