Wednesday and Thursday, June 29 and 30, 2011

Wednesday, Port Huron, Desmond's Marine:  We stayed a second day because Lake Huron was too rough to travel.

Nice little restaurant on the Black River in Port Huron 6-29-2011

View of St. Clair River from the Black River 6-29-2011

Kim Jo III at Desmond's Marine on 6-29-2011

Thursday, Port Huron, MI, to Harbor Beach Municipal Marina, Harbor Beach, MI:  What a difference from yesterday.  Our first day on Lake Huron was smooth with calm rollers.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we took advantage of it; we went 66 miles.  The dock master gave us a ride to town for groceries and supplies for our next oil change.  She said she used to be a teacher but the school had to lay off people to meet their budget.  She was one of the lucky ones who are still working but only as a cook in the school caferteria.

N43 51.327
W82 38.783

CO's comments:  Since we have been in these waters, all the Canadian weather reports are done in both English and French.  I getting so I can pick up some of the French.  The Harbor Beach area is really depressed.  There are very few boats in the marina.  I talked with the dock master and she said they thought last year was bad but this year is starting out even worse.

Harbor Beach Marina's break wall surrounding the marina

Harbor Beach Marina 6-30-2011

Monday and Tuesday, June 27 and 28, 2011

Monday, Put-in-Bay, OH, to Detroit, MI, Kean's Yacht Club:  The morning started out right; we were able to retrieve the mooring ball rope.  On the way out of the bay we passed Rattlesnake Island which is a private island and it had a personal landing strip and hanger on the south end-pretty cool.  We left Lake Erie and entered the Detroit River by 10:00.  The first 10 to 15 minutes on the river we had 4 foot + waves on our starboard side and we were fighting 1 1/2 knot current.  We were glad the river calmed down.  I took several pictures while entering Detroit.  We stayed at a marina on the north side of the city.  We thought there were a lot of people at the marina for a Monday; then we found out that Detroit always has their fireworks a week early so we got to watch fireworks before we went to bed.  Keith told me he called the city ahead of time and told them to have the fireworks for me because it was my birthday!  Sweet.

N42 21.351
W82 58.192

CO's comments:  You would be surprised at what a marine can get accomplished.


Tuesday, Detroit, MI to Port Huron, MI, Desmond's Marine:  We got going early to get across Lake St. Claire before the winds picked up.  It started out calm but the waves gradually increased to 2 feet by the time we got off the lake and into St. Claire River at 09:15.  The St. Claire River was smooth and the water was very clear and it was really beautiful.  We got to Port Huron by 14:35; it was a good day.


N42 58.486
W82 25.362

CO's comments:  Desmond's at Port Huron is a good place to stop.  But you have to watch the current and the winds.  The Black River is very narrow and it was a fight today we came in.  We landed successfully.

6-27-2011 leaving Put-in-Bay, OH

Beautiful sun rise on 6-27-2011

Private landing strip on Rattlesnake Island

Great Lakes Steel Co. along Detroit River
The whole complex ran for at least 2 miles

The Ambassador Bridge connecting
Detroit and Windsor, Ontario

Renaissance Center
downtown Detroit

Kean's Yacht Harbor, Detroit

6-28-2011 Sun in the clouds
on Lake St. Clair

Port Huron on the Black River

June 25 and 26, 2011; Saturday and Sunday

Saturday; Cleveland, OH:  We are still at Lakeside Yacht Club in Cleveland.  The winds and waves are just to strong too go out on to Lake Erie.  Two larger boats than us tried this morning and they both came back because it was so bad.  That made us feel better that we decided not to go.  Tomorrow looks better.

Sunday; Cleveland to Put-in-Bay, OH:   We are finally on our way after sitting here for 6 days.  I guess if you have to be stranded this is a good place to be; the people are very nice and they gave us a break on our slip.  We were waiting at the gas dock this morning at 07:30, we were fueled up and a pump-out by 08:00.  We were both very happy to be underway again.  Lake Erie was smooth to choppy and the day went good.  We didn't have any problems until we got to the mooring field and found the mooring balls but none of them had ropes on them.  We were too high to reach the balls from the bow so we decided to just anchor out over to the side of the mooring field.  Well, that didn't work either.  Our anchor would not hold, it was a rocky bottom and the anchor would just drag on the bottom.  We didn't want to try too hard because we were afraid of loosing the anchor so we had to improvise and adapt.  We put our heads together and figured out a way to get our rope on the mooring ball; it wasn't easy, but it worked.  Most other boats would go out on the swim platform to hook the ball and then walk it around but we can't walk around our boat from the swim platform so we did the next best thing.  I went out on the swim platform while Keith drove me close to the mooring ball, I tied an old rope on the ring and created a large loop and laid in on the ball and left it.  I then went up on the bow with a boat hook and Keith got me close to the ball and I hooked our rope; success!  We don't know if we will be able to get our rope back in the morning but it is an old one so we will not be out much if we loose it.  We are going to try though.

CO's comments:  Sail boaters usually have no problems with mooring balls; but, this guy came in going way too fast with his buddy up front with a boat hook to grab the mooring ball.  His buddy kept saying "Slow Down, Slow Down" to no avail.  He hooked the mooring ball and the boat hook flew out of his hands.  It took them over 40 minutes to retrieve the boat hook and finally get tied to the mooring ball.  This usually doesn't happen to proficient sail boaters.  A "go fast" left next to our mooring field this afternoon and went past the island that we came by within minutes.  It took us a good 30 minutes to go the same distance at our 7 knots.

N41 39.419
W82 49.210

6-24-2011-Keith is getting a
little nostalgic again

6-24-2011-waiting on the weather to improve

Entrance to Lakeside Yacht Club

One of the many patio's around
Lakeside Yacht Club

Downtown Cleveland on our
way out on 6-26-2011

Para-sailing at Put-in-Bay
on 6-26-2011

6-26-2011 Mooring Field