| Vol 2 - Issue 8 | July/August 1998 |
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Beach Cruising Lake Ontario on a Hobie Wave by Bill Kosar |
Jenny Y Kosar
The adventure was simple - to sail from Burlington Beach at the western tip of Lake Ontario to Kingston, at the eastern tip of Lake Ontario and entrance to St. Lawrence River (as well as being the site of CORK) a distance of some 200 miles.
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Preparations and equipment was equally quite simple. The vessel, a 1995 Hobie Wave with a jib. The upgrades over the "stock" Wave were increased shroud thickness, hiking tiller extension and 6 inch inspection ports with "fat bags". As well, we had sewn a 2 inch reflective tape on both sides of the main sail.
For navigation equipment, we carried a Davis hand held compass and charts for the north shore of Lake Ontario in a waterproof chart bag as well as a grease pencil and ruler. Electronics consisted simply of a Motorola flip cellular phone with a charger (which we would use when staying ashore). We considered purchasing a VHF, but the advice we had received was that, the police in this part of the world can respond a lot quicker to a 9-1-1 call on a cell phone than they could to a Channel 16 distress call. Provisions were also rather simple: several water bottles, filled before we left, and refilled during the trip, several packages of orange Kool-Aid and water purification tablets. As it was our intention to eat breakfast and dinner ashore, our food consisted of several dried salami chubs, several pounds of cheddar cheese, crackers in waterproof bags, some granola bars, apples, carrots and celery sticks. Although we had planned to stay in hotels, we also packed a dome tent, two air mattresses and two thermal reflective blankets. Clothing consisted of bathing suits, wetsuits and spray gear. Dry clothes were kept in a SealLine dry duffle bag. Saturday, August 16, 1997; 6:20 a.m. Weather forecast: Storm warning in effect for Lake Ontario. Hot humid day predicted, winds from the west at 11 knots per hour with gusts. Temperature 20° C (68° F). Thunderstorms predicted for late in the day and for Sunday. 6:50 a.m. arrival at Burlington Beach Catamaran Club (Hobie Fleet #441) |
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7:40 a.m.: We are underway! No wind at this time but it appears that past the Burlington Canal, the wind will be blowing at 8 knots. We will be steering a course of 060N to Ontario Place, which is a theme park at the western entrance to Toronto Harbour. The beacon being the large white geodesic dome containing an IMAX film theater.
We stopped for lunch on the beach just outside Etobicoke Yacht Club. After about an hour of eating, and drying ourselves out and draining the hulls, we were underway again across Humber Bay and around the outside of Toronto Island.
By about 5:00 p.m. the swells had increased to 10 feet, we were about 3 miles offshore and it was starting to blow. Soon there was lightning. The forecasted thunderstorm had arrived as predicted. We made a beeline for the beach at Scarborough Bluffs and spent about an hour there deciding on whether we should make camp there for the night or to press on to the next harbour, Frenchman's Bay. | 
Jenny Y Kosar |
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We headed out once again and decided to sail back west about 2 or 3 miles to the Bluffer's Park Marina hoping to find a slip (we had brought fenders) and find a nearby hotel. After going from one yacht club to the next, we noticed several catamarans pulled up on the lawn at Scarborough Bluffs Sailing Club. We introduced ourselves to several of the members who were having a barbeque and asked if we could use their washrooms, keep our boat there and use their phone to call for a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel. We were informed that the nearest hotels rented rooms by the hour(!) and were not the type of place that decent people stay. After having been fed by the club members we were invited to spend the night at the club (provided we told no one!)
Sunday, August 17, 1997 We left Scarborough Bluffs Sailing Club at approximately 8:00 a.m. after tearing apart all of our bags in the Club. I lost my hand held Dictaphone containing my log. We woke at approximately 6:50 a.m. showered and ate a breakfast of buns and coffee which we found on the premises. We were warned that the Scarborough Bluffs wreaked havoc with the wind so we went out a mile or more. It was a cold cloudy day with wind gusting 15 to 20 knots. One lesson we decided on was that the next time we do this we should be wearing dry suits instead of wet suits! We stopped for lunch at we believe was Thomas Point (just below the General Motors factory in Oshawa.) We departed there hoping to make Newcastle. We must have looked quite a sight coming ashore - wet suits, sailing boots and colourful spray suits, one of the locals asked where we were from; I responded "Mars", without missing a beat! The kid did not hang around long after that! At around 3:00, the sun came out a bit, the winds shifted and then died. At this point, we were within sight of Ontario Hydro's Darlington Nuclear Generating station. Luckily, a sailor from Oshawa Yacht Club on a C & C 29 named "Hilda" came out and offered to tow us back to Oshawa. We told him that we were heading east and with very little persuasion, the skipper agreed to tow us into Port Darlington. In the meantime, he towed us right through the "no sail zone" in front of the reactor. Apparently, the cooling towers discharged there and created dangerous eddies. We kept looking over our shoulders for the Ontario Provincial Police who have been known to ticket boats. We arrived at Port Darlington after 4:00 and registered at the Port Darlington Marina Hotel where we also had dinner. We had previously phoned for a reservation from our cell phone in the middle of the Lake. After dinner, we needed to purchase some additional provisions and we were going to walk into the Town of Bowmanville. Eric, the owner of the hotel offered us the use of his bicycles. It must have been over 2 miles to get to the 7-11 where we purchased chocolate bars and apples. Monday, August 18, 1997 We left Port Darlington at approximately 8:00 a.m. with a breakfast consisting of some crackers and an apple. The restaurant was not open for breakfast. Luckily, it was a beautiful sunny day and the winds were good. By 11:30, despite the strong winds, we were not making progress. We drained the hulls and had lunch on a deserted beach around Chrysler Point. There was no one around for miles! We imagined for a moment we were in the Bahamas. |
 Lawry Ellis | We left again at about 2:00 and sailed to the Port Hope Yacht Club. Along the way we saw hundreds of migrating monarch butterflies heading into shore. We stayed at the Port Hope Yacht Club where Lawry changed into street clothes and walked to the Canadian Tire purchasing epoxy and silicone to fix the leaking port hatch and buy some provisions for that night. |
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We left Port Hope Yacht Club around 4:30 and ran into some great waves and winds. We must have been averaging over 10 knots with following seas of 6 to 7 feet. We passed at the Cobourg lighthouse about 5:30 and sailed until about 6:20. Unfortunately, my eyes were giving out at this point in time and Lawry advised that it takes several hours to make a camp. We stopped just past Lucas Point about a mile or two past the GE Plastics plant. There was a narrow gravel shore with clay banks approximately 15 feet high. There was also a wooded area.
