Trip LogsTrip Logs
Below are details of the voyages that Captain Murph has undertaken. There are fiv
e entries per page, just scroll down (maybe a LOT) or enter a search word(s) to the right. These Trip Logs are in reverse chronological order.
Kelly IV is in her Current Location.
Click Here to follow the track of Kelly IV's 2011 cruise of 2,500 nautical miles from Erie, PA to Warwick, RI. Click each image to get the next one. For a review of various facts or notes on Kelly IV's 2011 Cruise click here.
For the action packed Delivery of 2010 through 8 foot waves and 30 knot winds across 140 nm of Lake Erie, click here.
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Dodging Thunderstorms as We Sail Lake Erie Sunday, 02 January 2011 00:27 |   
July 22, 2005 Last weekend our plans to sail to Conneaut, Ohio, got changed by the weather. Instead of facing a long, hot day of motoring, we decided to sail off Erie and were encouraged by Tim and Amanda Sample. They are budding students of sail and were excited to learn more. Well, they got more than we expected! Saturday was mostly light winds until mid afternoon. Kevin Wells proved to be a great instructor in addition to being his always enjoyable crew member. Unfortunately, Nancy was unable to join us as she was working at camp through the weekend. Tim and Amanda took turns sailing Kelly III under full main and 150 Genoa jib. While we were about 4 miles offshore, an onshore thunderstorm formed, did its thing and blew away. As the “know-it-all” skipper, I proclaimed we had dodged the weather and would be able to enjoy the balance of the day with more light air sailing. Well, the storm gods decided differently. Just a few minutes later, Kevin pointed out three (yes 3) thunderheads that were building up simultaneously! In less than 30 minutes we had one storm inshore of us, another storm offshore of us, and a third storm chasing us down the lake! Being surrounded by storms made it easy to decide to drop the sails and motor for home! Fortunately, only the storm that chased us actually caught us. While it did dump multiple buckets of cold water on us, there wasn’t much wind. After a shower and change of clothes back in the marina, we had a nice meal at Smuggler’s on the Erie waterfront. After dinner, we motored to the Marina Lake in Presque Isle State Park and anchored for the night. Sunday morning we were all on “Island Time” and had a lazy morning that started with a nice breeze and sunshine. After a quiet breakfast, Kevin led the guys into taking a cooling dip in the water. As we prepared to raise the anchor, we noticed that the remains of Dennis were again scattering gray clouds across the Erie lakeshore sky. We decided to sail inside the bay and continue the sailing lessons with Tim and Amanda. The winds were strong enough that had a reef in the main and raised the 100% jib. Both Amanda and Tim tried all points of sail, and Tim even ran Kelly III Wing-and-Wing! Yes, the Boom brake (new this season) got a few tests! For about an hour we sailed to avoid the racers from the Erie Yacht club and recognized a few familiar boats including Wavelength and Magic. In fact, at one point we found ourselves in a position where we had to cross the path of the tightly packed fleet. Given how close together the boats were, I took the helm as we crossed in front of Bill Hertel’s “Magic”. I hope we didn’t cause you to slow down, Bill! Tim and Amanda proved to be natural sailors by getting a good hand on the tiller. That is especially impressive to those who have experienced the wobbly tiller on Kelly III. As I told Tim and Amanda, they are welcome aboard Kelly III anytime! It was great to sail with Kevin again, as we always enjoy our time together. Remember, All plans can change depending on the weather! We do this for FUN! Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:18 ) Overnight Sail to Port Colborne and the Welland Canal Saturday, 01 January 2011 23:56 |
July 6, 2005 For this past July 4 weekend, our Crew consisted of Troy Cain (Skipper/Owner of "Persistent"), Jim Clark (Skipper/Owner of "Maggie’s Mate"), and Rob Matthews (Skipper/Owner of an unnamed 30 foot live-aboard trailer). The wind was blowing 20 – 25 knots out of the west with 3 – 5 foot waves. With the wind on our port quarter, we flew our full 150 Genoa jib and full main. We were blasting along at a consistent 7 plus knots. Theoretical hull speed for Kelly III’s 21’ 9” LWL is only 6.25 kts. How did Kelly III exceed her theoretical maximum? We were regularly surfing down the front of the waves! What a ride! Jim kept saying, “Did you see how big that one was!”
