Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Seeking the Shelter of a Twisting Bay

At the tip Presqu’ile Provincial Park there is a tall white lighthouse that leads mariners from the open lake into the sheltered waters of Presqu’ile Bay. It was strange to be rounding this point because this was the last time we would be on unsheltered Lake Ontario.
We were about to take a historic route that was carved through the land to provide ships safe passage through the Murray Canal into the Bay of Quinte, thereby avoiding the treacherous waters of the eastern end of Lake Ontario.
Small victories are encouraging as we work toward a goal that has been far on the horizon for 3 years. The remarkably straight course of the Murray Canal delivered us into Trenton. Over the next few days we enjoyed the Bay and shared the waters with a multitude of other boaters as there was a fishing tournament that weekend.
The shelter we expected to find was elusive as the winds that funnel and create interesting sailing conditions often made our progress difficult but the scenery and our sense of impending conclusion drew us forward to see what was around the next bend of the twisting bay.