SO WHAT’S FUN?

For the past several months Jeff and I have been debating the question, “what is the definition of the word fun”?  I realized that I rarely use the “F” word whereas Jeff uses it quite often…

This is Fun

We woke early at the Edgewater Yacht Club in Cleveland to make it to our next stop which was to be Ashtabula, OH.  The winds were forecast to be strong, but well within our limits coming from the SW at 14 – 18 knots gusting to 26.  Waves were forecast to be 2 – 4 and then increase to 4 – 6 feet.  We would be going downwind with the waves coming from behind us so I did not anticipate for the ride to be uncomfortable.  

IS IT THE DELLS OR MACKINAC ISLAND - WTFR WE?!!!

Well folks we made it to Ohio! We had a glorious sail (cool, consistent wind and NO BITING FLIES), all the way from Toledo Beach to Put-In-Bay. There are several islands grouped together in Western Lake Erie, South Bass Island, the home of Put-In-Bay, being one of them.  While sailing there I realized all our energy was being produced by Mother Nature, the wind was our fuel and the sun our power.  Pretty pretty good!

We made it to Lake Erie and Replaced Batteries

We made it to Lake Erie!

We left Grosse Point and headed on down the Detroit River.  This took us past Detroit where the GM building sits on the shores of the river in downtown Detroit.

"HONEYDEW LAKE" TO "HONEYDO CITY"

As we entered Lake St Clair the first thing I noticed was how pale green the water was. I have never seen a body of water this color. It was the shade of honeydew melon…maybe an average depth of 11 feet had a lil’ something to do with it, or maybe it was the angle of the sun at this particular time of day...  As you can imagine, all commercial vessels and larger pleasure craft stay well within marked channels which reach a depth of 21 feet, oh my!

The hard steel grey of this cargo vessel is in such sharp contrast to the soft green of the lake.

GOODBYE LAKE HURON, HELLO ST CLAIR RIVER

Today we bid Lake Huron a fond adieu. We left Port Sanilac just after dawn

to begin our last 60 nm leg out of Lake Huron, into the St Clair River and finally Lake St Clair.   The wind was calm as we motored from Port Sanilac to the southern end of the lake.  We used this time to bone up on the “Rules of the Road” which are the navigation rules for both U.S. inland and international waters in anticipation of the increase in commercial and recreational traffic on the river which is considered a “narrow channel”.

HARRISVILLE ANCHORING FIASCO

Picture a quiet little New England-esque marina with ducks galore in the harbor and hills and trees near shore… 

Now picture “Grace” gliding into the harbor, hell-bent on anchoring, and breaking up the peaceful afternoon reverie that the local boaters enjoy.

Forget everything I said about starting to get really comfortable with anchoring in my last post!

PRESQUE ISLE (ALMOST AN ISLAND in French)

We sailed about 35 miles from Hammond Bay to Presque Isle. It is also a state park run facility that caters to transient boaters. It has one restaurant, one country store, free biking and a couple of old lighthouses, one since automated. We climbed both and enjoyed the spectacular views.

HAMMOND BAY MARINA, IN 3 DIVERGENT PARTS

PART 1 - A NICE PEACEFUL SAIL

And here we are peacefully sailing southeast in a 7-10 knot breeze, under blue skies and flat seas. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!  

The moment where I gleefully realize that I am halfway through book five of "Game of Thrones" - HURRAY!!!

OUR NORTHERNMOST POINT

Yesterday’s journey took us through Gray’s reef, the Straits of Mackinac (I think that sounds so romantic), under the very impressive Mackinac bridge and Into Lake Huron. We have reached our Northern most point. YES!!!!

HIGH GEAR

For the last few days we’ve been in high gear, sailing all day and just making brief stops for the night at South Manitou and Beaver Islands. Why were we hurrying?

DETAILS GOING UP THE MAST

A couple of people wanted to hear more about our spinnaker incident, so I’ll give my version of the story.

And as Captain Al knows, all sailing stories should always start with the words:  And there we were….

SPINNAKER RESPUN!

During our stay in Frankfort, at Jacobson's Marina, Jeff climbed the mast and untangled the spinnaker halyard. Using this device called a “Top Climber”, Jeff straps himself in and self-propels up the mast.

SPINNAKER UNSPUN

We are motoring (no wind againL) from White Lake, MI to Frankfort. Suddenly we catch a gust of downwind air and Jeff eagerly crawls into our “garage” aka aft cabin and lugs out our asymmetrical spinnaker, big smile on his face.  This is our break, finally some wind!  So Jeff sets all the lines and I’m raising the spinnaker halyard when WHOOPS

Automatic Identification System

Pam and I are enroute from South Haven to White Lake Michigan.  This is a 59 nm leg.  Our plan is to come in to White Lake and anchor for the night.  Along the western shore of Michigan several lakes have had natural channels deepened or manmade channels dug to provide access from the big Lake Michigan to smaller lakes along the shore.  This makes for great places to duck in to if the weather turns bad, or provides scenic places for cruisers to harbor in.  We are making White Lake a one night stop over and then heading to Frankfort, Michigan to spend a few days. 

ANCHORING AT WHITE LAKE, MI July 6-7

We had a glorious nine hour journey from South Haven to White Lake, MI, even though we motored the entire way as there was zero wind. The weather was in the high 70's with no humidity and very few flies (that's major... flies are the bane of every sailor's existence). We anchored at White Lake in the NW corner at Indian Bay. Very peaceful, idyllic location...

However, let's backtrack a moment or three to the anchoring part.

SOUTH HAVEN July 3-6

We went to South Haven with the Columbia Yacht Club Cruising Club, primarily to bid a fond adieu to our fellow cruisers from Chicago and to mark the first leg of our journey. We all stayed at the South Haven Municipal Marina. My hubby and I rated it five stars. While it doesn’t have a pump-out or fuel dock, it does have very clean showers, a laundry facility, picnic tables, grills, indoor clubhouse and a reasonable transient fee of $1.25/ft. The port of South Haven has all the necessary ingredients to make it the quintessential mid-American port town. The small yet strong, tight knit local community, had a July 4th parade and fireworks display that was so wholesome that I thought I somehow fell into a Norman Rockwell painting.

NIGHT SAIL July 2-3

We sailed through a very dark night and thick fog the next morning. The moon and starlight were hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds from above, and our destination port was hidden behind an even thicker blanket of clouds over the lake.  We just installed an AIS transceiver, (Automated Information System) and believe me, it quickly became a close friend.

DAY ONE

Today is Day One of our long awaited, planned and debated adventure! We literally will be sailing into the unknown….