Day 19: Ashtabula to Cleveland

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August 28, 2021: My autopilot route and the beginning of the computer repair adventure.

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Capt Paul let me set up the autopilot route for that day’s trip to Cleveland. It’s a Garmin 7612sxv chart plotter and although I have my gripes about Garmin products — partially because their virtual monopoly in the navigation field for so long has stagnated their products in a time when they should be offering so much more — I have to admit that the system does work. You tell it where you want to go and it usually (but not always) draws a line (or a series of connected lines) to get from where you are to that point.

While it’s supposed to create a course that keeps you out of shallow water and goes around obstacles, the course it drew for me that day went through land. Oops. Capt Paul wanted to start all over again, but I wanted to edit what it gave us. I was able to add points, drag the course away from land, and end up with a course that kept us in deep enough water (and off land) all the way from the mouth of Ashtabula River to the Cleveland waterfront.

But first we had to get out of Ashtabula — and that meant getting past the Fifth Street Lift Bridge.

Escaping Ashtabula

The Fifth Street Lift Bridge, which is a bascule bridge, opened on the hour and half hour. Our plan was to get through at the 6:30 AM opening. We were already very close to the bridge; we could see it from our slip. And what we started seeing around 6:10 AM were the other boats that planned on getting past at 6:30.

There were dozens of them — and no, I’m not exaggerating. Fishing boats of all shapes and sizes, most of which had at least two and up to maybe eight men on them. There may have been some women, too, but who could tell when it was barely light enough to see? They all wanted one thing: to get out of that river as quickly as possible. There were fish to catch.

We mingled with the fishing boats at 6:25 AM, waiting for the bridge to open.

At 6:25 AM, we left the yacht club and slipped in among them. Capt Paul was at the helm, which was probably a very good thing. He had no trouble keeping us away from the other boats crowding in around us. We kind of idled out there, waiting for the bridge to open. When it did, there was a wild dash for the opening, even before it was half up.

As soon as the bridge started to open, the fishing boats started pouring through.

We didn’t hurry, but we did move. All of the boats rushed around us. It was a No Wake area, so no one was going very fast, but there definitely was wake. For some reason, one guy steered his large boat across the river channel, blocking it; it didn’t matter — the other boats went around him in front and behind. It was insane.

Past the bridge, the boats headed out for open water.

It was when we got past the No Wake zone that things got a bit hairy. One by one, the boats around us gunned it. We cruise at about 10 to 12 knots — that’s our maximum operating speed. These guys were speeding out at 20, 30, and maybe even 40 knots. The wake in the relatively narrow channel made the water turbulent. In the cockpit, water was coming in through the back, over the swimming platform, and sloshing around on the cockpit floor before draining away. Anything on the floor back there got soaked.

And then the last boat was past us and the water started to calm a little. Nano was the last boat out of of the harbor, just as the sun rose.

The sun rose just as we were cruising through the outer harbor area at Ashtabula.

We passed the lighthouse, turned west, and engaged the autopilot.

The lighthouse at Ashtabula was the last we saw of the town before continuing west.

The Cruise

Lake Erie was a completely different lake than it had been the day before. This was my second lesson in wave heights and periods — the waves weren’t as high and the periods were longer. We cut through them with a lot less bumping, making it a perfectly enjoyable trip.

Along the way, we spotted our first nuclear power plant. The cooling towers were visible from at least 15 miles away, making them excellent landmarks for following along on paper charts.

The smooth water didn’t last, however. At least two hours into the trip, when it was my turn at the helm, the waves got taller and rougher. I tried to record what we were experiencing in a video on my iPhone and shared it on Twitter. I didn’t get queasy at all, however. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I’d taken a Dramamine and was wearing my Sea Bands? Whatever.

My plotted autopilot course worked llike a charm, the boat automatically making turns as required. I did have to take it off autopilot once, however, when a boat came at us from shore. Although the “Rules of the Road” say I had the right of way — he was coming up on my port side — he didn’t seem as if he was going to change course. And since he was moving so much faster than I was, I figured I may as well just change course to go behind him as he passed. You can see this tiny alteration in the Nebo log below. I got back on course right away; it was kind of nice to let the boat steer itself.

Capt Paul took over again as we neared Cleveland. He wanted to get fuel before we parked for the weekend. The marina we were staying at didn’t have fuel, so we stopped at Lakeside, in the outer harbor area. Two dock guys did the fueling for us, which was nice; Dianne had been doing it each time we fueled. I bought ice and tended to the cooler.

