Hunter 23 Lake Ontario Crossing

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gfroch

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Jun 5, 2004
73
Catalina 30 Rochester, NY
Everyone keeps mentioning sackets. We're definitely going to try to stop there on the way back.

I was on Dulcinea, Eric Mattson's Macgreggor 36. That boat is a BLAST. It's hard to get excited about 5 knots after crewing on his boat:)
Well, you are probably well on your way. We waived to you on your way in from the Bonnet and then on the way out a couple hours later, presumably on the return to P'ville. We were on our way out for a sail when you were coming in and on our way in when you were going out. Have known Eric many years since we were in PYC. We loved P'ville.
 
Jul 14, 2010
37
Hunter 23 Pultneyville
Well, you are probably well on your way. We waived to you on your way in from the Bonnet and then on the way out a couple hours later, presumably on the return to P'ville. We were on our way out for a sail when you were coming in and on our way in when you were going out. Have known Eric many years since we were in PYC. We loved P'ville.

Nice! I'm really enjoying Pultneyville too.

So as I sit here in the boat in Alexandria bay, here is a synopsis of the trip so far:

-Attempted to leave Pultneyville on Friday in 4-5 foot waves. Not soo good. We turned around and headed back into the harbor after take a few to the beam that really knocked us down good.
-got up at 445am on Saturday, motored out, set sail, and set the autopilot. Arrived at Oswego about 7 hours later. It was that easy. Perfect heading, amazing day.
-The new autiller mount I build cracked half way, so I got a hose clamp to fix it while we were docked in Oswego.
-forcast was 1-2 foot waves for Sunday and I woke up at 430am and set out of the harbor. At first the 2 foot waves on the lake were alot to handle, but after a little while we got really comfortable, put up the jib, and sailed about maybe 25 miles on the jib alone. The wind died down and we put up the main. Then the wind really died and we started motoring. It was amazing to see Galoo island and then the st lawrence river. We decided to try to make it to wellsely island state park, since it was only 3 o clock when we entered the St Lawrence. When we gave them a call they didn't have any open docks, so we decided to stay that night at canoe point state park on Grindstone Island. Nearly a 70 mile day! We sailed directly downwind with the current in the St Lawrence at 6.5 knots. It was amazing! Unreal! Navigation is tricky though, no doubt about it.
-On Monday, we motored over to Wellsely Island State Park, and helped my friend put the mast up on his Ericson 25 in the parking lot. He has a giant Gin hoist he made out of 2x4s that allowed us to raise the mast without the use of a pivoting tabernacle. The Ericson is a pretty trick boat. 6500 lbs, and only 2 feet of draft with the keel up.
-We tried to motor over and anchor a few places but the wind picked up to 20+ and it wasn't any fun, so we stayed at canoe point again.
-Tuesday we went out for a sail on the Ericson 25, since it was the first time my friend was sailing it, we wanted to have a full crew so we could handle the sails, ESPECIALLY in the thousand islands where there is rocks and shoals everywhere.
-Wednesday we headed over to Alexandria Bay and docked for the night, where we watched fireworks and chaos ensued.

That's all for now, hopefully more adventure to come.
 
Jul 26, 2010
140
Hunter 23 South Haven, MI
Grindz145.... where are the pictures? :) Sounds like an amazing trip so far!
 
Jul 14, 2010
37
Hunter 23 Pultneyville
Grindz145.... where are the pictures? :) Sounds like an amazing trip so far!
Sorry, Here are some pictures from my phone. I have a ton of gopro footage that I'll eventually make into a video of some sort.

I didn't get footage of the hairier events, just because I was too busy draining the blood from my knuckles while holding on to the tiller for dear life.... okay it wasn't that bad.

so continuing on

-Thursday we headed out from the public docks in A-Bay and cruised down the st lawrence river to Sand Bay, between Clayton and Cape Vincent. It was pretty choppy from all the freighters and other powerboats, even though there wasn't any weather. I really wanted to sail, but the channel is so narrow I didn't bother. We anchored in sand bay in about 10 feet of water and put out boats together powerboater style :). We hung out there for hours, but then took off and spent the night at Cedar Point state park, where they have a really nice sheltered harbor. There wasn't a whole lot of water there, but that's the beauty of 2' draft.

-Friday we headed out at 5am intending to make the passage over the lake back to Oswego. We made a stop in Cape Vincent for breakfast and and to fuel up the gas tanks. I love that little town, and I wish we had stayed. We headed out of the channel (I think I may have even seen another Hunter 23?) and headed toward galoo island. It quickly became apparent that I was not going to make it across. Winds were coming due south and it made it very hard to make progress, even motoring. The waves werent huge but they were just the right frequency and shape to make it difficult to go the direction we wanted to. We crashed through the waves for a while, before setting a more agreeable course towards stony island. We threw anchor there in a somewhat protected bay for the night. There were several other cruising sailboats who did the same thing later. Probably ~40 foot boats. They did not bob around as much as we did :) We obsessively listened to the weather radio and texted friends for weather updates (no data signal here). There were thunderstorms and a quick moving cold front in the forecast. I didn't sleep very good, because I constantly got up to check the anchor, even though I have an app on my phone which was supposed to alarm if we dragged the anchor enough. We didn't, but I was excited to get moving again.

