July 4th

[Matt Mosbacher]

How was it over at Kelleys and Put In Bay. My granddaughter was at Cedar point Sunday and said it wasn't crowded at all. My daughter and son in law were camping at East Harbor State Park and were surprised that it wasn't full. They went to Brown Dairy Dock in Marblehead and noticed the Kelley's Island ferry's parking lot was half full. We used to spend the weekend over at Dockside and Kelleys was always crowded the weekend of the Fourth. My nephew works on a head boat in Port Clinton and they didn't have anyone Friday or Saturday.

 

[SLW]

I was at Kelley's during the day on Sunday. Portside had smaller wells available, but were otherwise full. I went up to the north bay to anchor. By mid-day I estimated 150 boats were out there. At 7:00, all but about a dozen had left. On the way home I was inline with 5-6 boats who all turned at the CP jetty to anchor at Breaker's Beach, but I couldn't see how many boats were there for the fireworks. Since CP shot fireworks on both Sunday & Monday, I'm not surprised to hear that the crowds were smaller, but I didn't actually notice that. The crowd during the Sunday show seemed to be on-par.

An hour after the Sunday show, CP Drive was gridlocked and at a standstill from the marina to the campground and probably beyond. Note to self: NEVER drive a car to the CP fireworks!

 

[Matt Mosbacher]

SLW, old age is catching up with me I called portside dockside. Man how I hated Seaway. That place had the lousiest facilities (water and electric). North bay is usually packed if the wind is out of the South or East and besides it doesn't cost anything to go there. We used to watch the Cedar Point fireworks from Bay Point Marina. It was so handy there was no reason to go out in the lake to watch them.

 

[SLW]

You used past-tense when describing Seaway, so you're probably aware that they rebuilt the west wall? I convinced a neighbor to give Seaway another try because of the new wall, so we made a run to the island and sure enough - they put us on the old east wall anyway. lol

That east wall needs to go asap, and I wish they would install finger docks, but they've made a lot of worthwhile changes over there. Their service level has gone way up. No more un-assigned docking and long hikes to the office. Now they assign dockage, meet you there and shuttle you to the office to check in.

I prefer to hang out at Portside, but at 44' loa, we're too small to get the outside crib, and too big for the regular piers. I'd like to have a discussion with whomever designed that layout.

 

[Matt Mosbacher]

I remember talking to the owner of Portside when he expanded it(I think he is dead now). He said he was limited in two things, space and money. The bank would only loan him a certain amount(1 Mil I Think) so he had to make do. And he could not go out as far into the lake as he wanted to. It has been 4 or 5 years since I have been to Kelley's but back then Seaway was just awful. They put up that nice new building and those shelter houses but they sure treated you poorly. Had some kid stand by the gas dock and when you pulled in would yell "what do you want". Then tell you you had to pull in to a transient dock next to the gas dock and register. Would not even let you check out where you could dock and all that required rafting caused pedestrian traffic that just ruined your boat.

 

[SLW]

You described the old Seaway perfectly - it was awful. As if the requirement to stop and sign-in wasn't bad enough - those old metal fingers by the gas dock had no padding. I eventually learned to snub them - I'd cruise right past the shouting attendants, pretending not to hear them. I'd pick my own dock and sign-in later.

They really changed their game last season. Now the kids are well-trained. They assign a well via a polite greeting near the fuel dock or radio, and they'll race you to that spot to help tie up. They also offered to help us run power.

While the east wall needs to be rebuilt, it's not as bad as the former west wall. The broken wooden pilings aren't as much of a hazard, and there's plenty of power.

Portside's basin is really first-class. It's clean and high quality and to me, nothing looks like they cut corners. If he only borrowed $1mil for that, I'll cut him some slack. My issue is that by only having short finger docks, they exclude a large boating segment (evidenced by them having empty, small docks on the 3rd of July). The breakwall/crib design is flawed too - being exposed to prevailing winds like it is.