Day 100, Monday, Sept 9,Sunrise, leaving Tawas, we started early because of a long day. If the wind would have switched to southwest instead of south, we would have had a better ride, but the waves were 2-4‘s on our nose, so after 6 hours, we decided to duck into Harbor Beach instead of going another 5 to Port Sanalac. We are still way ahead of schedule but originally we weren’t going to stop at Harbor Beach because last time we were here, our depth sounder was reading 0 feet under our boat on the approach in. But Allison, the dock Gal, assured us they have been dredging all summer and we could get in without problem. Which we did, thank you very much.
Harbor Beach; they are still dredging. The uprights have dried mud on them, the water is murky & has a whitish glow to it @ nite. There is a coal fired power plant right @ the entrance & a ConAgra factory behind that. Some of the docks are leaning. There are different odors wafting depending on the time of day. We were weathered in the next day; one of those bizarre days where temperature records were broke between here & home. The thermometer rose to 96 degrees & the winds rose with it. It would have been stifling without the wind but because of the high winds we couldn't leave. Doug washed the boat & i washed the windows, it looks great now!! There is a bike path to town, which Garry & Jacque biked today.
We picked these right off the trees in Harbor Beach, aren't they beautiful?
Garry & Jacque invited us over to watch the America's cup Cat races taking place in San Francisco. They have satellite TV. Amazing boats & races. There is a beat up sailboat docked next to us with a guy on board, but we never saw him once.
Weds morning Sept 11, a moment of reflection in honor to all those that suffered during 911. It's a blue sky & sunny day, air temp 69, water temp 65. Last year my friend Diane taught me a great card game i am able to play while driving the boat: it has many names;Toilet Solitaire is one of the names. I WON today playing one handed solitaire (that's the name I prefer)!-YAHOO. My first time winning. Diane won the hand when she was demonstrating the game to me so I thought it was pretty easy to win but it's not!!!
We were on the bridge most of the day; even played scrabble. Doug won this time. Since it is such a pretty, warm, summer like day & the lake is calm, we decided to keep going past Sanalac. The weather forecast for tomorrow calls for rough water. We decided to stop @ Port Huron Yacht Club for the night & then head to St Claire Harbor in the morn. We are in St Claire River now so even if it is windy tomorrow we should be ok to get there. I called PHYC on the cell & asked for Brock, who has been the Harbor Master since we've been stopping here. The guy on the line told me Brock passed away sometime ago. The last time we were here was July 2011 & I talked to him then. So sometime after that he passed. So sorry.
It hit 90 degrees today. We were able to sit out on the back deck & watch a show of spectacular lightening & thunder most of the evening. It rained some & blew but we missed most of the bad stuff.
It's Doug's Birthday today; September 12th & we have reached the 2000 mile mark on Day 103 of our Grand Adventure. I think that in itself is the best present, but that's because I didn't get him anything, haha!! He's a young 59, too young to retire??? We are heading an hour down the river to St Clair Boat Harbor so Doug can celebrate his birthday @ the River Crab (a Chuck Meuer) Restaurant. We stayed @ St Clair Harbor on our way north in June.
St Clair has a nice friendly, clean marina & they even have a courtesy van. We walked to the grocery then the Harbor Master, Stephanie came & picked us up so we didn't have to carry our purchases. They also took & picked us up from the restaurant. Garry & Jacque bought Doug his birthday drink & John @ the piano serenaded us & played our requests while in the bar & we had window seats to watch the Freighters go by in the dark. We had excellent meals & a fun time @ the River Crab. Garry & Jacque's birthday present to Doug is starting our new library of books to research our next Grand Adventure of the Great Loop.
We stayed here, at St Clair for Friday the 13th, windy & storms popping up all around. We walked to the coffee shop, then some antique stores, then lunch @ Aschatz's, who are famous for their pies. Of course, we sampled. The Berry & Coconut cream pies were very good, but Elaine still wins the prize for the best pies ever! After lunch, Doug & I visited the local library. The wifi was out @ the Marina so we thought we would be able to access it there but they share the same wifi, so no luck. We read actual paper items, like magazines, imagine nothing digital.
Happy Birthday to my friend; Janet. Do you remember one year celebrating your & Doug's birthday @ Middle Bass for the Grape Stompin Fest?
A freighter under the blue water Bridge