Another element of excitement was that Rob discovered he had diarrhea. Before we left Erie, I had explained that no one uses the head on Kelly III if there is any other choice (everyone used the marina head before we left in an effort to follow that suggestion). Unfortunately, Rob had no choice. As Troy was working on setting a new speed record on Kelly III, Rob was in the head learning the joys of sitting on a bucking bronco while trying to rid his body of . . . well, you get the idea. Rob did so well and enjoyed the ride so much that he decided to go back for a second ride! ;-) Out of his experience, we now have a suggestion for another winter project: seat belts for the head! Our watch schedule was 3 hours on, 3 hours off, with 2 people standing each watch. As Jim and Troy sailed through their watch, Rob and I tried to get some sleep, knowing we were on watch from midnight to 3am. Without being able to see the waves in the dark, we took many more waves over the sides and bow of the boat. On at least one occasion, Troy ducked and the full force of what felt like a large bucket of water hit Jim smack in the face! In my bunk on the port side of the cabin, I felt and heard the bang of the larger waves as they hit the hull. About 15 seconds after the sound, I would feel the steady drip of cold water onto my back from the leaky window above my bunk. I was so tired, I just pulled my foul weather jacket over me and fell asleep. Rob and I were still pretty tired when we took our places in the cockpit for our watch. The change from the warmth of our sleeping bags to the 57 degree wind and spray woke me enough to take the tiller and steer for Canada. Rob successfully fought off some nausea while I tried to avoid waves I couldn’t see. At one point I was sure I saw the green side light and two white masthead lights of a freighter, but the lights never got very close and eventually disappeared altogether. By mid-watch, I was feeling very sleepy. In spite of the cold air, wet spray, and random bouncing off the waves, I kept fighting to keep my eyes open and looking around 360 degrees of open lake. Rob had been feeling better for some time, having beaten the nausea into submission, so he took the tiller. Since I was still officially on watch, I stayed in the cockpit, but Rob was feeling pretty good, so he let me sleep across the cockpit from him while he steered Kelly III. I think I dosed for almost an hour while wind, spray, and waves failed to wake me up! When I awoke, I was refreshed enough to give Rob a break on the helm. Troy and Jim reclaimed the helm soon after when they came back on watch. Since none of us had sailed into Port Colborne before, we decided to wait for daylight to enter the harbor. Even with our longer route, our fast sail got us to Port Colborne before dawn. Jim and Troy just took it easy as the wind finally backed off and was reduced to a quiet breeze. They even felt sorry for me and let me sleep until well after dawn before waking me to enter the harbor. We lucked into a July 2 Party Weekend and got a great breakfast at the marina, served by the local sailing club. After wolfing down eggs, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, etc., we were ready for a shower and a brief nap then off to explore the Welland Canal and Port Colborne. There were a couple lake freighters and one huge Canada Coast Guard tow ship in the canal so we got to see them raise the bridge at the southern (Lake Erie) end of the canal. We enjoyed walking through town, poking around some of the boats in the marinas, and just being lazy. By sailing through the night, we had all day to relax and enjoy our destination. We decided to enjoy a quiet dinner in the restaurant overlooking the Sugarloaf Marina where Kelly III was docked. For some reason we were all pretty tired, so after a brief time relaxing in Kelly III’s cockpit we called it a night. Given our early bedtime, we woke with the sun and found ourselves enjoying a terrific breakfast at a little crepe place Jim had noticed by the Welland Canal. Rather than just hang around Port Colborne we all prepped Kelly III for the return trip and motored out of the marina and into the lake. Unlike the sail east, the winds were so light as to be non-existent. We ended up running “old-reliable” (my new name for Kelly III’s Atomic 4 gas engine – Thank You Nelson Roller, Ace