They move quickly here once the parts are in. The props arrived at 1 PM Thursday and by 2:15 I was moving the boat from the service well to the dock. We are back in business once again. They moved so fast that Linda missed it all. We had just taken a couple of loads of laundry next door to the marina and I returned to the boat just in time to help them install the new props. When we were done with the props and the water heater (yeah, we had problems with the water heater as well; the thermostat went kaput) the crew started unhooking everything and bringing the lift over. I was scrambling like crazy. Nothing to do for 17 days then panic. When the laundry was done, Q and I were at the dock already.
Of course, the weather has been great with calm seas while we were sitting on land but there is a storm front coming through here Thursday night. So we are not yet sure if we are leaving Friday or Saturday. We plan on heading for the Les Cheneaux Islands on the south side of the UP, possibly staying in Hessel or anchoring out for a night, then going to De Tour Village which is on the main shipping channel just west of Drummond Island and south of St. Joseph Island and the St. Mary's River. Sault St. Marie and Lake Superior are not that much further north. We have decided not go up there but head east into the North Channel.
Internet access may be patchy for awhile so here are our current plans. Hessel, De Tour Village, Meldrum Bay (to clear Cdn customs), Gore Bay (2-3 days), Benjamin Islands (2 days), Little Current, Baie Fine, Killarney. Of course, these are rough plans and will depend on weather and whether or not we like a place. So for now, we are good and keen to continue our travels.
Tom & Linda
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Everything You Wanted to Know....
Everything you wanted to know about Mackinaw City and you really could care less.
First a quick update on our predicament so that you can quit reading whenever you get bored. We are still high and dry and going stir crazy. Last Tuesday we found out that the props could not be repaired (still do not know why) and Detroit could not locate any replacements. Having exhausted all other sources, they had to wait for their suppliers in Florida to return to the shops after the storm down there. Wednesday we agreed on replacements and now it will take at least a week to get them up here. It looks like we may be here until next Thursday or Friday.
Mackinaw City is at the northern tip of the southern peninsula of Michigan. The Mackinaw Bridge crosses the Straits of Mackinaw to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where Sault St. Marie is located. The Bridge separates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. It, supposedly, is the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is equally impressive that it was completed in just over 2 years. I am willing to bet my props that the new bridge for Windsor - Detroit will not get completed in 2 years, or 3 or 4.
Many of you may never get to MC but there are a few of you out there that may so I will provide details about our experiences. The best carmel corn is Alice's Kandy & Korn. Best carmel corn with chocolate is the Fort Gifts and Souvenirs. The Fort gift shop also has the most reasonable prices on everything. I got a nice crested golf shirt (Fruit of the Loom) for $5 and Linda got flip flops for $4. There is tons of fudge both here and on the Island, in fact, I read that in peak season 11,000 lbs are sold per day (yes, per DAY). Marshall's on Central Street (the main drag) has the best selection and the neatest combinations. Murdick's is a good place too.
We have been taking advantage of a fishery, Bell's Fishery, next to the marina here. My first attempt at cedar plank salmon was superb even if I do say so myself. Linda says so too. They also have smoked fish which we have every 2nd or 3rd morning for breakfast. Fresh pumpernickel bread, cream cheese and vidalia onions. Len & Carol, the salmon and lake trout are awesome.
Linda keeps coming back to the blonde bombshell as her favorite drink. We carried a ton of pineapple juice from the IGA, had no problem getting the coconut rum but there is no banana liqueur in the city. We checked every place that sells spirits including the 2 on the highway about 1.5 miles from the marina. So we approached our new friend, whom I call Sacketts because she originates from Sackett's Harbor, New York where we have boated to a few times, at the Depot (restaurant & bar) and she purchased a bottle from Cheyboygan and had it for us the very next day. We have spent too much time at her bar. I even went to bed (or passed out) at 9:15 the other night. For those who do not know me, since I have retired, I usually stay up past midnight, most nights even later. Oh well, Linda will be happy now even if we do ever get back on the water.
