Notes and pictures from the Lake Erie portion of the "Mighty Quinn" Travels

Friday, May 30th, 2008
Since Wednesday, we have been helping Chuck Finn sail his boat, "Mighty
Quinn" to Duluth, MN be doing the Lake Erie segment.  It is Friday
night and we are in Lorain, OH to wait out the passage of a storm
system.  I think we will stay here Saturday as well.

So far, we have spent Wednesday night anchored off Long Point on the
Canadian shore about 40 miles west of Port Colborne, ON.  We then
sailed south  and west past Erie, PA on the US side and cleared
customs at Ashtabula, OH, spending the night on the town dock. 
Today we were able sail directly to Lorain, OH about 30 miles past
Cleveland on a single tack and are tucked in at Spitzer Lakeside
Marine. It is just starting to rain.  Below are some pictures of
the travels so far.
Leonard

Note from May 31, 2008We are still in Lorain trying to repair the wobbly binnacle.  There were a few strange noises in the general region while we were underway yesterday (screaming along at 7 plus).  This morning Chuck cleared out the lazzaret and took a look.  The plan was to epoxy a board underneath the binnacle, presenting the issue of finding all the necessary parts and removing the bolts.  We located a local boat repair shop just up the street, but he couldn't do the job until early next week.  Along with a schedule, Lorain isn't that enticing of a port of call.  Chuck did a lot of bike riding to locate a caulking gun while we did the laundry and reprovisioning.  We returned in time for Leonard to assist in the removal of the last bolt (the one that didn't come out easily).  I'm not sure which would have been a bigger gumption trap, having issues with the first or last bolt.  Chuck went through 2 sawzall  blades and many battery recharges before getting the bolt out.  Although he only had to go 2 blocks to get the bolts he needed, that took an hour.  The guys are presently installing the bolts, having bonded things with 3M 5200.  It likely won't be a permanent fix, but will hopefully last for the trip.  It would appear that Catalina or whoever installed the binnacle and wheel did a piss poor job of it.  The plywood that was used was rotten now and there were strange gaps that Chuck found puzzling.

At any rate, today was a good day to stay put.  The front line  arrived during the night.  Chuck saw wind gusts in the upper 30's and got up a couple of times to check the bumpers.  It also poured.  This morning was beautiful, but the wind has built all day long, blowing in the mid to upper 20's all afternoon from the NW.  It would have been a miserable trip.  We've had nice sails everyday, making reasonable distances.  Yesterday was a 90 mile day.  We'd thought we'd have to stop at Cleveland for Chuck to get his decal from Customs and Immigration, but I think that problem was solved on the computer.  Since the front was slower in arriving we pressed further west to give us a better angle (hopefully) for getting to the islands and the river.

Groceries here are a bit of a joke.  Veggie whats???  With some creativity I hope to make some decent meals with what we found and have on hand.  Naturally the washing machines at the marina were being replaced, but we did find a laundromat, Dollar Store and grocery within walking distance.  Boy, the things we do for fun.

They just completed the job and the binnacle is much sturdier.  All that is left is to put everything (and I do mean everything) back in the appropriate place in the cabin!  All of us are tired after a long day.  Hopefully some food and drink will restore the crew.  Tomorrow is another day! LynneaNote from June 1stWe had a leisurely start this morning since the fuel dock at the marina didn't open until 9. The marina staff directed Chuck to go to the south fuel dock, which we did, but while we were waiting for a boat at the dock to depart, we ran out of water. It was just a light touch, but annoying in as much as the lake level is three feet higher than datum and they were aware of our 7 foot draft. After taking on fuel we were glad to bid Lorain farewell.Heading out into the lake we encountered a huge fleet of fishing vessels of every size and shape. It would appear that the good folks of Lorain all have boats and like to fish! Once clear of them we did the slow 720 loop necessary for the auto pilot setup before raising sail. With all systems working, we had enough wind to set sail and head in the general direction of our intended anchorage for the night. We had good winds for most of the day and didn't need to resort to the iron jenny until the last few hours when the winds lightened and went dead ahead.We picked up a mooring in Put in Bay on South Bass Island, a pretty little harbor with an interesting town. While I fixed a quick dinner Chuck dug the dinghy out and proceeded to pump it up. After dinner Leonard and Chuck paddled us ashore to go exploring. The town is an old resort destination with lots of historic buildings. Being a Sunday night early in the season, things are very quiet, but I expect it would be a mad house in prime season. We found a brewery, a wine store and a grocery store. The lone bakery on the island is only only open Wednesday through Sunday, so even though we plan to go ashore again in the morning, it will be closed.

