Good Friends

As I previously mentioned, arriving in Port Huron on Saturday could be a problem if I wanted dock space, due to the Port Huron to Mackinac Island sail boat race.  But I had talked to Geo and he said weather forecasts were favorable for an anchorage out in front of his house right on Lake Huron, so off I went.  I could already see freighters in the channel as I left the marina at St Clair Shores for the nearly 10 mile northeast trip to the St Clair river.  The river is 40 miles long and will take me to Port Huron and then Lake Huron.  Geo had told me of the strong current and I immediately felt it as my speed dropped from over 9 mph on Lake St Clair to under 8 in the river.  I had entered the river just behind a big freighter and within just a few miles another one was in view behind me.  I scanned ahead on the gps to see if there were any upcoming wider spots in the river for when this behemoth caught me. 

He made the pass and I left my auto pilot on as it didn't appear that his wake was all that big.  I guess size doesn't matter, in this case, because Tranquility was pushed all over the place as the wake rushed by.  You can get an idea of the amount of water that is being displaced in this picture.

In addition to the many freighters in the river, the Coast Guard boats were also on the move.

The St Clair river is just a small segment of the longest international border in the world.  There are many small towns on both sides and you can literally be waving to your neighbor on the other side who is in a different country.  Of course if you want to go visit, you have to clear customs.

As I approached Port Huron the current got even stronger.  I was barely maintaining 6 mph as I navigated ahead of one freighter and behind another while dodging numerous pleasure boats going in both directions.  The big sail boat race had just gotten underway and as I cleared the bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario I could see the colorful sails in the distance.  From here it was just 5 miles along the western shore to George and Nancy's.  About a mile out Geo called and said he had me in sight and would guide me in with his jet ski.  Soon after I was anchored on a sand bar just slightly deeper than my 3.5 foot draft and just a few hundred feet from the beach in front of their home.

Its the one with all of the water toys on the beach.

Soon after anchoring, I was on the porch enjoying cocktail hour and then a very nice dinner Nancy had prepared.  George has been my boating buddy since 2001 and more recently my cruising mentor.  I'm fairly certain that I could not have embarked on this adventure without Geo's encouragement, tutelage, and of course all the work he's done and continues to do on my boat.  Denise and I just met Nancy a year and half ago and those two immediately hit it off.  I'm not sure what all they talked about, but the fact that Denise endurred 1500 miles on the boat might have ties to those conversations.

I stayed on the boat on Saturday night, but at 4:30 AM Sunday I was awake as the boat was bouncing all over the place.  Even though the winds remained light, waves came rolling in from the northeast.  That allowed for an early start to a busy day of work on the boat.  Again, Geo was ready to tackle a few of the issues I've accumlated so far.  As the rocking and rolling continued throughout the day, I was offered a room for the night.  I didn't hesitate and took them up on the offer and for the first time since June 13th, I slept on land.  Monday was off to see the guys who had made a new piece for the bimini that was lost back on the Erie Canal in a storm.  We also took the bent piece, which they straigtened.

When we got back to the house, Nancy was already expressing concern about the security of Tranquility anchored a few hundred yards out.  "The seas were angry that day, my friend."  Because I was anchored on a sandbar, the waves were breaking right at the boat.  I made the comment that it would not likely just break free, but drag for awhile.  Geo then suggested that the anchor line could split.  Ok, I didn't think of that and all of a sudden there was urgency in getting Tranquility underway before the line broke and she crashed on the beach.

The jet ski was our taxi to and from the boat, so first Geo delivered some provisions, including my phone in a water tight bag, which he tied to the swim platform, then he was back for me.  Its hard to explain, but getting on the back of a jet ski in the water is not as easy as you might think.  I tried, but I tipped it over.  So, thinking fast, I opted for hanging on to the back as Geo drove.  It was like being in a high powered jacuzi with only one jet focused right on your chest.  That was the easy part.  I got to the swim platform and was quickly aboard.  We had decided that it would take the two of us to bring up the anchor and get underway, so Geo came back around and tied the jet ski to the swim platform and he too was soon aboard.