I previously mentioned Darrows as a great family restaurant with excellent food. Closer to the marina is the Keyhole Bar & Grill. It is a very active place every evening and we now know why. The food is very good. The peel and eat shrimp is excellent, almost as good as the fresh shrimp that we enjoyed on the docks in Port Douglas, Australia with you, Rick and Lynne. We are now ordering that by the pound when we go there to eat. We also found an excellent pizza place, Nonna Lisa. The pizzas come from a wood fired oven and you basically order what ever toppings you prefer. My prosuitto (?sp), Italian bacon and portabello mushrooms is the best. The bakery next to the Dixie Saloon has excellent breads, pastries and cookies. The oatmeal raisin cookies are our favorites. Ice cream can be had anywhere, there are basically only 2 suppliers and both are good.
One can certainly enjoy eating, especially fudge, and drinking here but there is not much else to do. Taxi's seem ridiculously expensive. I am trying to work with a ferry shuttle driver to take us to the golf course. Will see if that slows our eating and drinking a bit.
Cheers for now.
Tom & Linda
First a quick update on our predicament so that you can quit reading whenever you get bored. We are still high and dry and going stir crazy. Last Tuesday we found out that the props could not be repaired (still do not know why) and Detroit could not locate any replacements. Having exhausted all other sources, they had to wait for their suppliers in Florida to return to the shops after the storm down there. Wednesday we agreed on replacements and now it will take at least a week to get them up here. It looks like we may be here until next Thursday or Friday.
Mackinaw City is at the northern tip of the southern peninsula of Michigan. The Mackinaw Bridge crosses the Straits of Mackinaw to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where Sault St. Marie is located. The Bridge separates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. It, supposedly, is the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is equally impressive that it was completed in just over 2 years. I am willing to bet my props that the new bridge for Windsor - Detroit will not get completed in 2 years, or 3 or 4.
Many of you may never get to MC but there are a few of you out there that may so I will provide details about our experiences. The best carmel corn is Alice's Kandy & Korn. Best carmel corn with chocolate is the Fort Gifts and Souvenirs. The Fort gift shop also has the most reasonable prices on everything. I got a nice crested golf shirt (Fruit of the Loom) for $5 and Linda got flip flops for $4. There is tons of fudge both here and on the Island, in fact, I read that in peak season 11,000 lbs are sold per day (yes, per DAY). Marshall's on Central Street (the main drag) has the best selection and the neatest combinations. Murdick's is a good place too.
We have been taking advantage of a fishery, Bell's Fishery, next to the marina here. My first attempt at cedar plank salmon was superb even if I do say so myself. Linda says so too. They also have smoked fish which we have every 2nd or 3rd morning for breakfast. Fresh pumpernickel bread, cream cheese and vidalia onions. Len & Carol, the salmon and lake trout are awesome.
Linda keeps coming back to the blonde bombshell as her favorite drink. We carried a ton of pineapple juice from the IGA, had no problem getting the coconut rum but there is no banana liqueur in the city. We checked every place that sells spirits including the 2 on the highway about 1.5 miles from the marina. So we approached our new friend, whom I call Sacketts because she originates from Sackett's Harbor, New York where we have boated to a few times, at the Depot (restaurant & bar) and she purchased a bottle from Cheyboygan and had it for us the very next day. We have spent too much time at her bar. I even went to bed (or passed out) at 9:15 the other night. For those who do not know me, since I have retired, I usually stay up past midnight, most nights even later. Oh well, Linda will be happy now even if we do ever get back on the water.
