2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 15

Day 15 – Port Dover

Picture this.  It is midnight on Lake Erie.  The moon is full and bright, sky cloudless and littered with stars, and we are being pushed along by a gently humming engine and the lake’s gently rolling waves.  The periodic and predictable flash from the lighthouse of Long Point is visible in the distance.  Magnus and Stella are sleeping soundly below and Ana and I are sitting in the cockpit, together, huddled up in a blanket, watching the show of stars in the sky above, talking and feeling very much in love.

It has been a fine trip indeed.  And this moment alone with my beautiful wife has made it even better.

As we round Long Point, with the lights of Port Dover just barely visible 15 miles away, the wind suddenly picks up, going from 5 mph to over 20 mph almost instantly.  I adjust the sails for the increased wind, then we spend most of our time below in the cabin.  I pop my head out once in a while to check for boats and to ensure we are still on course, but the autopilot is doing a fine job taking us home.

We arrive in the marina at 4am, do an absolutely flawless docking and get the lines tied and power cables connected.  Ana calls Canadian border control and gets us cleared through with no issues.

We are back home, safe and sound, and after 350 miles, many new discoveries and a lot of laughs ends the 2013 Lake Erie boat trip.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 14

Day 14 – Eastlake to Ashtabula

By 5:10, we had coffees poured, the lines cast off and were slowly motoring out of the Eastlake harbour, quite happy that we’d discovered another new spot on this fine lake.  The weather was hot, the wind was light and, fortunately, it was not nearly as buggy as the day before.  The entire trip was 35 miles and around 9 am we stopped the boat and jumped in for a morning swim and bath.  Even several miles offshore the water temperature was still over 30 degrees, so you didn’t get that spine shattering shock when you jumped in; it was more like leaping into a giant bathtub.

Arriving in Ashtabula gives you a glimpse into the area’s industrial history.  To your right is a series of giant coal piles and these huge machines on railway tracks which pick up the coal from railway cars, dump it into the pile, then later scoop the coal from the pile and load it into freighters.  After about a mile of industrial landscape, you reach downtown Ashtabula which, as far as I know, is the only town on Lake Erie that offers visitors free docking, free water and free pump outs.  The only thing they do not offer is electricity, and with a forecast temperature of 33, it’s tough to get by without the boat air conditioner.  But we do leave the boat at the public dock for a while as we walk into town for a coffee at Harbour Perks, a groovy little cafe steps from the water.  The kids and I hung around there for an hour or so reading magazines and playing chess while Ana hit the local Goodwill store, one of her favourite retail spots on the lake.

We returned to the boat, waited for the top of the hour when the lift bridge opens and piloted her a short ways down the river to the Ashtabula Yacht Club, when they do have electricity and do offer free dockage to associate club members.  By this time the temperature in the boat was 97 degrees Fahrenheit, so it took a quite a while for the ac to cool things down, which gave me time to get the grill fired up, sit in the covered cockpit and cook up some sausages for lunch.

We checked the forecast and both Friday and Saturday were looking to be extremely windy and stormy so we decided to spend a few more hours in Ashtabula, then do an evening sail all the way back to Port Dover, which was a 75 mile trip, but would get us back early Friday morning and give us the whole weekend back in home port.

We walked back downtown and hopped from one air conditioned shop to another, picking up a super cool orange Ashtabula t-shirt for Magnus (I assured him that nobody in his class would have a shirt with a big black coal digger picture on the front) and a round of ice creams.  Our plan was initially to leave after enjoying dinner at Briquette’s, an excellent local southern style rib restaurant, but instead we decided to get take out then have dinner on our way across the lake, as everybody was still full from the lunch sausages.  So we grabbed our food, hustled back to the boat, and did a high speed undocking in order to make the 5 pm life bridge opening, which we did, but just barely.

We soon had the sails set, motor running and were headed directly across the lake for Canada.  The home stretch is always very exciting, as it represents the final leg in what always feels like an epic and fresh journey every time we do it.  Magnus was desperate for a swim, so we stopped twice along the way and we all jumped in to cool off, even Stella who has been reluctant to swim in the deep parts of the lake.  Once again, swimming off your own boat, in the middle of a giant lake, on your own schedule, is an exhilarating and empowering feeling and there is really nothing else like it.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 13

Day 13 – Cleveland to Eastlake

We had three choices for our next stop.  We could travel to Eastlake, Mentor or Fairport harbours, all of which were quite close together and only about twenty to thirty miles away.  Mentor was tempting, as it’s a beautiful yacht club with a big pool, but as we’d been there several times before and seen pretty much all of what there is to see there, we decided against going there.  We had not spent a night in Fairport, but had been there the previous year to a restaurant called Pickle Bills (see last year’s blog posting around this same time), which is the only restaurant I know of on the lake which has boat parking right at the bar!  We didn’t remember the marinas themselves being all that special, so we decided on Eastlake.

