Day 2-251 to Put-in-Bay and Perry's Monument

Another short travel day. The good news was that diesel fuel was only $3.899 at the Catawba Moorings so we filled up the tanks. The bad news is that we only needed 90.45 gallons. We then headed out into Lake Erie to go to South Bass Island, which is the location of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial. In doing so we bypassed Kelly's Island off to the east. South Bass Island has a large, well protected, natural harbor, and the monument has over 200,000 visitors per year. It is also home to many regattas and a popular spot for boating vacations.

     As we rounded the west side of the island, we got an excellent view of one of the newer additions to the local scenery. When the lake freighter "Benson Ford" was being scrapped, the whole upper section of the bow was cut off and preserved. It was then transported here by barge and lifted into place on top of this sea cliff. I have seen articles and pictures in boating magazines of the beautiful wood work inside, including private quarters that could be occupied by Benson Ford.

     We continued around the island to the north side where we entered the harbor. Perry's Monument is 352 feet tall so we had been seeing it in the distance for the past 3 days, but we now got our first close up view, It is the fourth tallest monument in the Us behind the St. Louis Gateway Arch, San Jacinto and Washington Monuments. It commemorates Commodore Perry's victory over the British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. After this battle, the US controlled Lake Erie for the remainder of the War of 1812. One last snippet is that the flags of all three countries (US, Canada and Britain) are all flown at the same height to commemorate the peace.

Our big (boating) event for today was to use a mooring field for the first time. The idea is to grab a ring at the top of the mooring ball with the boat hook. Then you lift up the ball and run a rope through the ring and tie off both ends of the rope on the boat. Sounds easy enough? On most smaller boats someone just lies down on the boat and reaches out to loop the ring. On Lucky Us the bow rail is about 7 feet above the water and the chain weighs about 10 pounds per foot. We had to approach the mooring ball back closer to the stern, but somehow the Admiral did it! Just about then one of our fellow Loopers from the Erie Canal, Gerald, showed up in his dingy. He ably assisted the Admiral in getting some kinks out of the line (Thanks!).

     We arranged to meet Gerald and Cheri for docktails later. We had a wonderful time exchanging experiences since we last were together. Later, as we were waiting for the water taxi to take us back to Lucky Us, we were treated to a wonderful sunset over the harbor.