I previously mentioned Darrows as a great family restaurant with excellent food. Closer to the marina is the Keyhole Bar & Grill. It is a very active place every evening and we now know why. The food is very good. The peel and eat shrimp is excellent, almost as good as the fresh shrimp that we enjoyed on the docks in Port Douglas, Australia with you, Rick and Lynne. We are now ordering that by the pound when we go there to eat. We also found an excellent pizza place, Nonna Lisa. The pizzas come from a wood fired oven and you basically order what ever toppings you prefer. My prosuitto (?sp), Italian bacon and portabello mushrooms is the best. The bakery next to the Dixie Saloon has excellent breads, pastries and cookies. The oatmeal raisin cookies are our favorites. Ice cream can be had anywhere, there are basically only 2 suppliers and both are good.
One can certainly enjoy eating, especially fudge, and drinking here but there is not much else to do. Taxi's seem ridiculously expensive. I am trying to work with a ferry shuttle driver to take us to the golf course. Will see if that slows our eating and drinking a bit.
Cheers for now.
Tom & Linda
Friday, August 15, 2008
Back in Time
On Thursday we took a ferry over to Mackinac Island for the day. Oh wow, even before we docked we could see that it was going to be different. On an adjacent dock there were teams of horses and wagons lined up to receive goods and freight off one of the boats. On our boat there were even a couple dozen bicycles and a couple of wagons filled with luggage. Once we got off the dock and to the street, we saw that there were only bikes (2,500 in number) and horse drawn wagons on the street. There are only a few vehicles allowed on the island; 2 fire trucks, 1 ambulance and 2 police cars. Everything else is done by horses or bikes; all deliveries, tours, taxi service and even street sweeping. It is a bit odd because the street sweepers, and they need a lot of them, have a motorized sweeper and vacuum but are pulled by 2 horses. There are 500 horses on the island in the summer and a full time vet to look after them. They have a blacksmith that shoes the horses with special steel and composite rubber shoes, about 5,600 each year. The horses are mostly Belgains and Percherons and almost all are males. A team of horses will work hard about 4 hours per day and they do work hard. A team of two will pull carts of 20 people. When going up hills they have to stop a couple of times just to catch their breath. A team of 3 horses pulls 35 people but only have 1 hill to climb. The drivers are responsible for harnessing the horses, hitching up the wagons, bathing the animals each day and generally taking care of them. In the winter all but 50 horses are taken off the island and sent to a farm in the UP (Upper Peninsula). There are about 500 permanent residents on the island; the rest, thousands of them, work only in the summer. Some VIP's, including the Governor of Michigan, have huge summer homes on the island. Evidently, the current Governor visits 10-15 times per year.
The Grand Hotel, a five star hotel, has 600 employees alone. It is, however, way too pretentious for us. It costs $10 just for the privilege to walk in the front of the building (see photo).
Even if you wanted to eat lunch there, the $10 is added to your $30 lunch. After 6 PM jacket and tie is a must for men and women MUST were dresses; no slacks allowed. They have a golf course there which, from what I could see, was nothing special, well manicured but rather short. Green fees are $118, club rentals $50. We can wait.
We took the carriage tour and it was well worth it. The shops are pricey and not much different from Mackinaw City. In fact, everything is a bit more costly. Nonetheless we had an excellent lunch on the patio at Mary's Bistro. Linda found another favorite drink; Guiness, cherry wheat beer and black cherry liqueur (2 pints worth). We toured some more then met an interesting group from Wales at the Yankee Tavern. The one chap was in the British Marines on leave from Afganistan. We got to talking and he spoke of a detail he had in Baghdad were his unit supported the US Special Forces and the Agency (ie. CIA). He was totally blown away by the technology that he saw there. At that point a did let out that I was familiar with some of it. An interesting cat for sure that lasted a few pints. Linda found a new favorite; the Yankee Doodle Dandy (Jack Daniels, Ameretto and a splash of McGillacuty's (cinammon hearts)). We had to leave shortly thereafter. Again, carmel corn for supper.
Well that was yesterday. I need to search for another coupon already. This could be bad.
b4n
Tom
Even if you wanted to eat lunch there, the $10 is added to your $30 lunch. After 6 PM jacket and tie is a must for men and women MUST were dresses; no slacks allowed. They have a golf course there which, from what I could see, was nothing special, well manicured but rather short. Green fees are $118, club rentals $50. We can wait.