Since there was not much between Cobourg and Brighton - we made camp about 5 miles east of Cobourg. The sail from Port Hope Harbour to our campsite was probably the best sailing we had had in the 3 days. We would have loved to have kept going but there was nothing beyond there. We had noticed a lot of boats having difficulty making headway in the waves which were in excess of 6 feet. Tuesday, August 20, 1997 I slept for the very first time in my life in a tent. I hated it! I kept slipping off of the air mattress and out of the tent. I had a difficult time sleeping and finally went out at around 4:00 a.m. in the morning. The moon was so bright you would have thought it was daylight. Indeed it cast a strong moon shadow. I could probably read a book by the moonlight. I paced the beach back and forth for several hours phoning the office and my wife at around 4:55 a.m. in the morning from my cell phone. I then watched the sun rise over Chubb Point at 6:28 a.m. in the morning. However, just before then I saw a number of water fowl including some great blue heron. Indeed, one landed within 15 feet of me, noticed I was there and then took off. |
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I felt like hell and resolved to never sleep overnight in a tent again! (notwithstanding the fact that I like the bonfire on the beach where we roasted hot dogs and the beauty and serenity of the place). There must be a better way of doing this!
I woke up Lawry at around 6:50 a.m. and I started another fire to warm up. |
W.E. Kosar |
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I was frozen! Lawry explained that if I had had a sleeping bag and was warmer, I would not have had difficulty sleeping.
We finally left at about 8:30 arriving at the beach in Cobourg, just east of Cobourg Harbour at around 10:45. After there, I walked to Victoria Park to phone the office and to use a real live washroom and try to find a place where that might be more appropriate to take the boat apart. We had landed, in front of the Breakers Hotel in Cobourg. I had pretended not to notice the sign that says that it was against the local by-law to launch or retrieve a watercraft. I had found a volunteer officer of the Cobourg Police and asked him about it. He said that when he was a policeman, (he is retired now), he said it was only against the law if someone caught you doing it. He did not expect anyone to complain. On the way back, I walked along the beach, and saw my very first topless sun bather! (It has been legal in Ontario for the past several years for woman to go topless in public places.) I was surprised to find someone like that in conservative little Cobourg! This sunbather was attractive and with her boyfriend. She really did not need to expose herself for attention like I imagine a lot of topless woman would! We finally had the boat apart by at about 12:15 and up on the shore beside the Breaker's Hotel at the end of Peter Street (just south of Bay). |
 W.E. Kosar | We decided earlier in the day to sail back to Cobourg instead of going onto Lakeport (which is not even on some maps.) The winds in the morning were very light and even if we had made it to Lakeport by 12:00-12:30 I may have been unlikely for our boat to have been retrieved and have a ride to drive close enough to the Lake to pick us up. |
At least I had achieved my psychological goal of sailing past Port Hope within three days. Jeff Glenn from the Burlington Catamaran Club told me that several years ago that he had tried to sail to Kingston in his Hobie 16 and only got as far Port Hope after 4 days when he called it quits. In retrospect, we believe that if we had decided not to call it a day at noon Tuesday in order to be home, we would probably have made it to Presq'ile Point by the end of the day. Looking at the charts, it would probably have been advantageous to take the long way around into the Lake around Prince Edward County as we would not have had to contend with the 4 mile long Murray Canal. Further, I suspect that the winds through the inner route would have been very shifty and probably light going to the narrowness. This notwithstanding the fact that a client in Long Beach was expecting us. If we kept going, we would probably had reached our goal of Kingston by Saturday. We were both very pleased and thoroughly enjoyed our sailing expedition. Next year, we are going to sail from Collingwood to the end of Manitoulin Island and maybe the year after that James Bay from Moosonee north! Bill Kosar MKane17161@aol.com © Copyright William E. Kosar, 1998 Back to Features |