Sat/Sun, June 8 & 9, day 7/8;47 miles on Sat, cumulative for the entire trip so far: 265 miles

All right, the days are beginning to run together, that's a good thing, I think.  Left Harrisville @ 9:00 AM, it is super calm (water looks like blown glass) & sunny. The blue of the sky blends with the calm water @ the horizon. Able to see the bottom @ 25 feet deep. Harrisville is a great harbor & facility, they have earned the best bathroom award according to Jan & Jacque. Air temp 62, water temp 49, with 3 knots of wind, seems like zero. Of course as soon as we get out into the lake, the air & water temp drop, so we still are warm & snugly in the pilot house.  Due to the calmness with no wind, Gnats have descended upon us, another reason for staying in the Pilot house. A few stops ago, we saw a few Mayflies  but haven't seen any of those since then.  

Sturgeon Point Lighthouse

We will be passing 4 light houses; if any of you have a goal to see every Lighthouse in the Great Lakes, this is one of the trips for you.  

The first is Sturgeon point light house, we did not get too close to this one, sorry. 

Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse

Next was Thunder Bay island light built in 1832 on Thunder Bay island, MI in Lake Huron, 
a pretty spot.

Middle Island Light built in 1905

The "old" Presque Isle Lighthouse

Presque isle has 2 light houses, one they call the old one, built in 1840; which is the one we can see from the lake.  Tomorrow, we will visit the "new" one & I'll have more information on that one.

We arrived into Presque Isle Harbor Marina, about 3:30 PM, again greeted by a great team of four young adults, all eager to be doing something & not sure how to do it.  It's so early in the season and so quiet, they are new and not getting any practice.  We had them practicing something I'm sure they were all yearning to learn; a pump-out!  Not the best job, but they did wear gloves and we tipped them well. We got settled in nicely, how could we not with all the help?  

We enjoyed a cocktail inside, on Waterford, still a bit cool.  Doug then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, he only had 1 Margarita (what a light weight). Later, Doug & Garry grilled out, but they had to move our grills to land, they do not allow us to grill on the boat.  Some Marina's do, others don't, some Marina's have gas grills for us to use, others have charcoal grills, but we do not carry charcoal.  We dined inside again, one of these nights it will be warm enough to dine on the back deck. After dinner we took a walk with our wine, out to the seawall. That's another difference; all these Marina's State or not, allow us to walk around with alcohol and even allowed us to have our cocktail party in their office building one night. That's a big difference from Ohio Marina's, where you are not allowed off your boat if you have a drink in hand.  The seawall is a heavy duty construction with boulders & steel railings. After dinner, we shared some wine with Sonny & Charlie from the sailboat, Kokomo who we passed on the Lake today.  Charlie belongs to North Cape Yacht Club, which is adjacent to Toledo Beach Marina.  Small world.
 


We had decided to stay 2 nights in Presque Isle because there is plenty for us to explore by bikes.  This morning (Sun) we woke to sun, blue skies and warmth.  Doug came into the stateroom and opened the shades & windows and stated "best weather day so far".  We made a big breakfast on board Day Dreams & invited Garry & Jacque over.  We even enjoyed breakfast out on the back deck-Yahoo!  We donned shorts, but that didn't last.  It became partly cloudy, the wind picked up & for our bike ride we went back to longer pants & sweatshirts.  

We rode out to the "new" Lighthouse which was built in 1870.  I think it should be called the "newer" lighthouse because the term new, just doesn't seem to fit.  We walked to the top, up 130 steps, it is the 5th tallest lighthouse in the Great Lakes.  The view was beautiful, we were lucky with blue skies & sun while up there.  We continued biking and checked out the "old" lighthouse, but we didn't feel the need to climb those stairs, it wasn't very tall anyway.  We continued our bike ride along the coastline, found a nice sand beach and some beautiful fragrant woods. We put on another 10 miles today.  Time for a nap.

Does anyone know what this flower is? It is hollow & shaped like a ballet slipper

Bad Duck!!!

 

It's Sunday evening & we are not going "home" how weird is this?  

Love & miss you all,  Come visit anytime.  