There are innumerable bars in town too, one of which claims to be the longest bar in the world. Most of the bars appeared to have two customers each, in spite of live entertainment. There is a nice water front park and the Perry monument which affords a great view of the islands. Perhaps we'll do that for exercise in the morning before we head out.The weather forecast is for good weather until sometime on Tuesday, so we should complete our transit of Erie under tranquil conditions. Hopefully we'll also make it past Lake St. Clair which could be interesting in bad conditions given the shallow depths. It would appear our "lay day" in Lorain was well timed as necessary repairs were made when the conditions on the lake would have been far less than ideal. We're hoping our luck on this leg of the trip will hold until we reach our crew change destination (a yet to be determined location) in the vicinity of Port Huron. It's time to hit the bunks after another long day out in the sunshine and fresh air. Chuck is only wincing when he tries to use his left hand or hits his right shoulder, the evidence of his labors of yesterday.Lynnea, aboard the Mighty QuinnNote for June 2ndEven with two captains I still didn't get my promised morning walk. Two times zip is zip!!After listening and looking at the weather report which included some inclement weather for Tuesday the dual captains decreed that going ashore and spending perfectly good weather was a waste of time. Two against one, especially when the one is of small stature, rules. We departed bright and early, before 0800. It was a delightful day with the winds finally from a direction other than ahead. We sailed most of the day, attaining the Detroit River entrance around noon. It was one of those instances where the time to attain our goal seemed to remain the same as the wind slowly died back as the day progressed.

The current in the river was enough to slow our progress. We'd been enjoying SOG readings higher than the knotmeter all morning, so it was disconcerting to see the readings dropping. After I pointed out that the chart depicted "up and down" channels for the big ships, we took the official "up" river channel along the Canadian shore. It took what seemed a long time, but we reached the Ambassador Bridge than links Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, just about rush hour. It was interesting to see the traffic on the bridge wasn't moving a lot faster than we were!

Chuck and Leonard spent time deciding where we should plan on stopping for the night while I ran us up the river with a wind assist on the main sail. We were moving right along with the extra boost, and I thought the consensus was to head north into Lake St. Clair to a marina that was just beyond the reaches of our paper charts. (I'd thought we were the only folks that tended to over reach our on board charts, but Chuck was unable to unearth the paper chart beyond the end of the Detroit River.) We do have a chart plotter with the charts, and Leonard has the charts he has down down loaded from the NOAA site on the computer, but I still find it easier to look at the big picture provided by a good, old hands-on paper chart. At any rate as we approached the end of our paper chart the guys throttled back and headed for a marina that had an iffy entrance depth for our almost 7 feet of draft. Any time spent in looking at what might be available would make reaching the other possible choice a moot point. Several failed VHF and cell phone calls later we tried approaching a marina that thought maybe we could squeak into a slip. After the usual to do about bumper heights and dock lines, we headed in, only to be thwarted by a mud bank that grabbed our keel. We weren't even close to the intended slip, so we slithered back out into the river. With east winds in the forecast, the closest spot to drop an anchor had more fetch than any of us wanted after an already long day. Instead, we headed for the Windsor side of the river to tuck in behind Peche Provincial Park which would offer shelter from both east and south winds. With the 18, 12 and 6 foot depths neatly tucked one atop another, we edged out of the channel and dropped the hook. This is done much like a dog turning around three times before laying down. After backingwith 2000 rpms we declared the anchor set and broke out the micro brew we got at the liquor store at Put in Bay last night. I think the deal is that if we don't leave the vessel we aren't required to check in customs back on the US side. We also can't check into Canadian waters via cell phone which is all that's available to us if we don't leave the boat, sounds like a catch 22 if ever there was one.

