Sunk boat in Erie
 

Anyone hear anything about the boat that went down by Kelleys Island this morning? Talked to my buddy in Put-In-Bay and he said it was a 38 Cig. Hope everyone is alright.

Made the trip from Port Sanilac back to Lake St Clair this morning in 5-7's with the occasional 10+. Some big water today in the area!

Following seas I hope. Did that same run once after a huge storm in my old C.C. and it was a riot once we times the swells.
ed

Wow. Hope everyone is alright???
I grew up boating in that area and continued it through my adult life.
When Erie gets bad it's is as bad as anything I've experienced.
Please keep us posted w/news.

I was just up there this morning, it was nasty, I was some small fishing boats going out... people are stupid... hopefully everyone in the cig is okay, I did not hear about that

saw not was

What? Complete sentences please?

I said was earlier and meant to say saw

If I can't read the post I just move on. Wow read then send

Talked to Frank the Tank who was at Kelleys today. Said they hadnt heard anything about anybody sinking. The only boat he could think of that was there that was close to a 38 cig was the all white cafe racer. That boat was at Seaway and pulled out this morning sometime. He also said the water in front of Kelleys looked ok but that was deceiving because you could see it breaking big at Marblehead. He had his passangers put on life jackets before heading back .... and he said heading back to Sandusky was ugly.

Hope all is well with everyone and the rumors are wrong :bunny:

Thanks for the info.
 

My wife and I got stuck on Kellies one time when the ferry stopped running because of rough water. Where we were standing you could have run a 18' tunnel boat a 100 mph! The ferry crew said 9' - 12's @ the Marble Head dock 3 mls away!

If Frank broke out the life jackets it was rough.

I assume you all no this but with a North wind,at places like the casino it looks calm because the island provides a wind barrier

Of course. We were on Sandusky Bay Saturday night. Left Marguaritaville and headed for Demseys. Wild, wet and fun ride back ... but having said that, we were sooo glad we werent on the lake side in a small boat :eek: The wind was howlin pretty good. Cant imagine what those out east were dealing with :party-smiley-004:



Pretty much sums it up :D

yep this time of year it can get ugly and usually out of the north/northeast. That bay you were in is nice and protected where the ferry comes in. The other side of that island is also where the lake starts to get deep. couple years ago i left Toledo in my 34 Scarab and made it to right where the ferry crosses from Marblehead in about forty five minutes (roughly thirty miles). Took me every bit of another forty five minutes to make it the last three or four miles to Kellys. The waves were so steep and tall that the all i could do was just a few miles per hour of plowing and as the nose of my boat dipped through a wave it would run down deck then the transom would rocker up out of the water and cavitate the props. Scared the crap out of me because it would act like i blew a coupler until i put the boat in neutral and started all over again.

This afternoon the coastguard was stopping boats from leaving Put-in-Bay it was so rough. A guy from our marina made it back and said he stuffed his bow multiple times . . . . . . he was in a fifty SeaRay :eek:

Yep.
 

I've left Leamington Ontario in my old 24' Sonic and had a great/fun run untill I got to the passage between Kellies and Marble Head.
Definately need to be on your A game.

Never even heard of the Coast Guard doing that???
Bunch of us got weathered in at Leamington several yrs back and as we paid dockage for the 3 rd day (!!!!!) a guy was there telling us in an hr he would be having beers at PIB thanks to his new 41' Tiara. We paid our bills and walked out on the break wall to watch.
After being stood on end for the 4th or 5th time, the Tiara was back at dock.

As to that water by Kellies,........add in that there are more unskilled idiots piloting that stretch of water at any one time than anywhere else.............
Most convinced that size/price tag equals right of way.
Love that lake and miss that lake. Also have tons of spooky stories from it.

My dad went out Sunday am from Port Clinton, he's a mate on a fishing head boat, he said they pulled out of the Portage river in 60' and had to almost idle out to Rattlesnake to keep from taking them over the bow. 10+ footers Sunday am.

