Oswego to Clayton

Along this long voyage there have been days that marked a milestone, a sense of achievement and progress. Today was one of those days. We crossed Lake Ontario.

We waited for the right day to get it done. Big water and any kind of weather can be troublesome. I'm all for no troubled waters. The forecast for the day looked wonderful early, with winds picking up around noon. Our solution was to get a crazy early start to make the crossing.

We were up at 5 am. Lines were dropped at 6. We reached Clayton by 1 pm.

Out patience and timing paid off. The water was placid. 

We only had one adventure on the day. About half way through the lake I handed over the helm to Russ and went to the galley to make us a snack. I cut up some peaches and toasted up some potato knishes. When I came back with the food I saw a very zig-zag path in the water behind us. "What did you do?" I asked Russ. He said that, for some reason, the boat just turned left and he corrected it. 

Calm waters ahead of us

About two hours later I again handed the helm to Russ to go make us some sandwiches; vegan meat, cheese slices, tomato, onion, mustard, and mayo, all on toasted bread. While in the middle of this I hear the engines shut off fully and the boat stopped. I raced to the helm to see what was the matter and Russ said, "I don't get it. This boat hates me. You leave and it makes a hard turn to the left." We were in shallower waters, so straying was not a good idea. "Are you using the microwave?" he asked.

"No. But I am using the toaster." As I did earlier. A-ha.

Calm waters behind us

This is a new toaster, a bigger toaster, that probably draws a fair amount of power. And our auto-pilot uses an electric compass. Russ suspects that the toaster's electricity is creating a magnetic field that is interfering with our compass/pilot, confusing our location.

We will investigate further. We'll also turn off the pilot when I'm using the toaster.