Monday, August 29th.

Had a very pleasant sail across Lake Erie to Port Colborne, in Canada,  42° 53’.03N 79° 14’.98W.  Beautiful blue skies with a few cumulus clouds, and fair winds all the way.  People at the yacht club in Dunkirk had suggested that we tie up on the town dock which has the considerable advantage that it is free.  We headed for this dock and discovered that it had been damaged during the recent strong winds, so we ended up tying to the town wall.  This was a stone wall 6’ higher than Quinita’s deck and we were fortunate that some passers by took our lines, otherwise Teresa would have had a very high jump.  We tied up and managed to get ashore then discovered that it wasn’t at all easy getting back on board.  Ron managed to jump aboard, lowered the dinghy and went to pick Teresa up further downstream where another boat had grabbed the only break in the high wall.  Had a quick walk around town to find a WIFI hotspot, then returned to the boat for a leisurely evening. 

Today’s log: 26.4 nm, season total: 1215.8

Saturday, August 27th, Sunday August 28th.

Hurricane Irene is heading towards New England, and though that’s still a fair distance from here, the local winds on Sunday are forecast to be strong, so we decided to head for Dunkirk, NY, 42° 29’.30N 79° 20’.42W, for a couple of days before crossing the lake towards Port Colborne and the Welland canal.  It was a great decision.  We had light winds but were at least able to motor sail most of the way.  We arrived at the Dunkirk Yacht Club and were warmly welcomed.  The Dunkirk YC have an interesting club – it’s entirely over water.  They had planned their annual race from Port Colborne, (on the Canadian side of Lake Erie), back to Dunkirk, but unfortunately, the winds were too light to complete the race.  That didn’t stop the steak dinner from taking place however, and we were invited.  We had a great evening and met some very nice people, notably Carl and Debbie, and Tony who gave us detailed directions for a bike ride on Sunday. 

On Sunday we woke up to 25-30 knot winds, and so opted for the bike ride.  It took us through several beautiful roads with vineyards, and gave us a good workout up the hills to the watershed.  Water from the north of the Watershed drains into Lake Erie, but despite being so far north, water on the south side drains, eventually, into the Mississippi.  Needless to say, we had great views from the top of the watershed.  (Thanks Tony for the route!)  

Richard, a Brit living in Buffalo, NY with a boat in ON and Des, a Canadian, joined us on Quinita for dinner.  They  were in the race the previous day and were hanging out in Dunkirk till the weather improved so they could sail back to Port Colburn.  A fun evening (hic).

Today’s log: 45.1 nm, season total: 1189.4

Friday, August 26th

Spent the day, regrouping, shopping, doing laundry and planning our last few weeks cruising before laying up for the winter. 

Thursday, August 25th

Took our bikes out along the Presque Isle peninsula.  A very nice ride almost all on bike paths.  In Horseshoe Pond, we came across a floating housing neighbourhood.  Not exactly houseboats, more like regular houses built on floating platforms.  (See photo). 

In the evening went to see a performance of “Fame” in the Erie playhouse.  

Wednesday, August 24th

Yippee, our excitingest day yet!  The forecast was for 18-22 knot winds which for us would be a broad reach, so we set off expecting a fast exciting sail towards Erie, PA, 42° 08’.16N 80° 05’.43W.  Wow, were we in for a surprise.  The winds were between 22 and 28 knots all day with many gusts into the 30s and max wind speed recorded 35.6 knots.  We broke all previous speed records many times and maxed out at 16.1 knots with a double reefed main and ½ Genoa.  All the time it was fun – we were sailing on a broad reach after all.  (It wouldn’t have been too much fun sailing upwind.)  She handled beautifully !

We arrived at Erie harbor and had to sail under the Sheraton’s Skywalk to get to our chosen marina - see photo below.  It looked intimidating, but we had plenty of head room, and this was the first time we’d sailed under a hotel!  The marina is very nice and reasonably priced. 

Erie is in a huge natural harbor, bordered by Presque Isle which is now joined to the mainland so is not actually an island.  The peninsula is 7 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point.  We’re planning to cycle it tomorrow and may not have time to explore the city so we’re thinking of spending three nights here. 

