There are few things like a boating vacation. Last week was my chance to do some boating. My vacation started at midnight Monday August 6th when my work shift ended. Having prior to my vacation loaded the boat with the "stuff" I would need for the week I headed home. I grabbed the last of what I would need and headed to the marina.

About 1:30 AM I reached the marina. I then removed my cockpit cover and started prepping the boat for departure. I turned on the weather radio wanting to get the report for the western end of Lake Erie. The forecast on the radio was promising. They said winds were out of the southwest at 6 MPH and waves were a foot.

That sounded good to me so I prepped for departure. I backed out of my slip at 3:03 AM and proceeded through the marina towards the canal that leads to the Detroit River. I made the turn south towards the lake passing between Gibraltar MI and Celeron Island. Once safely past the shallows south of Celeron I plugged in the waypoint for Put In Bay Ohio on South Bass Island. My destination was going to be Middle Bass Island but the waypoint is the same.

Since it was dark and there was only a quarter moon rising in the east I headed out into the lake slowly. I throttled up to 1400 RPM moving at about 7.5 MPH. That is about as fast as I wanted to go in the dark. There was some light from the moon so it was not totally dark. I proceeded on my heading moving towards the open waters of Lake Erie.

T'he further I moved away from land the stronger the winds became and the bigger were the waves. My boat club burgee stood straight in the breeze. Knowing it takes winds of 15 or more MPH to make that burgee stand out I came to the conclusion that the weather radio was wrong. I checked out another weather site and and the winds were out of the southwest blowing at 18 MPH not 6. I was taking the waves broadside on my starboard side. T'he waves were 2 to 3 feet not a foot so it was going to be a rocky ride.

Needless to say it was not a pleasant ride but I was not going to turn back. I slowly kept heading towards Middle Bass. As many of you know the 3007 Aft Cabin is a model with a bridge. With the waves and winds blowing as they were I was taking a lot of spray up on the bridge. This is the first time on this boat that I got wet up there. I kept plugging along until about 5:30 AM when the sky in the east began to lighten up. Once it got light enough I throttled up to 2800 RPM moving at 14 MPH now for the last 13 miles to my destination. I pulled into my slip on Middle Bass Island at the Middle Bass Island Yacht Club at 7:12 AM. It was a journey of 4 hours and 9 minutes. I was glad to arrive safe and sound. 3 members of my boat club were already up and about and they gave me a hand getting tied up in my slip.

I stayed there at the Yacht Club both Monday and Tuesday. The yacht club has their docks in the Ohio state park marina. It has been totally redone and is a first class facility. They have gasoline and I think diesel along with a free pumpout. I did dinner Monday afternoon at J. F. Walleyes one of the restaurants on the island across the street from the marina. Tuesday I had lunch there.

Wednesday August 8th was the start of the I-LYA Powerboat Regatta at Put in Bay. I was the committee boat for one of the functions of the regatta. I ran the event called The Flying Mile. The Flying Mile is an activity where participants open their boats up to WOT and when they get within range of my boat I zap them with a radar gun and record their speed. Boats are broken down into classes by size and type of propulsion. The event is run over two days Wednesday and Thursday. I ended up with 7 participants over the two days including myself.

As far as my performance I competed in the Flying Mile running 25 MPH taking a 1st place flag in my class and the docking contest where I took a 3rd place flag also in my class. The regatta ran Wednesday through Sunday with several other competitive events that I won't bother to go into much detail here.

Like all things the Regatta came to an end Sunday. It was time for me to head for home. I pulled away from my dock about 1 PM Sunday afternoon. Looking at the weather radar there were several isolated showers and thunderstorms in the area but I headed out anyway. I had decided that on my way home I would fuel up at Detroit Beach Boat Club since their gas was $3.90 per gallon. Heading towards the Club across the lake I noticed a storm off to the north. These storms were moving north to south so I had speed up so I could skirt around it before it got to my position. I didn't want to run the old girl that hard but I bumped her up to 3600 RPM cruising at around 22 MPH. I ran that setting for 5 mile or so until I saw the storm passing behind me.

Once I skirted the first storm I notice another one ahead of me where I was going so I had to slow back down and allow it to pass by before I ran to the club for my fuel. I finally made it to DBBC to fuel up. I ended up pumping in 93.2 gallons of fuel costing me $363.65.

After fueling up I then headed back out into the lake to head for my home port at the Gibraltar Boat Yard. It was an 18 mile run in now clear and sunny skies. I pulled into my dock at 5 PM home safe and sound. All in all it was a wonderful boating vacation. I am looking forward to next years regatta where I will do it all over again. The boat performed well so there are no complaints there.