Days 41-42, July 28-29 -- Johnstown Harbor to St Peter and Lay Day There -- 11 NM

The wind was the same as on the last passage -- 20 to 30 knots apparent and on our nose. We beat half way under small jib and reefed main, but doused sails and motored back through the narrow inlet, where we took a mooring. The Lakes' season is in full swing and St. Peters marina is much more crowded than it was some three weeks ago, but just as friendly. We took a walk to town where the hardware store actually had the small short flat head phillips bolts needed to hold the swim platform door on its hinges. We took Bennett to see the canal, its lock, and the lighthouse, but this time went further out on the Atlantic beach where the colors of the rocks were so various and the driftwood so dramatic.

We had dinner at the Bras D'or Inn again, though this time there were six in our party. We were with Bennett and were joined by three Canadians: Michael, on his 35 foot C and C, and his two guests, Sally and Ian. Their young 49 foot Jenneau raised deck salon is in Florida. All three are from Winnipeg, which I'd never thought to be a sailing center. But I learned that Lake Winnepeg has the same square mileage as all of England and they are all experienced sailors. Mike crewed on a Saga 43 for an 8000 mile passage from South Africa to the Caribbean. Sally and Ian have just given up their land base in Winnepeg. Their travels, since last we met Michael here in St. Peters, was outside, in the Atlantic  to Sydney, before reentering the Lakes at their northern end and coming south through them to here. Good food and good companions.

After dinner we attended the last of three hours of the "Kitchen Party", a diverse group of about a dozen musicians who sat in a circle in the marina's kitchen and one at a time, around their circle, chose and played and sang a song which the others (and audience members) joined. Guitars, accordion harmonica, fiddle, recorder, a box drum; Sea shantys, folk songs, celtic tunes and pop tunes of the 50's. They were in their 50's to 70's, played for themselves and each other (audience less souls than the musicians) and the fun they had jamming was infectious.
In the morning Susan and Tom of Gypsy Soul finally came over and had the sweet potato-mango-blueberry pancakes with bacon that we had promised them way back in Shelburne. We dinked Bennett ashore and said farewell. He and Harriett may sail their Ohana from the Harlem up to Cape Cod in the final days of our cruise in September.
It was a  chores day: watering, fueling, cleaning, laundry, provisioning and cooking in anticipation for our departure from these lovely lakes.

A good weather window is forecast with good winds from the north and northeast, and we plan to make the most of it, leaving as soon as the locks open at eight in the morning and going as far as we can, and possibly overnight to Halifax in one day instead of four that we used coming up. It would mean missing some choice spots, especially the highly recommended Liscomb Lodge, but we don't get reprieves from the strong steady SW winds often around here so we have to make the most of it. Next time: Liscomb, unless the weather changes.