Port Dover, Ontario August 13, 2015

The two sailboats docking in front of me left this morning in time to catch the 8:00 bridge, leaving Annie all alone on the front wall.

In a short while a 70' home built steel trawler came and filled the remaining wall. It turns out that this boat, Alexis, and 4 other steel trawlers and tug boats are going to be featured in a Passage Maker Magazine article. They are coming tomorrow for pictures. I am going to try and have Annie photo bomb the shoot! There are many steel boats here, which is unusual and part of the reason for the article. They were built in Port Dover. I have seen a couple of them, and they are really in beautiful condition.

Harbor entrance as seen from the opening bridge.

I washed the wooden 4x4 fenders we used on the canals and stowed them away before enjoying BLT sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we went on a bike ride, Marty's first on this trip. I have been carrying her bike (and our 2) since the beginning of the trip, so it was nice it was finally able to be used. Her bike is a nice new Dahon, but it has always had a problem of the chain coming off when shifted into first gear. I took it to my local bike shop and had it adjusted before we left, and tested it. Well, wouldn't you know the first time she shifted it came off again! We had to walk back to the boat to get a tool to put it back on. Then we found the problem - someone had told her to pedal backwards while shifting! Once she stopped that, the problem was gone. 

We visited a nice marine store and the local Ace Hardware Store, which is also impressive. No purchases. I wanted to get some new flag clips so I could fly my Canadian Courtesy Flag but could not find the color I wanted (white). So, I just used wire ties to mount the flag to my antenna. I did tape them to the antenna to prevent this flag from being launched at sea as was my Ohio State flag.

Kip Schmidt reminded me how good the perch is at the Erie Beach Hotel. Kip has declared it the best perch on Lake Erie. On our bike ride we stopped and made a reservation for tomorrow night. We have decided to stay a third night as the winds and seas are still predicted to be very high tomorrow. Saturday looks good. We have nearly 80 miles to go to Port Stanley so we need a reasonable lake. 

There is a great junk/salvage yard here, right at the end of the channel the yacht club sits on. Jim and I went through it the last time we were here. Marty and Kerry wanted to see it, so we biked over. We met the owner's son, Doug, who allowed us to tour it as long as we were careful. There is so much stuff just rusting away. Kerry thought some of it would be great for the HGTV show, Flea Market Flip. Here are some pictures from the yard.

Jim and Jola left Erie, Pa. this morning headed for Fairport. They had a nice night in the beautiful anchorage there. The seas grew to 5' after about an hour so they have pulled into Ashtabula, and will wait out the bad weather until Saturday, as we will do. While in Erie they got to see the Niagara, which was taking a break from battling the British.

Kerry and Marty want me to make margaritas tonight, which sounds good to me. But, they are both napping. The question is, will they get up before I decide to make myself a martini? We are already 1/2  hour past the start of cocktail hour!

Now you know. In the picture above I am enjoying a margarita! I sent this picture to Jim to tease him, but he sent one back that was even better. Marty loves M + M Peanut candies almost more than anything. When she saw this picture she said, "OMG - he wins!" And then he writes and tells Kerry that he can see a Goodwill Store from his boat dock - cruel!

Jim said he lucked out today with $3.10 diesel at the Erie Yacht Club, and AYC had VYC listed as a reciprocal club , so he got free dockage. He needed that extra cash as Jola took off for the shops downtown!