Vermilion Ohio was built with a series of lagoons. Very similar in timing as Mentor Habor but here houses were built along the lagoons so the you can moor your boat in front of the house. In Mentor the town expropriated the lagoons and now people rent an area where they tie up their boat. (tentominiums as they are called)
The Vermilion Yacht Club was constructed in 1932 and is pretty much the same today. After we tied up, I discovered that the docks only had 50 amp service. I went to the manager, Ryan, and he graciously gave me an adapter so that I could plug in my 30 amp cable. No problem. The club is left open all night and there are no gates. Unfortunately, the club has a no alcohol off your boat rule. Club members were very friendly, stopping by and saying hello and offering rides or cars or any other assistance if needed.
The lagoons provide a very protected harbour.
Here we are preparing for a night out in town. There is a Mexican restaurant in town, very close to the club. It seems to have very good reviews on Google. Unfortunately we cannot find the restaurant as the sign is different from the advertised name. Casa Fiesta v. Tijuana Grill. We walk into town and go to the Quaker Steak and Lube. We have passed another location of this chain in Erie Pa. several times but were reluctant to venture in. Last time we were in Erie, it was Bike Night at the Quaker Steak and Lube. Here in Vermilion were were not disappointed, as it was Ohio Bike Week in Sandusky and many bikers were driving back to Cleveland. I tried to order ribs but they were out of ribs. The band on the patio was not so good but there was another band inside. After dinner we went inside and watched the end of the hockey game and the basketball game and listened to the band. They played 60's music and were pretty good.
We walked into town, part of our daily exercise program. We made a dinner reservation at a fine French restaurant Chez Francoise, apparently Ohio's only fine dining on a riverfront. It was recommended in one of our cruising guides that Wendy Hardy lent us.
I am not fully confident on the reading of the fuel gauge so I wanted to buy a jerry can to carry some spare fuel. We walked over to the ACE hardware and was able to buy a yellow 5 gal. jerry can for less than the catalogue price of West Marine. I filled the can at the club to minimize the carrying distance.
We feel like we are really cruising now. We got to take the dinghy to go to dinner. Chez Francois has 6 slips to tie up boats and offers overnight mooring if required. I had the seafood pasta (shrimps, clams, mussels, escargot, olives and scallops) and a pound of butter. Belinda had the special red snapper. To finish we had homemade lemoncello, incredible. I was getting concerned about motoring back to the boat but drinking and driving does not appear to be an issue around here since most of the boats went by with everyone drinking beer.
The Vermilion Yacht Club mooring charge also includes access to the Lagoons' private beach. We signed in and were given 2 new beach chairs to use and enjoy. Very cool except for that no alcohol rule (which we broke, of course).
The lagoons are very quiet except that 90 or so trains go through Vermilion every day. There are several level crossings so the train blows the horn passing through Vermilion. Also there are flocks of starlings that are nesting under the docks and they start chirping before sunrise. I used earplugs and did not hear a thing.
The weather report was not very good for today, chance of rain and late thunderstorms. We left Vermilion by 1000h and made the 14 mile passage to Sandusky, Ohio. Sandusky is the home of Cedar Point, which is home to one of the world's largest roller coasters. It is a distinguishable landmark when entering Sandusky Bay. We had no wind and motored the whole way. The wind picked up when we were north of Cedar Point making docking a little tricky.
After lunch on the boat we ventured into town to the discount marine store. I used a litre of oil this morning so a wanted a spare quart to carry. On our way back to the historic part of town, we passed a house with a replica (perhaps original) electric chair (the execution type) on the front porch. It started to rain so we ducked into a pub and had a few pints to wait out the rain.
Welcome to Sandusky, all the old salts.
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