Today’s log: 46.3 nm, season total: 1144.3

Tuesday, August 23rd

A leisurely sail to Ashtabula, (pronounced Ashtabula), 41° 53’.99N 80° 47’.71W, in winds varying from 3knots to 12knots, with corresponding boat speeds of 1.5knots to 8 knots.  What the heck, it was a beautiful day, we only had 10 miles to go, and it was very quiet and enjoyable sailing along slowly with the occasional burst of speed.  After entering the river we had to wait for a bridge to open.  We were expecting this, but we weren’t expecting the huge freighter to be docked right on the bend before the bridge.  So (a) we  couldn’t see the bridge until we were practically underneath it and (b) we had about 20 feet of space to get our 16 foot wide boat through.  We were totally blind until we passed the freighter and were committed to passing under the bridge so were very thankful there were no boats coming the other way. 

Explored Ashtabula on foot.  An interesting waterfront with a huge conveyor belt 100ft high across the river that used to move coal from the railroad side to the freighter side, and now moves stone and sand.

We also found Old Mother Hubbard’s house.  This is an historical house, owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard where slaves fleeing from the south were sheltered before kind local captains would take them across Lake Erie to Canada and freedom. 

Today’s log: 10.6 nm, season total: 1098.0

Monday, August 22nd

Had a great sail to Geneva, OH, 41° 51’.42N 80° 58’.34W.  Broad reach with winds up to 15 knots, but big seas (4-5ft) so not perfect, but pretty good.  Explored Geneva–on-the-Lake by bike.  It’s a nice enough town but very touristy, with mini-golf, amusement arcades and fast food everywhere.  It has some nice, but short bike paths with views over the lake.  There are also some nice looking beaches and we considered swimming in the 30°C water (86°F), but we’ve been spoiled by the crystal clear waters of Georgian Bay, and the olive green water of Lake Erie did not appeal.  Dined on the boat and watched a beautiful pink sunset. 

Today’s log: 17.2 nm, season total: 1087.4

Sunday, August 21st.

It poured down last night and this morning.  At about 12:30 we were fed up with waiting for the rain to lighten up and set off towards Fairport, 41° 44’.64N 81° 16’.91W.  We must have been doing something right, ‘cause just after we set off, the rain stopped and the sun started to come out.  No wind yet though so we were motoring again.  After about an hour, the wind picked up, the sun came out and we had a glorious sail to Fairport.  Went for a walk in Fairport – a small town with several fish restaurants on the waterfront. 

Today’s log: 26.0 nm, season total: 1070.2

Saturday August 20th.

Ron spent the morning grocery shopping and tidying up the boat after the various odd jobs that he’d been doing, so that it was somewhat respectable for Teresa’s return.  Picked Teresa up from the airport and brought her back to the boat on the cycle, Amsterdam style.  Teresa unpacked, we both had showers and headed for the big city for our last night in Cleveland.  We went in on Ron’s bike, Amsterdam style again and got some cheers from a bunch of young dudes who presumably had never been to Holland.  Had a nice meal in the warehouse district, and then returned to the yacht club where we had another couple of drinks and listened to an excellent rock band who played Santana, The Allman Brothers and many more. 

Wednesday 17th – Friday 19th.

Ron’s on his own on the boat with an Excel spreadsheet of jobs that have been accumulating over the summer.  He’s enjoying putzing around and working through the list.
Thursday evening produced a spectacular sunset.  A thunderstorm was in progress over Cleveland downtown, (about 2-3 miles away) and also out on the water.  There was a hole in the clouds where the sun was setting beautifully, and at the same time, Mother Nature was putting on a spectacular lightening display.  I watched the display as I was eating my dinner in the cockpit, until the winds started to pick up, and then it was a big rush to get everything inside the boat before the storm arrive.  (I just made it). 

Monday, August 15th, Tuesday August 16th.

We’re staying in Cleveland for a week.  Teresa is jumping ship tomorrow, surprisingly, not because we can’t stand each other any more, but rather because there’s an airport here and she wants to visit her mom.  We spent the 2 days exploring Cleveland.  We found a great web site - http://www.CityProwl.com – that has guided tours you can download to your phone, iPod, etc. for selected cities.  Cleveland has about 6 or 7 tours and we did several.  These included the Public Square, the Warehouse District, (now trendy bars etc.), Bank Lobbies, (very interesting and beautiful buildings), Wade Park and Buckeye, a less affluent district a few miles out of town.  All in all, a very nice way of getting a feel for many different aspects of Cleveland. 

Teresa flew off to CT on Tuesday evening.