Lake Huron, Day 6, June 7th

The state park @ Port Austin

After our bike ride last night, we met back up on Waterford for a late cocktail party (not my fault, this time) and a comfort food dinner. Jacque is a great cook, I’m continuing to learn from all my talented friends.  She made mango salsa, that was delicious.  It was cold & windy, so we had oven food again tonight, Jacque made a chicken, rice & artichoke casserole.  Who needs those expensive restaurants, when we have a master chef aboard.  During dinner, the wind died down some, the sky cleared and the sun came out.  So after dinner, we took a walk around the marina, waiting for the pretty sunset.  We need to read our camera book a little more, in order to improve our sunset pictures.  

sunset over Port Austin

Left @ 9:00 AM, air temp 50 degrees & water temp is 52. It's cloudy with waves 2-3, winds 8-9 knots out of the north.  We touched bottom-OMG, heading out of the Port Austin harbor. Doug assures me that everything is OK, but I made him check everything.  Low water depths give us an extra challenge, that I can do without. :-(

The water continues to look more blue the deeper it gets, just beautiful.  We started out with 2-3 foot waves hitting our right bow, not a problem because we have those wonderfully expensive stabilizers that were worth every penny. Waterford is in the lead this trip, continuing to take turns for that.  We continue to travel north, today crossing Saginaw Bay.  This entire trip we won’t be out of sight of land much but today for a short time we could not see land.  On our usual trips to Georgian Bay/North Channel, we are hours without seeing land.  

We landed in Harrisville Harbor @ 3:00 PM.  Wow, did we get great service; 4 dock hands who knew what they were doing.  Lake Huron continued to lay down, after we were docked the wind died down & the sun came out & the clouds cleared.  We settled in & then took a walk to town. We met a nice couple, Vicky, Chris & Hannah docked near us in a Hatteras, who had traveled Lake Superior last summer.  We got together for cocktail hour & picked their brains about where to go & what not to miss.

what a beautiful view

The Marina office, the only place with wifi

Traveled 39 miles today, from port Austin to Harrisville, cumulative 218 miles.

Our duck went for a swim

 Thanks for reading!!

Love & miss you

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.

Adventure Day 3, Tuesday June 4, 2013

Left St Claire dock @ 8:20 to make 8:30 bridge. Air temp 55 degrees, water 52, winds 8 knots out of the north. Sunny, clear & brisk. No waves, we are still in the river, very calm. Water is pretty blue as soon as we get back under the St Claire bridge.

Port Huron Lighthouse & Coast Guard Station

Going under the Blue Water bridge where St Claire river meets Lake Huron, there is an interesting phenomenon; an eddy, instead of slowing down in the current right before the bridge we entered a type of whirlpool & we acually sped up to 7.5 knots from 5 and then in 100 yards we were down to 3 knots, without touching the throttle. The bridge connects USA @ Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Canada. There is a Canadian casino here, Cheryl. 

Once under the Blue Water bridge, we are now cruising in Lake Huron. The waves are 1-3 feet coming straight at us (on our nose) so that makes for a little bumpy ride. But the wind subsided as we traveled & the lake calmed nicely. Today we had time for naps, reading & games (I hate to say it, but the games are on my iPad). I played Deal or No Deal for the first time, it's just like the former TV game. 

We pulled into Port Sanalac Harbor around 3:00 PM. One things about being early in the season, we are getting our pick of the primo docks. We pulled straight in, no tricky turning or shallow water. Three young, friendly dock hands helped us in to the long wide dock. Easy peasy as Jacque would say. We  tied up securely & decided we needed some exercise.  Doug has been doing a lot of dancing in the pilot house so I guess that counts for some movement. Sure can tell he's not working, haha. 

Can you find the duck?

We've visited this harbor before, so we knew there was a one blinking traffic town within walking distance, so we headed out with our walking shoes on. Air temp was 65 degrees, warmer than on the water of course. Lilacs were in bloom everywhere, that makes them about a month behind us. Doug & Garry found a hardware store & believe it or not, they found something we needed.  We also stopped into the local IGA, a lot smaller than what we are used to. Just bought some fresh produce. Found the Port Sanalac Lighthouse, which is For Sale if anyone is interested. The lighthouse was built in 1886. It's not right right on the water.

We enjoyed our cocktails up on Day Dreams bridge, even though Doug had to don his muck lucks.  It was a bit chilly, but we had a great view of a beautiful calm Lake Huron. The guys grilled out & we dined inside on Waterford, while watching the Voice on Garry's TV, thanks to his Direct TV subscription   

Doug & I played travel Yahtzee & I won-yahoo.  We traveled 40 miles today which brings our total miles traveled to127 miles. 

