Day 10 July 2, 2025

Phil woke at 515am, so that means I woke at 515am. Phil made his morn8ng coffee and got the boat ready for going to Dunkirk. Our slip mate was awake so asked h8m to walk the bow down the dock as Phil backed out.

0693 engine on. 0608 cast off. It went pretty good but the boat wouldn’t straighten out but kept going to port. It worked out that there was a boat in the slip. Phil went forward and out into the open basin. There wasn’t any wind, so we raised the main in the channel under the bridge, then immediately lowered the CB.

WEATHER: inside the boat I have a thermometer that reads humidity and temperature so I’m going to keep track of them.

Per channel 19 weather: T 65°, Dewpoint 63°

Inside boat: L and current T 72.5°, High 80°

Humidity: low 71° high 86° current 80°

Passage: in the harbor TWS 4.8 kts, TWA 139 to 140° we passed ship Presquile at Dock and the channel out to the lake and clear the channel at 0645. We saw a schooner anchored out in south side of Gull Point at the end of Presque Isle. We had AIS alarm and the ship there was called Lettie G. Howard.

Once we cleared the channel, we made directly to the Dunkirk channel waypoint. At first, the the wind came from the south at about 8:30 AM. I moved the main to starboard as the wind has collected from the north.TWS 6.2 kts TWA 173°. we were going down the waves and the passage was pretty much uneventful maximum when we saw later in the morning was 9.5 kn but with the true wind angle 157° or more we weren’t able to sail at all I did see slight white caps out there. At 12:40 PM we entered the harbor. What was notable was that the water was very skinny. There is a lot of vegetation on the bottom so at times Phil just saw two lines where the depth indicator was and he also lost the speed indicator. He thought we hit the muddy bottom. We re are docked at Northeast 29 which enabled us to go straight into the slip. There are a couple guys Ed who lives here and another Allen that helped us to Dock. The docks are high and they have rebar trusses. So you tie up the bow by going forward to pillars on each side and then you tie up the stern on each side going back to the pillars so you don’t actually need a spring line here. On the starboard side Phil found a line that was in the water attached to the pillar between the boats that we used to tie up here. It was slimy and there were some zebra muscles on it, but it works just fine and there is no way being 10 feet away from that pole that we’re gonna be able to get a different line around it.

We dockck at 12:55 PM. 1 PM turned off the engine. We’re still kind of getting into the rhythm of things here so we checked the trip log on the B&G instrument and saw that there was 110.8 nautical miles total and we don’t know when that total started.

Ed, who is a member of the Dunkirk Yacht Club, and also lives here in the summertime gave us a run through of the clubhouse. They have ice for two dollars a bag in an upright freezer, they gave us the security code which they changed on a monthly basis, reviewed the bathrooms, and they made recommendations of places to eat.

Places to eat here: The local specialties is to get beef on Wick ( beef sandwich on a bun)or the helicopter sandwich (baloney) at Spike Daily’s pub. Camri’s Pizza, Barts Cove if want dive bar but no bar food. 64 on the Pier is good. (Open at 430pm).

We left about 2 o’clock to go to Spike Dale’s for lunch. We walked down this park that’s along the waterfront and what was nice is that they have Park Bencic is situated every so often. They also have geese and there’s a few of them that like to hiss at you. On the way back I took a video and think I got some of the hissing. It’s not very good as I was walking as I was taking it.

Dailey’s pub is in this little strip called the boardwalk that has many shops there but they’re very narrow and small. Once Lorraine heard that that beef on wax sandwich had salt and caraway seeds on the bun, she selected the barbecue pork sandwich. Phil tried to beef on Wick and thought the seasonings on the bun is kind of unusual but the beef was good. Vicki had a ham and cheese sandwich. Then we went to ice cream at the sweet shop and looked inside the other shops.

On the way back, Lorraine stopped at the Salvation Army store across the street from the waterfront park, and was able to find a yoga mat for Phil. it was $2.99, 50% off so a total of $1.61 total.

Back at the boat was our dock mate Bill McCausland, 79 yo who took his Saber 46 out through the St. Lawrence River out to the Atlantic, down the east coast down to Antigua in the Caribbean. He’s had a couple injuries from non boating accidents and is going to put his boat up for sale. He was encouraging Phil and I to do that too.

Vicki took a shower at DYC. She said it was ok and the one on the right was better than the one on the left.

Dunkirk Yacht Club is a club totally over water, including the yacht club. They are having Beef on Wick during their July 4 celebration for $5 each.

I coaxed Lucy into the cockpit with a treat, and she sat in the SB cushion for a while with leash attached to her harness. Then she walked around a little. Finally I attached the leash to the handle 9n the companion way and she enjoyed the sights and sounds. Casper is still afraid to be in the cockpit. I’m trying to get him to associate good things, so have started feeding him the wet food on the top companionway step. We’ll see how it goes. Does any have other recommendations? He started playing with line hanging from the handhold on the bulkhead so that is good.

After dark, I was looking north and saw orange cloud to cloud lightening. It was beautiful and when we looked on radar as far north as Toronto.

115 am I woke up suddenly to thunder, lightening and high winds. I quick jumped out of the V-berth and grabbed the dry towels off the life lines. Then closed the ports and hatches. The boat was tossed around but the lines held and after a while, we fell back to sleep.