We left Cleveland around 6am and by then it was already hot and windless so I cranked up the motor and we did it power boat style.  As soon as were offshore a mile or so, the bugs began collecting in the cockpit, and got steadily worse, so I sent everybody down into the cabin while I did battle with the wretched creatures.  I counted at last ten distinct species.  There were the standard mosquitoes, who were biting my ankles, legs and shoulders then these little black flies, which look exactly like house flies, but have a nasty bite which, fortunately, don’t leave any marks but hurt like hell.  They concentrated their attack on my feet.  Then there were these little green bugs which instantly explode when you touch them, leaving an artistic green splatter on the cockpit cushions, bimini or boat hull, wherever you made contact.  I had thousands of these other little green suckers which didn’t leave a stain, but just landed on me and walked around on my skin for no apparent reason, every time I looked down my arm there were a dozen of them crawling around.  I saw fish flies, midges, moths and a couple gigantic yellow creatures that I had never seen before.  As the sun rose and the heat came I looked as if I was wearing a bug sweater so I had to get out my secret weapon.  We have this little Portuguese broom called a “basura” which is the most versatile, multi function tool on the boat.  It is a miniature corn broom, about two feet long and used, among other things, for swatting bugs, cleaning off spider webs, scrubbing the boat, cleaning the cushions, scratching one’s back, fluffing one’s hair, beating the children, wacking your wife ass, then using as a shield against the inevitable counter attack.  In fact, as I sit here looking at the basura, I’m thinking we should start mass producing them and selling them, as there is nothing quite like them available in stores.  Perhaps I’ll set up a little sweat shop in our basement and put the kids to work building corn brooms, man I get some good ideas early in the morning.

After beating off the bug sweater with the basura and trying to clean up the bug remains in the cockpit, I stopped the boat and ordered everybody in for a morning swim.  I also got out a bucket and rinsed off as much of the nasty bug stains as I could, which had completely ruined our beautiful cleaning job from the previous day.  If you can believe it, the water temperature was 32.9 degrees so jumping in didn’t give you that immediate cold shock, but was nonetheless most refreshing.

We pulled into the marina to find a small, secluded and very nice yacht club.  The girl working at the fuel dock assigned a slip to us and informed us that the first night’s stay was free, yay!  We got our boat docked, plugged into shore power and let the sweet a/c start working its heart out.  With the lake water that warm, it takes a while for it to get the temperature down, but it eventually did, which was a welcome relief from the heat.  We had a walk around the clubhouse and marina grounds, found a nice playground complete with a basketball court and tetherball pole, so we played a few rounds of each, then instead of dying of heat exhaustion, got our swimsuits on and headed down to the small, but nice little beach.  Magnus and I did some snorkeling for a while, but the visibility was very poor, so we swam around in half a metre of water and flipped over rocks, looking for crayfish or any other creatures of interest, but didn’t really find much of anything, besides some nice rocks.

Stella and her mom scoured the beach for rocks and sea glass and found some nice pieces so Stella took their collection and set up a display on the picnic table.  Ana settled into the comfy adirondack chair with a book and spent a couple hours reading while I either played with the kids or sat beside her enjoying the sun.  Magnus is a real water bug and did not leave the lake until we hauled him out so we could get ready for dinner.

We had a great meal in the clubhouse and met a bunch of the locals, in particular Buzz and Sally who were in the 41’ Beneteau sailboat right beside our slip.  We grabbed some drinks from the bar then they introduced us to some of the other members.  Dinner was delicious – we both had a seafood platter and shared a calamari appetizer, and the bottle of wine I got from the bar cost $12.50, which made me instantly angry with the Ontario government.

