Cruise to Hamilton - July 2-4 2010

We were on the club cruise to the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club this past weekend. Weather was terrific through the whole weekend. The sail to Hamilton was uneventful. We filled the boat with diesel before leaving and had the wind on our bow most of the way so we motored a fair bit. It was our first trip to Hamilton by boat and going under the Burlington lift bridge was interesting. The bridge is raised every half hour and on the hour for pleasure boats to pass through. We missed the 2:30pm lift by 10 mins or so and had to hang around the channel waiting for the next lift at 3pm. At 3pm you hear some sirens and the traffic stops on the bridge. The bridge then raises slowly high enough for sailboats to pass under. It deceaving as it looks awfully close from down below. We stayed in Hamilton two nights and headed back to PCYC on Sunday. We met our friends Peter and Donna Howells on Cassis at the bridge and sailed through the channel together. It was a nice trip and we enjoyed the facilities of the club. The trip back was uneventful; We motored out into the lake a few miles to get a better angle for sail, put the sails up and tacked back to PCYC making 6-7kts. The wind was a steady 12kts and we saw gusts of over 20kts. A nice weekend.