This is our local weather forecast for Lake Erie. As you can see it would not be a good day to be sailing.
Forecast as of 9:16 am EDT on September 18, 2012
Small Craft Advisory in effect through Wednesday morning
The Islands To Vermilion Oh-Vermilion To Avon Point Oh-
Avon Point To Willowick Oh-
Rest Of Today
West winds 10 to 20 knots becoming northwest and increasing to 30 knots. Occasional rain showers late this morning... then a chance of rain showers this afternoon. Waves building to 5 to 8 feet. There is a high risk of rip currents today.
Tonight
Northwest winds to 30 knots diminishing to 10 to 20 knots. Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers in the evening...then partly cloudy overnight. Waves 6 to 9 feet subsiding to 5 to 8 feet.
Wednesday
West winds 10 to 20 knots becoming southwest and diminishing to 5 to 10 knots. Mostly sunny. Waves 3 to 5 feet subsiding to 1 to 3 feet.
Wednesday Night
South winds 5 to 15 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less. See Lake Erie Open Lakes forecast for Thursday through Saturday. The water temperature off Toledo is 67 degrees...off Cleveland 71 degrees and off Erie 71 degrees.
This is a good time to mention that our cruising will be very dependent on Mother Nature. We will be waiting for good weather windows for any off shore trips. I realize that we will at some point get caught in some less than desirable weather. I am hoping to put it off as long as possible. We are on Serenity now and even in our protected harbor it is rough. There are a lot of sailboats here and probably 30% of them have halyards (lines) slapping their masts. There is a constant banging/ringing noise. We are getting gusts to 30 knots at present. Very few people are here because of the weather. Serenity is constantly moving, and there is the sounds of lines stretching and waves slapping the hull. The motion is great, I have always loved being on a boat...there is just something peaceful about it...difficult to explain. Those of you who are "boat people" understand. We are very happy to be here tied to the dock, rather than out on the lake.
I have been told that this type of storm generally lasts for three days, with the first day being the worst, and typically end with a change in wind direction which would benefit us as we head northeast to Buffalo, New York. It is time to go...winter will be here soon. There is definitely a chill in the air. We went grocery shopping today and provisioned the boat for our trip. Shirl has done an amazing job of organizing and finding places to put things. I pretend to struggle with the chart plotter to stay out of her way...actually I am struggling with it a little. We will go home tomorrow for two days to take care of a few things, and then return to Lorain to head northeast on Serenity. The only things left to do here are to get the radar and AIS working, and install the Rogue Wave WiFi booster. I will install that while waiting for a weather window, either before we leave or during our trip. I am currently using my cell phone as a hot spot to post. Stay tuned... the adventure begins in a few days!
This is a good time to mention that our cruising will be very dependent on Mother Nature. We will be waiting for good weather windows for any off shore trips. I realize that we will at some point get caught in some less than desirable weather. I am hoping to put it off as long as possible. We are on Serenity now and even in our protected harbor it is rough. There are a lot of sailboats here and probably 30% of them have halyards (lines) slapping their masts. There is a constant banging/ringing noise. We are getting gusts to 30 knots at present. Very few people are here because of the weather. Serenity is constantly moving, and there is the sounds of lines stretching and waves slapping the hull. The motion is great, I have always loved being on a boat...there is just something peaceful about it...difficult to explain. Those of you who are "boat people" understand. We are very happy to be here tied to the dock, rather than out on the lake.
I have been told that this type of storm generally lasts for three days, with the first day being the worst, and typically end with a change in wind direction which would benefit us as we head northeast to Buffalo, New York. It is time to go...winter will be here soon. There is definitely a chill in the air. We went grocery shopping today and provisioned the boat for our trip. Shirl has done an amazing job of organizing and finding places to put things. I pretend to struggle with the chart plotter to stay out of her way...actually I am struggling with it a little. We will go home tomorrow for two days to take care of a few things, and then return to Lorain to head northeast on Serenity. The only things left to do here are to get the radar and AIS working, and install the Rogue Wave WiFi booster. I will install that while waiting for a weather window, either before we leave or during our trip. I am currently using my cell phone as a hot spot to post. Stay tuned... the adventure begins in a few days!
A nice shot of our view...windy, cloudy, and wet.
The windows in our dodger will be nice in cold weather.
The former owners of Serenity had a dinghy for sale...we needed one...so we purchased it. All we need now is an outboard motor. In the mean time we have oars. Here the "dink" is in her garage...more like a topless car port. Serenity came with dinghy davits, so we do not have to tow it or stow it on deck. I look forward to running the dink up on a beach!
This is the new radar and AIS I had installed. It is not working correctly yet, as the radar and AIS are not appearing on the Garmin Network. Mark from Parker Marine will check it out tomorrow. Hopefully it is an easy fix as we hope to leave this weekend or at least by Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love to hear from you...if you are having trouble leaving a comment please email us and let us know. Thanks, Ted and Shirl