So far, things are peaceful. The evening was pretty with the city behind us as we ate dinner in the cockpit. I, being the constant nag, requested the wind generator be turned on as an early warning device against the weather demons after the guys nixed the GPS alarm since that gets triggered by lack of satellite coverage. Chuck did agree that listening to a change in pitch which will require him to check the wind speed from his bunk is preferable to finding ourselves stuck in the mud in the middle of the night. There is a definite current running in the channel which so far has over ridden the the wind. Hopefully we'll have a quiet night and have reached Port Huron before any bad weather reaches us tomorrow. We hope to finish our leg of the journey with minimal foul weather.Lynnea aboard the "MIGHTY QUINN"Note for June 3rdThe wind generator did wake me up last night, but not the guys, soguess who got up to check on things!  The wind was blowing fromthe south, but the current was keeping us away from shore.  There werea few flashes of lightening and a smattering of rain drops, enough forme to close the overhead hatch in the main cabin before heading back tomy bunk.  Morning found us still sitting where we'd anchored, butthe sunny blue skies of the last few days had headed east.  We gotunderway around 0830 after breakfast.The current that's been running against us for the last two days in therivers really slows our progress.  There wasn't enough wind onLake Saint Clair to even bother to unroll the jib so the day has beenspent motoring other than a brief spell on the Saint Clair River whenwe got a bit of a boost from the jib.  We saw more lakefreighters than we have the last few days, and had one pass us headingnorth shortly after we started across Lake Saint Clair, which tooklonger than the guys thought to overtake us.  We saw several moreheading south out on the lake.

The guys spent much of the morning refining the auto tracking
connection between the chart plotter and auto pilot.  I think they
have all the kinks worked out now so that "Auto" reminds us when the
end of the track has been reached  and a new way point needs to be
entered.  Chuck was also busy keeping an eye on the radar to get
familiar with how things look on the screen.  It's one of those
things that's much easier when you can see the traffic while fine
tuning your skills.  What with the boat traffic and the string of
buoys that define the channel it was both fun and instructive.  A
portion of the approach to the Detroit River yesterday was devoted to
aligning the radar, another one of a number of shake down chores
required when new toys get added to a boat.

Once we got across the lake and started up the river the scenery
reminded me of the ICW, but there was less wildlife.  Since it is
a big ship channel we don't have to keep searching for the channel, a
real plus.  Many of the marinas and yacht clubs have very few
boats on the docks, it must be early in the season.  The up side
of this is not being continually passed by power boats, although there
have been a few that have left us rolling in their wakes.
 
Our estimated time of arrival at the marina in Port Huron is about
1800.  Even the days we think will be short tend to get drawn out,
and we thought it was a shorter distance than it really is to Port
Huron.  The waterway guide doesn't indicate floating docks, but
hopefully we'll manage the pilings looking like we know what we're
doing.  Along with almost 7 feet of draft, the Mighty Quinn also
has a bad habit of walking to port when backed.  It's fine when it
can be used for an advantage, but can be frustrating occasionally.

Once again the current took its toll, pushing our arrival at the marina
to at least 1900.  Also, along about 1730, the rain commenced to
spoil our almost perfect record.  Perhaps Thea put on a word to
the weather god regarding the disparities between our two legs of the
trip since they had lots of cold wet weather.  I opted to play
cook and stay dry, saying it would be a good idea if a hot dinner was
ready shortly after our arrival since the head winds we were
experiencing were not especially warm.

I still didn't get off scott free since I had to gear up to help get us
docked at the marina.  We made it up the Black River, past the RR
bridge and the bascule bridge and finally found the marina. 
Fortunately there was someone on the dock to take our lines since it
was a sea wall that is about 4 feet above the deck.  Once we were
tied up, I retreated below to finish up dinner while the guys got us
checked in at the marina.  Once it stops raining I'll see about
negotiating getting off the boat.

Our week aboard  the Mighty Quinn has flown past and we were
blessed by decent weather and good times.  We've had some great
sails so I guess we shouldn't complain about motoring along with out
wind for just one day and a few hours of rain.  Hopefully the rest
of the trip will have fair winds and warm weather.  They guys
heard a weather report predicting warmer weather this week.  Our
thanks to Chuck for allowing us to join him for this portion of his
adventure.

Lynnea aboard the  "Mighty Quinn

Sent from Home June 5th
Between the combination of current and a more leisurely start in the
morning, it was 1900 before we arrived at the River Street Marina in
Port Huron, the last stop of our leg of Chucks Great Adventure. 
The guys registered no complaints when I'd stayed below for most of the
rain getting dinner started.  Needless to say, after another day
out on the water we were all tired.  With the "Mighty Quinn" tied
snugly to the marina wall we settled in for our last night
aboard.   Chuck dug out the little electric heater which
served dual duty, heating up the cabin and drying out some of the
moisture brought below on our foul weather gear. The marina was in an
older part of town that looked interesting as we had headed up the
river, and we were tied up right below a fire station and by a
community college.  Given the less than wonderful weather and the
huge step to the dock, I chose to wait until morning before going
ashore.

