Day 3 – Erieau to Pelee Island
Shortly after 4 am we left the dock and were on the lake,
headed for Pelee Island, roughly 55 miles south west of us with a strong south
west wind directly in our face. It was a
very rough ride but Bella Blue did well slicing through the wind and crashing
over the steep waves. Sadly, the crew
didn’t do quite as well as both Ana and Magnus were immediately sea sick and
spent the entire ride laying down, trying to keep their insides inside. Magnus did have a brief vomiting episode but
did feel much better afterwards and went back to eating his toasted bagel as if
nothing had happened. Stella was fine
the whole way through, just a little bored with the long ride.
Around 12:30 or 1:00 we arrived at Scudder Marina, located on the north end of Pelee Island.
This island is home to Canada’s southernmost point.....and not much
else. As we would soon discover,
compared to the US islands only a few miles to the south, Pelee Island leaves
much to be desired.
We had been in touch with Melissa and Chris via text
messages along the way and they arrived by ferry to the west side of the island
around noon and planned to hike the six miles up to the marina where we would
meet. So after our arrival we went for a
short walk around the docks and found an impressive population of Lake Erie
water snakes living on and amongst the rocks.
Some were as large as six feet long, while others were less than a foot,
so not sure if they were different species or just a momma and baby thing. Magnus has always been terrified of snakes,
so I was surprised when he was keen to get a closer look at them. Stella,
him and I crawled around on the rocks to have a good look and snapped a few
photos. As we were poking around, Melissa and Chris
appeared on the horizon, lugging backpacks and sweat stained from pits to
ankles as the day had become very warm indeed.
We guided them over to the boat where they got their stuff unpacked into
the v-berth which would be their home for the next couple nights. I was overjoyed to see Chris whip out a
couple dozen tall boys of various varieties and we found a suitable place for
them in the cooler. I had kept my beer
supply to the absolute minimum in anticipation of picking up some cheap US
suds, and there was barely any left so this was a welcome addition to the
supply.
After a couple drinks we went for a walk to find the bakery
which, we were told, was a mile down the road.
Along the way we encountered some beautiful little lakeside cottages,
some of which had their own secluded beach areas and decks overlooking the
bay. We found the bakery, ordered up
some fresh bread and snacks, and our guests bought the kids two bags of those
little flavour-packed jelly beans, which became the fuel for an extended game
of “close your eyes, open your mouth, chew the jelly bean I toss in there and
guess what colour it is.” Nobody was
particularly good at it, though I think Ana got the most right. They all tasted like lime to me.
We slowly wandered back to the boat, along the way passing a school, in front of
which was a big sign saying, “Warning - No Hunting - School Zone ”, making us
wonder why you would need to remind people it’s not a good idea to sqeeze off rounds in a schoolyard. As we returned to the dock, we found it so
hot and muggy that we took the boat out to the middle of the bay, cut the engines, and jumped in for a cool, refreshing
swim that actually turned into more of a community bath after Ana brought the
bath gel up. Sadly, Melissa wasn’t able
to partake, as the day before leaving on their trip she had broken a coffee
carafe while washing it and sustained nasty and deep cuts on three of her
fingers.
After returning to the dock I got the grill fired up and
barbequed steaks and Portuguese chorizo for dinner. Despite the full bellies, we manage to stay
up for a while chatting but eventually we pack it in and hit the beds, all of
us exhausted after a very full day.
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