Cruising West Lake Erie in group . . .

[Lucky Dogs 2]

Westeren Lake Erie Ohio area, with our Four Winns pocket cruiser.
( 248 Vista ).

We bought this boat end of summer 2010.
We would like to cruise around the area, and spend overnights different places. Sight see, as much as we can on weekends.

This is what we are looking into . . .

We would rather explore by cruising with others. Not alone.

If you would like to cruise with others like us, and explore other areas and marina's in a small group, let us know.

It would be better to plan the trip and cruise together with a couple of other boats. We could all put our knowladge together and build our cofidance up together.

I'm talking about visiting Toledo, Detrait, Winsor, Lake St. Clair, and a few other locations around the Western Lake Erie area.

I work well with chart plotters, I have a chart plotter in both our boats. I'm OK with paper charts but need more practice. We have cell phones and of course both boats have VHF radio's.

We can look up destinations on the internet and plan our trips ahead. But, it would be a little safer to travil in small groups. We can all go our own ways once we get to where we are going. Sight seeing, casinos's, whatever. Have a meal together maybe now and then, and enjoy each others boating stories, etc.

When it is time to cruise back home, we can meet again and cruise together.

Looking ahead, I'm seeing a couple of couples or familes cruising together, and sometimes 5 or 8 boats all cruising together. Who knows.
New to cruising the area or not, all invited.

Send me some feedback. Let me know your ideas on this.

Thanks,

Lucky Dogs 2 - wchound@aol.com

 

[Lucky Dogs 2]

Re: Cruising West Lake Erie in group . . .

I found a cruising club out of Catawba Island, near Sandusky, Ohio.
It is only about 5 miles or so, from where I dock my boat. ( by Water )

Their club name is : South Shore Cruising Club.
They have a website, it looks pretty good.
I talked to a john who is listed on the website as a contact person.
A really nice person, been in the club since around 1980.
The club was formed around 1950, I don't remember the correct year.

The club is for power boats only and must be over 19' in size.
Only have a few familys with kids, adverage age is around 50 to 60 years old.
Most of their trips are on weekends, with about 8 to 15 boats.
The biggest boat is a 42' Sea Ray, don't know the year.
Adverage boat is around our size at 25'.

The only downfall is the dues are $90.00 per year.
I guess this is not really a bad deal through, not sure?

It looks like they do a lot of cruises all summer long, and do other funtions also. In the winter, they have a couple of dinners, and they bowl including a banquet dinner at the end. He said they get a discount on gas at some marinas when they are in a group. I bet they get their dues back in gas savings alone.

Every year they have a booth at the boat show in Cleveland at the I-X Center. That is one of the bigger indoor boat shows in the US. The booths are not cheep.

This is what I need from everybody who reads this note . . .

If you have the time, and don't mind, check out the web site and ask your buddies if this seems like a good deal, dues and all?

I'm going to look them up at the boat show before I make up my mind.
I will most likly join this club, who knows at this point in time.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Wayne - wchound@aol.com

 

[DBreskin]

Re: Cruising West Lake Erie in group . . .

FYI, email addresses are not permitted in posts. Members can PM (private message) you if needed. A moderator should advise you of this.

Good luck with your cruising!