Buzz and Sally had sailed extensively through all the great lakes and described Lake Superior as their favourite.  If you look on a map you will see that these lakes cover an enormous area and the possibilities for exploring are limited only by your imagination, available time and budget.  But then, with a good imagination you can probably figure out a way to handle the time and budget issues, so imagination is really the only thing that matters.  Traveling these lakes is something I would love for Ana and I to do once the kids are older and into their own lives and boats.

We had a relatively early night, as we were planning for a 5 am start to Ashtabula.  We also began planning for our trip home, and since the forecast was looking very windy and possibly stormy for Friday, we decided that we might do a night sail the following evening across the lake to arrive in Dover sometime Friday morning.  But we’d wait and see how the forecast looked before setting out.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 12

Day 12 – Cleveland

As it was to be another scorcher, we decided to spend a second day in Cleveland, taking advantage of the free second night the marina offered.  I used the car to do some beer shopping and fill up the boat’s propane tanks, then returned the car, got a ride back to the marina and spent the rest of the day in the pool with the kids.  This is the third time we have stayed at this marina, and every time it has been well over 30 degrees outside.

In the afternoon, we gave the boat a huge scrub down, which took two hours and cost me about two gallons of sweat, but after that Bella Blue was shining and beautiful once again.  This was the first time on the trip we had cleaned her so she was well overdue.

In the evening we sat out in the cockpit, watched all the racing boats going out for the weekly regatta, then retired to the air conditioned comfort of the cabin, watched a movie, then called it a night.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 11

Day 11 – Vermillion to Rocky River and Cleveland

The previous day I had calculated the trip to Rocky River to be about 50 miles.  Not sure what fumes I was snorting, but the actual distance was less than half of that, which I realized around 5 am after already sailing for an hour.  Oh well, early bird catches the worm they say, which is very fitting because just around that time I was joined in the cockpit by an actual early bird who coasted in and perched himself on the steering wheel, looking right as me as I was typing on the laptop.  Hmm, that’s odd, birds don’t usually do that, I thought to myself.  Then he did something else birds don’t often do and flew right into the sailboat cabin below where everybody was sleeping.  I screwed on my courage, went below and found the bird up in the kids’ cabin fluttering around trying to get out through the glass hatch, which was firmly locked shut.  I was just hoping the kids didn’t wake up with the fluttering of wings, and they didn’t, but Ana sure did when the bird went into the main cabin where she was sleeping and tried getting out the locked hatch there.  I was basically standing there like an idiot, trying to point him the way out, when  Ana’s eyes popped open to discover our little visitor.  Fortunately, he found the companion way hatch right away and flew off.  That was only visitor of the morning.

We arrived at the Cleveland yacht club in Rocky River, and after a bunch of horsing around with the fuel dock hands, found out that our yacht club didn’t have a proper reciprocal agreement with them, meaning we couldn’t stay there.  In fact, they wouldn’t even do a pump out for us, which we were in desperate need of.  The kids had notice the big pool and waterslide located there so were a little disappointed when we told them we had to keep on going.

We continued along the way to the Edgewater Yacht club, which is right in downtown Cleveland, as that was the next place we knew of that had a pool, and the forecast was for 33 degrees with no wind so it was going to be a scorcher.  As we approached the fuel dock, we encountered a gigantic debris pile floating in and amongst the docks, surely the result of the storm the previous day, though it was hard to imagine how all that junk ended up in the far corner of this well sheltered marina.  After finding the fuel dock closed and the marina practically deserted (it was Monday, not much happens in marina on Mondays), we met a couple from our marina, who were just getting ready to leave as they had been there for several days.

As it was only noon and with a full day ahead of us we decided to rent a car, and within 30 minutes Enterprise car rental showed up, picked us up, took us to their office where they had a car ready to go.  We decided to split up so Ana dropped the kids and I off at the science centre and she took off for some retail therapy and to pick up groceries.  Right next door to the science centre is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame so we went inside there and had a look around, as there’s quite a bit that you can see for free without buying a ticket for admission.  One of these was Alex Van Halen’s drum kit from the Women and Children First tour, it was massive and awesome!  We also browsed through the gift shop which had a huge selection of music, including an enormous collection of vinyl.  I could not resist the temptation of having the kids hold up two Primus albums so I could grab a photo.  No, I did not buy them, as they were almost sixty bucks each and I do not own a record player, and I'm pretty sure they don't even call them "record players" anymore so I don't know what the hell I'd do with them.