Long story short, in the process of getting the anchor up, the line holding the jet ski ended up in the port prop and the jet ski broke loose.  I apparently had left the auto pilot on when I had anchored, so manuvering the boat to get the anchor up in angry seas was not easy for Geo.  Soon the jet ski was upside down and being washed towards the beach.  We got the anchor up far enough to get underway and Geo grabbed a throwable floating cushion and jumped off the back of the boat.  I was away, but the anchor had not been secured and was flopping around and hitting the bow of the boat.  I kept going until I thought I was in deep enough water and then turned back towards shore to put the breaking waves on the stern.  This softened the ride long enough to secure the anchor, I then turned back around and headed north towards Port Sanilac.  I kept looking back to see how Geo and the jet ski were doing and while I eventually lost sight it was not before it looked as though both were near the beach.

During all of this I lost my cell phone service, so couldn't check on Geo and the jet ski's fate.  As I neared Port Sanilac, I got cell service again and then a call from Geo.  He was fine, but the jet ski, not so much.  Later he drove up to Port Sanilac and we re-assembled the bimini and then rowed the dingy over to Geo's sailboat, which is anchored in the harbor there.  By the time I had reached Port Sanilac, the seas had calmed.  Looking back, I suppose we could think we could have waited for calmer seas, but I keep thinking about the possibility of the anchor line breaking and what that might have resulted in. 

I was off again the next day and was targeting Harrisville, MI as my destination.  Harrisville might have been a stretch goal and became even more so when the seas started getting angry again.  I tuned in NOAA weather and heard that seas in Saginaw Bay, which I would need to cross, were now forecasted at 5 feet.  No thanks.  I located a new target, Harbor Beach, MI.

Michigan is a great boating state.  All along its shores, which include Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, Lake Huron, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan there are "harbors of refuge" every 20 to 30 miles.  This includes a state run marina, which is very reasonably priced and is usually located very near a town with services a boater may need.  I pulled into Harbor Beach and tried to drop the anchor, but the wind was blowing strong and after two tries and no suitable "bites" I opted for the dock and tied up for the night. 

It was now Wednesday and with a good forecast, I was off to Harrisville, MI.   Shortly after leaving harbor I brought the engines up to the typical 2000 RPMs, but when I did, I quickly noticed a significant vibration from the port engine.  After a couple of tests, I decided it must be because of the "dinged" prop, which happened back in Cleveland.  I didn't want to investigate at this time, so I found an RPM that didn't cause vibration (1400) and continued on to Harrisville, a destination of 60 some miles, 30 of which were across the mouth of Saginaw Bay.  I only bring this up because it became the only part of the trip, so far, that I was without the sight of land. While this only lasted a little over an hour, I think its worth mentioning.

Here are four pictures, looking north, west, south and east.  Note, there aren't even any other boats out there with me, except the distant freighter to the east.  Not very exciting, but documentation of the event.

 You will have to enlarge this last one to see the freighter.

I anchored in the harbor at Harrisville and donned a swim mask to investigate the port prop.  I tied a cresent wrench to my wrist, thinking I would attempt to straighten any significant bends.  I knew from the depth sounder that I was in shallow water, but when I "jumped" in I was in water just about my waist, maybe a liitle too shallow.  Nonetheless, I dove under and immediately saw what might be the cause of the vibration.  I also saw that the props were in the mud, so before anything else I got back aboard, restarted the engines and moved forward several feet to deeper water.

This time when I dove under I had my utility knife, because what I saw earlier was the rest of the line that had been tied to the jet ski and another foreign "ball" of line that was severly tangled in the prop.  Maybe I picked it up in Harrisville.  A few dives and I had all of it cut free.  When I got out of the Harrisville harbor this morning and got up to speed I was happy to find normal engine operating conditions again.  It wasn't perfect though, because fog had moved in and the further I went, the denser it became.

I was hearing radio chatter among some sail boaters who were obviously nearby and kept a concentrated eye on the edge of the fog, maybe a quarter of a mile out.  Over the course of the next 2 to 3 hours, 7 sailboats and 2 powerboats emerged from the fog.  I only had to manuver for one of them, but after awhile I started seeing sailboats where ever a wave broke ahead of me.  Luckily, none of these were real.

Surprisingly, the fog stuck around until well into the afternoon and it wasn't until I rounded the northeast point of lower Michigan that I started to see the forecasted partly cloudy skies.  From the turn, I had a couple of choices for marinas or one choice for an anchorage before I ran out of daylight.   

