ACROSS LAKE ERIE

We took advantage of the extra night at Edgewater Yacht Club. We had planned on going downtown but we spent most of the day researching our next destination and watching a pretty violent storm that was coming across from Indiana and making a bee line towards us. Edgewater was a big sailing club with a high ratio of sail boats as captured in Denise's photo.

The way it turned out, the storm went south of us and created havoc all the way to Washington D.C. Many areas still don't have power and there were several deaths. We decided that Saturday was going to be a travel day. We had several possible stops on the way and would decide which one to stop at once we got going, depending on the weather. Although Friday's storm missed us, when they come across Indiana like that, there is the possibility they will keep going East and hit us too. We wanted to have several stopping points in case that happened. The closest stop was Mentor, Ohio. It was about 4 hours away and we were told it was a great place to stop with a great yacht club and grounds. With that in mind, we took our time in getting going and topped off the fuel and pumped out and left about 12:30.

The winds were predicted to be 10 to 15 out of the Northwest. Heard that before? The winds on the lake were less than 10 all day and less than 5 at times. We tried to sail for a while, but as the winds continued to weaken and shift around, we started up the motor. By 4:30, we were approaching Mentor. Being a Saturday, it was a very busy place, with big and little boats scurrying in and out of the narrow entrance that got even smaller the further you went in. Mentor on the Lake was a developers dream during the late 1920's. He had envisioned a community by the lake with a series of canals and bridges to give it a Venice type atmosphere. The crash came and all that was left of his dream was a few houses, the canals, a bridge to nowhere (it made Guiness World Records) and a beautiful clubhouse. We were assigned a slip and, after dodging all the little power boats rushing everywhere, were helped tying up by some club members. We tidied things up and decided to go check everything out. We were across the channel from the clubhouse but they had a 24 hour shuttle service on demand. All you did was ring a bell and the shuttle would come pick you up. The club house was beautiful. Ornate wood, a wooden ship's hull for the bar, a swimming pool, patio and deck. Everyone raved about the chef and told us we had to try the food. We had eaten a late lunch on board and weren't quite ready for dinner but did try a sandwich later on and it was very good. All the club members encouraged us to stay a few extra days until the 4th for their big fireworks display, but, at $75 per day, we had our eyes on Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania, where we could anchor in a protected lake for free. Presque Isle was about 70 miles away, but once again, we had 2 or 3 other places we could hop off. We left Mentor at 10:30, expecting to stop somewhere in between. The winds were forecast to be 10 to 15 from the Northwest. You guessed it, less than 5 most of the day. We began motoring and did throw out the Genoa to give us an extra knot or more of speed. With that, we were averaging more than 7 knots and made it to Presque Isle by 6:30. By 7 we were anchored on in a very peaceful bay in the State Park. Erie Bay is a large inner bay protected in all directions with a narrow entrance on the East side. Presque Isle is a Peninsula coming off the mainland that encircles and protects the bay from Lake Erie. There is another Presque Isle in Lake Huron with the same configuration. We were told that Presque Isle means "almost an island" in French. The state park marina is in a small lake on the peninsula and allows you to anchor in the Northern portion of the lake. We are fairly close to shore, and one of the first things we saw was a deer come out of the woods and walk along the lake shore and greet us.

We found we need to do a little more preparation for the Erie Canal, so we will probably stay here till after the 4th before heading further East.