Full Crew Sails to Kelley’s Island - July 19 – 20, 2008

Rain, light winds and possible thunderstorms were forecasted, but Kelly IV and crew were up to the challenge!

Sean Stull, Jack vanArsdale, Bill & Sarah Paviol filled Kelly IV’s crew list this past weekend for a brilliant sail to and from Kelley’s Island, just north of Sandusky bay.

Although Sean is new as crew to Kelly IV, he is an active sailor on his own Macgregor 25, sailing the fluky winds of Lake Arthur, Moraine State Park, in western Pennsylvania. Bill and Sarah were on the very first crew for Kelly IV when we delivered her from Vermilion, OH to Sandusky Harbor Marina last September. Of course, Jack vanArsdale has been very active both working and sailing Kelly IV this season and we expect him back again soon.

Kelly IV ready to depart Sandusky Harbor Marina
Photo by Sean Stull

The crew arrived at Sandusky Harbor Marina relatively early on Friday night so Sarah could join her peers in the swimming pool. It was a fine, warm evening with a light breeze so the cool water of the pool was especially enjoyable as Sarah splashed and played.

Soon the food and drinks for five people over 2 days was stowed for the short trip. As frequently happens, some extra provisions, especially in the beer department, seem to appear as everyone wants to be certain we don’t run out while underway. Even though we rarely imbibe the alcoholic beverages under sail, this was a short trip with lots of time and new friends in port, so the extra provisions went to good use!

Kelly IV under sail, Photo by Sean Stull

The forecast called for winds on Saturday morning to be coming out of the southwest, but as the weather moved through the area the winds were forecast to be light and clocking around to the northeast by Saturday night. Overnight the breezes would continue to move around to the east, then south and finally by midday on Sunday they would be back to the southwest or even the west. Given the 360 degree wind shifts and call for possible thunderstorms, we decided to stay in the Seaway Marina at Kelley’s Island, rather than anchoring as there is no anchorage off Kelley’s that is protected from all points.

With a light breeze from astern we motored out of the bay, raised sail and pointed Kelly IV’s bow to the northwest. Our newest (to us) crew, Sean, took the helm and steered a wonderful ride to the southwest of Seaway Marina, about 13 miles from our home Marina. With the 10 – 12 knot breeze (my estimate) off our port quarter, we enjoyed a broad reach pushing Kelly IV at about 5 knots across the gray waters. The waves were small, but typically choppy having almost no effect on Kelly IV. The only exception was the 50 foot sportfisherman who produced a 4 to 5 foot wake throwing a gimbaled kerosene lantern globe across our cabin, just missing Bill & Sarah to crash into the sole, spreading shards of dangerous glass throughout the salon. Sarah, supervised by Bill, carefully cleaned up the mess as the skipper (me) hurled epithets across the water to the mindless, indifferent, thoughtless, unaware, unsafe and (expletives deleted) powerboat operator.

Marblehead Ferry at Marina entrance, Photo by Sean Stull

The ride to Kelley’s Island gained particular interest as we scooted across the ferry course of the pair of red-hulled boats as they criss-crossed the choppy waters between Marblehead Point and Kelley’s Island. Sean carefully turned upwind to more rapidly clear their path and give us sea room to lower our sails, then we motored back across their path to enter the marina.

Seaway Marina is small and accommodates the relatively large weekend crowd by having the boats raft up to each other. There are no slips (all are private) available to the transients, so the marina has power and water connections along the seawall opposite the slips. There is room for several boats to raft up to each other, so the only instructions were to find a similar sized boat and raft up to her. Fortunately we found an Allman 31 sailboat and tied up to her, finding that our shore power cord was more than long enough to plug in and fire up the much-enjoyed air conditioning on Kelly IV. Given the fluky, hot, humid air, the need to close up the boat due to the occasional afternoon and overnight rain, the A/C was a valuable and helpful luxury. Although the Allman 31 crew was absent when we tied up, they soon appeared, the owner’s family and a friend’s family, totaling 4 adults and 3 boys. We immediately learned that the men (Brian, owner and Tim, friend) enjoyed a cold beer as much as the next sailor. Soon a 34 foot cigarette style powerboat rafted up with us so we became 3 deep in our raft. Their crew was composed of Mom, Dad, 2 teenage boys and Lucy, their pretty, chocolate brown mixed breed dog. Mom and Dad were soon enjoying some coldies and the party was on!

Sarah aboard our rafting neighbor to dog-sit their pooch, Photo by Sean Stull

As the afternoon wore on, our powerboaters went into town to meet friends for dinner, so Sarah got to dog-sit with Lucy. It turns out Lucy enjoyed Sarah’s company, but was very uncomfortable moving across from boat to rafted boat. We had to physically pick Lucy up, hand her to someone on the next boat and carry her around to repeat the maneuver until she was handed ashore to do her business. Sarah earned $10 bucks for doing such a great job! Under the protection of the bimini, Sean avoided the rain and pulled out his new splicing kit, instructions and a test piece of old braided line. In only a couple hours he produced very professional eye splice that looked strong enough for sea duty!