-Saturday we woke woke up to my alarm at 3:30 am, pitch black, I pulled up the anchor and headed out while my fiance slept (typical for this trip with average 5am take offs) :) I navigated by GPS, deptsounder, and a few anchor lights from several sailboats around Galloo and stony island. We unfortunately did not even put out sails up all the way home, becuase the weather was just not terribly agreeable. We motored the 30 miles of open lake, (while listening to my favorite radio station WBER, from ~80 miles away in Rochester), and arrived in the Oswego Harbor at 9:30am, just as it started to pour. We got setup with our dock and setup the boom-tent. It didnt rain terribly long in the end, but little did we know there was some solid red- nasty storms on the radar out in the lake. we made it just in time. We enjoyed the day in Oswego, but after being on that relatively small boat for over 26 hours, we were ready to get home.

-Sunday (today) we set out at 5am from Oswego, and by we I mean me, with my fiance asleep until about 6 or so :) The waves were not very agreeable this morning either, average was only about 1-2 feet, but we would get some 3-4 foot rollers every once and a while that did not make it comfortable. We motored the 35 miles back to pultneyville in about 5.5 hours, which was pretty fast considering I have to turn 90 degrees off-course to contend with larger waves every 10 minutes or so, and we didn't fly any sails. I was very happy to be on land again after arriving in pultneyville harbor.

Comments:I have a love-hate relationship with the 5hp Nissan outboard. It is a fantastic design, never really pops out of the water except for really big waves, runs terrific, super reliable, and crazy fuel efficient (we averaged upwards of 15mpg while motoring ~1.5 hours / gallon) but goddamnit, that thing is loud. We had to wear earplug while motoring, unless just idleing it with the sails up. I also need an external fuel tank, becuase I keep having to watch the clock, and for safety, I fill up every hour. When in 3 foot waves, it really starts to be a chore reaching the gas tank over the back of the boat. I'm happy the thing is super-reliable though and (knock on wood) I haven't even had to replace or clean the sparkplug yet. Not bad for a 2-stroke.

The boat sails really well. I've sailed it maybe 200-300 miles so far, but another couple hundred with open water sailing, has provided me with some more insight. I find that in higher winds she really sails just fine with the jib alone. No sense overpowering this thing with only 800 lbs ballast. Having a shallow draft is really slick too. I know alot of hardcore sailers will take stability over draft any day, and after this trip I really understand why, but being able to dock in a slip normally reserved for a small fishing boat is such an amazing adventure tool that I have to love that feature. It allowed us tons of flexibility. I really have to get the auto-reefing line setup. It wasn't setup when I bought the boat and I realized over time what it was for. That setup is going to be sick, because reefing is a pain in the ass, especially with the slider setup on my mast. You shouldn't have to reconfigure those to reef.

Also, as an aside, my solar panel setup it wicked. Having a 20W panel and a 115ah battery was perfect for charging tablets, computers, phones, running nav lights, and even a fan. I average about 8-12Ah a day with the setup, and it's really not optimized. I figure that even with variable sun I could fully charge the 1.4kWh battery in like 15-20 days, which sounds like alot, but it means I don't have to charge the battery off of shore power unless doing a week+ long trip. Which is rare. It would be nice to have a charging unit from the motor, but in the end it will only eat away efficiency from the motor, so solar is the way to go.

Hope someone enjoys my account of the trip anyway :)

PS: TOTAL MILEAGE : ~280mi in ~10 days. Not bad for the first big trip with the boat!
 

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Apr 19, 1999
1,670
Pearson Wanderer Titusville, Florida
Well, I just noticed that you're already there, so this may be too late, but what the hey...

If you're concerned about the through-hulls, plug them from the outside with cotton rags. Keep a couple of spares in case you lose one on the way. I wouldn't use wooden plugs. They're made to plug bronze or Marelon through-hulls from the INSIDE and absorb water and swell to resist being pushed in. The plastic H23 through-hulls become brittle with age and may crack under the pressure. You can seal the anchor locker doors using pieces of closed-cell foam or neoprene AC line insulation or rolled canvas (painters drop-cloth from Home Depot). Tie a line across the bow cleats to hold the anchor locker doors shut.

A manual bilge pump would be useful if the boat gets knocked down and water comes over the cockpit coaming, especially if you've plugged the cockpit drain. One of those inexpensive vertical stroke pumps should be good.

My concern would be the sails. The stock H23 mainsail has only one reef point, which is not enough sail reduction for a trip like this. If the wind pipes up (summer thunderstorm or squall) you may have to douse the main and sail under jib alone to avoid being kocked down (don't ask me how I know this). Make sure your genoa car can be moved far enough forward to maintain proper trim under reduced sail. You could add a second reef point to the main, which means you have to rig a second reefing line. Make sure all your running rigging (especially sheaves) runs freely and the standing rigging is in good shape. Check chainplate bulkheads for wear and rot.

Of course, good safety gear (harness, PFD, jackline) and rain gear. For summer sailing I prefer a wide-brimmed hat and a long one-piece raincoat instead of a two-piece rain suit with hood or foul-weather gear. MUCH easier to put on and take off, much cooler and still keeps you dry.

Have a good trip....dang, you're already there!
 
Jul 26, 2010
140
Hunter 23 South Haven, MI
I'm impressed! It looks like you have the same Nissan 5HP engine that I had when I got my Hunter 23. Yes it's reliable and it sips fuel... but wow does it suck in waves. I upgraded to a Honda 8HP 4 stroke and it's SOOO much quieter and it will push the H23 through 6ft chop without much effort. Your trip looks fantastic! A lot of the local boaters in my marina think I'm crazy even going into Lake Michigan with a 23' sailboat, but you make trips from port to port look a lot more do-able!
 
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Kivalo

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Jun 5, 2011
116
Hunter 260 Owasco Lake
Great photos, Grindz! Not gonna lie, I'm am pretty envious of you right now. Enjoy man!

BTW, did you bring the dog with you?


Brad
s/v KIVALO
 
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