Mechanic) for the entire trip back. Except for a line of fishing markers (at least we think that is what they are) it was a very uneventful day on the water. On our approach to Erie, we experienced several different fireworks displays as the various towns on the lake celebrated Independence Day. Even though it was after 10pm when we motored through the main channel into Presque Isle Bay, it was becoming pretty straightforward to negotiate Erie Harbor at night. Things did turn a little tricky as Jim guided us into Marina Lake in Presque Isle State Park to our anchorage for the night. As Jim followed the range lights, there were many small boats moving around the channel entrance and it took some focused concentration to figure out where the boats were, where they were heading and what we had to do to avoid hitting them or the bottom. We awoke in the quiet anchorage to realize that we were at the end of our long weekend. After pulling up to the State Park gas dock, we pumped out the head, refilled the gas tank and headed back to Bay Harbor Marina to disembark Troy and Jim. Rob and I stayed on board for one last day, since Rob’s plane didn’t leave until the next evening. Rob and I docked at Smuggler’s for lunch, leaving with a busted bowsprit, thanks to a small error in my docking judgment. We decided to take it easy and anchored back in Marina Lake. With the anchor down the heat began to get the better of us. We rigged the tarp I keep on board as a sun shade, but it was still much too hot, so we jumped into the water to cool off. Overnight, Rob was chased below from his bunk in the cockpit by a nasty thunderstorm. While it blew so hard that the spume and spray nearly hid the State Park lights from view, it was all over in about fifteen minutes. The anchor held and the tarp stayed where we tied it, so we just went back to sleep. The weekend proved to be a terrific sailing trip with lots of excitement, but nothing scary (if you don’t count Rob’s bronco ride in the head!), balanced with a mostly quiet anchorage and almost boring motor west across the lake. Definitely a weekend enjoyed by all. Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:20 ) |
Cool Port Dover Sail Saturday, 01 January 2011 23:52 |
September 18, 2004 Before September 10th, Kelly III made three attempts to sail to Port Dover, but until last weekend only Kevin and Nancy Wells succeeded in making Dover. The other two attempts were stiff northerly winds that meant short, steep 3+ foot waves on the nose. The only way we’d make the weekend schedule and get back home Sunday night and work Monday morning would be to motor into the waves. We decided both times to forgo the less than fun bash into the wind and sailed locally off Erie, PA. Last Weekend, however, Bill Paviol, Keith Otto, and Jim Clark sailed with me to Port Dover. The Saturday trip from Erie to Dover was very quiet with light winds and almost entirely a motored trip. However! . . .the return sail on Sunday was one of the best sailing days Kelly III has ever experienced! We all kept saying that the day was like a perfect Sail Magazine Photo Shoot! The waves were 2 feet or less with the wind out of the west, a perfect close reach! At first we raised full sail, Genny and main, but it wasn’t long before we changed the Genny for the jib. We had at least 12 knots of breeze and frequently15 or better! We sailed consistently over 4 knots with most of our speeds above 4.5 knots and many periods sailing above 5 knots. The sun shone brightly, but the air was comfortable, not the unbearable heat some summer trips entail. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, just check out the Photo "Dover Sail to Erie" . Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:24 ) Almost Trip to Buffalo Saturday, 01 January 2011 23:40 |