I had decided that I would need fuel before crossing Lake Michigan in a few days so I made a few phone calls to up ahead marinas and determined that Rogers City, MI was the lowest priced for the next few hundred miles.  There's no anchorage here, but I still came in for fuel and paid for another over night dock.  And thats where I am, Rogers City, MI.  Very near to no man's land. 

On a curious note, on the north side of this narrow part of Lake Huron is Upper Michigan.  Just east of that is Canada, but what I find curious is how this border was determined.  Since near Buffalo, the international border was approximately the middle of, first, Lake Erie, then the Detroit River, then Lake St Clair and the St Clair River, then about halfway across Lake Huron, except up here.  To the north, across Lake Huron, is the UP of Michigan  I will have to Google this and find out how the US ended up with this piece of land on the north side of Lake Huron.

Here's a trivia question, name the US states that have a border with Canada and which one is longest?

On to Michigan

For a couple of reasons I did stay the extra day at Put-In-Bay.  One was the fact that the wind was blowing pretty good and the other is that Geo has arranged for a guy to fix the bimini in Port Huron on Monday.  Going early to Port Huron could be a problem because this weekend is the Port Huron to Mackinac sail boat race and there is no place to stay as the boats in the race have taken up all the slips. 

So I stuck around Put-In-Bay, not a bad place to be stuck.  Put-In-Bay is the town, the island is South Bass.  Its not a real big island, but too big to walk and see it.  Golf cart rentals are a very big business, but I opted to rent a moped and took a self guided tour. 

The most prominent landmark is the Oliver Perry monument.

When I first saw this, I thought the squared top looked a little odd, but then I found out it was scaffolding as it is being renovated.  It now is added to the growing list of things on this trip that were being renovated when I visited.  Normally there is an observation deck at the top of the 352 foot structure, but of course it was closed during the renovation.  The name Put-In-Bay is attributed to Commadore Perry because after he defeated a British fleet in the war of 1812 just off the island he said "put em in the bay" when asked what to do with the captured ships.  I spent quite a bit of time at the visitor's center and now know more than I ever thought possible about the naval battle and Oliver Perry. 

There are a number of wineries on the island and I stopped at one, but did not elect to take the tour or taste the wine.  Mostly because I was driving the moped and also because it was mostly chablis and other fruity wines, which I can do without.

I went back to the southwestern tip of the island and strolled the grounds of the lighthouse I saw on the way in.  It sits on a rocky point.

Up close, its age of 115 years shows.  It is no longer a working lighthouse and is on the Ohio Historical sites list.

I also spent a fair amount of time at the fish hatchery, which is run by Ohio State University and is staffed by students.  Another educational event.

Night time did not get too wild and crazy, at least not for me.  I planned an early morning departure, but of course the captain slept in a little and it was after 9 when I untied from the boat I was rafted to.  It looked like he had some fun planned for the weekend.

It was a fairly straight shot to the mouth of the Detroit River because I took a short cut through Canada.  I even had lunch there.  I was actually in Canadian waters for only about 45 minutes and during this time I ate the chicken sandwich I had made before leaving Put-In-Bay.  Technically, I could not have docked in Canada because I do not have my passport with me.  Its ok to cruise in Canadian waters as long as you don't stop there.  If you do stop, you have to clear customs and I might be a little over the limit of one case of beer that you can bring in.

Along the way I passed Middle Sister Island, which is in Canada.

East Sister Island is also in Canada, but West Sister is in Ohio.  All tolled there are about 30 islands in Lake Erie.  It depends on how you count Hen Island, which has three smaller islands around it.  Big Chicken, Chick and Little Chicken.  Apparently they are not always included in the count.  I only mention these because I think Denise will like the names.

As I got closer to the mouth of the Detroit River I started encountering a lot of commercial traffic.

I guess the river ends at the Detroit River Light.

Starting around this point and continuing for at least a couple of miles the water had much more algae in it.  I think this picture captures the point.

For the first few miles the river is pretty wide, but eventually it narrows to a shipping channel that is not very wide and can be quite congested.  Its easy to see who has the right of way.

There is also an upbound shipping lane to the east of the strip of land on the right, above, but it looked like all of the pleasure craft were staying in this downbound channel, so I did too.  I stayed as far away as I could from the commercial traffic, but it was still pretty close.

I knew I would encounter an opposing current and it really became apparent in this channel when I dropped 1.5 MPH.

