Sackets Harbor

Sackets Harbor
N 43 56.937 W 076 07.246

We awoke this morning to a nice clear day. Not at all the torrential rain that had been forecast. That is not to say that the front didn't pass. About 0130 I awoke to the sound of fierce howling wind. It was blowing around 30 knots and raining too. I checked to see if the anchor was holding OK (it was) and went nervously back to sleep. In the morning, neither Nick nor Libby recalls hearing anything at all.

We thought that we would sail to Sackets Harbor to see about the military history. Nick is a big fan of local military history. Then, in the afternoon, we would continue to Cape Vincent.

The morning sail was pleasant and when we got here we found a spot at the town dock to tie up free. Sweet music to the ears of any cruiser is FREE DOCK. We walked around the town and toured the battlefield. The story of the battle of Sackets Harbor is a very interesting one. This place was the site of a furious shipbuilding effort during the war of 1812. The shipyard here could crank out new warships once every 80 days. Very impressive. No doubt the British, who had a near monopoly of war
ships on the great lakes, were impressed too and resolved to put a stop to it. They invaded by land with about 850 troops.

The short version of the story is that the invasion failed and the British retreated. The big unanswered question we have is that the British were supported by 6 ships with more than 98 cannon versus only one American ship. If those 6 ships had provided cover fire for the invasion, the result might have been different. Why didn't they?

After lunch we set out to sail to Cape Vincent. However we had to go 10 miles directly into a stiff 20-25 knot head wind. I put up the staysail and a single reefed main. We did very poorly, making only 3 to 3.5 knots speed and 1.5 to 2 knots made good. Bah humbug. I was additionally distracted by the topping lift which had fouled with the reefing line and broke. We were also passed by a sailboat flying only his genoa. He was doing 6 knots. We were both heeled 15-20 degrees. I'm not too
proud to say that I would appreciate some sailing lessons for how to make better progress to windward on a W32. I've never had trouble on previous boats we've owned, but I don't seem to get the hang of it well on Tarwathie. How about you W32 owners out there? Can you give me advice from remote locations?

Anyhow, back to the story. We tired of beating to windward and returned to Sackets Harbor for the rest of the day. This time we explored the village and I rode the bike to the store to buy Ramman Noodles for Nick. That is the one essential provision that we didn't have on board for him.