Then we were on our way again, traveling down the narrow channel beside a small airport with the city skyline spread out before us. We turned into a narrow channel beside a parked cargo ship, crossed under a pedestrian drawbridge that seemed to be under construction, and pulled into the Oasis Marina, AKA Dock and Rock, due to its proximity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Cleveland, OH skyline from the channel just north of the small airport there.

We didn’t know where to park and there wasn’t anyone answering the radio. So I called out to a dock guy who was pumping out a huge yacht. “Park anywhere,” he called back. So Capt Paul backed into a slip near the big yacht. As we finished setting up, two guys up on the yacht looked down, watching us. “I bet ours is easier to park,” I called up to them. We shared a laugh.

Nano and its neighbor at Oasis Marina.

(Having the yacht there turned out to be a good thing; it shaded us from afternoon sun and blocked any wind coming from that direction.)

It was good to be done for the day. I had a lot of work to do.

Here’s our Nebo log for Day 19 of our trip. You can follow our progress on the Nebo boating app; just look for Nano Paul G.

My Adventure in Computer Repairs

My laptop computer was still dead, but I was finally in a place where I could get an expert — or “genius” — to look at it. There were two Apple stores in the Cleveland area.

I had already booked a car rental from Enterprise. Their office was about a mile and a quarter away — a bit far for a walk on a hot day. I called to ask if they’d pick me up. They said they would. I gathered the computer, power supply, and other things I thought I might need and walked up to the corner, leaving Capt Paul and Dianne to do whatever they wanted to do without me. I was on a mission.

I got picked up in a Nissan something — hell, I can’t remember car models — and was taken to the Enterprise office, where I signed papers and inspected the car. Once behidn the wheel, I paired my phne with the car’s stereo for audio and navigation. Then I told Google Maps to direct me to the Crocker Park Apple Store and turned on a recorded book to listen do during the 25 minute drive.

I have to say that it felt good to be on my own for a while.

Crocker Park is an outdoor mall that I was eager to walk around once I’d dropped the computer off for repair. But it wasn’t to be. When a Genius looked at it and tried all the same things I’d already tried, he announced that the problem was the logic board. They could fix it if they had a logic board for it, which they didn’t. After a too-long discussion of options for getting the computer repaired and then shipped to an Apple store along my route, they decided to check to see if the other Apple store in the area had the part and whether they could repair it. More phone calls in the back room and then the answer came: yes and yes.

By this time, it was after 3 PM. I needed to get the computer over there. So I got back into the rental car and made the 45 minute drive to the Eton Apple Store, which was on the other side of Cleveland. I asked for the person I was told to ask for, was met by someone else, signed some papers, and left the computer with them. They said there was a good chance it would be ready on Monday, which was the last full day I’d be in Cleveland. (If you’re not keeping track — how could you when I barely can? — it was Saturday.)

It was out of my hands.

Chores

I went for a walk around the Eton shopping mall. Other than a Barnes and Noble, there was nothing there that interested me. I did grab a nice lunch at a seafood place before climbing back into the car and driving to a nearby Trader Joe’s. I bought some milk (which were were out of), fresh berries, snacks, bread, and soda, trying to get what we needed. I totally forgot bottled water.

Back at the boat, I soon realized that parking was going to be a serious hassle. There were no spots anywhere near where I was. The two bags of groceries were too heavy for me to carry a long distance. So I texted Dianne and Paul. It was Dianne who met me at the car and she wasn’t happy about it. But she took both bags of groceries back to the boat and had them put away by the time I found a spot in a parking garage and walked the five blocks back.

Capt Paul, in the meantime, had left us to spend some time with his family. His son, daughter in law, grandkids, and wife had driven in to Cleveland and were staying at a hotel about a mile away. He wouldn’t. Be back on Nano until Monday.

I spent the evening reading in the cockpit. (At this point, I was reading two books: an ebook on my iPad and an audio book on my iPhone. I sure did get a lot of reading done while my computer was unavailable for blogging.) It was wonderfully cool after the sun had set and I liked the way the city lit up. Although the area was busy with tourists, it eventually quieted down.

The view from Nano’s cockpit at night. The odd building on the far left of the photo is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; we were literally a stone’s throw from it.

I slept remarkably well.