Swapping Paddles for a Sail
by Denise Janus

Today Chris took over as team leader and we didn’t do any paddling today due to weather, but Mr. Richard Eisenberg and his students offered to take us for a sail on their boat! I’m so amazed at how well they worked together to get us out on the bay, and while I grew up seeing many sailboats on Lake St. Clair, I never really got it, but now I do!  Sailing is a lot of work but so rewarding!  Once those motors turn off it is the most amazing feeling to be going so fast without any power but the wind!  We got up to around 12 knots!  That was my first sailboat ride and I think I’m hooked!  Thank you so much to everyone who took us sailing! I even learned a word or two, i.e., tacking to turn!  And Mike got to steer!  What fun!

Around 3 p.m. we put the canoe in the water to canoe a quarter mile up to the Erie Maritime Museum for the media to get some good shots.  We got there around 3:30 p.m. and did our interviews with the press.  Afterwards, Ed from the Erie Maritime Museum took us for a tour of the Flagship Niagara http://www.brigniagara.org/specs.htm which makes her home behind the Museum.  She’s a beautiful and impressive ship inside and out!  We each got the chance to try to get into a hammock below deck where each sailor would have slept in hammocks hung side by side. Dr. Gerhart demonstrated a Gilligan-like maneuver and almost did a face plant on the ground falling from the hammock! The rest of us learned from his mistake and focused on not falling out as we took our turns getting into the hammock. What makes entry so difficult is the hammock is hung from the ceiling with only 8-10 inches of clearance. The hammocks were hung close to the ceiling so people could still make their way around the ship under all the hammocks strung across the narrow room.  Thank you Ed and the Erie Maritime Museum!

We cooked up dinner and after this long day we somehow found time to play volleyball.  It was Dr. Vogt, Laura, Chris, and Dr. Gerhart against Mike, Dr. Carpenter, Tommy (Mike’s brother) and me.  We were laughing so hard we lost count somewhere and just tried to keep the ball in the air!  

Well, off to bed for our last day of paddling on Lake Erie. WOO HOO! I love Lake Erie and all of the people and places on it, but I’m excited to take in some river scenery!