Sunday; Cleveland to Put-in-Bay, OH: We are finally on our way after sitting here for 6 days. I guess if you have to be stranded this is a good place to be; the people are very nice and they gave us a break on our slip. We were waiting at the gas dock this morning at 07:30, we were fueled up and a pump-out by 08:00. We were both very happy to be underway again. Lake Erie was smooth to choppy and the day went good. We didn't have any problems until we got to the mooring field and found the mooring balls but none of them had ropes on them. We were too high to reach the balls from the bow so we decided to just anchor out over to the side of the mooring field. Well, that didn't work either. Our anchor would not hold, it was a rocky bottom and the anchor would just drag on the bottom. We didn't want to try too hard because we were afraid of loosing the anchor so we had to improvise and adapt. We put our heads together and figured out a way to get our rope on the mooring ball; it wasn't easy, but it worked. Most other boats would go out on the swim platform to hook the ball and then walk it around but we can't walk around our boat from the swim platform so we did the next best thing. I went out on the swim platform while Keith drove me close to the mooring ball, I tied an old rope on the ring and created a large loop and laid in on the ball and left it. I then went up on the bow with a boat hook and Keith got me close to the ball and I hooked our rope; success! We don't know if we will be able to get our rope back in the morning but it is an old one so we will not be out much if we loose it. We are going to try though.
CO's comments: Sail boaters usually have no problems with mooring balls; but, this guy came in going way too fast with his buddy up front with a boat hook to grab the mooring ball. His buddy kept saying "Slow Down, Slow Down" to no avail. He hooked the mooring ball and the boat hook flew out of his hands. It took them over 40 minutes to retrieve the boat hook and finally get tied to the mooring ball. This usually doesn't happen to proficient sail boaters. A "go fast" left next to our mooring field this afternoon and went past the island that we came by within minutes. It took us a good 30 minutes to go the same distance at our 7 knots.
N41 39.419
W82 49.210
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| 6-24-2011-Keith is getting a little nostalgic again |
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| 6-24-2011-waiting on the weather to improve |
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| Entrance to Lakeside Yacht Club |
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| One of the many patio's around Lakeside Yacht Club |
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| Downtown Cleveland on our way out on 6-26-2011 |
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| Para-sailing at Put-in-Bay on 6-26-2011 |
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| 6-26-2011 Mooring Field |
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