7/11/17 – 7/12/17: We had a big day ahead of us, and had to decide between anchoring off of Long Point, or going to the Port Dover Harbor Marina. Long Point was a 50 mile run, and Port Dover was 75. It all depended on the wind.

We were ultimately heading towards Port Colborne, our last stop on Lake Erie before transiting the Welland Canal into Lake Ontario. Either planned stop would be the same distance to Port Colborne: approximately 40 miles east. Long Point is a 25 mile long point (thus the name Long Point) which just out into Lake Erie and is only 1 mile wide at its widest point. Anchoring there would require south our Southwest winds; anything else would have made for a rocky night, or quite possibly a dangerous situation with higher winds. But Port Dover, a sheltered marina and our only other choice, was 20 miles north of the anchorage, and would add 3.5 hours to our day.

When we left Port Stanley at the 6:00AM bridge opening, the winds were southwest and light at 3-5 knots, which was predicted for the whole day. Looks like we will be anchoring! The lake, because of the previous 2 days of wind, had 2-3 foot rolling waves, which made the ride a little rolly. The more we approached Long Point, the the winds turned eastward, and became stronger, up to about 15 knots. As we rounded Long Point, we realized that Port Dover would be our destination, as the waves were building, and rolling right into the anchorage. We pulled into Port Dover Harbor Marina at 5:30PM – an 11.5 hour day. Needless to say, we were both exhausted.

Our plan was to get a few hours sleep, and finish our journey to Port Colborne the following morning. We set the alarm for 6AM, but were up at 5:30. A quick look at the radar showed a line of storms heading right for us, and another larger set following later in the day. We made the decision to stay another day, as we didn’t think we could outrun the storms. But as they approached, they dissipated! So much for the 80% chance of thunderstorms (which was a completely different forecast than the previous night). And… The second round fizzled to just a passing shower, too (hardly even enough to get wet). But that’s our karma this summer: go out in 20% and get soaking wet, stay in a marina in 80% and have next to nothing all day.

But we made the most of our day. We’ve had some engine stalling issues lately, and 3 separate mechanics we’ve talked to all concur that the problem is almost certainly air getting into the fuel line. We have already changed all our fuel filters, replaced the electric lift pump, tightened all the hose clamps, and replaced one section of fuel line. Today we installed new rubber gaskets on our two primary fuel filters and ordered a 3-way fuel valve, which also may be part of the issue (this allows us to select which primary fuel filter will be ‘active’ when running the engine). If this doesn’t solve our issue, we don’t know what our next step will be.

We didn’t get a chance to explore the town itself, as we were tired, busy, and quite honestly, just didn’t feel like walking up yet another hill! We hope to leave for Port Colborne tomorrow and complete the third Great Lake on our journey to Maine.

Pics of Port Dover