Slipping into the FOG,Tuesday & Weds, June 11 & 12, days 10/11

&We woke to very dense fog this morning. The break wall wasn't even visible, which is the wall that protects the harbor.  We hung out at Rogers City till the fog lifted, which was the plan, but really never happened, because we got a bit antsy & left @ noon. What was happening, was the fog would lift a bit, then descend back on us, sometimes the sun would even peek through, then the fog would return.  When I was a school nurse, we loved these days, we would have the whole day off. 


So we left Rogers City in fog @ 12 noon.  Day Dreams was in the lead today.  Waterford was following about 1/4 of a mile behind us.  Sometimes we could see her, sometimes not. We passed 40 mile Point Lighthouse built in 1896, in thick fog, unable to see, so no pics sorry. It’s on land, north of Rogers City.  We have very good electronics, so we felt safe & we did try out our fog horn, which worked great.  We only passed one boat the whole 5 hours & it was a sailboat traveling south.  We spotted it on the radar long before visualizing it with binoculars.  Our radar worked great.  We hardly have ever seen a boat on any of our runs so far on this adventure.  This great lake & we feel like we are the only ones out here.  That is except for the muffle bugs.  We were hit hard with those today & the small slow flys.  Millions of them!!  Again, luckily we are snug as a rug in our pilot house.

We passed the Poe Reef Lighthouse built in 1929 in Lake Huron, between Rogers city & Cheboygan.  Able to get a pic of that, because the fog lifted long enough for us.

14 foot shoal light built in 1930

We arrived @ Cheboygan County Marina around 5:00 PM.  We entered the Cheboygan river and the Marina is just inside the entrance. Cheboygan is home to the Coast Guard ice cutter ship The Mackinaw II; commissioned in 2006, 240 ft long, 58 foot wide, drafts 16 feet & has Azipods drives, 9000 horsepower apiece & they can rotate 360 degrees to direct their thrust in any direction.(Doug had me add all that for the guys). It's job is to keep shipping channels open in the St Mary’s River between Lake Huron & the Sault Ste Marie (locks), which is nick named the SOO. 

The first Mackinaw ship, was 290 feet, 78 feet wide & was built in Toledo, OH in 1943. She was retired in 2006,  her home also was in Cheboygan.  It is a museum ship in Mackinaw City currently.  Why didn't Toledo get it back? someone work on that, please.    

We traveled 34 miles today, cum of 317, the air temperature actually hit 60 today, no wind  & no waves, again the lake was like a mill pond (not sure where that term came from, but hope you get my meaning). 

Garry had us check out his new lens, he ordered it under way & had it shipped here.  Garry felt he was missing too many beautiful shots without a better telephoto lens.  I think he did a great job with what equipment he already had!!  

Can you see the Mackinaw bridge?

The sun did show itself after we arrived here, so after dinner we took a walk to catch the sunset.  

We planned to stay 2 nights here because Doug likes to say the name "Cheboygan" so we figured this would be a fun place to stay and a bigger city.  Well, it was a fun place to stay, but it wasn't too much bigger of a city.  The fog had rolled back in after sunset and was still with us in the morning, so darn I had to sleep in!  But by 11:00 AM, the sun was out & Doug had shorts & a t-shirt on to wash the boat and there were no bugs-yahoo!  Our boats had been literally covered with bugs yesterday when we pulled into the marina.  There were 2 types of bugs; muffle bugs & those little slow flys.  Today there are no bugs anywhere to be found. Sorta weird! 

We got the dinghy's down, (I know, "Doug is dinghy & so is Jan") and we took off down the Cheboygan River.  Passing the Coast Guard Cutter, the crew were all working hard on general maintenance stuff. Not much up the river, but it was a splendid day to be out, basking in the sun on the water.  We did go far enough to see the lock which takes a boat to the inland waterway to Mullet Lake & then on to Indian River, so one can almost cross the state of Michigan by water, but it doesn't let you get into Lake Michigan.

This was a beautiful day!  We enjoyed dinner on the back deck & walked to the beach again for a stunning sunset.  

The weather radar says you are having storms @ home, hope all are safe & secure.  We are.

Thirsty Duck

The duck drank too much & got sad cuz it was missing everyone, Don't Jump!

We came to the duck's rescue, all is OK

Monday, June 10, day 9; traveled 18 miles for a cum of 283 miles

blue dot is Presque Isle Marina

FYI:  I have heard comments regarding the difficulty of commenting on our blog.  I believe we have fixed this.  Jacque got on the help line & found out the default was set for registered users only, figures google wants more people registered, but tough, because now I have changed it to anyone can comment, without any signing in.  So please, if you feel compelled to comment, please try again, hopefully it will be easier.  Just don't push the preview button, that doesn't seem to work, just click on publish.  

Last night we dined @ the Portage Restaurant right there @ the Marina; we enjoyed some seafood; Jacque tried the fresh Whitefish caught there, but the rest of us did not take advantage of the fresh catch, but were not disappointed either; Garry & I had the salmon in a coat, I was curious about the coat, the salmon was wrapped in a flakey pastry and Doug ordered the frozen walleye caught in Lake Erie.  He must miss it!!

The "new" Presque Isle Light from the water

This morning, Garry had some business calls to make & we ordered a cool piece of equipment that both of us need desperately.  It is an internet antenna booster, so when these places have internet, but it doesn't reach out to the docks, which is what we've been running into, this will route it to us. It will be delivered hopefully to Cheboygan when we get there.  Back in Harrisville, when we met that couple who had cruised Lake Superior last summer, they had it and shared the code with us to use it and it worked great.  And even better, there is no fee with it, just the cost of the equipment.  

We left the dock our latest yet, but this also is our shortest route yet.  We left Presque Isle harbor @ 10:30 AM, the air temp 52, water 48 degrees, skies overcast & it was misting. The winds were 8 knots out of the east, waves less than 2 and diminished down to less than 1 foot, but it kept raining. 

It was such a short cruise, we didn't even have time for lunch.  We arrived @ Rogers City Harbor @ 1:30 PM.  Doug & I have been here before, years ago when we trailered our SeaRay up this far & then cruised to the western end of the North Channel.  

Don't strain to see all of this, but this is a screen shot of Doug's latest & greatest.  This is his MFD (multifunctional display) unit with Sirius weather overlayed on the Great Lakes chart.  The purple squares are weather stations, he can click on any of those & it reads out a current NOAA weather forecast.  The green blobs are rain, just like on the TV weather.  The white plus sign in the middle is where we are; Rogers City.  As you can tell, I figured out how to do screen shots on my iPad.  Thanks to Chuck!

The fog rolled in early evening

Again, we were assisted into the dock by the nicest of young dock hands, it gives us hope for the future, because all along the way, we have met great young adults. The day never improved, but we attempted to make the best of it.  After getting settled in @ Rogers City Yacht Harbor, one of the dock guys gave Jacque & I a ride to Rite Aid & to Glen's Grocery store.  We picked up a few things on our list while Vinny waited for us in the car. He than helped us unload the groceries to our boat, so sweet. The four of us, then walked in the rain up town to visit the Maritime Museum. We arrived there & it was closed, we walked around the corner to another museum we had been told about & guess what-it was closed. Guess tourist aren't supposed to be out touring on Mondays. We did find one fun place that boasted a sign about being open 7 days a week; the old downtown movie theater and Iron Man3 was playing.  What better way to spend a drizzly, foggy night in a strange town than to see a movie & get some popcorn.  It was a bargain @ $5.00/person.

Good night

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.