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 dise
mbarked 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.
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 dise
mbarked 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.
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