Funny thing about that lake too....,
 

when I was still in Cols I'd check weather every place I could before starting the 2 1/2 hr tow north. Even the webcams I knew of, NOAA, Coast Guard etc, etc.
Would always be "waves 2' or less, wind out of S. S.E. @ 10 mph or less".
Then 3 hrs later I'd actually be there and wonder where the hell those forecasts came from.
Would normally wake up Sat morning in the cuddy some place like this ;)

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ontofbar-1.jpg

Course there's always fog too ;) Pelee Island after popping a motor on the way. Was geeked to get their early in the season only to find that their ferry was down (from Canadian mainland) which is their life line and ended up being the only tourists there! Temp's never got out of the mid 40's and everything on the island was closed.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...udderinfog.jpg

We came back from PIB early yesterday and stopped at Kelly's for breakfast. Lake was big but overall pretty manageable. It was really windy and some passengers got soaked. Didn't hear or see anything about a boat going down. Also, I could count other boats on the water with us on one hand! You know it's rough out when you go 20 miles and see 4 other boats!

man you know that place all to well :D I grew up on this lake and have been out there since i was about five. At twelve i had a sixteen foot Lyman Islander with a 35 Rude on it that i ran all over the lake, it was my grandfathers boat. We were on the water right by Davis Besse (long Beach). I ran that little boat to West Sister and The Bay all the time. You learn respect for the water real quick out there. The biggest thing about Erie is the shortness of the wave span combined with heigth. Makes a very steep wave.

Hey do you remember where you posted that story of your trip to Pelee Island? I always thought that was one of the best stories ever on here and have looked for it several times with no luck.

Yep.
 

Lymans are bad ass!!! Buddy of mine restores them in Sandusky.

Which story? Had many. My love was always Pelee Island and most trips were not favorable for 24' boats. I blew up and broke a bunch of crap getting there and back.
Always wished I could be smart like my friends and be content to go hang at the Casino for the weekend but noooooooo ;)

Not sure which story you're referring to but probably the most popular was over on S/F and the one about the weekend of the fog in the picture above.
I did a lot in that 1st Sonic in a lot of water that people wouldn't believe. Used to have a house in Vermilion and did one trip @ night to Huron that we should not have. Met friends there (Huron) and some of them posted about seeing us coming in from the lake and no one in the marina could believe it.
Was typical lake forecast in Cols but we got to the lake late. Drove to the shore to make a judgment call on whether to go to Huron by boat or trailer. Where we were you couldn't really see past the break wall to judge.
I chose to splash the boat. Where you come out of the Vermilion River there is a break wall at a 90* angle protecting it so you still can't see the lake. Cleared that wall, popped it on plane and headed north and it instantly hit the fan! Was cloudy and dark so poor lake vision. Was rolling solid 6's straight out of the north and straight for shore by us. Is a very shallow shoal right there so couldn't abort and make a turn w/the waves and too rough to turn against them. (maybe if I could have seen the waves coming) I spent as much time figuring out how to make that boat go slow as I did fast. When I bought it min. planing speed was 30. When I was done I had it down to 20. About 10 mins in that boat @ 30 in that lake in 3's (from the wrong direction) would have been the end of it.
So 10 mls to Huron in a 6' beam sea in a 24' boat. That boat did amazing things in nasty water because it had so much power (for it's size) to get out of trouble and was small enough to run between the waves compared to the bigger boats above the are always on at least two. Problem was you couldn't see the waves to set the boat up for them that night:0
I would only see the crests reflecting from the moon light just before they hit us. Still remember clealry, looking up and seeing wave crests 2' + taller than the top of my windshield just before hitting us!
Worst part was making the Huron light and having to turn S/with the waves. Ran GPS to stay as close to shore as possible (but could not see it) to keep that leg as short as possible. Came very close to stuffing on every wave. If anything had gone wrong on that trip, no one would have known until finding the boat the next day.
W/the boat on the trailer after the fact, I've done the math over and over. Those were 6'+ waves and worst part was not being able to see them.

Guess thats one of the reasons I like that lake so much is due to the respect it forces you to have for it. Seen too many take it lightly and end up on the front page of the Sandusky paper Monday morning.

There was another Top Gun at sea way marina Sat night at Kelly's, it had number 99 on the side and big blower motors. I left kelly's Sat night right before the wind kicked up.

Yea thats the one I'll hafta pop in over there and find it, for some reason i thought it was here. Great story :D.

