Scott & Sue Sail Away: Sodus Bays

Rochester to the Sodus Bays

Our sail from Rochester to Big Sodus Bay was uneventful with the expected light east wind in our face. We arrived in the late afternoon and anchored off a protected west shore of an island…. a lovely spot with many fishermen quietly coming and going. We settled in for the evening having snacks, making dinner, eating at dusk, and waiting for the stars to appear. We were the only sail boat on this side of the bay but did notice 4 or 5 sailboats anchored across the bay on the east shore. Hmmmm. Why would they want to be on a lee shore?

The next morning the wind had picked up and sure enough was now coming out of the west and we were on the lee shore. As the coffee was just starting to perk, Scott noticed that we were no longer swinging on our anchor but drifting toward shore. Start the engine and head for the other side of the bay. We joined the little nesting of sailboats as quietly as possible. It was only 7:30 in the morning. Then finished brewing coffee and planned the rest of our day.

We noticed two of the sailboats head out to the big lake. Shortly afterward one of them returned. We lowered our outboard onto the dingy with the main halyard and headed over to say hi and see what the deal was before riding into the town of Sodus Bay, if there was one.

The captain of the Pearson 36 said that they decided not to tackle the 20+ knot winds head on and they could wait another day before heading west toward Rochester. We totally agree with that approach to sailing. We continued our dingy ride into Sodas Bay and found the yacht club where, as you’ve read, we updated our blog and caught up on email. Later that afternoon back on Enee someone was driving his dingy our way. It was captain Pearson inviting us over for a cold one. We had great conversation and lots of laughs with Don and Mary of s/v Merry Mary. Look forward to seeing you in Hilton Head!

The next day we sailed the short 12 miles to Little Sodus Bay passing impressive sandy cliffs and trying to catch the light breeze from behind in our sails. As Mary recommended we anchored in Meadow Bay. We dingied over to Fair Haven where we found a friendly place to have a Labatt’s Blue. The sign outside said: Welcome campers, bikers, and fisherman. We didn’t tell them we were sailors.

Today we decided to take a slip at the Fair Haven Yacht Club. We needed to look at our water tank once again. After only 3 days we were out of water! What is this puzzle all about? There are two questions: does the tank leak and how much water does it really hold? Mr. Science was all over this one. We timed how long it took to fill our 5 gallon jerry can; 100 seconds. This means, in theory, that it will take 10 minutes to fill our 30+ gallon flexible water tank. Ok. Let’s begin. We remove all of the bedding and cushions, take out the sails stored under the v-birth and remove the water tank. We empty all of the water, use the GPS as a timer, ready – set – go! 5 minutes into the experiment we couldn’t position the tank on the deck to hold any more water. This approach clearly wasn’t going to work. We did observe that the fittings were not leaking so back into the boat she goes. This time Scott was able to fill 7 ½ minutes worth of water when the fill hose filled with water. Gots to mean that the tank is full, but not with the 30+ gallons advertised. So how much water does the tank really hold? This is your math problem for the day.

Tomorrow we leave at the crack of dawn, really, and head to Oswego, NY; another 12 mile trip. We want to get to the marina as early as possible and begin the process of unstepping the mast. I don’t even want to think about the amount of graciefur that’s back among the bracing boards. How much is a graciefur worth anyway? Perhaps a math question for another day.