My name is Courtney Bailey, my husband Andrew and I are very excited to have you join us on this next great adventure! In the posts to follow you’ll find out all about our life as boaters on the Great Lakes, and in particular Lake Erie, sharing information on destinations that we visit, and experiences that we have as we make our way port to port. There is so much to see and do out there in the world and we plan to share our adventures, and perspectives along the way.
These next few years of experience and information will be leading up to a once in a lifetime goal of making the one-year trip around the Great Loop, where even greater adventures will be had! (If you’re not familiar with the great loop no worries, there will be more on this soon)
If there is one thing to know about us it is that we love to travel, eat, and entertain! I plan to share with you all of my best recipes, and our favorite destinations. We plan to share a variety of healthy, clean eating recipes that can travel with you as they do with us. We will introduce you to the in’s and out’s of our vessel a 2004 Rinker 342 Fiesta Vee, affectionately known as “The Other Side”. We can’t wait to show you the joys of the boating life that we love so much. So come along with us as we TRAVEL, EAT, and LIVE! Adventures await us all, thanks for joining us~ Courtney Bailey
This month has been a whirlwind of activity! We launched the boat, watched the eclipse, and have been working hard on updates to the park house, all while moving in! Where should I start!
We spent the first weekend of April cleaning and prepping the boat for relaunch. We got the hull washed, and waxed, vinyl glass windows all cleaned, some minor repairs to the canvas completed, and the sun pad fully dried out and cleaned! It was a busy weekend in the storage facility, but we got it done, and she was ready for relaunch!
April 8th was a unique day with the total eclipse so close to home, and the boat launching that morning. I decided to head to Port Clinton to see the total eclipse, and settle a few things on the boat, verify that tie offs were good, and reinstall the newly repaired door! The eclipse was so beautiful, and I am so thankful to have had the chance to see it in totality. An amazing sight, there are just no words to describe it! The boat was in great shape, and it was so nice to see it sitting safely back in her slip at the marina ready for the season!
While this was going on we had folks hard at work over at the Park house, so far this month we held a huge garage sale, replaced some of the outdoor lighting, and garage doors, tore out and replaced flooring in two of the upstairs bedrooms, removed and replaced the kitchen floor, full roof replacement, and we now have the carpet and tile removed from the great room and the front entry with the new flooring waiting in the wings for installation! We have almost all of the small items moved from the old house and will have large furniture moved over later this week and weekend.
April 13th, we took a break, sort of… and went to the boat, we washed the vinyl seats, ran the engines, and generator, making sure she is fully ready to go for the season. We were able to meet up with some friends and had a nice dinner at the new Riverside Cantina (formerly Mr Ed’s Port Clinton) the food was great, the company was great, and we had relaxing night before heading back to the house to continue our move! It was really nice to take a little break, the weather although windy was absolutely gorgeous!
The closing on our old house was postponed, we are still waiting on a new date when you hear from me again, we will definitely be living full time at the park house. We hope everyone is having a great Spring!
~Courtney
Boat Products:
Meguiar’s Ultimate Waterless Wash and Wax
West Marine RX UV protectant cleaner and polish for Isinglass, strataglass, plexiglass, plastic, stainless steel, aluminum, and marine electronics.
House Products:
Vinyl Plank Floor in the Upstairs Bedrooms: SuperFast Delaney Floating Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring, color “Tuscany”.
Porcelain Tile Floor in the Kitchen: MSI Polished Porcelain Tile, color “Tuscany Azul”, with Mepai FA grout in color “Sahara Beige”
Roofing: Landmark shingles, color ” Heather Blend”
Garage Doors: Ideal Door Designer 9 x 7 Oak Walnut Insulated Garage Door with Windows
Outdoor Sconce Lights: Axiland Outdoor Wall Lights color “Retro Brass”
Well, this month kicked off in style, and we have some fun news! Over the past winter months, we negotiated the purchase of my grandparents’ beautiful home, and we are in the process of making the big move!
We intend to make this our forever home, the last purchase of a primary residence for our family. It is slightly larger than our previous home, which was also a family home, having been built by Andrew’s grandparents in the early 50s. We offered our current home to family, and with no takers, she was going to hit the market soon, but we found a buyer before we had officially listed it! Much quicker than we expected… It’s almost too quick… we aren’t ready!!