The guys had been discussing how well the altenator had been charging
the batteries during the trip north.  This was the first none
sunny day we'd had and Leonard didn't like the readings on the voltage
monitor which had been under 12 volts most of the time even though we'd
been motoring all day.  When the sun would peek from behind the
clouds, the voltage would go up briefly, then drop again with the
clouds, indicating a problem.  So far the solar panels and being
plugged into shore power when on a dock had kept the batteries
charged.  Since we've had similar  problems aboard Antares in
far flung places (not fun), this looked like a good time to investigate
the problem while Chuck waited for the Brothers Lynch to arrive. 
So after breakfast and a phone call to Mary to check the Catalina 38
website for possible subsitutes, Chuck removed the altenator and when
our rental car arrived, we set off looking for parts or a
replacement.  Given the age of the "Mighty Quinn" (1981), the
possibility of finding either parts or a replacement was slim. 
The one specialty shop had nothing, but could possibly get parts later
in the week, and all the automotive parts places just shook their
heads.  Chuck was relieved to find almost an identical replacement
in a nearby town.

Once we had it in hand, I left the guys  installing it while I
explored town.  What had looked interesting from the water turned
out to be mostly empty store fronts.  I'm not sure which side of
urban renewal and gentrification it was, just beginning or the bitter
end.  My hopes of finding a place to get a few provisions faded
fast.  One store front, a sweet shop/ice cream store started in
the 1920's, had a note thanking past patrons for their business, dated
2001.  Turn over is obviously pretty slow.  Other than a
marine store and a liquor store with a small deli section there was
only a smattering of small shops that appeared to be hanging on by a
thread, and I appeared to be the lone pedestrian on the street. 
I'm sure the vitality of the area wasn't helped by removing one of the
bridges crossing the creek, but tearing it down did give employment
opportunities to a handful of workers.  One interesting sight was
at the condos across from the marina where someone had placed a very
lifelike figure climbing a rope to the balcony.

After another trip to an auto parts store for a different belt and a
few bolts, Chuck started the engine and was pleased to see the charge
push past 13 volts.  Declaring the job a success, he toyed with
the idea of leaving things apart as a special surprise for Mike and his
brothers.  It was time for us to gather all our gear and drive to
Avis to pickup a car and head to Vermont.  Even though the dual
rental situation hadn't been ideal (Enterprise doesn't do one way
rentals, and while Avis would, it was half way back to Detroit) it
worked out well as it gave Chuck a car for the rest of the day to run
more errands.  From what I'd seen walking and driving around, he'd
need a car to reprovision or risk hearing " veggie what?"  Luckily
on the drive to the Avis site we spotted a nice green grocer that
looked like a good place to shop.

We headed on our way east after saying  good bye, wishing Chuck
smooth sailing and thanking him for the enjoyable trip.  The
weather which has been cool so far was forecast to bounce into the
upper 80's by the weekend with the daily possibility of showers and
thunderstorms.  It looks like each leg of his trip will have
different weather as well as crew.  Hopefully he'll get to fly the
spinneaker on the Huron leg.

Our drive was about what we expected,  a longish wait to clear
customs into Canada, a couple of miles of mostly stopped traffic at an
accident west of Toronto on 401, and slow going through Toronto. 
We spent the night at Trenton where the Trent water way heads north off
Lake Ontario.  My walk to the grocery store and look at the Trent,
turned out to be a marathon with zero results.  I found the store,
but it was closed as was most of town, it was getting too dark to see
much of the waterway, and the plan to walk back in a loop became 3
sides of a square when the street we planned to take didn't extend to
the street we were on.  I was more than ready to crash by the time
we got back to the motel, having walked between 7 and 8 miles.  I
know, there was a car at the motel, but I was tired of sitting! 
We arrived back in Burlington around noon, in plenty of time to return
the car in the 24 hour limit.

Who knows, maybe we can coordinate a slot on the return trip next year
and see more of the Great Lakes.

Lynnea