Day 2-242 onward to Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH

We left the dock at Wolverine Marina in Erie, PA at 6:50 am. Our first adventure was to once more pass under the walkway between the Sheraton Hotel and the convention center. It has an amazing 71 feet of vertical clearance, which is not a problem for Lucky Us, but it is also so big that it is hard to photograph. The hotel is on the right in the picture and the convention center on the left. We are headed out of the channel and about to go under the walkway. This whole trip has really been a voyage of discovery. We have been to some of these places before, but they ALWAYS look different from the water. Then there are also all of the many unexpected and sometimes strange things that we see. The whole trip has been much more than we ever expected...

     The trip for today was 79 miles and was mainly designed to "put miles under the keel" rather than sight seeing. Thus, we stayed about 4 miles off the south shore of Lake Erie. This had the advantage of less wind since the winds were mainly thermally generated along the shore. We started in a light off shore breeze, which turned into an onshore breeze as the land heated up. It gradually increased in velocity, but it never got over 10 mph. By staying off the shore we had less winds (and waves). We did get some nice viewing angles of the Fairport Harbor outer lighthouse (picture at left). It is a "classic" Great Lakes style lighthouse.

     By this point we had crossed into Ohio, which is exciting for me since our next destination is Lorain, OH where I was born and grew up. Tonight we are staying in Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH, which is about 30 miles east of Cleveland, OH. The Admiral had made a reservation for a transient slip at the Mentor Harbor Yachting Club, but she had somehow failed to note one very important thing about the facilities... You should have seen the huge smile on her face when I told her that they have a swimming pool! It is only about the third pool that we have had so far this year, and boy was she ready. I had seen the elevated (on a small hill) pool from the flybridge, but she was down on the deck handling lines so she could not see it. After docking, she already had her suit on when we went to the club house to register. The photo above is of the large pool, and yes the Admiral was the first one in it! I quickly followed after taking this photo.

     It continued to be a day of surprises. It is a private club, but they do take credit cards for registered guests. Thus, the last picture is of the Admiral and I at dinner on the terrace overlooking the pool (and Lake Erie, the harbor and the marina). Note the extra big smile on the Admiral's face. As for me, I was having a bad hair day after swimming...