We took the carriage tour and it was well worth it. The shops are pricey and not much different from Mackinaw City. In fact, everything is a bit more costly. Nonetheless we had an excellent lunch on the patio at Mary's Bistro. Linda found another favorite drink; Guiness, cherry wheat beer and black cherry liqueur (2 pints worth). We toured some more then met an interesting group from Wales at the Yankee Tavern. The one chap was in the British Marines on leave from Afganistan. We got to talking and he spoke of a detail he had in Baghdad were his unit supported the US Special Forces and the Agency (ie. CIA). He was totally blown away by the technology that he saw there. At that point a did let out that I was familiar with some of it. An interesting cat for sure that lasted a few pints. Linda found a new favorite; the Yankee Doodle Dandy (Jack Daniels, Ameretto and a splash of McGillacuty's (cinammon hearts)). We had to leave shortly thereafter. Again, carmel corn for supper.
Well that was yesterday. I need to search for another coupon already. This could be bad.
b4n
Tom
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Beached
Oh yeah; it figures. Now that we are out of the water the weather is perfect; the winds are calm and the waves are less than 1 foot. Well the photo shows the damage. Everybody here says that it is not so bad; not what they normally see. The mechanics did a thorough inspection and have given everything else a clean bill of health. Thank God. It was interesting the way that they checked the shafts. They clamped a thick piece of metal (approx. 6" wide x 18" long x 1/4" thick) to the rear strut then attached a magnetic micrometer (sp?) to that piece so that the sensor ran on the surface of the shaft near the end where the props used to be. They than turned the shaft with a pipe wrench. Both were perfect; no deviation or bend what-so-ever. Whew, a few thousand $'s saved there. They also checked the bearings, shaft seals, thru hauls, transmissions and everything else with equally good results. We were lucky. So it appears that it really was the huge swell that dropped us so far down that we touched bottom in almost 7 feet of water. FYI Q requires 3' 10" of water in normal conditions.So now we wait. The props were shipped to Detroit yesterday, Tuesday and there is a week turn around. Forunately Mackinaw City is not a bad place to be. The Mackinaw Crossing, a neat shopping complex similar to Whistler or Mt. Tremblant, is right across the street. The main drag, one block down, has more stores, restaurants, bars and patios. So far, we are managing OK. I was getting tired of the bar and pub fare so we tired a restaurant recommended by some of the locals. It is about 10 blocks from the marina and the food was superb. We will be going back and that is more surprising than you think because they do not serve alcohol or beer or wine or anything drinkable. The name is Darrows, if anyone gets this way. Everything is homemade: bread, great pies, soups, mashed potatoes, even the salad dressings are home made.
A faux pas last evening. There was an outdoor concert next to the marina and I decided to get some carmel corn. Well we need to save money now so I found a $2.00 coupon for carmel corn. We only had to spend $20 on corn to get the savings. Do you know how much $20 of carmel corn is??? I was embarrassed to cart the nearly full garbage bag home to the boat. We will be eating corn for a couple of weeks.
People are great here, very friendly. The ticket seller for tours of the retired US Coast Guard Mackinaw ice breaker has a booth beside our boat. We have waved and exchanged pleasantries with her for the last couple of days. Last night we spoke with her about some directions and she immediately offered us her car to take into another town or use whenever we needed. We just may take her up on the offer to get some golf in. Don't know yet as we are planning on taking a ferry over to Mackinaw Island either tomorrow or Friday. We still have plenty of time.
The service people have set us up pretty good here. We are one of four boats with people living on board until the work gets done. We have a great view; we have full power, although we cannot run the AC and we have potable water and an empty holding tank. So we are doing fine. We can even get 3 channels clearly on the TV so we have been catching some of the olympics later at night.