The science centre was the best I’ve ever been to.  They had a big space exhibit, including a small shuttle the kids could sit in, a replica of Martian landscape they could climb on and a model airplane with controls they could fly.  There was an entire floor filled with science experiments, all of which worked and all of which were accompanied by a display explaining what law of physics or theory the experiment displayed.  These ranged from a hang glider simulator, a shadow room, a static electricity machine that makes your hair stand up, electronic drums and keyboard, oscillator machines, plasma balls, all interactive and fun to use.

We returned to the boat, unloaded all the supplies, then hit the pool and relaxed there for a couple hours, returned to the boat for dinner, then went back downtown to the East 4^th Street district and had drinks and some fancy poutine and chicken wings.  We were approached by several homeless people asking for money so had to explain to the kids how it’s possible that some people do not have a home.  Living in small town Canada does not offer much of a glimpse into street life so this was a good experience for them, as it was for us, makes you appreciate your situation in life a little more.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 10

Day 10 – Second day in Vermillion

Our original plan had been to travel to Lorain, but every single person we had spoken with the previous day advised against it, assuring us that it is grimy and there’s nothing to see.  Normally, I would jump at the chance to explore a new, unknown grimy location, but in this case, considering our lovely surroundings, we decided to stay and enjoy a down day in the beautiful town of Vermillion.  We had a nice long, slow breakfast on the boat, then spent the day wandering around town, drinking coffee, sitting on the beach, lounging at the pool, eating good food and enjoying having nothing to do and nowhere to go.  Oh yes, and I caught up on about six days worth of blogs!

Addendum

The week before we left on our trip I was at the supermarket with the kids picking up groceries.  Magnus found the coconuts and asked if we could get one.  I said no way, but he persisted, saying “But Daddy, you always say to try new things.  Well, I’ve never tried coconut so we should get one.”  I finally relented and bought a coconut, but reminded him that he usually only followed that particular piece of advice when it did not involve vegetables.  The plan was to crack it open when we got home and let the kids sample it but we got busy and the coconut made it as a stowaway on our boat, where it bounced around the whole first week.

In the afternoon I finally decided it was time for the nut to be cracked, so I got out a hammer and smashed up the coconut then used a knife to cut out as much as the white flesh as I could and put it into a bowl for everyone to try out.  The kids tried it and thought it was okay and I thought that was the end of it.  But Magnus piped up a little while later and said, “Daddy, why don’t we take the leftover coconut and sell samples to the people here at the yacht club?”  Ana and I then gave him a battery of reasons why this was not a good idea.  These people are on vacation and they don’t want kids trying to sell stuff to them.  People have their own food on their boats and probably don’t like coconut anyway.  This isn’t our club and they might not appreciate transient guests hawking fruit.  But he persisted and suggested asking the manager if it would be okay.  I finally stopped and actually listened to myself discouraging him from acting on his own idea, then realized that I was wrong.  So we told him that if him and Stella went and got permission from the club manager then it would be okay.  So the two of them raced down the dock and were back in five minutes proudly reporting that they could indeed sell coconut to the members.  This set off a flurry of activity in the boat – sign making, product packaging, getting a float together, location planning, sales pitch and so forth.  It was decided they would set up shop on one of the picnic tables outside the pool area.  Stella’s job would be to hand out the product and Magnus would be on sales and cash collection.  Ana and I reconfirmed with them that this was entirely their operation, wished them good luck and watched them race off anxiously on their first business venture.

Twenty minutes later Stella returned asking for more coconut and reported that sales were brisk and they were down to three packs, which they were selling for a quarter each.  I gave her the sad news that there was no more coconut, unless I was to dig the broken shells out of the garbage and try to scrape more out of them, but that wasn’t a safe business practice.  So she returned to her shop and shortly after that I did sneak over there and take a photo of them – Stella was holding the bowl of ice with three remaining plastic baggies of coconut, and Magnus was holding up a sign which said, “Fresh, delicious coconut samples – 25 cents”.  It was quite an operation and at that moment I was a very proud father.  I thought to myself if there’s any country in the world that appreciates a couple of young entrepreneurs, it’s the USA, and today these kids have learned more about the world than they did the whole month of June in school.

Magnus asked me, “Daddy, what other fruit do we have on the boat that we could sell?”

“Nothing,” I replied.

“What about those bananas?” he questioned.

“We need those, and besides nobody is going to buy bananas, they are not really as exotic as coconut”

“How about some meat, what about that chicken in the freezer?” he pitched.

