August 27, 2021: An easy cruise, a quaint town, and a long nap.
We left Erie at around 8 AM — late for us — but the lake of the same name couldn’t have been more different that morning than the previous one. It was a lot calmer, with lower swells and shorter periods. This would the start of my introduction of the condition of “seas” for cruising.
Learning about Waves
You see, there are (at least) two pieces of information available to boaters that are used to measure a wave: wave height from trough to peak and wave period, or how long a time passes from one peak to the next. (This is oversimplified for this discussion and the point in my learning process; you can get better information here.) The combination of these two factors determine how waves affect your ride.
The previous day, our first on Lake Erie, the waves had only been 1-2 feet, but they were moving quickly and, thus, were steeper. That gave us the chop-chop-chop as we rode through them. But on the day we left Erie, not only were the waves shorter — maybe a foot max? — but they were spread farther apart. This made for smoother “seas.”
It should come as no surprise that forecast information is available for wave height and period information. And it should also come as no surprise that several apps are available to provide this information. And that different people have different favorites. The app I already had on my iPad, a special version of Windy recommended by another boat captain, provides all kinds of information, including windspeed and direction, temperature, altimeter setting, precipitation, wave heights, and wave periods. Because I’m in trial mode, only two sources of this information are available to me. Personally, I’d prefer just one source if it was the correct and reliable source. You see, Capt Paul uses another app, PredictWind, and it consistently differs from what my app says. And it looks like his might be more accurate. Still, it’s important to note that neither app is accurate every day.
Here’s the Windy app point forecast for this weekend for Ashtabula
The point of all this is that before heading out onto the lake, we could get an idea of what conditions might be.
Finally! A good reason to experience three of the five Great Lakes! By the end of my month on these huge lakes, I should have a good idea of what I could experience in any body of water subject to waves.
Of course, I’d prepared myself for much worse. Not only had I taken a Dramamine, but I was also wearing my sea bands.
(I’d also begun skipping breakfast, but this had nothing to do with queasiness. I’d discovered that, as at home, if I ate breakfast around 6 AM, I was hungry for lunch between 9 and 10 AM. So I was snacking then, too. I nipped that in the bud by skipping breakfast and trying to snack around 9 AM, while we were under way. Some almond butter on those saltines did the job, with a regular lunch when we made port.)
In any case, I enjoyed the second day’s cruise, which was short and to the point.
Arriving in Ashtabula
Ashtabula is an old port town with the Ashtabula River flowing out into Lake Erie. There’s a breakwater wall protecting the harbor and then dredged channels leading up the river.
Our destination was the Ashtabula Yacht Club, which had a handful of spots for transient boats and a pump out station so we could empty our blackwater tank. To get there, we had to slip under a bascule bridge that lifted on the hour and half hour.
I was at the helm and brought us into the harbor. We were early for the bridge and there were two other boats waiting. I made a small circle and returned, but we were still early. I decided to try to just drift there with the other two boats and it was all okay until a small Coast Guard boat joined us, crowding a bit too close to me. Then one of the boats in front of me backed up a bit, crowding me a bit more. I used the thrusters to reposition a bit before the Coast Guard boat turned around and got behind us all. Then, thankfully, the bridge opened and I motored through.
I docked us neatly at the pump out dock, in front of a large trawler that was parked there. I was getting the hang of it.
Capt Paul handled the pump out with some assistance from a dock guy around our age. (Or maybe his age?) Then he got behind the wheel and steered us to our slip. There was a moment of confusion when a parting sailboat (under power) slipped out at very slow speed in front of us; it didn’t look, at first, as if he were moving at all. Capt Paul had to give Nano a bit more power to avoid a collision, which got a guy at a nearby slip all upset about the resulting wake. I told the guy that the power had been needed to avoid a collision and he shut up. Later, he helped the dock guy tie us up.
I was a bit offended by all the help they gave us tying up Nano. It seemed that these two old guys didn’t think Capt Paul’s two female crew members were up to the task. One of the guys grabbed an extra rope managed to get it completely tangled in less than 20 seconds, and handed it off to me to untangle. But finally, we were secured on a rather rickety dock and they were gone.
We had arrived.
Here’s the Nebo log for our trip from Erie to Ashtabula. It was a short cruise.
In Ashtabula
We didn’t waste any time heading into town, which was a short walk away. There were a number of restaurants and shops there in a really quaint downtown setting. Capt Paul chose Rennick Meat Market, a small restaurant occupying a former meat market/butcher space built back in the late 1800s. It was quiet and pleasant. I had steak tartare prepared tableside. It was excellent.
After lunch, we split up and walked around town. I got myself an ice cream and bought a few things in local shops. All the shop owners were pleasant and friendly. It was nice to get out and look at different things where most places were actually open; we’d had terrible luck finding places to shop or browse up to that point on our trip.
Two contributions from Capt Paul to this blog post: photo of a card he purchased in town (top) and photo of the same view as the card taken the day we were there (bottom). Note that the drawbridge is up in his photo. (I didn’t take a single picture of this very picturesque town!)
I made my way back to Nano and found Capt Paul and Dianne already there. Nothing much was going on, so I decided to take a nap. I managed to sleep the entire afternoon away. In fact, if I recall correctly, this was the day that I woke from my nap when they were getting ready for bed. (I know I did it at least once.) So while they slept, I spent some time reading on my iPad. It would have been an excellent time to catch up on my blog posts, but my computer was still dead.
I turned in late and slept like the dead.