Thanks for checking on us. 

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.

Bon Voyage in style

Last weekend @ CC&P's cottage on MBI, we met some of Cheryl's new friends: Mo & Em. We can see why Cheryl has adopted them; they are sweet & fun. They are celebrities too, working for one of the local TV news stations. When Mo saw our boat & heard our plans for the summer she wanted to report our story. We eventually agreed to let her interview us because we respect & trust her. Mo did not disappoint us, she aired a nice piece about our upcoming adventure. This is the link to our video interview. It will only be available for a couple of weeks. It was aired on WTOL, Toledo Fox News, May 29. 

http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/22453123/local-couple-spends-4-months-on-superior?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8939421

To review: I'm (jan) retired, Doug is on a four month unpaid leave, our boat's name is Day Dreams. We will be traveling with Garry, who was retired & now does consulting from the boat & Jacque who just started her 4 month leave of absence on Friday, their boat is a sister ship to ours & her name is Waterford. So we both are traveling in Kadey Krogen 39 Trawlers. Our dinghy covers are different color so you don't confuse us; we have the navy canvas & Waterford has tan.

We moved to the boat on Thursday; after weeks of having lists of items to take care of, it felt really weird to be all done and ready to go. There is not an empty spot on the boat, oh wait, yes there is; Doug's engine room has some floor space left, but he refuses to let me put any of my "stuff" in his engine room. Doug had a few chores to complete on the boat, but he still had time to nap. Of course he had to make one last trip to West Marine. They are going to miss he & Garry. 

To see us off, our wonderful friends planned a fun Bon Voyage party right @ our Marina. Party planners were: Jeri, Patty & Cheryl along with their muscle: Jerry, Ray & Craig.  We have the best friends anyone could ever imagine. We had a tent with sides for rain or shine and even a great DJ; Preston (Patty & Ray's son) and Paul (Cheryl & Craig's son), Jessie & Kendall as his assistants, they played all of "our" favorite party music (oldies but goodies). Luckily they  refused to play The Edmund Fitzgerald song, but Gilligan's Island had some air time.  If you ever need a great DJ, Preston is available for hire, he has all the cool electronics. We were presented with a bed sheet with many of our dear friends pictures emblazoned on it. There was alot of talk about everyones positions on the sheet according to who would be lying where-hmmmm. Will we use it as a top sheet or bottom one? We'll never tell! There was tons of food, really good food. There was dancing, singing & even a conga line with noise makers. It's a dangerous thing to give the girls a microphone. Over 50 friends attended to wish us calm seas & a safe voyage. We're sorry to have missed those that were unable to attend. Thank you for a great time & more wonderful memories.  

The best friends a gal can have

We will miss you, You will miss us!

 

DJ Preston & assistants

Our wonderful cooks

Some of Doug's great family

Jan. Paul Douglas & Doug

After all the good-bye hugs & kisses mixed with a few tears (i know, we're only going for the summer), the next morning we left the dock @ 8:00 AM. Air temp was 65 degrees, water temp 67, winds  blowing 22 knots out of the southwest. Experienced our first mayfly sighting this morning. We're leaving at the right time, sure won't miss those smelly, crackly bugs. Waterford lead the way out of the Marina. We had a nice ride, we stayed in the pilot house,even though it warmed up to 71 degrees outside. 

Detroit Harbor Light

Niagara on the Detroit River

Niagara in front of Renaissance Center

Windsor Caesar's Casino

Jefferson Beach Marina

 We arrived @ Jefferson Beach Marina around 4:30, stopping @ the fuel dock.  We traveled 55 nautical miles, averaging 6.5 knots speed, slower than normal because we were against the current. You all can bike faster than that. We tied up in two of their transient docks & already got a taste of the low water issue. Doug was maneuvering into the well slowly when the boat stopped suddenly on its own because the front of the keel hit mud. No problems, no damage but we weren't even all the way into the dock. So that's where we stayed, our tail end hanging out a bit from the end of the dock!  By then it was 5:00, cocktail hour. Garry & Jacque joined us & we toasted to our first day of our adventure. We walked up to the Marina's restaurant; the Tin Fish, nice big place, even has a night club & a great outdoor patio. Enjoyed a good dinner and a early night to bed maybe due to too much partying the night before. 

Thanks for following us. ⚓

Sent from Jan's iPad