Murph, Bill, Sarah, Jack on the return to Sandusky, Photo by Sean Stull

As always, we eat like kings on Kelly IV, but only thanks to the crew, as her skipper is too much of a minimalist when it comes to food. Jack and Bill split the food duties as we ate all our meals on board and savored the fine dining of a new Greek chicken and cheese
dish Bill just learned. Having enjoyed a full breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese, English muffins, etc., (I could go on & on!), followed by a great lunch, the crew fell into their bunks for a nap after dinner. With the steady rain pelting the boat, bimini and awning, the interest in walking into town melted away and we enjoyed another game of rummy with Sarah in the cool, dry environment of the salon.

Fellow sailor as we head towards Cedar Point, Photo by Sean Stull

News of a nasty thunderstorm clobbering Vermilion and east came over the radio after our hot breakfast aboard. Given our own forecast for possible thunderstorms, we decided to sail away rather than take more time on Kelley’s Island, saving the sight-seeing for another trip. The thunderstorms never appeared and Kelly IV romped under increasingly sunny skies on a broad reach (occasionally even running!). Jack and Bill sailed Kelly IV across from Kelley’s Island, into the Sandusky Bay channel, through the channel and past the coal pier. Sandusky harbor Marina, our home base, was just a few hundred yards away, but the now-brilliant skies, flat water, and 12 knot breeze made for a terrific sail as we blew past the marina heading deeper across the shallows northwest of the marina.

Sean Stull, photographer extraordinaire

It proved to be a terrific weekend of sailing going to and from Kelley’s Island, so the missed sight seeing didn’t seem too bothersome. Sean fit in superbly, demonstrating that Lake Arthur sailors are more than capable on the “Big Lake”. Jack, Bill, and Sarah also made for a terrific, fun time as all 5 of us got along famously as we sailed, ate, played cards and cooled off below decks. Our biggest challenge this weekend was consuming the next meal while we were sere still savoring the bounty of the last meal!

Leamington and the Bass Islands - July 2-7, 2008

After a lazy morning, we got a late start at noon for our 5 day trip living aboard Kelly IV.  Our crew this trip were Bob Zimmerman and Keith Otto.  Although the forecast included a threat of thunderstorms (so what’s new on Lake Erie?) they were not expected until midnight.

With this favorable forecast we headed north out of Sandusky Bay for Leamington, Ontario, 45 miles away.  This is very much the same distance that Bob and I sailed on our first trans-Erie sail in 1992 on Kelly I, my Catalina 25.  At that time we wanted to see if it was reasonable to take the family across the lake.  To test the possibility, Bob, another friend, Dick Beamer, and I sailed our 25 footer across from Erie, PA to Port Dover, Ontario.  It turned out to be such a great trip that Kelly I, then Kelly III sailed to Port Dover about 20 times over the past 15 years.

Photo by Bob Zimmerman

This sail proved to be a terrific example of just how wonderful sailing can be.  With a comfortable breeze of about 15 knots out of the southwest, Kelly IV bounded across the nearly flat green waters at a brisk 7 knots.  Keith, Bob and I took turns at the helm enjoying the superior sailing experience.  As we cruised north of Kelley’s Island, the steady breeze brought on gradually building waves, but they were still well under 3 feet.  The sky was just cloudy enough to dull the sunshine, yet bright enough to require us to wear our sunglasses.  It was warm enough to encourage short sleeves and cut offs, but cool enough to make the trip oh so comfortable.  As we passed Pelee Island the sky was showing some darker grays to the far west of us and the waves were a little steeper and maybe even a little higher.

Freighter in Pelee Passage. Photo by Bob Zimmerman

We crossed paths with a commercial freighter as she sailed across Pelee Passage between Pelee Island and the long, flat point that juts several miles into Lake Erie, like a smaller cousin of Long Point in the central lake.

Storm clouds bearing down on Keith, Murph and Kelly IV in Leamington.
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

By this time the wind had gradually shifted into the west, even hinting at becoming northwesterly and the approach into Leamington required a beam or close reach.  As we were sighting the Leamington harbor lights and preparing to drop sail, the waves became short, steep, rollers that, while not breaking, still hit Kelly IV on her beam and rocked her from gunnel to gunnel.  Thankfully, the experienced crew had properly tied down our gear before leaving Sandusky and the motion was merely bothersome, not dangerous.  We did test the autopilot and the poor machine found itself reduced to going in circles by the rock and roll!
Our timing couldn’t have been better as we tied up in the Leamington Municipal Marina with just enough time to build a tarp cover around the bimini in an effort to keep the impending storm from dousing the cockpit.  Yes, the storm hit us only 30 minutes after we tied up about 8:00pm.  It is a good thing Kelly IV made such good time sailing across the lake!

