Bay of Quinte

Tuesday, May 31 2005

Bonnie wanted to make an early start on her drive home, so we were up and loading the car by 7:00AM. I showered (I'm learning to never pass up a chance for a hot shower), and was headed out of the harbor by 7:45.

The Lake was flat as a mill pond, there was no breeze and slightly overcast. I settled in for a long day. Its a bit more than 70 miles from Kingston to Trenton, all in sheltered water, first behind Amherst Island, then behind Pince Edward County, creating a long narrow bay.

Today was an important test for me- I ran 9.2 hours without a stop. I will have to do 3 or 4 days like this on Lake Huron and Lake Erie and I'm still trying to decide if I really want to do that. Today was fine, I enjoyed the ride, kept busy doing several boat chores, and was still enjoying the ride at the end of it. I guess I can make it all the way around.

I do have a couple boat problems. The Autopilot will not hold a steady course, it swings rather wildly. I fiddled with adjustments for a long time and finally got it to an acceptable level, but its still not right. I also belive the rudder position sensor is not working. I tried to call Raymarine on the cell, and got the usual menu of options, followed by a recording that the que was curently 20 minutes. I think it will work well enough for the Lake Huron run.

I've also got a cloged fuel line between the starboard tank and the T. I had been noticing that it looked like we used more fuel on the port tank, but since I only ran short times the connecting line would equalize the two tanks every stop. Today with 8 Hours non-stop it was clear- the port tank was bouncing on empty, while starboard was holding steady at half. I opened the engine hatch while running and checked the valves and they are set correctly. There must be a clog in one line. I can't wait to get into opening those conections and looking for a diesel clog.

I made my first fuel stop at Bellville for CDN$ 194.97, for 197.5 liters. Thats 52.2 gals, and a total engine time of 28.9 hours, or about 1.8 gal/hr. That is just about what I expected.

I have been running about 2300 rpm, making about 9.2-9.4 MPH. At that speed the engine sounds fine, there is no vibration, its not unpleassnatly lound, and all seems well.

A few miles west of Kingston I passed this large industrial site. Notice how flat the water is.

A bit further along is this large power plant. I steered on their stacks for a long time. Water is still flat.

The chart says this is a cable ferry, but I couldn't get close enought to see the cable. It did not appear to be making any prop wash.

The entrance to Trenton has this bridge with the legend "Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway".
I got to Trenton about 3:45, and by then it was blowing quite hard, almost on the nose. I was pleased at the Albins performance, it didn't seem to knock off the speed to any significant ammount, and it plowed thrugh the waves with a minimum of disturbance. It did throw some water on to the windshield.
On the next long runs I'm going to try to be underway at dawn, and into a harbor by 3:00PM.

This old railway bridge is just above Trenton. I anchored near it in a very quiet spot for the night, even though a couple frieght trains crossed the bridge.

I tried to get into the lock, but I arrived at 4:10 and the last lockage was at 4:00PM. I had a tought time getting turned arund in front of the lock, then headed back to town for a walk.
I moved out an anchored near the Railway bridge and spent a quiet evening working on my web log and reading some of the guide books for the next days run.

Back to the Trip Log

	A few miles west of Kingston I passed this large industrial site. Notice how flat the water is.
	A bit further along is this large power plant. I steered on their stacks for a long time. Water is still flat.
	The chart says this is a cable ferry, but I couldn't get close enought to see the cable. It did not appear to be making any prop wash.
	The entrance to Trenton has this bridge with the legend "Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway". I got to Trenton about 3:45, and by then it was blowing quite hard, almost on the nose. I was pleased at the Albins performance, it didn't seem to knock off the speed to any significant ammount, and it plowed thrugh the waves with a minimum of disturbance. It did throw some water on to the windshield. On the next long runs I'm going to try to be underway at dawn, and into a harbor by 3:00PM.
	This old railway bridge is just above Trenton. I anchored near it in a very quiet spot for the night, even though a couple frieght trains crossed the bridge.
	I tried to get into the lock, but I arrived at 4:10 and the last lockage was at 4:00PM. I had a tought time getting turned arund in front of the lock, then headed back to town for a walk. I moved out an anchored near the Railway bridge and spent a quiet evening working on my web log and reading some of the guide books for the next days run.