Sunday, August 14th

The forecast today was not good.  Rain all day with a possibility of thunderstorms and waterspouts, but it was not look good tomorrow either, and we needed to be in Cleveland, 41° 31’.54N 81° 39’.93W, so we set off in pouring rain.  We had very little wind and the rain poured all day so motored all the way.  The boat is very dry, and has a hardtop so we actually stayed dry all day, despite the heavy rain.  The only time one of us got wet (Teresa), was when we docked and had to put out fenders and dock lines.  Of course, just after we docked, the rain stopped.  We docked at the Lakeside Yacht Club, and the rain soon started again and pounded us all night.  Amazing, our first day of real rain since we started cruising, (although we’ve had rain at night). 

Today’s log: 27.4 nm, season total: 1044.2

Saturday, August 13th

We set off for Lorain, 41° 28’.45N 82° 10’.76W, with a nice breeze and some pleasant sailing.  At 9:20 we logged 1000nm for this season.  The winds didn’t last however and we ended up motoring – this is getting to be way too much of a habit!  When planning this section of the trip, we were torn between heading for Lorain or Vermilion.  Lorain was closer to Cleveland where we were planning to spend a couple of days, but according to our guide, Vermillion was the nicer town.  So we did both!  We docked in Lorain, explored the town on our bikes, which took about 10 minutes, then cycled to Vermilion.  A good decision – Vermilion is a very attractive, (but touristy), town.  Strangely, we were there on a Saturday afternoon and most shops etc. were closed. 

Today’s log: 17.9 nm, season total: 1016.8

Friday, August 12th

We left South Bass Island and started out with another beautiful sail towards Huron, 41° 23’.65N 82° 33’.18W.  About an hour into the trip we heard a Mayday call – a boat was sinking and 3 people were in the water.  We were about 15 nm (2-3 hours) away and were not in a position to help, but fortunately,   another boat in the area offered assistance.  We couldn’t hear the radios of the distressed vessel or the assisting vessel, but we could hear the coastguard relaying messages.  Apparently, the distressed vessel was not able to give an accurate position fix and it started sounding bad when the assisting vessel  couldn’t locate them.  It all ended well however, and the victims were picked up apparently unharmed. 

Shortly after that excitement, the wind died and we motored the rest of the way to Huron.  Tied up on the wall outside the marina and went for a bike ride and ice cream!  There was a round table festival on the other side of the marina with a couple of bands playing.  So we were able to eat on board and listen to live music. 

Today’s log: 24.5 nm, season total: 998.9

Thursday, August 11th

Spent the day on South Bass Island.   Rode our bikes around the perimeter, didn’t take long since the island is only one mile by three miles.  It was very reminiscent of Block Island; lots of restaurants, bars, shops and a party atmosphere.  The main mode of transportation seems to be the electric golf cart.  It seems there’s no restriction on age for driving them, at least it’s not enforced if there is.   Had a great dinner at the Boardwalk  upper deck grill – the ahi tuna was amazing! 

Wednesday, August 10th

We had a wonderful sail today towards Put In Bay on South Bass Island, 41° 39’.37N 82° 49’.23W.  Sailed along the Detroit River and entered Lake Erie, our 3^rd Great Lake.  Lake Erie is a very different colour than Georgian Bay – a deep olive green.   It was very choppy, probably due to its shallowness – it’s the most  shallow of all the Great Lakes.   Winds were on our beam in the morning and behind us in the afternoon.  We recorded our fastest speed yet – 11.4 knots. 

We encountered our first mooring buoys in Put In Bay - everywhere else so far has been docks or anchorages.  Teresa navigated through the field of buoys and put us expertly on our chosen buoy, while Ron almost messed up picking the thing up. 

We dined on the boat and listened to the harbor playing the Star Spangled Banner at sunset accompanied by several boats hooting their horns.   

Today’s log: 50.4 nm, season total: 974.4

Tuesday, August 9th

We took the day off from sailing to visit the Henry Ford Museum, a 16 mile bike ride away.  The bike ride was not very pleasant – it took us through some of Detroit’s industrial areas.  The museum, however,  was very interesting, not just cars, but clocks, aeroplanes, locomotives as well.  Henry Ford actually dabbled in designing and building a ‘peoples’ aeroplane, like a Model T aeroplane, but the project was not successful and he concentrated on cars.  (Notice that I resisted the temptation to say the project never took off!)
We also visited the Greenfield Village on the same site.  It has many interesting features – buildings and homes that Ford bought, disassembled and rebuilt here.  For example Wilbur and Orville Wrights home and bicycle shop where they built bikes to fund their aeroplane development passion.   We also took a ride around the village on a genuine, coal burning, steam locomotive and were shocked at the pollution this thing produces.  It certainly gave a feeling of how dirty and smelly rail travel was in those days.  We had lunch in a tavern serving authentic 18^th century food.  The Dandelion Soup was delicious!