It was still a few miles to Detroit and the scenery started to change as I got closer.

Note the storm clouds.  T-storms were in the forecast and just about the time I was in downtown Detroit, they caught me.  While there was thunder and lightening, that stayed to the south of me.  I just got wind and rain.

On the other side of the river is Windsor, Ontario.

At this point the river has taken a turn more to the east and while the storm had more or less passed, I started catching the back end of it.  It was only another couple of miles to Lake St Clair and I wasn't interested in going out on the lake in a storm, so I putted around downtown for almost an hour until it looked like it was clearing.  I also figured I couldn't make an anchorage I had identified in the northwest part of the lake, so made a call to a marina about 6 or 7 miles up the western shore.

By the time I was tied to the dock, the storm was past, but the rain lingered a little while longer.  Had I known my speed was going to go back to normal on the lake to around 9 miles an hour and that the rain was ending for the night, maybe I could have made the anchorage.

But here I am in St Clair Shores, Michigan.  More t-storms are in tomorrow's forecast, so I'll have to wait see what the cruising plans will be.  This is an interesting spot for boaters.  They call it the "nautical mile" and there are 2500 boat slips in several marinas along this strip.

Eerie Erie

Mark and I did not find any trouble when we went back downtown for the last night of Bike Week in Erie, PA.  One thing that was quite obvious was that any laws on open alcohol on the street were being ignored.  Another observation was that there was not a very visible law enforcement presence, but when a scuffle did break out, they arrived within just a couple of minutes and settled everyone down quickly and then disappeared again, maybe just out of sight on the side streets.  Seemed like a good way to not interrupt good fun, but react when needed.

The Erie waterfront turned out to be a nice place to stop.  The harbour is surrounded by Presque Isle, which is a state park.  This creates a very protected spot for sail boats and other small craft as well as providing a well protected bay for marinas, which there are many.  This is the Sheraton Hotel, connected to the Bay Front Convention Center and between us and the main harbour.

This is downtown from the harbour.  Many of these buildings are part of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Lake Erie is also a popular fishing lake for Walleye and Perch.

The weather forecast for Monday was for T-storms, so I sent Mark back to Buffalo on Greyhound to retreive his car.  The original plan was to take the train from either western Ohio or Michigan, but with knowing Monday was going to be a down day, Mark took the 2 hour bus ride and brought his car to Erie.  We had decided the best place to get off would be Cleveland, so this way he only had another 2 hour bus ride back to his car.

Surprisingly, the mechanic called at 9:30 AM and said the part was already in and he would be over shortly to install it.  By noon it was done.  I had also taken the opportunity to call a glass repair service to see if they could do something about the broken window.  Our patch job of plastic and duct tape was starting to fall off frequently.  One of their guys came by and determined that they would have to order the right glass.  I didn't want another delay, so instead he installed a piece of plexiglass that will get us by until we have enough down time to fix it properly.

We made preparations for an early Tuesday departure.

Winds were forecasted to be from the NW and eventually swinging to the NE, but seas only 1 to 2 ft.  As we made the turn to the southwest towards Cleveland it was a little bumpy, but pretty much on the bow so not too bad.  By mid day it had calmed considerably.  There are not a lot of photo opportunities on the open water, so I took what I found interesting.

Eventually, Cleveland was in sight.

We had identified a marina that would be a relatively close walk to the bus station for Mark in the morning and pulled in before 7.   It was also time for fuel.  The last fill up was way back in Cape May, NJ, but I did add a little on the eastern end of the Erie Canal, enough to get me out of New York where the state taxes make fuel much more expensive than other places.  Cleveland was 34 cents a gallon less than NY, but still 40 cents more than what I paid in NJ.  I wasn't sure what fuel efficiency was going to be because of two factors.  One was all of the idling while traversing locks, although I did shut the engines down in the bigger locks, and the other was the running on just one engine for nearly 100 miles on Lake Erie.  I guess the two factors netted out and fuel efficiency was still a very good 2.8 MPG.  Still well above the estimated 2 MPG that I used for budgeting.  Some of that is being offset by the higher diesel prices lately.  I used $4 / gal for budgeting and am now averaging $3.90 for the trip so far.  With this fill up I can avoid fuel in Michigan, where it is not cheap, fill up in Wisconsin and hopefully skip Illinois where it also is not cheap.  Illinois is one of those states that puts road taxes on marine fuel.