Several years ago i was doing the OPA race in Mentor. I was in the parking lot looking out on the lake and Augie Pensa looks out and said to me "so does this pond ever kick up or what? . . . . is this all ya got". Ran into him again after the race and he put his hand on my shoulder and said "what the F#&K was that!! . . . Thats was frikkin nuts!!" lol all i could say was welcome to Lake Erie boating :D

heres me as a kid with my brother and my grandfather in the boat, I'm in the middle front seat and needless to say this was the 70's lol. As i got older and learned how to operate and navigate i would take that thing all over. It was actually a Cruisers Inc but identical to the Lymans of the day, i just refer to it as a Lyman because its more easily recognizable, great little boat. :cool:

I gotta admit..I've done the same thing with the 23ft Nova I had. My brother and I left Kelly's for Huron on a nite we should have stayed at the Casino. Lucky for me it was dark and I couldn't see the waves so I wasn't as scared as I should have been. The bow light on the boat dissapeared alot on that trip. We took alot of water over the windshield and it seemed like the bilge pump light on my console was almost always on. At least the water was warm at the time..we were soaked. After we docked in Huron and dropped my brother off at his house, I noticed my face actually hurt from laughing the whole trip back.

Another friend of mine made that trip in his 23 spyder and mid way the battery straps broke and the batteries went flying and pulled alll his cables off..he was stranded for hours out there!

Sorry to put this back on topic, but did anyone find out if this really happened?

There is nothing in the news in Sandusky on this, other than a guy that fell out of his kayak off of Cleveland. I hope he swam back in.

Nope, they found him. He didnt make it.

Hey Frick, did you see my buddy Jbonz up their. They were in a 38 TG. They ended staying till this morning and said it was pretty flat on the ride back to Venetian.

The last 4 yrs ive been going to the islands for labor day now that im in fla and ive towed up a couple times. Last year I towed up and didnt even use the boat it was that bad. We took the car ferry to kellys on that fri and it was so bad the ferry was actually stuffing it under the waves. My van actually moved almost two inches from its original spot. Speaking of kayaks some idiot had to get rescued also. I dont know what he was thinking.

Yep.
 

We've been working on a similar trip but with gas what it is and the challenging weather of the lake......., not sure when it will happen.

And yeah, pretty sure if/when any news turns up it will be here ;)


Best quotes of this thread......

GlassDave:
"so does this pond ever kick up or what? . . . . is this all ya got". Ran into him again after the race and he put his hand on my shoulder and said "what the F#&K was that!! . . . Thats was frikkin nuts!!"

Scarab Billy:
Lucky for me it was dark and I couldn't see the waves so I wasn't as scared as I should have been.

And from Bobonthis:
the batteries went flying and pulled alll his cables off..he was stranded for hours out there!

Made my day :)

Its looking great for this wknd Twin. Im leaving wed but not towing up this year.

Excellent.
 

I'm jealous.
I was scheming to have a small cuddy to leave in Cols and fly back and forth a few wknds a yr. Everything worked on paper until air fare doubled in price.

The wife and I did a week in a really nice house on Kelley's a couple seasons back and had a blast. It educated me though on how spoiled we are to have boats up there (we didn't), and how expensive it is to try and do similar things w/public transportation!!! Yikes!

Been watching St.Hazards and really like the looks and sounds of that place. Have been there for drinks before but have not stayed there. The Mrs and I keep looking at a family vacation at somewhere similar and have the boat w/us.
Finances are too tight for this season unless something changes.
We'll see........... ;)

We pulled out of the Casino about 8:30 Am and the water was a little snotty. Didnt look like a fun day of boating so we packed it in and went home. The couch seemed like a better idea.

RAF

Yup, We stayed Sunday night at the Bay... We Pops and I both had off so it just gave us a good reason to stay and drink... It was good spending time with him... I even took him to see Ray Fogg... There was good amount of boats that stayed till early morning... As for the boat being sunk, I have not heard anything... All boats are accounted for at Venetion...

....
 

We call that happy little strech between the channel and kellys the Gauntlet. Usually theres 30 boats going 45 differnt ways>? The jet sticking to its course and if your lucky there will be a massive freighter or the pelee islander blowing through. Cures any island hangover ! :coolcowboy:

Sorry we missed you at the Bay. Let me know next time you're headed to PIB or Kelly's. Good to hear everyone is back to the dock.

Jbonz and I will. be at Kellys all wknd Frick. Its time for the fourth annual.

Dont forget the golf cart poker run Sunday on Kelleys. Theme this year is "Roarin 20s" :evilb:

It was'nt so big at anchor point but still fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqkXxSQqw9o we had some good fives

We also stayed Sunday night in PIB after talking to my buddy who left Sunday afternoon with his 42 to St Clair, told me not to bother the waves were brutal, I watched 2 fairly new 32 Sunsations leave for about an hour & headed back in, they looked like they had seen a ghost:eek: