Lake Huron, Day 4 & 5, Wednesday & Thursday, June 5 & 6, 2013,

Left Port Sanalac @ 7:00 AM, back to the crazy early mornings.  Air temp 55, water temp 55, winds 8 knots northeast waves less than 2. It's not getting warmer yet. One of the many electronic purchases Doug made this winter @ the Miami boat show was an AIS (automated identification system) module. All freighters & most bigger yachts are registered with this system. It is useful because we can see where the freighters are & they can see us, also their speed & course. Usually we can also pull up the name of the vessel, length & destination. While cruising this morning, we see this huge yacht going southbound (we are northbound, for those of us who are directionally dysfunctional). We put the binoculars on her & she is beautiful, but too far away to get a good pic. Doug was able to pull her info up on his screen through the AIS system. She is 213 feet long (we are 40 ft) brand new, built in Wisconsin @ the Palmer Johnson boat yard, heading to New Fundland (eastern Canada)  going 16 knots, twice our speed. She will be crossing Lake Erie so watch for her. 

It's a bit overcast & cool today, so we stay in the pilothouse.  I went back to bed after helping leave the dock.  Later, after a rousing short stint of jazzercise where I was the instructor and Doug the class, we started a game of Scrabble.  We do not use a timer so these games usually last the whole day while cruising. Our ride was very comfortable.  

Harbor Beach Lighthouse

Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse

Port Austin Reef Lighthouse

We arrived in Port Austin about 2:45 PM.  We traveled 52 miles today for a cum of 179, not very far away from home, but it sure feels like it. Our friend Lisa's parents, live here, but they happen to be in Toledo visiting her at the moment.  We were greeted by 3 green, dock hands.  They've only assisted one other boat into the docks so far this year.  Garry gave them a lesson on cleat tying, which they desperately needed.  Last summer, they were closed in order to install new floating  docks, but they only completed the 30 foot run, so we were located in the old docks which are fixed and were installed years ago when the water was 4 feet higher.  I have to sit on my butt and jump in the boat when getting on.  The bridge is only 1 foot above the dock.  The marina has enough water depth and a good protected seawall. The office/shower building is brand new & nicely built. They have a FREE washer & dryer available to us. There is a nice park adjacent to the harbor. Somebody has some money & it looks like it's the State of Michigan, which seems odd. Next year they are installing new floating docks where we are docked, so they will have nice longer docks with 50 amp power instead of 30.  We couldn't run our furnace, so we got the portable electric heaters out for the night. 

We went for a walk into "Town" where there is not even one traffic light, just a 4 all stop sign corner. Some vacant stores, but a really nice Hardware store, even better than Port Sanalac.  Of course, Garry & Doug had to stop in & luckily there was a cute gift shop upstairs where Jacque & I could wander. There are a few restaurants & an ice cream place.  

Wifi has been an issue already @ these marina's, so that's why I may not be posting regularly .  Two days ago, I thought I published but the Wifi must have timed out before it finished & I lost that days pictures in the blog (drat!).  Here, we do not even have a phone signal, our phones say "No Service". But I do have a slow wifi signal that comes & goes.  It is taking forever to upload my pictures to the blog. 

In visitors center, replica of Lighthouse

We hosted cocktails & dinner; too cold & windy to grill out, so we used the oven. We looked through a Great Lakes lighthouse photo book which we have & got all excited about all the beautiful places we will be touring & what great photo ops we are going to have.

A shout out to our nephew; 
Happy Birthday Joshua, 
Hope this is a great day & year for you!  
Love, Aunt Jan & Uncle Duck (notice what word I left out, haha) 

The coffee shop/laundromat

We woke to overcast skies, wind & cold. Decided this would be our first stay-put weather day.  There is a nice coffee shop/laundromat walking distance, so we can work on our blogs & get our laundry done.  Jacque is also keeping a blog, so if you want to really be a blog junkie, you can follow Waterford @ Waterfordadventures.blogspot.com, I know their address is easier.  If you bookmark the blog address, you will never have to write it again, though.  If you want to look @ the pictures closer, just click on them.

After lunch, we decided we needed some exercise, so we got our foldable bikes out & took off to find the nearby State Park.  It has a great campground, right on Lake Huron, some lake front sites.  Ten miles later, we are home & ready for cocktails.  Hope we aren't sore tomorrow, it's been awhile since any of us have been on a bike.

Thanks for joining us.  We love reading your comments.