We have had so many wonderful memories here. Parties, and holidays, we watched our kids grow up here. We built a business from here. We said goodbye to our Logan here. This home is very, very special. And we will certainly miss certain things about it. But the home we are moving too also contains so many beautiful memories from my childhood, and I can’t wait to truly make it ours, bring her to life again with our kids and see what life brings to us in our new home sweet home.
With a to-do list that stretches for what seems like miles we have conceded to the fact that we will have to move into our new home before some of the flooring and paint projects we were hoping to do ahead of time can be done. I guess that’s life! If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans!
So as we pack, and move things over to the new place, we are also ramping up toward Spring, which means business picks up for Andrew, and it’s very nearly time to launch the boat! There is so much to do!
2024 is shaping up to be a year full of dramatic change, and honestly, I am here for it, I can’t wait to see how things round out for us this year. Happy Easter all. Next time you hear from me, it will be from our new home, with The Other Side patiently waiting for us dockside! Till next time.
Spring is fast approaching, and we are getting busier and busier as we prepare for the 2024 boating season, and vacation season! The last two week of February we had a couple of fun events to attend.
The Dock Trash Yacht Club winter boater’s party was February 16-18th. Hosted at the Commodore Perry Inn and Suites, and the former Mr. Ed’s Bar (now Riverside Cantina) in Port Clinton OH. We kicked off the weekend with an all-out 80’s Party on Friday night featuring Billy Morris and the Sunset Strip. The band was amazing, the company was amazing, and who doesn’t love a great 80’s party! I got up early on Saturday and put together a light breakfast bar with Bloody Mary’s and Mimosa’s in the Hotel lobby, and The Yellow House Bakery in Port Clinton put together some amazing baked goods for us, they were so delicious, and the service from the team at Yellow House was outstanding I would use them again, and I recommend you check them out! Andy and took some time Saturday to get a walk in and enjoy the area, a quick nap and then we rallied for another night of live music, and fun! Saturday featured The Killer Flamingo’s a popular Put-In Bay band. It was a great show, we danced, and had a great time with our boating friends that we miss so much in the winter months! It was also great to see a fantastic turn out from our Lakefront Yacht Club community! This is always a fun event, and this year it did not disappoint, we look forward to next season!
The following weekend in Port Clinton was the Burning Snowman Festival. We did not end up attending this year’s event as I was a little under the weather, although we have attended past festivals, and they are a great time! This is a multi-day festival that benefits the local police and fire departments. Always held the last weekend of February this event takes place in multiple locations throughout the area, but the main event is on the Lake Erie Beach in front of Docks Beach House Restaurant, where the event organizers build a large wood and paper snowman on the beach, there are warming stations, and a tent with live music. At sundown the snowman is lit using fireworks, and we watch it burn to the ground as the final farewell to winter! This event includes a family night on Friday night with ice sculptures, crafts, and a mini snowman burning on the beach. Saturday, they have a tap take over with shuttles running from Port Clinton to Catawba Island where you can visit participating bars and restaurants to hear live music and enjoy some great food specials! It is an awesome event, well-coordinated, and growing more every year, here are a few pics that were shared by the event! If you ever get the chance to see this in person, I highly recommend it, it’s a great way to break up the winter blahs!
We have some big news coming in March… yes, I know it is March now as I publish this, but I wanted to make it a separate announcement. So, stay tuned for that! We hope everyone is staying happy and healthy this winter season, next up SPRING 2024!
Hey gang! February has been busy already, and there’s still so much to do! We have made two trips to Port Clinton to start winter boat cleaning and maintenance. There is a lot to be done before the start of next season!
We have started with the waterless washing process, and we still have to clean all of the vinyl and upholstery. Have some canvas repairs done, change fluids, and a few other miscellaneous items to repair or replace. We’ll go into more details on all of that soon!
Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous, sunny, and for this time of year warm. It also happened to be the weekend of the Lakefront Marina openhouse! We had a very nice turn out, and enjoyed meeting some new potential marina mates and yacht club members.
After the openhouse, we went to Mr Ed’s Port Clinton and listened to Mike Mad Dog Adams, a Put In Bay regular. We walked to the Gristmill for a specialty cocktail and some more music by Olivia and Ryan. All in all, it was a very nice relaxing weekend!
This coming weekend, we will be back in Port Clinton, OH, for the Dock Trash Yacht Club winter boater’s party! More on that soon! Hope you’re all having a great winter season! Talk soon.
