Erie, PA and Port Colborne, ON Canada

“Wheels up” at 6:00 am leaving Geneva-on-the-Lake on a 56 mile cruise to Erie, PA. Wind was light, unlike the the day before, and seas were 2 ft or less. Shortly after sunrise the south wind started to pick up and the forecast was for 3-4 ft seas. We stayed in the lee of the northern coast of Ohio and Pennsylvania, within 1 mile of shore, and enjoyed seas of 2 ft or less throughout our cruise.

Arriving at Erie’s Presque Isle Bay (a large natural harbor) and shipping channel at 11:20 am, we “dodged” lots of pleasure craft headed out for a day on Lake Erie on this beautiful Sunday. Presque Isle Bay is about 4.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. The city of Erie lies along the southern shore and all of the northern shore is part of Presque Isle State Park. We docked at Wolverine Park Marina and made the short trek up State street to the center of Erie. It’s very quiet on Sunday afternoon but we found the Tap House and had a great lunch and a beer at the bar opened up to the city street.

We strolled back to the waterfront, visited the Erie Maritime Museum, passed the Bicentennial Tower (featuring panoramic views was built to signify the city’s bicentennial year 1996), and settle at the waterfront cafe, Rum Runners Restaurant and Bar. Rum Runners is located on the water with a large outside patio complete with tiki-style umbrellas. There was live music and a lively crowd!

At 6:30 am we were leaving Wolverine Park Marina in Erie, PA heading northeast across Lake Erie to Port Colborne, ON on the northern shore. We enjoyed one of those rare (for us) perfectly awesome cruising days on our 65 mile transit. In extreme contrast to the 28 foot depths we experienced in western Lake Erie, the depths here in the eastern end of the lake topped 120 ft on our crossing. The shallowest of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie’s deepest part is 210 ft and it’s average depth is 62 ft. For comparison, Lake Superior has an average depth of 483 ft.

Arriving in Port Colborn, Ontario, Canada at Sugarloaf Harbour Marina at 12:30 pm, we checked in with Canadian Customs (by phone), paid for our Welland Canal transit planned for the next day, hired a third crew member for the transit and headed out to explore the town. We stopped by the municipal docks and phone check-in location for boaters passing through the locks to familiarize ourselves with the game plan for tomorrow morning. We met owners/crew on the 3 sailboats and an 80 ft. Hatteras waiting to lock through the canal. At 3:30 pm, a couple of the sailboats had already been waiting more than 24 hours and the other two boats had been waiting since 7:00 am. Due to the Welland Canal’s main purpose of providing passage to large commercial ships, pleasure craft are at the back of the line when it comes to scheduling. Once in the canal, passage through takes from 8 to 12 hours, depending on traffic, and must be complete in one cruise. No overnight stays or anchoring is allowed in the Welland Canal.

We wished the waiting boats good luck and a hope that we don’t see them again! (Hope that they made transit before we arrived at 7:00 am the next day!)

Nearby we found a great little restaurant with sidewalk cafe seating. We had a nice lunch, with a view of the canal, enjoying this beautiful day at Canalside Restaurant Inn & Kitchen Store. There is also wonderful shopping opportunities along the canal on West Street. Heading back to the boat we crossed our fingers for a shorter wait for transit than today’s group.

Erie Bicentennial Tower

Wolverine Park Marina, Erie, Pennsylvania

U Pick 6 Tap House

Wolverine Park Marina

The USS Niagara, commonly called the US Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a replica of the wooden-hulled snow-brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

The USS Niagra

The deck at Rum Runners

The Presque Isle – This unusual vessel is a barge at the bow and a tug at the stern. The tug fits into a notch in the barge section. The tug was built by Halter Marine Services in New Orleans. The bow of the barge was built in 1972 in Bay City, Michigan. The body of the barge was built in Erie in 1973. All the sections were joined there. Collectively the Presque Isle measures 1,000 feet in length and is considered one of the 13 US flagged thousand footers working the Great Lakes today. She has 27 hatches on deck that open into 5 cargo compartments. The barge is fitted with a 250-foot self-unloading boom that allows her to unload her own cargo. The vessel has a maximum carrying capacity of 57,500 tons.