June 15, 2021, Tuesday, Home in Cuyahoga Falls

I could hear the waves slating against the hull when I woke up, indicating that the breeze had picked up. The boat was pointing North when I got up to check. All this confirmed my suspicion that we would have a rolling trip home, and that we should be leaving sooner rather than later..

I decided to have a couple cups of coffee and post the blog update. The generator ran fine with no water intake issues. Then I planned to pack up the kayak, cook the two leftover hamburgers for lunch on the way home, get Kerry up and split. All was going to plan until Jimbo called while I was packing up the kayak. He said he figured I would be staying another day. I asked why. He said because of the 7' waves on the lake. What? Not yet he said, but forecast for the afternoon. 

Well, his call gave me a greater sense of urgency. I skipped the hamburgers and went directly to getting Kerry up. She popped out of bed really fast when I told her why. In a short time she had the boat packed to travel - plants stored safely, windows closed, etc. I had the engine warming and decided to start pulling the anchor. That turned out to be a major job because of the seaweed attached to our anchor and chain. It took forever to get rid of it. Normally this is a annoying job, but it was particularly frustrating as I was anxious to get moving. Both of us used boat hooks to clear the mess. Kerry finished cleaning with the washdown pump.

Kerry suggested that we speed home faster than normal, which seemed like a real good idea to me. Going out the channel we were going directly into the waves from the lake and Annie was rising and falling as we motored through them. Once in the lake the ride was better than expected. I ran Annie's diesel at 2200 rpm, much faster than normal. We averaged 11.8 knots underway, hitting 15.4 at one time surfing with a wave. The waves were coming from our rear quarter, and with our speed the rolling was not bad. Occasionally we would get a larger than normal wave and roll, which would get an "whoa" from the horizontal crew. Environment Canada issued a high wind warning as we were traveling. I was sure glad we left early. I think the waves were 2-3 feet with an occasional 4' one.

We arrived at VYC at 11:20. We pumped out the head and pulled into a finger dock instead of our normal dock. Dredging is scheduled to happen as soon as weather conditions permit and our dock is in the soon to be dredged area. Kerry suggested that we go to Rudy's for lunch after the boat was packed up, then head home. I thought this was a splendid idea. We asked our friend Doug Gormley to go with us so we had a fun lunch, the three of us sitting around a corner of Rudy's bar. The lake was really kicking up as we drove out.

All in all, it was a great long weekend for us at East Harbor. Kevin and Alice thanked us for introducing it to them, stating they would soon return. We loved it just as much as last year, although the seaweed was a pretty big negative that we did not have to deal with as much last year.