It was the July 4th weekend. The year was 1969 and we were heading across Lake Erie from Port Stanley, Ontario to enter a race starting at Mentor, Ohio. The race then, would take us back to Port Stanley. The "Trans-Erie Race" which was scheduled for the next day would then take us back to our home port. It was a lovely sunny day, but being sailors, the day lost a lot of its charm for us by being completely windless.

So, rather than sailing, we were moving under the power of our little outboard motor. Lake Erie was as flat ... (more)