expecting our first child. And then we got
sad news; Stephanie’s grandmother Ruby
had passed away.
A Legacy Of Boating
Ruby was a central figure in Stephanie’s life
since she was very young. After her father
died when she was nearly 3, she lived with
Ruby and her grandfather Jim for the next
few years. Her grandparents not only helped
raise her and her older sister, but they also
ran the daycare where she’d spend her
time during the week. On the weekends,
Stephanie remembered Ruby and Jim packing up the whole family and heading to Lake
Erie, to the trailer that was their home away
from home on Catawba Island overlooking
Herl’s Harbor Marina, near Port Clinton,
Ohio. There, they fished and played aboard
a series of boats that Jim loved.
“They were there constantly on weekends,” says Stephanie’s aunt Edie. “It was
easy and fun. We’d go up as young couples,
go fishing, waterskiing, or just head over to
the winery on the island. When we started
having kids of our own, we’d bring our children up with us. We’d catch pounds of walleye and perch and cook them up for dinner.”
Ruby kept a journal of those idyllic,
hectic days, recording each visitor, little
anecdotes about the kids, what everyone
did, where they took the boat, what they
caught, how they cooked their meals, and
so on — for 25 years. Through her detailed
recordkeeping, you can watch their sons’
girlfriends become wives, and read about
each new grandchild’s first visit to the lake.
Jim and Ruby’s boats at that time were
Lymans, built in nearby Sandusky. Jim liked
to buy a new one roughly every three years,
Left, John and Joan
West, with their daughters Deborah and
Stephanie aboard Jim
West’s 1973, 26-foot
Lyman Sleeper. Below,
the first pages of
Ruby’s journal, filled
with 25 years of
adventures on Lake
Erie. Stephanie, age
4, at the wheel of her
grandfather’s 26-foot
Penn Yan.
BOATING LIFE