Earlier I reported that the trip from Tonawanda to Erie was an even 100 miles, but I found an error and it was only 94.  Still the longest day of the trip, beating the 93 Denise I had.  But the trip to Cleveland is now the new longest at 103.

Mark was off early this morning for a one hour walk to the bus station.  But as a long distance hiker, he did not think it was going to be a problem.  I am now solo and departed downtown Cleveland headed for Put-In-Bay, OH.  The Ohioans pronounce it Putin-Bay, with the emphasis on Put.

I got a few more photos of the Cleveland sky line.

I don't know much about the sky line, like which are well known buildings, but the structure to the far right is Cleveland Browns Stadium.  Here is a close up.

Just past the stadium was the main exit from the harbour to the lake.  This is also the mouth of the Cayahoga River and as with almost every river I've been on so far, there is lots of debris.

The water was also very muddy.  Of course one can't mention the Cayahoga River without including the story of the river catching fire.  It famously happened in June of 1969 when an oil slick was ignited, apparently from a spark from a passing train.  What is really surprising is that the 1969 fire was the 10th time the river caught fire, dating to 1868.  Maybe it was for the good though, because it prompted the Clean Water Act and Lake Erie, as I mentioned above, is a great fishing lake now.

It wasn't obvious to me while cruising behind the breakwater that the lake was really calm.  But when I cleared the harbour and was back in the main lake, I found nary a ripple.  And it became very hazy and soon the skyline disappeared and it was almost impossible to differentiate where the lake ended and the sky began.  Lake Erie was eerie.

So I cruised along, alone, not really able to see the shoreline because of the haze.  I only encountered a few fishing boats along the way.  I thought I was going to get into Put-In-Bay early, but as I approached the island, I found that the harbour entrance was on the northwest side of the island, so I had to go all the way around it and that brought me to this ligththouse on the southwest tip.

There are several marinas and a city dock in Put-In-Bay, but none were answering their phone or the radio.  Finally, I was in the harbour and had to drive up to the dock and yell to the dockmaster, who said they don't really monitor the radio and the best way to get a spot was to do what I was doing, show up. 

Put-In-Bay was billed to me as the party capital of Lake Erie and as I've been running into everywhere, something special is going on. It is "Christmas in July" here this week and weekend.  Many boats are sporting decorations.

Of course dock space is at a premium, so I am rafted to another boat.

The forecast for tomorrow is for higher winds out of the southwest, not the most favorable direction for my northwest course.  Plus there may be other reasons to stay a little while longer.

Next stop, Michigan, which will be the 12th state of the trip.

The Missing Week

We're still going, but I haven't been able to post in a while, for a number of reasons, but mostly because the nights seem to go a little later with the current crew.  Of course I'm not complaining.

So time to catch up.

When I left off we had just enjoyed the second night in a row of fireworks in Lyons, NY and the after hours party.  Which might expain why we only went 26 miles to Fariport, NY the next day.  This was a stop we had specifically targeted because of its proximity to Rochester, NY.  Ever since committing to joing me on the boat, Ron has been canvasing upstate New York for potential record buys.  In case you didn't know Ron buys and sells vinyl albums.  Maybe you remember that format.  Anyway, he had been in contact with a few sellers in Rochester and this was a good stop for him to meet up with them.

Those Dole banana boxes do not have bananas in them.  Later that same day he had another seller come by and pick him up to take to his house to root through his albums.  That experience has its own story.  In both cases we added ballast to the boat in the form of vinyl records.  While Ron was off buying records, Mark cleaned the boat and I did laundry at a "nearby" laundromat.

We pushed off the wall at Fairport and the first thing we had to do was request a bridge opening.  The Fairport lift bridge is the first of some 16 lift bridges that we will encounter from Fairport to Tonawanda at the end of the Erie Canal.  I don't have a picture of the Fairport bridge, but apparently its in Ripley's Believe it or Not because it is 72 tons and is lifted by a 40 horse lectric motor.  Also because there are no two angles on the bridge that are the same.

We had two locks to get through on our way to Albion, NY.  There are two ways to hold the boat while in a lock.  Sometimes there are simply lines hanging down the walls and you grab one on the bow and another on the stern.  In some locks there are secured cables or pipes that you can loop a line from the boat around and tie off.  The boat then rides up, or down, on the the cable.

