Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Day 2 of our new adventure, Monday June 3, 2013

Left the Jefferson Beach Dock @10:00 AM, retirement time is already setting in. We never have left this late before! Air temp 60 degrees, water temp 64, winds 7 knots, north, northwest. Blue skies & sun.  It's really clear out, we can see for miles. Still not warm enough to drive from the bridge, because we are spoiled rotten.  Years ago, we would be up there, a bit cold, wearing warm clothes & sucking it up, but now it's difficult to get us out of our warm, comfy pilot house. We have a short leg today, cause we can-no rush, remember we don't have to do 15 hour days like we usually do every summer on our vacation to get where we are going.  BUT, I've noticed I'm not getting as much done while under way either. We usually play a long arduous game of scrabble & we haven't gotten the game out yet. We didn't even nap today!

Waterford & Day Dreams are taking turns leading the way. Today is our turn. Lake St Claire had a slight chop, then once we entered St Claire River, the water was dead calm, it was like glass as they say and sooo pretty blue. Riding up this river, we are still between the 2 countries. The border is in the river, so we are continuously weaving between the USA & Canada. I have to remember to use "aa" every once in awhile. There are lots of pretty houses along both shores. There weren't many boats out at all, but it is Monday, I guess most unlucky people are at work! 

We have to go under a bascule bridge to get to our next port. This type of bridge splits in the middle & both sides tilt up, it's a similar type of bridge that is in Port Clinton. There is a bridge tender on duty during the day. He only opens on the half hour, because he has to stop traffic on a busy street. We lucked out & arrived 5 minutes early @ 3:25 PM. Perfect timing, it helps to have GPS that tells us we were going to arrive @ that time, otherwise we would have slowed down (you know we couldn't have sped up, lol) to time it for the 4:00. 

We docked @ St Claire Boat Harbor. It is the Municipal Marina. We've stayed here before, they have great floating docks & nice facilities.  Not many boats in the water here. There was enough water this time, depth finder showed 1.7 feet @ one spot right in front of the dock, but the rest was deeper. Two nice dock gals helped us in. Day Dreams & Waterford were able to dock next to each other, since we were the only boats on the whole run. Hope business picks up for them. The free city wifi actually worked @ this marina, unlike @ Jefferson Beach. We had cocktails a tad late because I was finishing our blog & I was scolded & told I need to get my work completed before 5:00. We walked to a popular local tavern Murphy's for half off great pizza. 
Can you find the duck?



During our Bon Voyage party, some of the guests came up with an idea that we should have our own gnome that we carry & is included in our pictures depicting each new stop along the way. We chose one of the rubber duckies, that we have been using as props for years @ golf outings & swim parties. 
Jeri is the proud owner of these rubber duckies, so she graciously allowed one to accompany us on our journey. Doug just shook his head when I told him about this but soon he was entertaining himself coming up with ideas for the duck. 

Today we traveled 32 miles, piece of cake & our cumulative miles 87.  Thanks for checking in on us.