OUT OF THE RIVER AND INTO LAKE ERIE

Since Put in Bay was only 30 miles or so away, we took our time leaving Ford Yacht Club on Grosse Ile and headed out at 12:30. As we motored out of the marina, the depth sounder kept showing less and less water under our keel. Even though I followed the same path we came in on, we began to drag through the mud again. I wasn't going to stop this time. I kept pushing through the mud until we got to deep water. Even after we got to the deep water, the boat was still sluggish. The only thing I could think of that could be causing the problem was the seaweed. I slowed down, put it in reverse and then back to forward. Big globs of seaweed blew out behind the boat. I did this a couple of times and everything seemed to be fine. Another lesson learned. The sailors at Ford Yacht Club said that all we had to do was take a left into the channel and head toward the shipping channel light. That was probably good advice, but I found myself having to dodge around shallow areas to get there. The other problem was that the channel light was on the Canadian side, and I didn't have charts for that. After dodging all the shallow spots on the U.S. side, I certainly didn't want to go into Canada with no charts. I found a path that looked like it would take me to deeper water but, once again, I had to keep dodging the shallows and rocks. We finally made it to a private channel that led to the shipping channel and we were on our way. The Detroit Light House (pictured)is the entrance to the Detroit River.

The winds even started co-ooperating and we were able to turn off the motor and sail the rest of the way to Put in Bay. After a beautiful and QUIET sail, we dropped the sails outside of Rattlesnake Island and motored into Put in Bay. We found the moorings inside of Gibraltar Island and we had our pick, since they were not more than a dozen boats in the whole bay. Getting attached to the mooring was a bit of a challenge, but we managed to get settled in by 5:30. The fee was $30.00 per day but included free internet, showers and unlimited water taxi service. Not a bad deal, so we decided we would stay two nights to fully explore the island. Most of the island centered around the War of 1812 Victory over the British by Admiral Perry,(he "PUT" the captured British Fleet "IN BAY" at South Bass Island), Lobster Bisque and lots of bars and booze. The extra day gave us a chance to sleep in at anchor (sort of).

If you haven't figured it out, anchoring is our most favorite way to spend a night. Very quiet, nothing to bang against and you drift around with the wind, so you don't have to worry about waves slapping the boat all night long. The boat on the neighboring mooring had just come through the Erie Canal from New Jersy, so we wound up having lunch and they gave us some great tips, including a perfect little anchorage on Liberty Island by the Statue of Liberty. We can't wait! We rented a golf cart the second day and toured the island. We found a nice little "Key West" style bar that had great Mojitos and other refreshing drinks. We returned for dinner and some great acoustic guitar music then called it a night. We were off the mooring in Put in Bay and on our way by 10:30 the next morning. We decided to take the South Passage around South Bass Island and past Kelly's Island. Someone really made a statement with this house, or maybe it is just a really big boat on dry land! We saw this on our way out of Put in Bay on South Bass Island.

We had several options, with Cleveland being the furthest destination. The forcast had been for 10 to 15 MPH winds with 1 to 2 foot waves. Perfect, right? Nope. The winds were less than 5 and sometimes non-existant, so we motored the entire way. We did put up the sail, just in case and got a little boost in gas mileage every now and then. The temperatures were over 90 and it was cooler on the lake so we decided to just keep going to Cleveland. The skyline finally appeared around 6:30.

We had called ahead to the Edgewater Yacht Club to get a slip for the night. When we entered the marina, we couldn't raise anyone on the VHF and nobody answered the phone. We wandered into the marina and asked a few people where to go. The only place open was a guest dock and a power boat was sitting right in the middle of that. We had to slide our boat in behind him, with slips to our stern and about 6 feet to spare behind the boat. We looked like pro's as we slid in almost sideways into the spot and got tied off. Don't ask me how, but we did it. We wanted to get over to the yacht club for dinner before they closed and as we entered, we greeted by club members that were very welcoming. They wanted to hear about our trip, gave us free food and kept buying us drinks. In the meantime. we had cranked up the air conditioning on the boat. By the time we got back it was nice and cool inside. Time for another good night! They offered to give us the second day free, so we may just stay another night and explore the city. Only about 2/3rds more of Lake Erie to go and we're into the Erie Canal!