Just thought I would check-in and see how everyone faired for the month of January. We have had a fairy uneventful month. There has been a lot of active weather in the mid-Michigan area, and that means Andrew has been working his tail off. Our landscape business uses the winter months to perform snow plowing services for many area businesses. That means erratic sleep schedules, truck and equipment maintenance and repairs, and lots and lots of cold and busy days and nights! This also means that our adventuring has to wait, and I am itching to get started!
February promises to be a more active month for us, as we attend boat shows, make trips to the marina to start winter cleaning and projects on the boat, as well as a few fun events like the Dock Trash Yacht Club Winter Boater’s Party, and the Port Clinton Burning Snowman Festival!
There should be lots to report here in the coming months leading up to the 2024 Boating and travel season, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for us! Thanks you for following along, I promise we will make boring posts like this one worth it when we finally get on the move this year, stay tuned!
Happy New Year! I hope all of you had an amazing holiday season and were able to make some special memories with your friends, family, and loved ones. I know we had excellent Christmas and New Year celebrations this year. I am feeling refreshed after a bit of time off these past few weeks, and now back to work at my day job as an ultrasound tech, I am already daydreaming about the year ahead.
I got great news this morning when I logged into my email and found that all of my 25 vacation days for the year have been approved, and the schedules are blocked. This means I can start to put some concrete travel plans in place! I am so excited to get this year’s adventures underway!
So, what exactly does this year have in store? In large part, I can say I’m not entirely sure, lol! But, knowing that I have at least one day off every month, April through December, means I have lots of options, and with any luck, we will do lots and lots of traveling!
We kicked off our new year with friends. Having received an invite from Amber and Eric for a night of games, and pizza. It was so much fun, we laughed, told stories, enjoyed a beverage or two and counted down into the New Year. There is no replacement for friends like these, I truly love our time spent together.
With the year now underway, we have a few potential weekend events coming up, including the Cleveland and Detroit Boat Shows in January. An office holiday party for my work in Ypsilanti, and some time planned in Port Clinton to get some cleaning, maintenance, and repairs completed on the boat prior to our April launch date (which I cannot wait for). In February, we have the Dock Trash Yacht Club Winter Boater’s party, and we are considering making another appearance at this year’s Burning Snowman Festival. There are lots of things to consider, I will definitely keep you posted!
So, what are your plans for 2024? Are you travelling? Moving? Renovating? or Starting a New Job? Whatever you decide we hope it brings with it the most joy for you this coming year! Talk soon!
It is the final day of 2023 and time again for my annual year in review. This year was once again full of great new adventures, and lots fun with our friends and family.
We rang in the 2023 New Year at our home in Jackson MI, a number of our friends and family joined us, for a night of football, food, and midnight toast! It was a great night!
Cheers!
Shortly into 2023, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge ice storm! It left us without power for 7 days, and sadly, with a bit of damage from large broken tree limbs. Thankfully, our big shade tree survived, and damage to the house was minimal!
February and March meant a couple of trips to our home away from home, Port Clinton, Ohio, for the winter boater’s party and a long weekend for St Patty’s Day and Andy’s birthday! It’s always a great time! We also made a couple of trips to Sandusky to look at our new BOAT! More on that in a moment!
That brings us to April and the start of the boating season! Both of our boats were launched by April 10th, and we spent some time cleaning the Bayliner and get pictures for the broker (who we ended up not needing) so that we could get our first cruiser boat up for sale! Meanwhile, the broker that we were buying our new boat from had the Rinker in the water for final inspections, repairs, and of course our sea trial! The sea trial went great, and we finalized the purchase of our new boat!! While at the Marina in mid-April I found the tragic story of a boater whose sea trial did not go well at all on facebook, and his deal was falling through, a few quick messages back and forth and he was on his way to see our Bayliner! Long story short, by April 22nd, we had brought our Rinker back to our home port, Marina, and we had secured the sale of our Bayliner! It was bittersweet to send her off with her new family, but we were so excited to start to settle into our new boat! The Other Side is a Rinker 342 with a 37 feet overall length and 12 feet wide with twin engines, 2 beds, galley kitchen, and one head with full shower enclosure. She is a beauty!
In May we made our first trip to Put In Bay for the season, an awesome trip to Fort Wayne Indiana to see Kenny Chesney, and celebrated Memorial Day weekend in Port Clinton with our friends Kim and Chad Poe!
June and July meant more boating! We made trips to Huron OH with our yacht club, and Put In Bay. Fourth of July meant family and fireworks on the lake. Eli made his boat dog debut. And the kids joined us to celebrate Brianna’s 21st birthday in Port Clinton!
