Sunday, June 29, 2025

Day 7

Today we went to Erie, Pa with reservations to stay 2 days at Wolverine Marina at the base of State Street.

We started the engine at 0503. We waited to cast off until we heard the whistle indicating that the bridge would open at 0600. There were tons of fishing boats waiting to go through and we were pointed towards the bridge so it was just a matter of pushing the bow off the dock which we did at 0601 and was through the bridge 4 minutes later. There were many power boats ahead of us and behind us. It was like rush hour for the boats, and once they reached the harbor, they gunned their engines and came up on plane.

0620 we raised the mainsail in the harbor. TWS 6.0kts from 201°. We exited the harbor at 0627. At 0640: DTW was 34+ miles to the waypoint at Presque Isle and our ETA was 11:53 AM p.m. SOG 6.5 kts. The lake was calm but choppy. TWS 5 kts TWA 225..

It was 65° inside the boat when we woke and it was very Dewey outside. The dodger windows were fogged up both inside and outside. We’re so glad the wind is from the south as it’s predicted to turn north east and some of the weather predictions on predict wind app said the wind was going to be in the upper single digits maybe up to 10 kts.. We also didn’t know how the waves were going to be on the lake because Saturday was windy and we weren’t sure if there was going to be a lot of residual waves left over from that. It turned out that it was pretty calm most of the time and even got glassy during part of our passage and then picked up again but I think the winds were the highest around six or 7 kts and that wasn’t really long enough to kick up the water. At first, the wind was from the south and we were healing to Port, but then as the wind clocked around, we started healing to starboard.

Notable on this passage is all the fisherman that were out on the lake today. It wasn’t too hot, it was reasonably flat. And you could tell the different harbors along the lake because they’re fisherman were out in those areas. At Conneaut there are many fishermen behind us and then in front of us and curving around to our port side I counted 61 fishing boats. So we had to keep her eyes out in these areas for fishing boats and there were a few times that we had to change our course to avoid hitting them.

We entered the Erie Harbor channel at 1053 am calling the Marina that we were close and accepted their offer to have someone at the dock assist us. Handling our boat is still new to us and left turns into docks is difficult with this boat. We lowered the mainsail in the harbor at 1233 pm and raised the CB at 1237 pm. we passed under the bridge at 1245pm and then you have to make an immediate left turn. A power boat waited while we passed him for his turn to go through the bridge (65’ tall). We had to go right to turn into our dock, A12. There was a guy there, but it wasn’t pretty docking. Phil didn’t turn soon enough and was going too fast. I could see early what wa happening and yelled to go in reverse, but he didn’t do reverse with enough power. We almost hit the bow of the power boat but Vicky and I fended Katie O off while Phil backed up some and we got in giving the bow line to the man to help us. It didn’t help that he pulled the bow in tight, which you should never do as with a keel, it brings the boat into the dock. With Katie O being a heavier boat and a longer keel, this boat really doesn’t like to be pushed sideways. Anyways, we were docked at 1250pm tied up to our satisfaction up at 1255 and turned off the engine immediately afterwards. Tempers were cooling afterwards (mine of course).

We went up to the office and paid for 2 days. Not like the old days where it as $0.10 a foot or even $0.50 a foot. Wee got the keys to get into the marina gate and bathrooms and decided to get lunch. It was a little warm and we walked with 1-2 stops for sitting breaks before we arrived at Smugglers Wharf. Phil had blackened catfish sandwich, I had the catfish sandwich with cornbread coating and Vick had some walleye fish sticks. Great food but definitely not at the prices listed in Yelp.

We relaxed on the boat and about 730pm warmed up food that we had for dinner. Tortollini salad, green beans and carrots and phil and Vicky had warmed up chick thighs. I added a hard boiled egg. Afterwards, Phil and I bought cellular data for our iPads. He got a week of data for the US and I bought for North America unlimited for 21 days so will cover us in Canada.

Phil and Vicky went to bead and I watched a YouTube video and went to bed later.

I’m having technical difficulties uploading pictures, so will add later when hav WiFi.