Things are not half bad after all. I have even taken the over stressed crew off the ceiling and got her to relax a little. It took 2 Blonde Bombshells (Malibu rum, coconut rum and pineapple juice) at the Depot and a Margarita at the Caboose to get there but she is mellow now. I guess it is carmel corn for supper.
Bye for now.
Tom and Linda
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Ooooops and a Big OUCH
While leaving Harrisville on another questionable day weather wise, we touched bottom about 100 feet outside of the harbor entrance. Our overnight neighbor in a 37 ft Sea Ray was headed to the same destination and left just as we were leaving. I followed him out of the harbor, he was a few hundred yards ahead of us, but as we cleared the north tip of the breakwall we encountered some 4 ft swells. 30 or 40 yards from the mouth of the harbor a particularly large swell caused us to hit bottom. It made an absolutely awful sound that scared the sh*! out of us. I, of course, immediately took both engines out of gear as I was still at idle speed and we bobbed about in about 6-7 ft of water and then it immediately went up to 12-14 feet. I found out later that there is an umarked shoal just outside the mouth of the harbor but because it is 6 feet like the advertised minimum depth of the harbor it is not marked. I have subsequently found out that others have hit bottom there in rough weather as well.
Anyway, we tried near the harbor to see if there was any damage. There were no vibrations or strange noises, no water coming into the boat, and the speed seemed the same for the RPM so we decided to continue. Maybe we should not have. The waves were the worse that we have encountered, especially as we rounded Presque Isle. Water was frequently splashing onto the winshield. As we came up to Adams Point about 30 minutes from our destination of Rogers City, the rear bilge pump came on for about a minute. 1 minute seems like a lifetime when you are in big water with 5-7 foot waves. Anyway it did go off so it could have been good or bad. Linda thought the pump failed and I was happy that the pump could keep up with whatever water was getting in. Unfortunately, it went on twice more before we got to port. We docked immediately and I went below to check things out. There was some water laying around but, thank God, nothing still coming in. There was water, lots of it, in a compartment under the connection from the transmission to the shaft on the port side. Not a good sign, but fortunately no water was leaking with the engine off. I then got my swim mask and dove under the boat. NOT A GOOD SIGN. Both propellers were chewed up pretty good. We are lucky in the sense that we can at least drive the boat. The nearest marina that can do the necessary repairs is Cheboygan or Mankinaw City. We are going to try to get to Mackinaw as that service centre is better equipped to handle our boat. Only 49 miles to get there.
So we had our mishap on 08-08-08, the start of the Olympics. The Chinese think that 08-08-08 is a lucky number combination. Linda and I disagree. Since we arrived the weather has gotten worse. Saturday had numerous t-storms come whipping through and winds of 20-25 kts. Today, Sunday, we have a Gale warning in effect until 5 PM. Winds are 30 mph gusting to 40. We are staying another night.
Well if you thought these reports were boring so far then they will be getting much worse. Q will have to be hauled out and repairs done. The props will be sent to Detroit with probably a week turn around. Hopefully, there is no other damage. While we are there we also need some work on our water heater. I suspect that there is crud or scale on the heating element because we are only getting luke warm water. I will try to get one sent up so that I can try to replace it. Oh well, I am sure that we will be able to find a patio to relax on although it is so cold that I have had to put long pants on and even some socks. I have not worn socks since April.
Wish us luck and all donations gladly accepted.
