Sandusky
Roller-coaster aficionados or families with small children may want to take a side trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park on the southeast shore of the mouth of Sandusky Bay. It’s southeast of South Bass Island and south of Kelleys Island, past Marblehead Point.
Cedar Point is home to 17 roller-coasters, including the 310- foot-tall, 92-mph Millennium Force. Boaters can stay overnight in one of the marina’s 100 guest docks ranging in length from 30 to 125 feet. Many boaters simply pull in for the day or evening and pay a $15 dock fee while they patronize one of the two restaurants close to the marina.
Kelleys Island
Boaters who are partied out after a weekend at Put-In Bay, frazzled after a day of amusement at Cedar Point or who just want an island with a less frenzied pace can head to Kelleys Island. It’s about seven and a half miles southeast of Put-In Bay and eight miles from Cedar Point.
The marinas catering to visitors are on the south coast, with Portside and Casino marinas in the middle of the island’s downtown. The best bet for visiting boaters is Seaway Marina, located in a protected basin about a half mile to the east. As well as its three well-protected basins, Seaway Marina has showers and washrooms, plus a small variety store with a delicatessen and beverages including beer and wine.
The downtown area is compact yet attractive and has everything visitors might need, from groceries to island souvenirs, plus a variety of restaurants, bars, ice cream parlours and amusements.
The island is about four miles by two miles with 2,944 acres of land. Previously the site of large limestone quarries that can still be seen in the island’s interior, Kelleys Island and its 350 year-round residents now depend largely on servicing the cottage and tourist crowd.
There are beautiful historic homes, a great deal of open countryside and 700 acres of Ohio State Park land. Located in the northeast part of the island, the park is close to another of the island’s attractions – gargantuan rock grooves created by glaciation during an ice age in a past millennium. The grooves are almost next door to a sandy beach in a bay that is also popular with day-cruising boaters.
There are few rowdy raft-ups or late-night parties at Kelleys Island, but its ready hospitality more than makes up for the low-key nightlife.
Amherstburg
As well as being a convenient port-of-call along the way to Lake Huron, Amherstburg, Ont., is also a great place to soak up more Lake Erie history before heading further up the Detroit River towards Lake St. Clair.
After reaching the lighthouse marking the southern junction of the east and west outer channels of the Detroit River, head upstream and stay in the easternmost Amherstburg Channel. The Livingstone Channel is on the other side of Bob-Lo Island.
Bob-Lo Island was formerly home to an amusement park and is now the site of a residential development. Along the eastern shore, you’ll find the waterfront homes of Amherstburg, the local Coast Guard station and Duffy’s Tavern and Marina, which offers meals, hotel rooms, fuel, and slips for restaurant and overnight visitors. The waterfront King’s Navy Yard Park and Fort Malden, a British post during the War of 1812 that has been rebuilt, are also on the riverfront adjacent to downtown.
Bob-Lo Island Marina, only accessible to cruisers through the channel at the north end of Bob- Lo Island, has slips available for transient boaters and a restaurant that operates Wednesday through Sunday.
The Bru Mon Harbour Marina – on the eastern shore past the end of the island and just north of the smaller Duff ’s Marina – is an excellent facility with all of its 56 slips rented to seasonal local boaters. Visiting boaters can head further north on the river to Ballard’s Reef Channel, then down a long eastern side channel to the municipally owned 104-slip K. Walter Ranta Marina. Transient spaces are available along with pump-out, washrooms, showers and a playground.
Amherstburg is also home to the North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Centre and Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church, which once served as a terminus for the Underground Railway that helped black slaves escape to Canada during the 1800s.
There are several wineries in the area, but visitors will find a wide variety of restaurants and a range of stores downtown.
For many visitors, relaxing and watching the pleasure boats and freighters slip past in the Detroit River will be activity enough. It’s a great place to wind up a cruise of Lake Erie and an ideal jumping off point for heading north to Lake Huron and yet another Great Lakes voyage of discovery.