Lake Erie

Our calm start on an early Monday morning leaving Tonawanda, quickly turned to panic when we saw on the chart that there was another lock ahead.  Angie had just put everything away as we did not expect another lock until after Chicago.  Turns out the Niagara River is very fast flowing in this section so they built a lock and canal bypass.  Our guidebooks did not address any of  this so we were unprepared, but quickly decided to take the lock system as a safer option.  It was huge, some 700 feet long, but only raised us 5 feet.

With that excitement behind us we headed out into Lake Erie, our first Great Lake.  What we found was a delight.  After 300 some miles of  narrow canal with locks and bridges, we enjoyed the wide open space.

We spent the first night in Erie, PA at Presque Isle state park after traveling 95 miles.  It was a beautiful anchorage, very protected and peaceful.  The next day we cruised to Cleveland.

Cleveland was very impressive with a large protective breakwater, a lot of urban renewal, and marina right downtown.

We stayed at a marina right next to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

And it was next to the stadium where the Browns play.  They had their first exhibition game the night we were there, and to much surprise, they won!

Angie's nephew Charles Kelly is the commander of a USCG ship based in Cleveland and docked a short walking distance from our marina.  He gave us a wonderful guided tour of the boat and all its workings.

There were many interesting aspect of the 140 ft ship that is primarily for ice breaking in the winter.  Here is Angie on the bridge getting tips for navigation on the Great Lakes.

 We spent the next day with Frank Romito catching up and touring the StoneAge facility.  Meeting little Frank and Cheryl.  The place looked great and they were very busy taking care of customers.  It has been 20 years since my last visit and the improvements were very impressive.

After 3 nights in the city, we were looking forward to anchoring out in the islands on the west end of Lake Erie.  But the wind picked up, some rain came in and we opted for a more protected refuge at Fox Haven marina on Catawba Is. near Sandusky.  We met some wonderful people to talk boating and swap stories with.  The waves grew the next day so we layed over.  Caught up on a few chores, my blog, and some emails. Walked to a nice little cafe for late lunch.

We left early Sunday morning headed for Detroit and Lake St. Claire.  The seas were calm and we traveled at 20 mph the whole way.  Dearborn is very industrial along the river.

But Detroit puts on an modern urban presentation.  The river was wide and few boats were out so our cruise was relaxing.

Lake St. Claire was busy with many boats out fishing, but the water was still flat for easy going.

It became very lumpy when traveling up the St. Claire river as it  was filled with Sunday boaters of every size, shape, and speed.  We chose the St. Claire Boat Harbor as our stopping point for the night.  Very nice and protected marina.  We left early the next morning when all was quiet.

So this ends our Lake Erie excursion and we now head to Lake Huron