JUNE 22,2009

The 240-mile trip west across Lake Erie typically has the wind on the nose making for a long ride in a sailboat. That coupled with the fact that there are limited ports of refuge along much of the shore make planning the transit of usually 7-10 days challenging. When we arrived in the Lake and heard our weather forecast of calm winds and flat seas for the next 48 hours we decided to travel throughout the night and the next day and see how far we could get. Around 4:30pm Tuesday June 23 We arrived in Cleveland Ohio and docked at Whiskey Island Marina, 200 miles from Buffalo.

The trip across Lake Erie was fairly uneventful with one exception. Shortly after dark on Monday evening we observed a vessel on radar following us. They were close enough, 1-mile, that we should have seen them however they did not have their navigation lights on. Highly unusual, not to mention illegal. The boat followed us for an hour slowly getting closer when suddenly it was right behind us with emergency lights flashing. They called us on the VHF radio and said they wanted to board us and instructed us to lower our sails. The passengers identified themselves as a local sheriff patrol accompanied by several other government officials. After we lowered the sails and motored at low speed they came alone side and four officials boarded; sheriff, coast guard, border patrol and homeland security. Their vessel continued to follow us closely with several more armed personnel on deck observing our activities. Well it seems they had been watching us for several hours on radar, traveling in middle of night along the US/Canadian border. For some reason they found this suspicious. They checked our documentation and after a brief inspection and some friendly conversation they disembarked and we were back on our way. We decided we should probably alter our course to stay in US waters before we got a similar visit from Canadian officials.

On Thursday June 26th we passed under the Ambassador Bride on the Detroit River in downtown Detroit. It felt good to be back in Michigan as we relaxed that evening at Jefferson Beach Marina in St. Clair Shores.

June 19, 2009

Prior to arrival in Baldwinsville, NY we crossed the Oswego Canal. This is the point where many loopers exit the Erie Canal after 250 miles and take the short 24 mile trip north to Oswego NY on the south shore of Ontario. From there they either travel thru the Great Lakes or take the Trent Sovereign Canal into Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay. The route is limited to boats with 5 foot draft or less so it was not an option for us. We would have to continue on the western section of the Erie Canal for another 100 miles to Tonawanda NY where the Canal connects with the Niagara River just above the Falls

Much of the western Erie Canal still have sections from the original barge Canal. The toll path used by the mules to pull the barges has been converted to bike and hiking paths and parts of the old Canal wall are very evident.

On Thursday June 19th we arrived in Holley NY and tied up for the night on the wall right next to the lift bridge. On this section of the canal there are several lift bridges that only operate during the day so you have to plan your overnight stops based on lock and bridge schedules. Several towns have two bridges that are operated by the same bridge tender. They raise a bridge and lower it after you pass then get into their truck and drive down the canal and meet you at the next bridge where they repeat the procedure. Not a place to be in a hurry.

On Friday we passed through our last two locks of the canal at Lockport NY. At this point we had passed 34 locks and had been raised from sea level in the Hudson River to 564 feet above sea level at Lake Erie.


We arrived in Tonawanda NY Saturday June 20th. We were not scheduled to step the mast until Monday so we spent the weekend relaxing on the wall in downtown Tonawanda.

We were a bit surprised when we arrived at Wardell Boatyard on Monday morning to step the mast. The boatyard consisted of one employee, the owner, and the “crane” that he built to raise sailboat spars, hardly a full service boatyard! Quite a contrast to some of the yards we has seen a few months earlier in south Florida. Remarkable though, in a couple of hours we had the boat rigged and we were ready to sail again. By five o’clock that afternoon we had passed the Black Rock Canal on the Niagara River and were in Buffalo on the eastern end of Lake Erie