Put-In-Bay

Jim,
I've done four over night trips in the last three years to PIB. Each time I went, I tied up to one of the mooring buoy's. I never tied up to any of the docks before. Even for day trips, I always used the buoy's.

The buoy's have both their pro's and con's. The biggest advantage I can think of is the privacy of the buoy's. Since I've never actually stayed on one of the docks before, I can only relay what I've seen on the docks. The place gets N-U-T-S on the weekends. It's very common to see raft's as wide as four across in the public docks. There also seems to be one a-hole every time who insists on having every other boater in the marina listen to their "music de jour" at 120 dB's.

I like being out at a buoy, for simply nothing more than getting away from things. The town has plenty of activity to keep you busy, it's nice for me to have a place to relax at. Of course, a major pain is the water taxi. On busy weekends, it can take 10 - 15 minutes before a boat comes to pick you up, but they will come. Make small conversation with the driver and tip them nicely after your first ride. They will most likely come get you much quicker the next time.

Keep in mid, however, that the water taxi stops running a 1:00 AM. This means you need to be at the dock by 12:55 AM waiting for the last boat (which can get crowded on weekends). Since you mentioned that you would be travelling with children, this probably won't be a problem. The town stays going for a quite a while past 1:00 AM, so if you really want to whoop it up, the docks might be a better choice.

Getting a Buoy can be tough on the weekends. The public dock will almost always make room for addition last minute boats, but then you will be added to hoards of boats rafting up against each other. The best time I've found to grab a buoy is between 9 and 10 in the morning. By this time, most of the weekday overnighters have left and the weekends haven't quite arrived yet. If no buoy's available, just cruise up and down the rows and one should eventually open up.

Dining in town is a D+ or C- experience, depending on where you go. Don't expect much. Every "morning after" (Sunday) that I was there, I sent off on a mission to eat breakfast at a place that actually provided silverware and porcelain plates. It took me three trips before I was successful. "Pasquali's" café was the only restaurant that I could find, that felt like a breakfast place and not a bar converted into a diner (which there are PLENTY of, in Put In Bay). Don't get me wrong, I love visiting PIB. However, it's not Mackinac Island, like I first expected it to be.

Not sure how quick your cruising speed is, so I can't really estimate how long your trip will be. I know I can make it down to PIB in about 2 hours, give or take 20 minutes depending on weather, from Metro Beach. Last September I was able to make it down from Metro to PIB in one hour and 22 minutes. I left Metro around 4:30 PM, so by the time I got to Erie, she was dead flat. Of course, I was "cruising" at 65 - 70 mph which might be a little faster than most. At 40 mph, I can still make it down to PIB in under three hours.

Good luck with your trip, feel free to e-mail me if you have any direct questions:
[email protected]

-Bayley

The mooring bouys sound interesting, but we've had great luck making reservations and staying at the Crew's Nest, a private marina with slips available during the week only, no weekends. It cost about 5 to 10 more dollars a day than the public docks, but the location is great and they have a nice pool you'll enjoy.

Rent a go cart one day and take the kids to the Alaskan Wildlife Museum. A couple who were teachers built the place when they retired and moved back to the island from Alaska, and they give tours and describe the behaviors of all the animals they have mounted and on display. Every tour is a little different - the lady really went into geat detail explaining to us how to react when facing different species of bears, while her husband dwelt a little more on the different salmon and their life cycles. It is really a great place to visit.

Another worthwhile thing to do is to go on a "lantern tour" of the cave there - you go with a small group and they turn the lights off and illuminate the way with just the electric lanterns (flashlights, really) that you each carry. At one point you turn off all the lanterns and experience the complete darkness for a few minutes - wild!

Hope you have fun.

I've been to PIB 4 times and used the Mooring Buoys everytime. I agree completely with everything Bayley has said about privacy. I can't imagine spending the night at the public docks with drunken morons traipsing across your rafted boat all night. I figure when its time for bed its time for bed. There's nothing to stop you from hanging out at the public docks if that is your thing (not for me).

To answer the question on hailing the taxis, its really quite easy. I think they monitor channel 9 but whatever the channel is, its written on a sign attached to a buoy at the entrance to the bay from the lake. Each buoy has a letter/number designation (i.e. A5, C3, B2) and the buoys are arranged in letter rows (parallel to shore) and number columns. So when you want a ride in you simply pick up the VHF and say something like "We need a pick up on Charlie 3, Or Bravo 2 or Alpha 5, etc" (they like to use the military parlance so as to not confuse say "B" with "D") I've found the taxis to be pretty responsive and the kids that run them are actually pretty cool.

Another advantage (I think) of the buoys is the EXTREME ease of mooring to one. You just slowly come up along side of it and grab it with your hand or boat hook and put a line through the ring on top. Then you can just slowly back up while your crewmate holds on to the line and walks forward with it and cleats it off. (there are of course many other ways to do this, you'll figure it out). The whole process of takes literally about a minute. I find this a big plus because being a sailor with a single screw and a lot of windage, docking at a crowded dock is pretty tough.

Personally, I don't really see a downside to the buoys, the peace and quiet coupled with the ease of mooring far outweighs the minor inconvenience of using the taxis and not having power.

Starsailor

In case you do go these might help if you have a GPS.
Put-in Bay 41*39'94 - 82*49'42
Port Clinton 41*31'66 - 82*55'84
Lake Erie Entrance {for when you come back} 42*00'22 - 83*08'40
or if you're down there and you want to see how far you have to go...
New Baltimore 42*40'03 - 82*44'29
Clinton River 42*35'62 - 82*45'60
North channel entrance 42*37'59-82*43'29.
If you don't want to stay on the island Port Clinton is a nice town to stay in. You can take the Ferry over if you want to. If we can't get a slip on the Island{stay away from the public docks} And we do recommend The Crews Nest, We stay at Brands Marina in Pt. Clinton. It's easy walking distance to town or the ferry. Phone is 810-231-1133 they monitor ch 9.
Also another great place to go to is Maumee Bay. Great if you have kid's. If you play golf they have a scottish style course. take alot of balls. You can find them on the web. They only have about two dozen slips if that, so you have to make your reservations early.
Boatflag