The skies opened at about 4:30 so we took cover for about half an hour and contemplated just how wet we were going to get on the ride home.  However the rain stopped and we had a nice dry ride back.  Packed the bikes and visited the yacht club where a local Jazz Band was playing.  They were very good.    It was interesting being in a yacht club where the population was 90% African American.

Monday, August 8th

Our shortest day to date – we logged 1.8nm to Detroit, 42° 21’.23N 82° 58’.20W.  We had to clear customs yesterday in Canada and again today in the US. By the time that was done it was midday, and time for a bike ride to explore Detroit.  We followed our noses towards downtown.  The first road was interesting – nice houses and buildings on the south side nearest the river, but pretty run down places on the other side of the road.  Then we discovered a riverside bike path that was partly built.  The bits that were in place were very nice, but we kept hitting dead ends and had to backtrack to the roads to find the next riverside section.  The trail eventually took us to downtown Detroit and was a nice ride.  We pootled around a bit, found the theatre district, GreekTown and financial district.  Detroit has many different neighbourhoods, some very nice, some very run down. 

Today’s log: 1.8 nm, season total: 924.0

Sunday, August 7th.

Got up early (6:15!) and set off towards Windsor, ON, 42° 20’.48N 82° 56’.05W.  Now I promise you I’m not smoking anything wacky, (or anything at all come to that), but today the ships log has started working again.  It skipped yesterday’s log and started recording again from where it left off on Friday.  I’m thinking of contacting Raymarine, the manufacturer, but I’m a bit nervous they’ll send someone to lock me away in the funny farm! 

Anyway another windless day, well perhaps 4/5 knots, but not enough for a 50 mile day, so we motored again.  For the last hour of the trip the sails were up and down like yoyos as the wind kept teasing us. 

We arrived at Windsor Yacht Club around 3:30, tidied up the boat and went for a ride along the bike path that our guide book suggested should not be missed.  Well the ride was OK, but we’re not sure why it was un-missable.  The Ice-Cream was good though! 

Today’s log: 40.7 nm, season total: 922.2

Saturday, August 6th.

Changed the engine oil and set off towards Port Huron, 42° 58’.43N 82° 25’.24W.  Yes, you guessed it, no wind!  Port Huron is at the start of the St. Clair River, which runs into Lake St. Clair.  Lake St. Clair drains into the Detroit River and this system links Lake Huron and Lake Erie.  So we’ll soon be leaving Lake Huron.  Strangely, the ships log reset itself sometime between yesterday and today.  (No it doesn’t just count up to 1000nm – we saw it at 1010 nm yesterday!)  It’s supposed to act like the odometer in a car and this is essential for traditional navigation, where you need to know how far you’ve travelled since your last known position.  Anyway, we calculated that it should have read 1011.2nm when we started today.  Annoying!

Docked at Port Huron Yacht Club.  Complimentary dockage the first night, and very nice friendly members.  Thanks, Andy and Ann for suggesting your club.  We discovered that the St, Clair River is closed tomorrow from 10:30 till , for a power  boat race.  So we’re planning to get up early tomorrow and transit the river before the race starts.  Actually the race did us a favour.  We were debating whether to visit Windsor on the Canadian side of the river, or Detroit on the US side.  So given that we’re leaving early, and the river has a 4 knot fair current through it, we’re skipping our next planned port of call, (Algonac), and will head to Windsor.  Then we have a 3 nm trip the next day and so will be able to visit both cities. 

Today’s log: 21.1 nm, season total: 881.5

Friday, August 5th.

Another humid, hazy, windless day as we motor towards Port Sanilac, 43° 25’.81N 82° 32’.30W.  We had a significant event, however – at 12:39 EDT, 43° 35’.82N 82° 33’.20W Quinita’s log reached 1000nm!  Unfortunately we didn’t have any champagne in the fridge so we weren’t able to toast to her.  We docked in Port Sanilac right next to a replica Columbus era ship.  The ship was built using tools of the day and as closely as possible to the original design.  They’re looking for crew, so if anyone’s interested, take a look at http://yachtpals.com/boating/tall-ships-nina. 

We took the bikes out for a ride - a cute little town, but very small with a busy marina. 

Today’s log: 30.1 nm, season total: 860.4

Thursday, August 4th

Happy birthday, Harvey! 