“Magnus, you are not selling raw chicken to the yacht club members, that will get us kicked out.  In fact, we have absolutely no spare food of any kind that you can sell.”

”OK Daddy, then I’m going to rip some pages out of my colouring book and sell those for a quarter each.”

“Magnus, you guys have done very well here, look at all the money in the bowl, great job!  But just sell the remaining coconut then you guys come back to the boat.”

I high-tailed it back to the boat, not wanting to stick around for the rest of the argument.  I had this sneaking suspicion that we had created a monster, and may return to the boat one of these afternoons to find the two of them have flogged our lines, sails, fenders, pots and pans, cushions, spare parts and all boat electronics.  I only hoped they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to uninstall the compass and sell that too.

In the end, after donating the two dollars of float money and the coconut to their cause they made a total of about three bucks each.  I’m not sure if they will ever let us back into the Vermilion Boat Club, but it was very exciting to see the entrepreneurial enthusiasm our kids displayed, and even more exciting to see Ana and I overcome our crusty adult sensibilities and allow our kids to act on an idea.

Before bed, I did notice Magnus, who I now like to call “De Coconut Mon”, doing a mental inventory of all boat contents, looking for product to sell at the next stop.

2013 Lake Erie Sailing Trip - Day 9

Day 9 – Vermillion

We awoke to a boat basin which must have been cleaned up overnight by an army of volunteers, as the only remnants of the previous night's party were a few dozen floating beer cans and cups and a whole lot of boats which were eerily silent.  I also suspect that the hordes of hormone filled, skinny, ambitious 17 year olds just may have left some pockets of misfired seed scattered on the grass throughout the long evening, so I was careful to watch where I stepped when Magnus and I went for a morning walk to try and find abandoned carnival prizes.  The most common prize were these stuffed bananas that had dreadlocks and Rastafarian hats and since I wouldn’t let him waste any money on the games, he negotiated me into joining him for a scavenger hunt.  He actually did find one, but I checked it thoroughly for foreign substances before letting him have it.

We took off early headed for Vermillion which is, without a doubt, the nicest town on Lake Erie.  The wind was directly in our face so we motored the whole way and made it in less than two hours.  Vermillion is the only port on Lake Erie which has built lagoons and has hundreds of canal front houses, which you pass by while coming in the harbour.

We wanted to get into the Vermillion Boat Club marina as it is located right downtown and the only one with a pool, but we motored by it and didn’t see a single empty slip.  We circled back one more time to see if we somehow we missed one, and one of the sailboat members flagged us over and told us we could have his slip if we could wait ten minutes, as he was on his way out for the weekend.  When he left we grabbed his slip, got registered, then went for a walk around town.  There happened to be a Corvette show in town so while Ana and Magnus went to dig around in the consignment store, Stella and I checked out the cool cars.  There were some fine specimens there, to be sure, but I wonder who is buying Corvettes these days?  Every time I see one, it’s being driven by sixty plus, grey hair dude, and you just know that he has wanted a Corvette since he was old enough to drive, but couldn’t afford one until about four decades later.  Hey, at least he finally realize his dream, but it’s just too damn bad that you can’t live in reverse and have those slick wheels when you can really use them to impress your buddies and pull chicks.  By the time you’re sixty, you don’t really care about impressing anybody anymore and you’re either happily married or been divorced so many times it doesn’t really matter anymore.

After the car show, we went to the farmers market which, surprisingly, had hardly any food and was instead full of knick-knack vendors, so we walked to the supermarket instead and did a grocery run.  By this time the pool was calling so we returned to the marina and went poolside for a couple hours, soaking up the hot rays.

After grilling up and enjoying a delicious pork roast on the club grills, we walked down to the beach to experience a famous Vermillion sunset.  You see, as far as I can tell Vermillion is located exactly between where the sun sets and Detroit and you know that the most beautiful sunsets in the world are found where pollution is the most terrible.  We weren’t alone, there must have been fifty other people there to enjoy a sundowner.  While waiting, we all skipped rocks, looked for driftwood, had rock throwing contests and searched for sea shells.  When the sunset came, it was just as nice as expected.

We head back to the marina and the kids did some fire fly catching along the way, proving that Ohio must be the firefly capital of the world.  We settled in around the campfire with some of the local boaters and had a lovely time, enjoying some good, old fashioned American hospitality.