From Fairport to the end of the canal there are 15 more lift bridges, but there are also still a lot of fixed bridges and other structures that are under 16 feet, so we had to leave the mast down.  Like earlier in the canal, there are alot of interesting bridges.

 

We planned a short stop in Brockport, NY because the guide book said there was a grocery store very near to the free dock tie up.  Ron needed worchestershire sauce for Bloody Mary's.  I couldn't  have one because of my still adhered to rule of no drinking until stopped for the night.  We also finally took the opportunity to take our bottles and cans in for deposit redemtion.  We thought about pulling a Kramer and Newman routine and saving these returns until we get to Michigan, where the deposit is 10 cents vs. NY's 5 cents, but the back deck was getting a little clutered and we also weren't sure would survive on the back deck on Lake Erie.  We ended up with $7.50 at 5 cents each, you can do the math.

We stopped for the night at another free town dock with water and electric in Albion, NY. 

This was Tuesday and Ron wanted to see at least part of the baseball All Star game.  Mark and I seperately walked into the downtown to scout possible locations.  We found only one establishment that would have the game on, but the owner said he would have to turn the sound down at 11 PM because it was karaoke night.  I didn't quite get how karaoke starting at 11 PM on a Tuesday night could be a big draw, but what do I know.  The guide said there were numerous restaurants near the dock, but as it turns out there was only the karoake bar, whch didn't have food and a sandwich / pizza restaurant.  Everything else was several blocks south.

So we chose the only choice and watched the game at the karaoke bar.  At around 10:30 we were still the only people in the bar, but a few minutes before 11, people started showing up and by 11:15 the place was hopping.  Needless to say, we had to stay for awhile and be entertained by the local talent.  It was entertaining, but only a few people with any talent.  It turned out to be another late night.  A theme with this crew.  There were only two more locks on the canal and they were together as a step lock, so the crew had lots of down time.

The stretch from Albion to the western end provided a change in scenery from the east end.  We started seeing more farming, especially produce and orchards and even grapes for the wineries.

There were still more bridges.  In many cases two bridges are operated by one person.  I thought maybe they operated the second bridge remotely, but that wasn't the case.  The operator had to drive to the second bridge.  In one case the two bridges were only a few hundred feet apart, so we had to idle while waiting for the operator.  In another case, the operator was at his other bridge for an east bound boat and we had to wait for him to get back.  In one case we tied to the wall below the bridge to wait, but all in all the waits were fairly minimal.

There is even a spot where the canal becomes an aqueduct and goes over a road.

I record each days mileage and where we started and stopped for the day.  Along the way on the last day in the canal I remembered that we were getting close to somewhat of a milestone of the total loop trip and went to the page on the gps that has mileage, average speed and other information.  It just happened to be right when we reached this milestone.

We came to Lockport, NY where we found the last two locks, which are relatively new and these two locks replaced a 5 lock step.  We went up a total of 49 feet and unlike the step locks in the eastern canal where there was usually a few hundred yards between the locks, in these two we went straight from one into another.

There is a four mile stretch of canal that followed that was cut from solid rock.

The canal ends at the Niagra River in Tonawanda, NY, about 10 miles north of Buffalo.  We knew there were free town docks there, but we didn't know there were Wednesday night concerts on the waterfront and the docks were filled with local boaters.   After cruising through and looking for a space, we found a spot that was on the borderline of the sign that said no mooring, but we tied up there and were able to stay just inside the limit, however, this spot did not have any electric.

The original plan was for at least Ron to get off the boat here and rent a car or truck to collect his records and continue on his buying spree all the way back to Wisconsin.  Mark had committed to staying aboard for a little longer as I headed across Lake Erie.  Ron, however, was enjoying the trip more than he thought possible.  One of the collectors he was going to visit back in Rochester had had a change of heart and wasn't selling, but Ron did find a local collector in Tonawanda who came by the boat with some records that Ron bought.  He made a number of additional calls and found collectors in and around Cleveland, OH, so decided to stay aboard to Cleveland.  The other issue with Ron staying aboard was his problem with motion sickness.  Before coming he was pretty certain that he would not be able to handle to choppy seas in Lake Erie, but at this point he wanted to try.

