Vacation '08 - We're Off

Hi Everybody
Linda and I are finally getting away on the boat.  For those of you who followed our summer cruise of 2005, I am thinking of doing something similar again.  This time however, it may not be as interesting because it will be more of a relaxing vacation than an adventure.  For those of you who were not on my email list in 2005, I plan on writing periodic emails about our cruise.  Of course, you can opt out by just letting me know.

First, since I have not seen or spoke to many of you in sometime, here is a brief update on how Linda and I are doing.  We are fine.  We had a slow start to the summer as my mother passed away in the spring and the boat prep seemed to drag on for a long time.  We did manage to get our golf in however; usually about 3 rounds per week.  Linda is getting better and I am worse.  We also had a commitment from last curling season which we were not able to fulfill until July 20.  The club had a fund raising auction in the winter and Linda and I donated an afternoon cruise and lunch on Q's End.  Although we were not at the auction, the cruise raised a fair bit of interest and bidding activity.  In the end, the club had an extra $400.  The cruise itself was a lot of fun for Linda and I as well.  We took the 2 couples first along the Canadian side of the Detroit River highlighting all the interesting sights along the way, anchored and had lunch at a favourite beach on Lake St. Clair while watching the dragonboat races and then back around Belle Isle on the US side back to our marina; about 6 hours in total.

We started our vacation on Sunday August 3.  It sure is more difficult getting ready here then when we were staying at Crysler Park Marina near Ottawa.  There we used to stay on the boat almost every weekend.  Here we had not slept on board at all this year so there were no clothes, no food (lots to drink though), nothing in the medicine cabinet, no BBQ or anything that one would need for an extended cruise.  It actually took us about 3 days to get the boat provisioned and ready to go.
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day; it was a great cruise up the Detroit River and across Lake St. Clair.  I have never seen so many boats on the water as I did on the lake.  There were hundreds of fishing boats and about 6 different sailing races or regattas.  Even the shipping lane was jammed with boats.  The crossing only took 45 minutes so that tells you how small Lake St Clair is.  Interesting fact: the average depth of the lake is 12 feet.  The trip up the St Clair river was equally pleasant.  There were tons of boats to see / avoid and the shore has a lot of interesting sights until you approach Sarnia.  Before Sarnia is a petro-chemical megatroplis.  All the oil companies have refining plants here and companies which use petro chemicals like Polysar and Dupont are also there.  Shell Oil alone has docking space for 4 oil tankers.

Just as we could see the Bluewater Bridge, we came up to the mouth of the Black River on the US side.  We have decided to take the US side up Lake Huron to the North Channel.  We had made reservations at the Port Huron River Street Marina for two nights.  Today, Tuesday, there was a serious threat of thundersorms and high winds for Lake Huron so here we sit and here I type.  Port Huron has a very nice marina but no amenities such as a pool. There are a number of marinas and yacht clubs along this fairly narrow river.  Of course there are a couple of patios along the way as well.  Rum Runnerz is my favorite (notice American spelling; when in Rome...) so far with Vintage's coming second.  There are a number of lift bridges on the river that open every 30 minutes supposedly.  I say supposedly because we waited patiently on Sunday until someone told us that Sunday service is an "on demand" routine; one long, one short blast of the horn.  No problem now that we know.   I hadn't put any fuel onboard yet this year so I had to ruin my beautiful day.  I figured that there is so much oil in the area that it might be cheaper here. Ha!  $4.59 a gal.  The good news was that we only needed 268 gallons.  I'm depressed now.

Port Huron has some neat architecture in the area.  Very distinctive buildings with turrets, columns and sloping roofs.  The office buildings are massive and again with character.  It reminds me of Washington DC only on a smaller scale.  The other neat thing is the condos along the river.  The ones in the attached photo look really neat and each has 40 feet of wall space to dock a boat.  I guess that I would have to be extra friendly with my neighbors in order to accommodate the extra 6 feet that I have.  Oh well, no health care here.

The forecast for Wednesday looks good so we will be heading out in the morning; I hope earlier than the 11AM start that we had on Sunday.  Not sure where we are going to stop as there are a number of ports all the way up the coast.  We were thinking of Harbor Beach but the people that made me drink too much wine last night said that it was not a good choice, very boring.  I am surprised that I remember that because I can't remember buttoning down the canvas in prep for the storms or putting the BBQ away, etc.  In fact, Linda probably did it but I am afraid to bring up the topic.  Anyway, we have reservations at the Mackinaw Island marina for August 11 and 12 so we have a number of days to get there.  Mackinaw Island is a popular spot because those dates were the first available dates when I booked them over a week ago.

Well now you are caught up.  I have to open a bottle of wine to let it breathe before I BBQ a little bit later.  I am sure that it was not the wine that hurt me; more likely the margaritas that Linda and I had before dinner.

This seems quite long but it is raining so I have time.  Other updates will likely be shorter.
Have a good week, all.
Tom and Linda
Q's End