That brings us to August! August was a very special month. Andy and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on August 8th! We took a nice long trip to one of our favorite destinations, Las Vegas! When we got home, our kids and parents threw us a huge party, and a week later, we were off again to Put In Bay, for Bash on the Bay weekend! Where we survived, not one but two major summer storms!
Less than a week after Bash on the Bay, we found ourselves back at Put In Bay for the Labor Day Weekend! This time with our dear friends Amber and Eric Campbell! We had SO much fun! We watched college football, and THE Ohio State Marching Band made an appearance on the island. There were parades, musical performances, and some amazing fireworks! It was probably one of my all-time favorite trips!
The reminder of September and October were pretty relaxing, a few trips to the boat, some time at the yacht club,a brief stay cation for Andy and I meant a trip to Fire Keeper’s Casino, an afternoon at the Skywalk in Hidden Lake Gardens, a day of doing all the best Fall things with Brianna, and a couple of Halloween weekends with our friends Tricia and John in Port Clinton, and all dressed up for Doug and Wendy Stoddard’s party back in Jackson!
The boat was pulled out for storage in early November, and we had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving with John and Arlene Bombalicki and our kids at our home in Jackson. November was a much needed breather after a very busy year!
December included the Yacht Club Holiday Party, and Change of Watch ceremony where I was sworn in as the 2024 Rear Commodore for Lakefront Yacht Club. The following week we hit another MAJOR event when Brianna finished college! She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Olivet University. We are so proud of her! She will walk in May in the official graduation ceremony. Andy and I got in the holiday spirit with a trip to Greenfield Villages Holiday Nights, it was magical and so much fun! Christmas with our family was great, and now here we are counting the many blessings from this past year!
The experiences and fun of this past year have been utterly amazing, and it brings me to my final thought for 2023. If you dream of having a certain lifestyle or you want to live a life full of adventure, then DO IT! Life is too short not to be doing what you love the absolute most! We hope you all had an amazing year, too, and we look forward to marching into 2024 with our eyes open to the possibilities of this new year! Follow us here for regular updates, my new Year’s resolution is to post more often in 2024! Cheers to a New Year!
Hey gang! It’s been a minute. Sorry about that! But we have been busy! I am working on several more reviews of some of our favorite Port Clinton and Put In Bay hot spots, I have a short piece coming soon on night navigating, and another on some of our maintenance and repairs because after all it can’t all be fun and games. Before I get to some of those things, though, I wanted to talk about our recent trip to Las Vegas!
It’s funny how when you immerse yourself into a certain lifestyle, you start to see its influences everywhere you go! That was certainly the case this weekend as we found the boat life popping up all around us in Las Vegas! For those of you who are new to our page, welcome, and you should know we are both Great Lakes boaters and Las Vegas regulars, too!
There’s so much to share about our most recent trip, but I thought I would focus on a few instances in which I was drawn to the boating lifestyle in Las Vegas! It’s in the art, themes, and work of the city. You won’t believe your eyes!
Let’s start with the obvious, the Bellagio Fountains are an iconic Las Vegas attraction, located center strip. This beautiful fountain wows people from around the world all year long! It runs during the day and is quite a spectacular view at night. We also found a maintenance man in a dingy on one of the days that we visited!
Even from afar, when the Fountains aren’t on, it appears as a peaceful lake oasis in the desert.
Another uniquely Las Vegas experience would have to be the gondola boat rides through the Canals of the Venetian! Like a ride through Venice, the Gondoliers will serenade you through the beautiful man-made channels in and out of the Venetian Las Vegas Casino and Hotel.
And check out the canal shops where a very interesting historical piece sits. An antique gondola on display, so pretty!
There are plenty of boating, Tiki, and even yacht club themed bars and restaurants to check out, too! Like Margaritaville near Flamingo Las Vegas, the Golden Monkey Tiki Bar in the Resorts World Complex, Aft Bar at The Wynn, or check out Catch at Aria Hotel and casino!
And what about the yacht club? I’m glad you asked. This was a surprise to us! The Pier 17 Yacht club container Bar it located inside of the entry area to the Absinthe, Speigelworld tent in front of Caesars Palace Las Vegas.
This unique yacht club pays homage to the Spiegelworld companies starting at Pier 17 in New Jersey. They have a beautiful painting depicting their very first ever performance tent on the pier on display inside the yacht club. Their are a number of additional little hidden details, including secret meanings in the wallpaper itself!
