By Michael McGoldrick
Many sailors find their first overnight anchorage on their own boat a captivating experience and a pivotal moment on their way to becoming cruisers.
I remember well our first overnight anchorage on Lake Champlain in the early 1980s. My wife and I were the proud owners of a brand new 20 footer. Our total experience consisted of five or six weekends of day sailing, most of which involved trying to figure out how to use the equipment on our boat. But come hell or high water, we were going cruising on our new boat. We took our vacations in early July and pushed off for a week long cruise.
As we departed, our first task was to decide where we would be going to anchor that night. In those days, there were no cruising guides for this body of water. We knew there were no good overnight anchorages in the vicinity of our home port. Moreover, the sailors we got to know in our corner of the marina all had small boats, and few seemed to have any more cruising experience than we did. Basically, we were on our own in trying to decide where we should go.
We looked at the chart and relied on whatever general knowledge we had acquired by reading various books and magazines. We picked a small bay that seemed to be within striking distance and which appeared to offer protection from the winds forecasted for that night. However, we had no idea whether this was a popular spot, or if it was even suitable for an overnight anchorage.
The familiar waters around our home port grew more distant as we sailed south on Lake Champlain, and finally disappeared from view behind some land formation. We had now sailed far! A little later in the day, we passed the point of no return, meaning we couldn’t get back to our marina before night fall. We were now committed to spending our first night at anchor.
As we approached our selected anchorage, we noticed it was a little more off the beaten track than we expected. And it was perhaps a bit shallower than we thought, although this was not going to be a problem with our 20 footer. The good news was that we had the whole bay to ourselves. The bad news was that we were left wondering why no one lese was anchoring in the area.
It was getting late in the day, so didn’t have the option of second guessing our decision about the bay by looking for another anchorage. We dropped the hook which quickly dug in. We had a self-congratulatory cocktail (a cold beer), and then settled in for our first real cruising meal. It wasn’t too fancy, but it tasted great. Sitting in the cockpit looking at all the stars that were so clear from our vantage point in our dark little anchorage was a relaxing way to spend the evening.
We slept surprisingly well that night. The only noise we heard was the small thumping sounds of fish (or frogs?) bumping into the fiberglass hull of our boat. The few times I woke up and checked, the wind was dead clam, as is often the case during summer nights in this part of North America. In terms of protection from wind and waves, we could have anchored almost anywhere that night. In the morning, we woke up well rested and were ready to continue on our cruise. In other words, our first anchorage was a very uneventful success. But something important happened for us; we went from being day sailors to being cruisers.
Our destination for the second day turned out to be one of the more popular spots on Lake Champlain. Afterwards, we fell into a pattern of sailing to some of the better known anchorages on that body of water, and we gained a lot of experience over the next couple of days. Although we were still beginners at the end of our cruise, the magic of our first overnight anchorage was already behind us.
Our story about our first overnight anchorage is probably very similar to that of thousands of other sailors. But people just starting off on the Ottawa River in the Ottawa area do have a few advantages.
The anchorages on this part of the Ottawa River are well known and easy to identify, and there are a few cruising guides available on the Internet. CYA courses such as Basic Cruising and Intermediate Cruising offered by the Ottawa Sailing School can provide people with the necessary skills and knowledge. For people who would like to start off cruising in company of other boats, the local yacht and sailing clubs usually organize events where a group of boats cruise the River together. These events are a great way to meet people, make friends, and learn from sailors with more experience.
Michael McGoldrick’s web site about cruising the Ottawa River can be found at:
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