Grassy Point (Day 12)

Floating in the Bay of Quinte at the apex of Telegraph Narrows and Long Reach. Swinging on a hook. Gunk-holing. Anchoring.

Of course the marine radio has issued squall warnings but this time we appear to be out of bounds. The main trouble tonight sounds to be between Kingston and Cornwall.

WoW. Fabulous day! Warm enough to wear a bathing suit and loll about on the deck looking at the clouds. Very entertaining - dragons and mermaids and knights and damsels in distress. Shape-shifters all!

As we were approaching someone radioed a warning, "to the boat entering Grassy Point, it is very shallow!" There was no one else there, either, so the call did spook us out a bit. But it doesn't seem too bad - 12.4 feet, perfect for anchorage and well-noted on the charts. Maybe it is a cottager trying to discourage transient traffic. Anyway, there is another sailboat now, likely to be more tucking in before the night is through.

Seriously hoping the night sky clears enough for us to get a view of the Perseid Meteor Showers. Peak viewing is August 12. We can expect 100 streaks of meteor light across the sky each hour. The spectacle is caused by earth passing through the rock and dust fragments left behind from the comet Swift-Tuttle.... the reason this is dubbed Perseids is because the showers seem to originate from the constellation Perseids. For the past few years Rob and I have been timing our vacation in part to see the show. Last year it was so stormy we didn't see many, except for the night we anchored in Hay Bay. I swear I saw some that looked to be the size of comets!

Sipping a Riesling Kabinett from Studert-Prum (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer) and contemplating jumping in the lake. I'm not quite hot enough to take the plunge but these pesky deer flies may drive me to it...

Wine has been made in this style for centuries. Some notes from Wikipedia:

• The term originated with the cistercian monks at Eberbach Abbey in Rheingau, where the first recorded use of the term Cabinet occurred in 1712. The abbey's best wines were set aside to be stored in a special cellar built in 1245, and it was later known as the Cabinet cellar, or Cabinet-Keller.
• The lightweight elegance of these wines are the most pronounced in Kabinett from the colder German wine regions, such as Mosel, and in wines made from the grape variety Riesling, which dominates many of the coldest German regions. Typically, a Riesling Kabinett from Mosel shows a high acidity and flowery aromas together with hints of slate and minerality. For semi-sweet wines the alcohol level can be 7-8%, and for dry Kabinett perhaps 10-11%.

Quite delicious!