Pier 17 Yacht Club shares a specialty cocktail menu with the other bars in the Absinthe entertainment area. Check it out. It is a very cool little find!
Art abounds in Las Vegas, and their is no shortage of boat or water related art displays! They are everywhere, if you just look around you!
Needless to say, we had an awesome trip back to one of our favorite places, seeing the influences of the boat life that we love out in this desert oasis was an awesome way to explore it,and we look forward to going back soon! Hope you enjoyed this. Follow along for more detailed reviews to come! Thank you ~Courtney Bailey
Took the opportunity to enjoy an extended stay on the boat for the 4th of July weekend. We took off Friday night and returned on Wednesday afternoon! It was a nice stay only one evening with some turbulent weather, otherwise we had a great time!
Spent Friday night getting settled for the long stay, visited Overboard Bar and Grill for a quick bite, then off to the yacht club for a visit with some of our friends.
Saturday, we were under threat of rain most of the day, we went and got groceries, washed down the boat, visited the pool, and relaxed. We did end up having to make an emergency repair of the air conditioning on the boat! That sucked up a couple of hours! The fan stopped running we cleaned the strainer, and realized there was an air lock in the line that cools the unit. We made a trip to the hardware store, and eventually, we got it fixed. By “we,” I definitely mean Andy!
Eventually, we got the mess cleaned up, and we decided to walk into town and visit some of our favorite stops, including the Baithouse River Bar and Mr. Ed’s. We danced, drank, and stumbled home. It was an absolute blast!
Sunday, we started off with a quick trip to Cedar Point, we rode a few roller coasters and had some lunch and enjoyed the view from the new Boardwalk restaurant! We spent some time at the pool, visited the yacht club, and wrapped up with a gorgeous night on the deck of the boat!
Monday brought with it some great weather! We washed the mayflies off the boat, spent some more time at the pool, and enjoyed a campfire with friends at the end of night!
On returning to the boat we noticed that our underwater lights had attracted a large school of crappie and a few bass, it was fun watching them eat the mayflies off the surface of the water, and even more fun watching Andy trying to catch them with his bare hands lol!
Next up was the main event! Our 4th of July celebration! The weather turned out gorgeous! Andy enjoyed beer with our neighbor using a beer bong known as a freedom funnel. If you know, you know. Then off to the pool! Eventually, a quick trip out to the sandbar where we rafted off with the Bombalicki’s to enjoy some swimming, dinner, and after dark fireworks!
It was an awesome weekend full of fun and relaxation! We are home this weekend for some much needed time to work on things here, I will write a bit about our experiences with on-board repairs, and navigating after dark, there’s a lot to cover there, more than I want to take on in this post.
We ended our trip with lunch at Dock’s Beach House Restaurant, cleaned down the boat yet again, and made the two hour drive home to get ready for the rest of our week! We hope everyone had an amazing holiday weekend! Till next time~ Courtney and Andy Bailey
We returned this past weekend from an awesome trip to Huron Boat Basin Marina in Huron, OH. This is about an hour and a half run from our home port traveling at 22- 24 mph. The weather was great, and the lake was calm, heading over. We had one boat follow us over, seven others came in the night before a few stragglers followed later in the day, for a total of 12 boats from our yacht club in attendance for the cruise out!
2 minute time lapse, Port Clinton to Huron OH, Lake Erie
This was a particularly exciting event for me because as the Fleet Captain for this season, I am in charge of the arrangements for on-water activities for the club. In some ways, I agonized over finding just the right place to go,and this ended up being perfect!
Huron, OH is a small historic town on the Erie coastline, just east of Sandusky. The Boat Basin Marina is a horseshoe shaped Marina with seasonal and transient dockage available. It is directly next to the Huron Yacht Club and the Rotary Amphitheater.
Within walking distance of the marina, you’ll find a variety of bars and restaurants. There is a nearby fishing pier, beach, and lighthouse. There is also a Comfort Inn Hotel very nearby.
As a group, we paid a visit to our friends at the Huron Yacht Club and enjoyed a drink together.
Later in the evening, we had an LYC family picnic at the pavilion before heading off on our own adventures for the night.
It was a beautiful weekend, very relaxing location, Live music is available at a number of bars too. The overall feel of this location is very different than say the party vibes of Put In Bay, family friendly, and relaxing! Next up is the long 4th of July weekend! Thanks for following along~Courtney Bailey
From The Great Lakes To The Great Loop 