“The water excites the mind and soothes the soul.”
From the log book on Saturday August 26th 2017. Written by the XO:
8:48 AM Left Edgewater Marina. Goodbye Cleveland!
Sunny, east winds 5-10 kts., seas 1ft. or less.
12:45 PM Dropped anchor in Lorrain Harbor, west side by the breakwater, which is full of little shacks.
Miles travelled: 960 to 985=25
After a week of six to nine foot waves and a wicked wind, Lake Erie smoothed out. It was a nice little run to Lorain.
I’m really digging our Mantus anchor. It’s batting a thousand, absolutely reliable, but our windlass refuses to free drop like it’s supposed to. We have to wait until it spools slowly out until proper amount of rode is achieved. In this case–ten feet deep–we need to let out around 70 feet. The boat drifts quite a bit before the anchor reaches the bottom. It’s a problem that needs to be dealt with.
Lorain is a quiet, well protected harbor, but if offers little else to the cruising boater. Once a bustling center of commerce, filled with dock workers toiling about huge lakers, loading and unloading cargo for the many manufacturing plants. One by one they closed down. One of the last to go was Ford Motor Company. Lorain is the poster child for deindustrialization.
From the log book on August 27th 2017. Written by the XO:
8:55 AM. Left Lorain Harbor of bugs.
12:30 PM. Anchored in Sandusky Bay between Johnsons Island and Bay Point.
12:30 – 2:30 PM. Killed many bugs.
That’s right. Not a typo. We spent 2 hours killing and cleaning up bugs. Somewhere between Lorain Harbor and Sandusky Bay, two things happened:
(1) We were swarmed by disgusting mayflies. Apparently their sole purpose in this world is to reproduce, die, and smell very bad. Their dead little bodies piled up 2 inches thick on our aft deck. Meanwhile, while we did battle with tee-shirts tied around our head, several nearby runabouts filled with local teenagers frolicked in the warm bay, seemingly unaffected by this plague. We were being singled out by bugs! Look guys, boaters from Massachusetts. C’mon, let’s get ’em!
(2) We travelled one thousand miles!