Photo courtesy of Bob Zimmerman

Given the storm and forecast for a lousy Thursday, we signed up for 2 nights and had a relaxing day in port.  We enjoyed a walk through town to discover the “World’s Largest Tomato”, Gilligan’s Bar (Where’s the Skipper & Mary Ann?), and suddenly found ourselves with a déjà vu experience when we sighted a Heinz plant so familiar we thought we were walking the North Side of Pittsburgh!  It turns out that Leamington has a huge Heinz food plant of its own and has a nifty tourist welcome center built like a very large tomato.  The day cleared up, became warm and sunny as the afternoon turned into evening.

Keith and Murph at Heinz Plant, Leamington, ON
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

With bright golden sunshine bursting through the portlights it was easy to wake up and take off for another terrific sail.  This time we made tracks for Middle Bass Island, passing on the western side of Pelee Island.  The breeze had clocked around to the Northeast and held strong with an easy 10 to 12 knots pushing Kelly IV at a smooth, consistent 5 to 6 knots.  We passed the Leamington ferry port to port as it was headed back north from Pelee Island to its home port.  We set our course to proceed almost due south until we hit the latitude to cut cleanly between Middle Bass Island (MBI) and South Bass Island (SBI).

Our next turn was to the south, carefully clearing the shoals west of Sugar Island, then Keith tacked Kelly IV smoothly into the anchorage at the southeast of MBI, just north and clearly in sight of the Perry Monument on SBI.
Although we discussed the assembling of our Port-a-Bote dinghy, it never happened.  We relaxed aboard, observed the various and varied neighbors including several other blue hulled vessels, a very long and sleek racing sailboat, a beautiful green hulled yacht with a clipper bow and a small assortment of powerboats, all but 2 of whom departed the anchorage before nightfall.  Many sailboats but only 2 trawlers spent the night in the calm, peaceful anchorage.

Middle Bass Island anchorage
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

We decided to put into Put-In-Bay (PIB) to replenish our ice, get a hot shower, dump our garbage and generally play the role of sailors in port.  Since PIB was only a mile or so away, we felt we needed to make a real sailing event of the trip by circumnavigating Rattlesnake Island to our west.  Given the very exclusive appearance of the island, we joked and made up stories about James Bond characters, villains and deceitful government operators.  Even the name “Rattlesnake Island” invoked connotations of strange and wild goings-on.  Bob took the helm for the pleasant and wonderful sail going first northwest, then west, then southeast and finally northeast before turning west again into PIB.  Given the July 4th Holiday, we anchored in the busiest situation I’ve experienced.  Fortunately, Bob and Keith are both experienced and we snagged our hook on the bottom for a safe and uneventful anchoring.
After a water taxi ride and shower, we walked around town to get the lay of the land and visit the Perry Victory and International Peace Museum.  As the orchestra was warming up on the museum steps for a summer evening concert, we made our way to “The Longest Bar in the World”, a must-see while in PIB.  A couple beers later and we were on our way as another terrific dinner waited for us on board.  As you might guess, Bob and Keith took turns with our dinners, so each one was a most wonderful repast.  Our dinners included shrimp, steak, chicken, pasta, and other mouth-watering delicacies.

No Hands!  The autopilot has control!  Murph and Keith
Photo by Bob Zimmerman

This brings us to Sunday morning, our last day on the water.  The day dawned bright and clear, but with very little wind.  We plotted a course between SBI and MBI, keeping Ballast Island to our port.  As we went by it seemed there was a small channel we might have taken, but we stayed the course we charted the night before.  Without much breeze, we motored merrily along until about 3 hours out, midway across the northern side of Kelley’s Island (KI), the motor began struggling, as if getting no fuel, and gave up the ghost.  Since the breeze was trying to build, we decided to give the sails another try and although the speed was slow (1 – 2 knots) it was much more fun sailing than motoring.  A tricky bit of tacking by Keith enabled us to safely cruise past the green can to the northwest of KI.  The light northeasterly puffs kept us going south along the eastern shore of KI.  Given the light wind and sometimes easterly headers, our track was inching gradually westwards towards Kelley Island’s shallow water off the easternmost point.  As we slid over the thin water back into deeper, safer, more comfortable H2O, we saw that our ETA would make for a very late drive home.  Conservative thoughts prevailed (all of us had to work in the morning) so we called for the towboat to get us back to port.  We cruised quickly behind the skilled towboat operator and found ourselves back in our slip by 6pm.