On Monday we were sailing around Kelly's Island on Lake Erie and off in the distance we spotted a large sailing ship and remembered that the Tall Ships celebration was happening on Lake Erie. The ships were in Cleveland last weekend and were scheduled to be in Toledo today. I think there are 17 ships total, including replicas of the Nina, HMS Bounty, etc. We sailed about 4 miles out and intercepted the ship, which was the "Mist of Avalon". We circled it and took photos.


Later we passed by another one that was going to spend the night at Kelly's Island. That evening while sitting at our campsite on the island we saw 6 more ships pass by in the distance. The one we circled was definitely the smallest that we saw. One of the ships that passed had 22 sails up!
Kelly's Island is a great place to sail from. Here's a photo of our Prindle 18 on the North Bay, which is where the campground is.
The photo was taken from our campsite.

With the detour out to the Tall Ship, our "round the Island" trip was 19.5 miles. Here's an image of the GPS track. In three days on the island, our Prindle was the only catamaran we saw.


Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio

Very cool Jack! Nice pics! Must've been a great trip.

Great pics Jack. Looks like you had a GREAT time. You were able to get a lot closer than we were. We (the family and I) took "the boats with no sails" out to the channel on 07-16-03 when they came in to Toledo. The "MAN" was keeping everyone well away from any possible contact (understandable). Just being in the vicinity as they sail is an incredible sight.

I did manage to get some decent shots. (Off topic) Now that fishing works won't share pics, do you know of another site I can upload them to so I can link them?

As always , if you are coming up this way again let me know
J.T.

I think it works to link to them from a geocities.com site. It used to be easy to set up an free website there, but I haven't been to their site lately.
I'll let you know if we head up to Kelly's Island later this summer.
Thanks,
Jack