September 9, 2004 It took over 13 months, but Kelly III finally made the trip from Erie, PA to Buffalo, NY. For a distance of only 71nm one-way it was a very long trip!! Here are the details: Over the July 4th weekend in 2003, Kevin Wells, Troy Cain and I set sail from Erie for Buffalo. Well, we actually set the motor running, but just a mile outside the channel leaving Presque Isle Bay, the motor refused to run in forward gear. It wasn’t until later we realized that it ran OK in reverse. Since we had food and drink for 3 full days as well as a watch schedule, we knew we could stay on the Lake for 3 days. The decision was made to continue as long as we didn’t risk getting back to Erie late and missing work. Kelly III just drifted to the east at less than half a knot. For much of the next four hours we saw 0 knots frequently. The GPS said we were moving at half a knot, so I think there may be a current of half a knot to the east on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Later in the evening the wind started to pick up and we enjoyed a wonderful sail under clear skies with the stars shining brighter than you’ll ever see near any town or city. As we took the helm, each of us found a star that could sit on the spreader and that made steering easy. Troy and Kevin stayed up late talking and enjoying the clear, beautiful Milky Way and starry sky. They steered though the night and eventually turned the watch over to me in the early morning hours. I enjoyed a gray, quiet morning as we sailed toward Dunkirk, NY. As we brought Dunkirk up to the starboard beam, a brisk wind and fine rain beat on Kelly III. Kevin and Troy were catching a well-deserved rest after sailing through the night. I did a little math and figured that if we ran into more light winds then we’d need as much as a day and a half to return to Erie from Dunkirk so I turned Kelly III 180 degrees to return to Erie in time for our work schedules. Being without the engine, we needed to assume that our only motive power was our sails. The rain ended but the breeze continued throughout the day. About noon we caught a weather update that described a monster thunderstorm currently at Toledo, OH but would arrive at Erie about the same time as we would. Rather than risk running into the storm we decided to sail for Barcelona, NY. As we approached the Barcelona harbor, the engine started without a problem and we motored in for a quiet afternoon and evening. When the storm hit soon after dark, we saw whitecaps in the harbor which had a fetch of less than 100 yards! The storm blew itself out in less than an hour while we were safely tied up at the city pier. After a quiet night we found breakfast at a local diner, walking distance from the pier. We listened to the weather reports and local input from the fisherman who were out earlier that morning. We decided that in spite of the 4 to 6 foot waves and 20 knot winds we’d sail for Erie. It was bouncy and blustery with the waves and breeze but within a few hours the breeze and waves were both more calm. Finally we were in flat seas and no wind at all. We actually tried motoring only to discover that she just refused to run in forward gear. As we tried different modes of operation, it became clear that Kelly III would run in reverse without a problem! We turned her around in the oily-smooth water and motored for 45 minutes until the wind returned. We still had several hours to sail back to Erie, but it was truly wonderful sailing. Except for a brief episode where Kevin alerted me to the sound of the surf breaking on Gull Point, it was a great sail into Erie. When Kevin pointed out the sound of the waves breaking on shore it took a couple minutes before it dawned on me that we should check the depth – it was only 7 feet and Kelly III draws 5! We immediately tacked and turned towards deeper water. Within a few minutes we sighted the channel into Presque Isle Bay and dropped the sails to try the motor once more. With great relish, we enjoyed a perfect motoring through the channel . . . only to have the motor die as we exited the channel! We were able to restart the motor, but it only ran in reverse! With no other option and 3 miles to Kelly III’s home marina across the bay, we motored in reverse across the bay. Since this was at 2am, we set up my back up nav lights (red & green) on the stern and turned on the steaming light as the stern light. Yes, we were moving stern first through the bay and were entirely legal! (as far as I know, anyway!) That was July 2003. Fast forward to Labor Day weekend, 2004. Jim Clark, Jack vanArsdale, Troy Cain and I decide to once again set Buffalo as our destination. The Friday night departure is almost identical as there was almost no breeze at all, so we motored out of Presque Isle Bay. Fortunately Kelly III decided to continue motoring without fail throughout the night. Given that the tank wasn’t full when we left Erie, we felt it