So we planned to spend another day in Tonawanda to reprovision and prepare for Lake Erie.  I had been in contact with a friend of mine in Canada who lives in Hamilton, but works just across the boarder in St Catherines, Ontario.  He drove down after work and we all went to dinner in downtown Buffalo.  In addition to the Wednesday night concert in the park, this was the start of a week long annual festival in Tonawanda call Canal Days.  So most of the boats there for Wednesday were not leaving anytime soon.  We wanted to find a spot with electric, so Mark took a hike up and own each side of the canal and though he didn't find an open spot, he did find a guy on a boat called "Big Kahuna" who said he didn't mind if we rafted with him.  Rafting is tieing up to a boat that is anchored or in this case tied to the dock.  We were able to plug in and get some electicity too.

The weather forecast for the next three days were quite favorable for Lake Erie, so we made plans for an early departure with intentions of going 89 miles to Erie, PA. Even though it was another late night we were up and heading toward Lake Erie before 7 AM.

We came to the junction of the Erie Canal and the Niagra River.

It was important to turn left here.  The Niagra River has a very swift current as it heads north to Niagra Falls and Lake Ontario.  Turning right and not realizing it for a few miles could have unwanted results.

After a few miles we exited to the Niagra River to the Black Rock Canal, which includes another lock.  For some boats and adventurous crews it is possible to stay on the Niagra River and avoid the canal and lock.  At this point the current in the river is quite strong and builds to as high as 15 to 18 knots.  Even at maximum speed it would be hard for Tranquility to not go backwards in this current.  The guide book says that each year someone gets in trouble in this part of the Niagra River.   We could see it flowing by while we were in the parallel canal.  There are few more interesting bridges, I190 which crosses to Grand Island and the "Peace Bridge", which is one of three bridge crossings into Canada in this area.

In addition to the lock, there were two bridges that needed raising for us as we had put the mast back up in Tonawanda.  One a railroad swing bridge and the other a draw bridge.

Just as we came to the Buffalo waterfront, we found our canal exit and headed into Lake Erie.

We had favorable easterly winds and the seas were barely 1 foot,  A very comfortable ride, but trouble loomed.  Just 30 or so minutes into the lake I noticed that I was losing oil pressure on the starboard engine.  I shut it down and restarted, but nothing changed.  I shut it down again and Mark took the controls and I went below to investigate.  At first glance, nothing seemed unusal, but when I checked the oil, there was none.  Upon further investigation I found the missing oil...in the bilge.  Uh oh.

After numerous calls and advice from Geo I found the problem.  A small tube on the front of the engine was leaking.  All this time Mark has continued to man the controls and even though on just the port engine we were still making over 8 miles an hour.  I didn't want to backtrack, so we identified a marina in Dunkirk, NY, about 45 miles on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie and still on our way to Erie, PA.  Our speed actually picked up a little and we were single engine cruising at 8.5 to 9 miles an hour.  I called ahead to the marina and found out that they wouldn't have any parts for my Yanmar engine, but would still look at it and see if it was a minor problem with a loose fitting or something simple.  The mechanic in Dunkirk quickly identifed a crack in the tube and told us that this marina was affiliated with a marina in Erie that was a Yanmar dealer.  He called, but the part still had to be ordered.  We decided to keep going on our single engine and headed back out into the lake and set a course to Erie.

We arrived in Erie after 7:30, but tied up at a marina.  I had called the Erie marina to see if the part could be air shipped and while he tried, it didn't happen, so here we are in Erie, PA.  These things seem to happen on weekends, so we're stuck until Monday, when hopefully the part will arrive.  The 89 mile trip became an even 100 with the diversion into Dunkirk.  By far the longest day with this crew and even a few miles longer than a 93 mile day with Denise back in North Carolina and Virginia.

Being the middle of summer, there is always something going on, especially on the weekends.  We soon found out that this was "Bike Week" in Erie and the town is filled with motorcycles.  Hundreds of them.

Ron made the decision to rent a truck and head out on his record buying adventure with several collections to look at between here and Cleveland.  He probably won't be able to meet back up with us as he has a large collection in Chicago that he needs to get to by the middle of next week.

Mark and I strolled a few blocks into downtown Erie to see what Bike Week was all about.

It looks kind of crazy and there is live music tonight, so maybe we'll head back into town to see how much crazier it might get.

Check back in a couple of days to see how this might turn out.