Fall Cruise 2009 Erie-Port Dover

10-05-09 When you take the 36 mile ride from Erie to Port Dover in October anything can happen.....this year was no exception.....with a crew of 7 diehards including one new salt Des McDonald....Cap Jim, Mike Preston from St Louis, Peter Reyburn from Littitz Pa,Tim Mehl, Roger Zurn and Bob Becker from Erie arrived at Nyanza on Saturday morning with the wind out of the South at 15 to 20 Knots......loaded up our supplies and headed out the channel about 0930 to be met with 20+ knots right out of the south (180 degrees) with seas building...our course 8 degrees. Just ahead of us we can see Eyerly a First 42 with Captain Dunn on the helm and Muireanna a C&C 34 with Matt Wolford on the helm. We are all off for the fall cruise. Cap Dunn has all the kids including David McBrier and I have all the senior experts.

As for the sailing....dead down wind motoring with the main single reefed to Long Point. The following seas and dead downwind make wing and wing very hard and we bagged it for the motor. Rounded Long Point under cloudy skies at 1215 openned up the 150% genoa and close reached at 340 Degrees to Port Dover....a pleasant sail at 7knots.

On reaching Port Dover we caught the bridge and wwent up to the Port Dover Yacht Club....pretty quiet until my old friend Hadley Jackson and Ken Ridley showed up for our annual steamer clams and shrimp cocktail party, One more time John Dunn did the steamers before we all headed to the Erie Beach for their famous Perch and Celery Bread along with fries and many pitchers of Beer. A full Colestrol injection was had by all.....By the way we need to thank The Erie Beach and the Snyder family ...they help sponsor the Interclub Cruise every year.

Dawn came early for many of the salts...still shaking out the cobwebs at breakfast where we ate up town.....Michael Preston finding a restaurant where we could have peameal bacon and eggs...a special pork known to this area of Ontario, Canada.

FYI................
Peameal Bacon is similar to Canadian Bacon. It is cured but not smoked. Peameal Bacon is made from pork loins weighing 12-14 Lb. They are trimmed of all the fat and the bones are removed. The term peameal comes from the ground yellow peas with which the bacon was originally coated. This ensured better curing and shelf life and avoided bacterial problems. Over the years this tradition was changed to cornmeal, due to the availability of corn.The meat is then cured in a brine solution or by dry rub. After curing the loins are coated with yellow cornmeal, sliced and fried.

Well breakfast ended and at 1000hrs we headed out into Long Point Bay motoring toward Long Point watching Sirius Weather and listening to Weather Reports as the clouds came and the wind started to build out of the SW toward Long Point...we were about to leave the shelter of Long Point at 1230 hours....approaching the point we knew it was going to be a long 20 miles to Erie.....wind 24-28 knots, wind out of the south west...we needed to go 190 degrees and the waves were already at 2-4 feet.
Luckly the winds veered a little to the west occassionally as we motor sailed with about an 80% Jib unrolled on the furler..up and down ...ironman Peter Reyburn drove the 20 miles....seas built to 6-8 feet and it rained and blew all the way. Harnesses and PFD's came out and many snapped in while we watched Rock star Captain Dunn with his young whippersnappers sail a number 3.....with their rain canopy up all the way. I want a patent on that canopy......Will Dunn said later, they were afraid to take it down for fear it would blow away....Finall Up the bay....Smith Hotdogs and a check with the border patrol and the fall cruise ended again with everone completely worn out---but safe......so much so that at 1700 hrs after docking a scotch or bourbon was had by all. Captain Jim (Pictures on the site, more to come)