was prudent to fill up with gas at Dunkirk, NY. Except for a brief delay at sunrise as we deciphered the buoys, the gas and breakfast refill was without incident. The brief delay reading the buoys came from Jim Clark identifying a flashing red light just before 6am. he tells me, "Right there . . . red on, red off, red on, red off . . .". I looked where he was pointing and finally made out the light just after 6am. I said, "I see that red light, wait . . . now it is Green!, wait . . . Now it is YELLOW!" Dear friend, you know now that we spied a traffic light on shore. Well, there was one other incident, Troy’s lassoing of the piling at the gas dock. Without his cowboy effort, Kelly III would have plowed into the pier. We departed Dunkirk with a full tank of gas and an eager anticipation for actually reaching Buffalo. The light winds prevailed and we motorsailed past Sturgeon Point, NY and soon saw the skyline of downtown Buffalo. We found our way into Erie Basin Marina. We had a great meal and drinks at the Pearl Grille & Brewery, just walking distance from the marina. After a quiet night and breakfast in the marina we left for Erie. The winds were forecasted to be 5 – 15 knots from the south, but we saw nothing to speak of until dusk about 8pm. I suspect that the land breeze countered the forecasted wind leaving us with almost nothing. Come evening, though, the reverse was true. The sea breeze was probably 15 knots but when added to the forecasted wind of 15 knots, we had 25 – 30 knots of wind from the south. That gave us a beam reach that was very powerful as we sailed our last few hours into Erie. When Troy first raised the Genoa and killed the motor (yes, the motor had been running for nearly 8 hours!) the breeze was blowing about 15 knots. Jim took his watch as the wind continued to build and about 11pm we dropped the Genny. We were still sailing over 6 knots with only the mainsail. By 11:30pm we had reefed the main and were still sailing at over 6 knots! By the time Jack took his watch at midnight we had reefed again and were still sailing at 5.5 knots! Jim had kept us on course from Barcelona, NY past Northeast, PA. Now Jack was sailing us into Erie. As we were trying to find the entrance channel, Jack had to turn due south, directly into the wind. We saw the knotmeter read 0.0 knots as the wind and waves blew past us. With all the breeze and waves, it didn’t seem like we were standing still, but clearly we were. Fortunately, Kelly III came through again with a lively motoring into the wind and waves. Jack swears we had an uninvited 5th crewman with a fire hose spraying the cockpit! After a few minutes of motoring at 5.5 knots into the wind and waves, Jack turned Kelly III into the channel and turned us back onto a beam reach. The waves became less and the breeze seemed more friendly. Jim came back on deck and helped drop the main so we could motor back to the marina. This time we motored across the bay and into the marina in forward gear! Finally, the “Almost trip to Buffalo” became the “we Made it to Buffalo” sail of the year! Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:29 ) Wells Sail to Port Dover, Ontario Friday, 31 December 2010 17:28 |
August 17,2004 This past weekend Kevin and Nancy Wells, and I sailed to Port Dover, Canada, as we were blessed with two beautiful, sunny days! We did have to motor for several hours going to and from Port Dover. Kevin and Nancy met me on Friday night, we had dinner in Erie, a good night’s sleep on board, then an early breakfast and departure. Nancy made lunch on board both days serving sandwiches and drinks. I usually just have finger foods for the lunches while we sail (cheese, crackers, carrots, celery, cookies, etc). We ate dinner at Callahan’s on the beach. Troy and Mark will remember Callahan’s . . . or maybe not! :-) This was Nancy’s first sail on Lake Erie and she earned her place by alerting the skipper to the rapidly shoaling water at Long Point. In less than 2 boat lengths the water shoaled from 44 feet to 10 feet! We were able to turn east and got back to deep water without any trouble, thanks to Nancy’s excellent teamwork! Although the time to sail across Lake Erie can be 8 – 14 hours, it took us about 10 hours, since we tried to sail but also were willing to motorsail as needed. Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:14 ) |
