Friday 6/17 we had a perfect trip down the first section of the St Lawrence River moving from Cape Vincent to Clayton, New York. The sun was out, temperatures were perfect, seas were calm, everything was great. We pulled into the Clayton Harbor Municipal Marina and, after some confusion over our reservation, got settled at the end of the dock. The end of the dock is generally a nice assignment as it's longer and it's obviously super easy to get out of the marina.
We've been having a little trouble connecting with other cruisers who are heading on the same trip as ours. (there are so many variations of the Great Loop cruise that you can do). Maybe we're offending people; maybe we're wearing the wrong deoderant, but for whatever reason, we just haven't found a group of cruisers who are on the same schedule, the same itineary of the Great Loop as ours. When we pulled into Clayton, we were greated by three other couples who are cruising the same Great Loop schedule, and they quickly arranged some "docktails" - which are exactly what they sound like. It felt good to finally meet a bunch of cruisers who are headed in our direction, but as we broke off the docktails around 7 PM the winds were continuing to build. We headed out for dinner at one of several nice restaurants before shutting down at 10 PM.
While the winds built throughout the afternoon and evening, we were protected by a nice breakwall and a couple of large boats. The end of the dock was still a pretty nice spot. We checked the lines and fenders and headed to bed. At 11 PM the wind clocked about 30 degrees, and we were no longer protected from the breakwall and the big boats. What was a favorable off-dock breeze with good protection became a rather unfavorable on-dock breeze with a two mile distance of open water for some nice waves to build up. The end of the dock was no longer a nice place to be.
We got up to secure the lines and check the fenders. The bow was arching into the dock and coming dangerously close to one of the electrical stanchions so we secured a second line to the stern to draw the stern in and keep the bow out. We also removed a massive metal bracket from the stanchion that was trying to gouge a hole in Egret. We were not having fun. The marina is part of a hotel and Roger actually proposed getting a room for the night. The proposal was met with absolute silence. The hours from 11 PM to 1 AM were spent bouncing around in the main cabin and listening for any new ominous sounds. We gave Millie a half dose of Melatonin, and she was extended a rare invitation to join us in bed. By 1:30 AM the wind had calmed down just enough to allow us to get to sleep. These are the kind of nights that make the calm, star-filled nights seem that much more special.
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