Happy Destiny: 7/7/23 - Pier 53 Catawba to Sandusky Yacht Club

After a good nights rest Erik awoke with a much better attitude than he’d had the past couple of days following our bridge collision. It took a day or two to digest and get over the initial bruised ego apparently.

Tabasco boat at Pier 53

Riva kind of likes the enclosure off and found herself a new favorite seat on the dashboard of the helm

We sat around on a beautiful morning and chatted with Erik’s Dad and Felicitas while enjoying a big breakfast. The lake conditions were showing as fairly rough but were to diminish throughout the morning and early afternoon so we putzed around doing a few boat chores. An estimator from a local canvas shop, legacy canvas, came out to assess damage and take measurements in order to prepare a quote for the enclosure repairs. The lines were tosssed and we departed Pier 53 a little before noon for a short 13 mile jaunt over to Sandusky Yacht Club where we were registered to attend the Great Lakes Marinette Boater Association’s rendezvous. The ride across Sandusky Bay was not as smooth as most of our trips have been with 2’ + rolling waves; not too bad though. Felicitas may have begged to differ as we could all see in her eyes that she was not particularly comfortable. In a later Facebook post that she made she had expressed that the ride over was akin to riding a mechanical bull 😂. Coming across the bay great views of Cedar point were to be had. As we got further into the bay, and closer to the yacht club, it did smooth out some to become a more comfortable and enjoyable ride.

Coming around Marblehead point

Thrill rides anyone?

Once we were docked and secured we spent a few minutes checking into the marina as well as visiting the rendezvous registration table where we met and chatted with a handful of other Marinette owners. In talking with one owner, who’s home port is a marina very near Pier 53 where we had just come from, we discovered that we were the talk of East Catawba Bay after making our grand entrance a couple of days prior; maybe someone was videoing and we will make it onto Americas Funniest Home Videos…or some boating fails site! 😮

Sandusky Yacht Club is a much posher marina than we typically stay at

It has a beautiful clubhouse, couple restaurants, huge pool, nice park area etc

Dad, Felicitas and us spent a couple of hours walking around some of the lakefront areas of downtown Sandusky. We had forgotten that on the rendezvous agenda their was a 5:30pm happy hour time where we were supposed to bring an appetizer to share and we did not have much on the boat as options. Along with several other shops we stopped in at a bakery and picked up an assortment of brownies, cookies and a couple of other sweet goodies to make a platter out of.

A short rest back at the boat and preparing our dessert platter was followed by a couple of hours sitting around on the very nice yacht club property visiting and sharing stories and ideas with fellow Marinette owners. There were a total of 50 people registered, some there with their boats and some who drove cars. There are 14 Marinette boats here in the marina representing many sizes and styles ranging from 28’ to 41’ expresses, sedans, sportsmans and aft cabins. It was fun meeting other likeminded boaters. After sharing our bridge collision story with a couple and their two adult kids they made us feel better by sharing their boating catastrophe story which made ours feel much more like a fender bender. Several years ago while cruising aboard their 39’ aft cabin (same model as Happy Destiny) they were behind Kelley’s Island cruising 20+ mph when they hit an underwater island tearing one of the two props and shafts completely out of the hull, creating an open hole in the bottom of the boat. They somehow managed to continue on one damaged engine/tranny the 10 miles back to a safe marina with Sea Tow following them as they took on water. The Sea Tow captain had told them that he could not tow them any faster than they were cruising on one engine and to just keep going. By the time they made it to a marina with a lift to get them out of the water they were crouching so low in the water that their swim platform was under water and they had water on the floor of the lower stateroom. The boat lift had to lift them out very slowly because it couldn’t handle all the weight of the water in the hull. In the end the boat was saved and repaired but with a $35K insurance claim….ouch!

Fellow Marinette owners at happy hour gathering
Notice the Marinette logo cornhole boards 😊

Our view from the slip

We rounded out the evening back aboard sitting on the aft deck with Dad and Felicitas talking and enjoying a very nice evening. The nighttime view of Cedar Point with all of the lit rides was nice and they also had a light show and small firework display (Riva was SOOO happy 🤣) that we could see at 10pm. We all retired to bed around 11pm after a fun day.