Overview

The tip of the Cedar Point peninsula and the world-famous Cedar Point Amusement Park as seen from inside Sandusky Bay.

The Sandusky Bay region bills itself as America's "fun coast", and appropriately so. The narrow peninsula that forms the eastern shore of the harbor entrance contains one of the country's foremost theme parks in the form of Cedar Point Amusement Park. Using this nationwide draw as an anchor, the region has evolved a diverse assortment of attractions both large and small. Every diversion from stadium-sized indoor water parks to the small, delightfully cheesy "anti-gravity house" can all be experienced a short drive from the waterfront.

Of course, the biggest draw for the trailer boater is the bay itself and the surrounding waters of Lake Erie. Sandusky Bay is one of only two significant natural harbors on Lake Erie (the other being Presque Isle Bay at Erie Pennsylvania) and provides relatively calm, safe waters in any weather. The bay is peanut-shaped and divided in half by a railway bridge, which prevents travel by sailboats into the western half of the harbor. While the western end has some excellent fishing spots, the depth is a shallow four to five feet throughout and is little used by recreational boats. The eastern half is somewhat deeper and contains all the marine facilities on the bay.

The mouth of the bay is a sandy shoal through which a narrow shipping channel is maintained near the eastern shore. The shipping channel is only about five hundred feet wide and tends to be extremely choppy, so boats entering or leaving the harbor must put up with a bumpy ride for nearly a mile before being able to steer for open water. Once outside the harbor, it is a short passage to the contrasting attractions of Kelleys Island and Put-in-Bay (each of which are detailed in separate guides), making Sandusky Bay a perfect starting or ending point in a vacation-long cruise of the region.

As mentioned above, the eastern shore of the bay is dominated by Cedar Point Amusement Park, which houses on its grounds one of the largest marinas in the United States. The city of Sandusky fills the southeastern shore and contains most of the marine facilities available in the bay. To the west of the city is a large peninsula which serves as a loading facility for the massive coal freighters that regularly visit the bay, and tucked away inside the turning basin for the coal dock is an excellent municipal launch ramp. The majority of Sandusky Bay lies west of the coal dock, and outside of the city, the shoreline is mostly a scenic mix of woods and private homes.

The southern shore gradually curves toward the north until you come to the low rail bridge that divides the bay into eastern and western halves. This is the end of the line for sailboats (there is a bascule bridge near the north shore but I've never seen it open), but powerboats can continue under the rail bridge to explore the western half of the bay, which is largely undeveloped and offers some excellent fishing and nature-watching opportunities. Along the northeast shore, you will find Johnson Island and a narrow peninsula called Bay Point. The water between the island and Bay Point is a popular place to anchor and Bay Point itself is a scenic natural beach.

The evolution of the marine facilities of Sandusky Bay has created a unique dynamic that can be exploited by the visiting trailer boater. Most of the marinas are clustered within a small section of the city of Sandusky or at Cedar Point, both of which are at the eastern end of the large harbor. Having grown bored with the relatively small confines of the bay, when their owners have free time to spend on the water, most of the permanently docked boats head straight out into Lake Erie. While this creates a nasty chop in the shipping channel, the ultimate result is that the nine square miles of water that comprises the eastern half of the bay is only lightly used and the fifteen square miles of the western bay is practically deserted. You can usually sail or ski all day without having to change course to avoid another boat. I don't know of anyplace else where there are so many marine facilities so close to a relatively unused body of water. There is definitely no place else where, in the same harbor, you can spend one day sailing undisturbed and the next day riding roller coasters at a world-class theme park.

|  Next-> Weather