"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours"

Dodging all kinds of ships/boats

On Wednesday morning we finally saw a good opportunity to get out of Geneva on the lake and make our way to Chagrin Lagoons Yacht Club.  Well at least we thought it was.  We were out on the lake for about 2 hours when things started to go south.  Well to be honest the lake was choppy when we left and it proceeded to get worse.  We ended up ducking into a restaurant called Pickle Bills in Fairport.  We could dock there and jump in out of the storm and catch a bite to eat.  The food was good and it was just great to be able to get off the boat and chill out for a little while.  We (Mike) took some time after lunch to catch up our friends Jeff and Sandy as to our whereabouts.  He is becoming quite the little texter these days.

A white knucke kind of day

Look at him go!

If you notice the photo above when we were going cruising up Grand River to Fairport Mike had some serious maneuvering to do around not only little fishing boats but a HUGE Tanker.  He not only had to do it once but twice because on our return trip back out to the lake the Tanker was pulling away from the dock.

Maneuvering 101...anything bigger than you are stay out of it's way.

After lunch we proceeded to make our way to Chagrin Lagoons Yacht Club on the Chagrin River on the outlet to Lake Erie.  Did I tell you that the Lake was treacherous.  The waves they had suggested would only be 1-3 were actually more like 5 and we were hitting them head on.  I compared it to what it might feel like to ride one of those mechanical bulls, for 5 hours.  We made it to the Yacht Club a little after 3:00 p.m.  And can I just say that the Chagrin Lagoons Yacht Club (CLYC) is a really nice one.  Now I don't mean all big and snooty like Erie YC was, but these folks were friendly, polite and even apologetic that their restaurant wasn't open because it was flooded in the storm several days before.  We took a walk around the property and noticed that it looked as if almost everyone had along with their slips for their boats had a covered patio.  They were great and people had everything from chairs, refrigerators, sinks, popcorn machines, you name it was available.   

That evening they were having their sailboat races so we hung around for a while and watched those.  Not much wind, which was ironic since earlier that day the wind just about knocked us out of our boats.  I guess Ole Lake Erie used it up on us.

The next morning our goal was to set out for Lorain.  Again we woke to what we thought was going to be a beautiful day.  Well to a landlubber it was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy, just gorgeous.  According to all the weather folks we checked with they kept telling us 1-3 foot waves, 7-8 knots of wind.  Now where those are ideal conditions we definitely thought we could handle them. WRONG!!! What they stated at 1-3 were more actually like 3-5 with winds of 10-15 knots.  Once again we were hitting the waves dead on.  After about two hours of this beating the First Mate became seasick.  Ugh, Lake Erie how you toy with us.  So bless his heart the Captain turned the boat towards Cleveland and we tucked into Edgewater Yacht Club for the night.  Love those guys there, so polite and even remembered us from when we were there 5 or so weeks ago.  Our Lady J is a little hard to forget.  

After two days of being beat up by Lake Erie a lyric from a Gordon Lightfoot song the Edmund Fitzgerald comes to mind.

  "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours". 

 Lord have mercy is that ever so true.  We spent a peaceful evening at Edgewater, walked around the park and had a bite to eat at the club.  Sounds kind of pretentious but it isn't. Just a good sandwich and time to relax.  

Leaving Cleveland behind

This morning (Friday) we, okay Jana woke early and checked the weather.  It looked like it was "really" going to be a good day.  So without hesitation the Captain was up and we were ready to shove off at 7:30 a.m.  Our goal was to make it to Vermillion.  Well hallelujah the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  After 2 days of solid beatings the lake was calm as could be with very light winds.  So we threw all caution to the wind (no pun intended, well maybe a little) and we just pushed on through to SANDUSKY and our own dock.  We arrived here at the marina around 2:30 p.m. and it was the best site we had seen in days.  We were soon greeted by our dear friend Bob and were able to get the boat settled and put together.  We had a mission from there our goal was:

                                           

                             1 hot, long shower

                             1 dinner at Berardi's

                             and Ice Cream at Tofts.

MISSION SUCCESSFUL!!!

We are back and so glad to be here.  Our trip was amazing.  We learned so much about each other, about boating, traveling in small spaces and that this is not necessarily something we want to do full time.  But maybe part time.  (to be continued)

Thank you to all our family, friends and friends we've yet to meet for following us on our journey.  Your love, thoughts, prayers and encouragement helped make our adventure one of a lifetime.  

I wonder what we will be up to next.  Stay tuned.