Our trip was a success and my family had a good time and seems willing to have more adventures! The 5 day stay in the boat went well and we learned a bunch about what we need and what we may want to do differently. Hauling out on the trailer and getting on the road home brought about a few semi-minor issues that needed immediate attention but I worked through the problems as they arose and made it home at 1 am last night.
The stay at Cedar Point Marina was nice. We had less than a 1 minute walk to the showers and restrooms and only another minute to get access into the park. After a bunch of research, we ended up buying season passes because we found that it actually saved us a fair bit of money instead of buying a 3 day pass as originally intended. The season pass allows for free parking plus gives discounts on almost everything sold on the property, plus it gives access to the regular park and also the water park, which is what my wife was most interested in.
Each day, I woke up at about 730 and my wife and son woke between 8 and 930. The season pass granted us 1 hour early park access so the kid and I took advantage of that each day and got in a couple of the more aggressive rides before the place got really busy. Then we'd met up with my wife and go on a couple lower key rides or the water park before heading back to the boat for lunch and siestas. Early evening we headed back into the park for another ride or two then watch the parade and head back to the boat to cook dinner and sleep.
Yesterday, we checked out of the marina at 11 am and my wife drove the suburban back to the Shelby Street Boat launch just a couple miles away from the park while I motored the boat over solo. I docked at one of the side dock adjacent to the ramps and after helping a random guy launch his new to him Fountain speedboat, my family hopped aboard our X and we headed 10 miles out into Lake Erie to go check out Kelleys Island.
We had limited time so I motored the whole way to the island. There was more power boat traffic than I've ever dealt with before and the water was super choppy and unsettled but the boat did great. We went around to the state park and beach on the north side of the island and found an insane amount of boats anchored there so rather than abandon our mission or anchor too close to others, we docked for a couple hours at the boat ramp while we went for a short hike inland to see the glacial grooves carved in the limestone bedrock. It was HOT out so we walked over and stopped in the nearby general store for an ice cream cone and finished our exploring with a mile long hike along the shoreline where we came across a unique beach covered in small smooth white limestone rocks.
I'm not sure that it's allowed to tie off to the non-ramp side of the dock for any amount of time but there weren't many boats coming and going and that's what we did. After our hike, we took the stand up paddleboard over to the beach and relaxed in the warm water for a little while. My wife and son took turns learning to use the SUP and paddled around the calm, shallow waters of the beach. At about 5pm, we left the island and mitored back to the boat launch. A mile or so out from the point of Cedar Point, my first 9 gallon fuel tank started to run dry and the motor began to sputter so I let the boat drift for a minute while I changed the fuel line over to the 2nd tank. The 9 gallon tanks actually only hold a little over 8 gallons and I got an estimated 18 miles at near full throttle before running the tank empty. The adventure to Kelleys Island was a good chunk of what I wanted from this trip and although our boat day was short and I didn't get to sail, it was a great little adventure! I was hoping to sail the boat 3 days to get home but my wife wasn't confidant driving with the trailer and the upcoming weather didn't look the best, so I decided to just trailer the boat home.
Back at the Shelby Street public ramp, as it so often happens, this is where the misadventure began. Fortunately, my unattended trailer was still safely waiting for me where I'd left it. After lowering the mast and leaving the boat interior in complete disarray after almost a week aboard then about 3 hours of pounding across choppy water, I hooked up the truck and trailer and decided to try motoring the boat into the V block of the trailer for the first time (I always walk it in by hand) I successfully got the bow into the V and left the motor running in gear while I got the bow strap hooked up and winched tight - but of course not tight enough to keep the nose tight to the trailer. I had left a couple inches of centerboard down to negate the cross wind but neglected to pull and cleat the line (see where this is going? )There were several boats waiting for the ramp and after a week in the sun, I wasn't at my prime so I rushed back to the driver's seat to get away from the ramp to do the Mac bump, and after driving a hundred feet or so and jamming on the brakes, I realized the weird sound I was hearing was my newly repaired centerboard being roughly filed down by the asphalt parking lot. There was just enough room to get my car jack under the board and push the board back into its slot and onto the bunk. I then went back up on deck and secured the line. Unfortunately, the problems didn't end with the unplanned reshaping of my centerboard.
The air conditioning on my 2008 Suburban quit working between Cleveland and Sandusky on the drive to cedar point. Before leaving the parking lot, I decided to investigate what was going on. I found that the AC compressor seemed to be locked up and the belt/pulley were still spinning but the compressor shaft is seized and the plastic pulley was beginning to melt. I removed the serpentine belt then took the AC drive belt off and reinstalled the serpentine belt and hit the road towards home.
BUT, the tribulations don't end there... My trailer's leaf springs have been annoyingly squeaky since I bought the boat so after driving through town with the windows down, I could hear how bad the squeaky trailer really is. We decided to get fast food for dinner and I pulled into the Burger King parking lot and while my wife went on to order food, I did the walk around to check the trailer straps and to spray fluid film onto the leaf springs and bushings in an attempt to quiet out a little (it didn't). While checking the tires, I found that the clearance between the steel fender and the tire had shrunk to the point where the inside lip of the fender started cutting a groove into the inboard lug of the tire tread. I'd recently replaced the stock 14" tires with 15's, so that minimized the clearance an amount but I thought there was enough... apparently the few hundred pounds of extra supplies being improperly left in the cabin was too much and I ran out of clearance (or maybe a spring is broken...ib haven't checked yet). At this point, it was just after sunset on Sunday and I had a 160 mile drive with a problematic trailer staring at me. I used my car jack handle to try and bend the fender away from the tire but that didn't work well enough. I made the call to go to Walmart and buy a cordless angle grinder and cutoff wheel and after charging the new battery for a half hour using the boat's inverter, I proceeded to make the necessary clearance by cuttting the fenders clean off the trailer. While waiting for the battery to charge, I swapped out the cut tire with the spare. After changing the tire and hacking up the trailer in the dark in walmart's parking lot, I safely drove home and took the best shower ever then happily went to bed, glad to be home.
Several things I learned that helped make this trip a success:
- always keep basic tools on board or in the truck when trailering / boating any distance from home.
-bimini and an improvised boom tent are invaluable for staying out of the sun and dry.
- over the door shoe organizer on the head door is amazing for keeping commonly used things readily available.
-a 5000 btu window air conditioner isn't quite enough to make it cold in the boat but it was enough to add white noise and make overnights comfortable. I secured it in the front hatch and cut 3/4" foam board to fill the surround.
-I needed to make a diffuser to direct the chilled air from the V berth. I taped a sheet of plastic under the air conditioner so my son who was sleeping 2' under the AC didn't freeze at night. The plastic acted as a duct to get the cold air past his head.
- a countertop ice maker next to the keurig coffeemaker is super awesome to keep a small supply of ice in a zip lock bag on perishables in the cooler and for cold drinking water.
-a 5 gallon culligan water jug with an inexpensive battery powered pump on top was really convenient and worked well.
I'm looking forward to making more improvements and having more adventures on the water. I'm glad my wife had a good time and is willing to do this some more!
