Roger Long wrote:
Thanks guys, this is finally getting to the solid advice I was looking for.
I'll probably have to do some of this trip in the dark and I would hate to
hit a chunk of left over ice or a tree trunk. Even in the daytime, it would
be hard to see either. I'll plan on early June or a longer trip.

I wanted to add that one of the hardest passages I've had (my wife would
say "worst," but I enjoyed it too much to say that) was crossing Lake
Ontario from Whitby to Oswego in early June. This was our first long
cruise (the mast was down at that point) in our new catamaran.

We had planned to do the 110 miles as an overnight, but a major front
blew through. We did plan "B" - leave at 5AM - and discovered a bit too
late that is was blowing 25+ knots and there was a short chop, 6 to 8
feet, with some 10 footers. It was downwind, so forging on was a better
option than turning back. The first 50 miles took less than 6 hours -
at times we were surfing up to 13 knots - but in the middle of the lake
both engines died. We never figured out whether it was a dirty tank
from construction, or bad fuel, but the anti-siphon valves were clogged.
Going back and forth between the engines I could keep one going at
half speed with the manual fuel pump, but it was mostly windage and
waves that brought us the rest of the way, still doing over 6 knots.

The valves got replaced in Oswego, and we learned that a boat the tried
to do the reverse trip had come back in after the mast lashed on deck
had broken free and had to be wrestled into submission!

The moral is don't assume that because these are "lakes" they are always
benign.

On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:29:47 -0500, Jeff Morris
wrote:

The moral is don't assume that because these are "lakes" they are always
benign.

===================================

Absolutely right. The smaller great lakes like Erie and Ontario can
generate some ferocious short period waves, especially in shallower
water.