Went to bed with the wind howling last night and pushing us onto the dock.  So we pressed our 2 anchor balls into service as additional fenders, oiled them all up with washing up liquid and slept well through the night.  By morning the winds were much lighter and we anticipated a nice sail towards Harbor Beach, 43° 51’.33N 82° 38’.81W.  Once again we found ourselves sailing to windward in 5-6 knot winds making about 2-3 knots towards our destination.  After a couple of hours the winds were down to 4 knots so we motor-sailed the rest of the way.  We arrived about 4:30, took advantage of the marina’s courtesy van to get our spare gas bottle filled and went for a bike ride on rinky dink marina bikes.  Harbor Beach is a very small town with not much going on. 

A couple of weeks ago we were plagued with mosquitos and couldn’t wait for the mossie season to end.  It now appears to have ended, but the mossies were replaced a few days ago with millions of tiny flies.  Now we seem to be in spider season, with cobwebs growing as fast as we can remove them.   Life is tough out here!

Today’s log: 30.2nm, season total:  830.3

Wednesday, August 3rd.

We’re crossing Saginaw Bay, 44° 02’.52N 83° 26’.16W, today towards Port Austin, 44° 02’.93N 82° 59’.66W.  It’s a straight run – only 2 waypoints on our course.  The forecast last night was for Northerly winds up to 20 knots which would have made for a lively, fast sail.  This morning’s forecast was for less winds however, and that’s what we‘re seeing.  (I’m writing this while we’re underway).  So once again the engines are on L.  At 2:30, the wind picked up and we managed to sail for the last 6nm.  By the time we got to docking, the winds were howling so we opted to dock against the wall which was much easier than trying to enter a narrow slip with cross winds.  Our decision was vindicated when we watched a fellow boater playing “bumper boats” in the tricky conditions.  We went ashore for a walk and saw a collection of electric cars from around 1915 – 1926. 

Today’s log: 40.2nm, season total: 800.1

Tuesday, August 2nd

Set off for Harrisville, 44° 39’.21N 83° 16’.71W, with a severe weather warning in the forecast.  The warning was for thunderstorms which could have brought heavy winds.  In the event we had light winds again all day and motored.  We did see some interesting cloud formations however.  Borrowed some marina bikes for grocery shopping, and Teresa walked hers most of the way, ‘cause she had a flat tyre.  Got back to the boat just before the heavens opened and it poured with rain.

Today’s log: 27.0nm, season total: 759.9

Monday, August 1st

We explored Alpena on our bikes.  A sign when you enter Alpena by sea says “Welcome to Alpena – a warm and friendly port”.  It was certainly warm, perhaps a bit too hot.  And the people we met were indeed very friendly.  We cycled the bike path including the Great Lakes Heritage Trail.  Went for a swim off the beach, had an ice cream, and had dinner in a tavern in the town.  If you’re in the area, we’d recommend a visit.

Sunday, July 31st

Heading for Alpena, 45° 03’.54N 83° 25’.17W.  We sailed for an hour, then the winds died and we motored until 3:30.  The winds picked up again, so we hoisted the sails, but Mother Nature was just teasing us, and we had to motor again after 20 minutes of sailing.   An uneventful, hot day. 

Today’s log: 38.1nm, season total: 732.9

Saturday, July 30th

Well I guess I spoke too soon about downwind sailing from now on.  We left Rogers City in very light winds and motored for 1 ½ hours.  Then the wind picked up from the SE, which coincidentally was the direction we were sailing in.  So we had another beat.  Pleasant though in flat seas and with winds around 10 knots.  We arrived at Presque Isle, 45° 20’.10N 83° 28’.92W, and started furling the genoa.  With ¼ still unfurled it locked up so we left that small section unfurled while we dropped the main and anchored.  As we were trying to furl the genoa a small sailing dinghy sailed up to us and was asking all sorts of questions about the boat, where we’d come from etc. etc.  He didn’t seem to notice that we had some problems we were trying to deal with.  Then after we anchored and Ron was trying to fix the problem, another guy from an anchored sailboat appeared in his tender and asked us if our boat was a Tomcat (which it is).  Great, everybody wants to chat while we’re trying to fix problems.  However the 2^nd guy was a blessing in disguise.  It turns out he’s interested in buying a cat like our and he also happens to be a mechanical engineer who loves fixing things.  So we invited him to go and fetch his wife so that we could show them our boat and our problem furler.  Andy spent about an hour working with Ron and fixed the broken furler, and we spent about ½ hour showing them the boat.  Sounds like a good deal to us.  Thanks Andy and Ann of “God Speed” for your help. 

Today’s log: 25nm, season total: 694.8