Short run east to Dunkirk, NY

 Saturday, July 15 -- Erie, PA to Dunkirk, NY -- 48 miles

This was an exciting day because Janet's sister Andrea and her husband Larry got to see the boat for the first time. They drove up from their home in New Castle, PA to get a thorough boat tour, join us for lunch, and have a short ride over to the fuel dock on Presque Isle to buy diesel fuel and get a pump-out. We think that watching the pump-out procedure may have been the highlight of their visit ;).

We had lunch at Oliver's on top of the Hampton Inn on the waterfront, which had outdoor seating. We had a very nice meal and great views of the harbor. The first photo looks north across Presque Isle Bay to Presque Isle park. The second looks west over the Wolverine Park Marina (see if you can spot Craunological II) and the third looks east over a replica of the ship Niagara. This was one of the ship's built by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry at Presque Isle in 1813 to create a fleet to fight the British for control of the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. Perry commanded that fleet during an engagement with the British on September 10th, 1813 that resulted in the entire British fleet surrendering. His battle flag motto "Don't Give Up The Ship" and his message to General William Henry Harrison -- "We have met the enemy and they are ours" -- are still remembered. He was a very popular hero in his time who is memorialized with many place names throughout the mid-west, as well as the towering monument on South Bass Island that we saw back on July 7th.

After lunch we took the boat across Presque Isle Bay to fill up with diesel. We dropped Andrea and Larry back at the marina and took off for Dunkirk, NY a bit after two o'clock. Here's the Erie skyline from across the bay.

Interesting sights on the run to Dunkirk included these cliffs just west of the New York border, and an old resort community out on Van Buren Point just before reaching Dunkirk. One of the cottages has its own water carved "flower pot" at its beach.

Dunkirk is kind of a sad old town. An old decommissioned power plant dominates the harbor (sorry, no picture of that) but there is a nice lighthouse at the end of the point that forms the harbor. These photos are first approaching from the west, and then looking back after rounding the point. 

We couldn't find a decent place to eat in town so we had dinner on board. The marina was pretty beat up, but got a new owner just last week (we met his son) and maybe they'll fix it up. It started to drizzle not long after we tied up and then turned into a steady rain that lasted all evening. But the rain didn't stop the loud music and singing at the semi-outdoor waterfront bar, which we couldn't escape. It wasn't a very pleasant evening in Dunkirk, but at least we were dry, and the music didn't last much past ten, so we could get some sleep.