Into the Erie

As we left Lake St. Clair, everything became new to us. It felt like the adventure was really beginning! We passed the “Ren Cen” and downtown Detroit, then crossed under the Ambassador Bridge. The new bridge abutments were being constructed south of there near Zug Island. The rusted out, ginormous industrial site will not add to the views from the new bridge. It was an overcast day, and I guess we need a blue camera filter.

We had selected the Gross Ile Yacht Club at the SE corner of Gross Ile as our overnight stop. Our other choice was the Ford YC on the SW corner. Both came highly recommended, and both had very shallow entrances, so we went with the less formal club and more direct route of GIYC.

If you are wondering “why stay at yacht clubs?”, many clubs offer reciprocal membership privileges. As members of the Grand Traverse Yacht Club, we can stay and use the premises of our sister clubs. Some offer free dockage, but we have yet to encounter this perc, although we have had reduced rates vs. marinas. The GIYC is small, and the only place to tie up is along the front dock, but the restaurant came highly recommended, and the channel looked more negotiable than the one to Ford YC.

We followed the Livingstone Channel south, and ditched west out the “hole in the wall” – literally a hole in the seawall. We wished we could have gone east to a small anchorage but it was in Canada – border closed due to Covid – and the Canadian Coasties were actually patrolling as we passed. As we approached the dock at GIYC, the current became quite evident, and our stern was swept into the dock’s end piling. The dock master was yelling “Out, out!”, which Lisa took to mean “Get out of our marina!”. There was no getting out, with our full keel preventing quick turns and the current pushing in, and Lisa is yelling back “but we called in and you said okay!”. The club manager Sandy appeared and quickly cleared things up. We finally got tied up and all seemed fine. We had a lovely dinner, and even received a complimentary appetizer.

The dock is protected from all winds – except from the south. The forecast, for NNE winds, seemed accurate, but overnight it moved south and we found ourselves rocking and rolling with docklines straining as the waves passed under the dock and (luckily) pushed us away. We couldn’t wait to get off that dock in the morning! We followed the shallow marked channel south until we finally entered Lake Erie and depths above 12 feet, and set our course for the islands. Twenty-five miles later, we dropped the hook on the north side of Middle Bass Island near the State Wildlife preserve. Ahhhh.

The bottom was rocky and we could feel the anchor as it pulled along. Fred pulled it up and it was actually a lot of clay, full of smaller rocks. We reset the anchor and it seemed to hold fast. We run a 55 lb. rocna anchor, and once set, we rarely worry – or move. It felt great to be sitting in this small bay, with only a few houses, lots of birds to watch, and a water temp of 80 degrees!! After a gorgeous sunset, we had a wonderfully quiet sleep.

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We spent a lazy day exploring. There was a tiny beach along the wildlife preserve, but with many trees having fallen in the water, difficult to walk. A water snake climbed out on one trunk, so we decided not to swim there! We had been warned about the snakes sunning themselves on boat transoms, and were glad for Ritual’s high sides. We dinghied over to the beach on North Bass Island and had a nice walk and swim. There was sand here, but mostly small stones, clam shells and a few pieces of sea glass. Lisa has a compulsion to pick these things up – but to keep where?? (note: I only kept a few, very small ones! – LKW) As we got the dinghy off the beach to return to Ritual, a snake swam by.

That evening, a strong line of thunderstorms moved through. We heard that TC had a flash flood warning from the same system. We battened down the hatches – literally; made sure we had an anchor alarm set, and waited. Why does it seem they always hit in the middle of the night? For awhile, the only time we could see shore was when there was lightening, but we had that in abundance. Our faith in the rocna was upheld – we did not move.

We had purposely waited until Monday to head over to Put in Bay, so the weekend crowd could thin out. We hooked a mooring ball (one of 80!) in front of the Boardwalk, and once settled in, called the water taxi for a trip ashore. We heard stories about PIB being Mac Island on steriods – it is really Mac Island with golf carts – zillions of them. We walked the main block along the bay, checking out some of the options for food/drinks/shopping, and had a drink at Mojito Bay – a outdoor bar with a sandy floor and swings at the bar. Someone needs to do this in TC!

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Since our bikes appeared likely to be run over by golf carts, we opted to join the crowd. We spent the next day tooling around the island from one end to the other. A highlight would be the elevator trip up the 352′ Perry monument, commemorating Cmdre. Perry’s victory over the English in the war of 1812, and the ensuing years of peace with Canada. This is part of the National Park System and the Visitors Center was nicely done. We enjoyed a fine perch dinner on the PIB Yacht Club’s patio. I know – another club – but it was so pleasant, without the crowds or loud music emanating from the other establishments. I guess we really are getting old (or smart?!).

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Every evening the Boardwalk – this big conglomerate of restaurants/bars/shopping that sits at the heart of the bay where the water taxi lands – holds a flag ceremony. They broadcast the Star Spangled Banner while they lower the big flag on the dock. I think the music in the bars actually paused. We watched a mooring ball neighbor solemnly pull their flag from its holder and slowly roll it up to the music. It reminded us of the ceremony they used to do in Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands, but I think they played Taps. We were also treated to wonderful fireworks from the ferry dock on Monday night, for an unknown reason, since it did not happen again.

With a dire forecast of front line thunderstorms, including a possible direcho, we moved to the Sandusky Harbor Marina on the mainland. Nice pool, and free laundry! We had a lovely afternoon, and were quite glad to be tied to a dock when the storm rolled through – again in the wee hours. No direcho, but 40 mph winds was enough. The wifi connection is great – hence all these blog updates at once. Oh – and there is a water snake sunning itself on one of the jet ski ramps. Lisa asked a man nearby if they were aggressive. He said they are not poisonous, but they do bite, and then they chew. Great. His 2 little girls grabbed a net to go mess with it. For fun, google the TV show Dirty Jobs – the Lake Erie Watersnake.

Good news from the Erie Canal – the lock holding us up has now opened for travel! We will spend the next several days working our way east along the Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York shore to Buffalo.

Till next time, Fred and Lisa