Embarrassed Captain and frightened crew
Anyway, we tried near the harbor to see if there was any damage. There were no vibrations or strange noises, no water coming into the boat, and the speed seemed the same for the RPM so we decided to continue. Maybe we should not have. The waves were the worse that we have encountered, especially as we rounded Presque Isle. Water was frequently splashing onto the winshield. As we came up to Adams Point about 30 minutes from our destination of Rogers City, the rear bilge pump came on for about a minute. 1 minute seems like a lifetime when you are in big water with 5-7 foot waves. Anyway it did go off so it could have been good or bad. Linda thought the pump failed and I was happy that the pump could keep up with whatever water was getting in. Unfortunately, it went on twice more before we got to port. We docked immediately and I went below to check things out. There was some water laying around but, thank God, nothing still coming in. There was water, lots of it, in a compartment under the connection from the transmission to the shaft on the port side. Not a good sign, but fortunately no water was leaking with the engine off. I then got my swim mask and dove under the boat. NOT A GOOD SIGN. Both propellers were chewed up pretty good. We are lucky in the sense that we can at least drive the boat. The nearest marina that can do the necessary repairs is Cheboygan or Mankinaw City. We are going to try to get to Mackinaw as that service centre is better equipped to handle our boat. Only 49 miles to get there.
So we had our mishap on 08-08-08, the start of the Olympics. The Chinese think that 08-08-08 is a lucky number combination. Linda and I disagree. Since we arrived the weather has gotten worse. Saturday had numerous t-storms come whipping through and winds of 20-25 kts. Today, Sunday, we have a Gale warning in effect until 5 PM. Winds are 30 mph gusting to 40. We are staying another night.
Well if you thought these reports were boring so far then they will be getting much worse. Q will have to be hauled out and repairs done. The props will be sent to Detroit with probably a week turn around. Hopefully, there is no other damage. While we are there we also need some work on our water heater. I suspect that there is crud or scale on the heating element because we are only getting luke warm water. I will try to get one sent up so that I can try to replace it. Oh well, I am sure that we will be able to find a patio to relax on although it is so cold that I have had to put long pants on and even some socks. I have not worn socks since April.
Wish us luck and all donations gladly accepted.
Embarrassed Captain and frightened crew
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Near Disaster
WE ALMOST LOST THE TV. We decided to leave Harbor Beach (because I loved it so much) and head for Harrisville despite the forecast of 10-15 Knot winds increasing to 15-20 Kts with gusts of 25. Well the waves were a bit higher than the previous day and the odd wave seemed to be about 5 feet. We slammed pretty hard a couple of times because the waves also seemed pretty close together, somewhat like the crap that you get on Lake Erie sometimes. It took us a couple of hours to cross Saginaw Bay but then it was pretty manageable. We did have some excitement; the safety light broke free from our life buoy and Linda had to go retrieve it (before anybody says anything, she would not allow me to go)because it was bouncing on the deck. We were bobbing pretty hard. Al will appreciate the feeling as it was similar to stopping outside of Pelee Island on the first day that we got the boat. Anyway, she crawled out and because it was still attached at one end tied it securely.
When we arrived at Harrisville and went below (I was not allowed to go to the head the whole trip) it looked like a tornado went through the boat. Now we have travelled a fair bit so things were stowed as we would normally but.... the TV broke out of the cabinet. The two screws holding it in place broke free. It still works though. We also found cheese and some salad dressing from the fridge in the salon. Fortunately, the fridge must of slammed shut again and saved the beer and refreshments. We had backgammon pieces all over the boat; our new wine cooler door was open and 3 bottles removed; the bar in my closet broke free and all my clothes were crumpled at the bottom (now they need to be ironed again, Ha), and all of the foamies and drinking mugs were scattered. That was the worse shake up that we have experienced.
Harrisville seems quite nice. If we have to stay, no problem but I would like to get further up the coast if the weather permits. I am sorry for sending out so many reports but there is no TV and Linda can entertainment me only so often. lol. Nice chatting with you. I have to chart out tomorrow's route now.
Bye
Tom and Linda
When we arrived at Harrisville and went below (I was not allowed to go to the head the whole trip) it looked like a tornado went through the boat. Now we have travelled a fair bit so things were stowed as we would normally but.... the TV broke out of the cabinet. The two screws holding it in place broke free. It still works though. We also found cheese and some salad dressing from the fridge in the salon. Fortunately, the fridge must of slammed shut again and saved the beer and refreshments. We had backgammon pieces all over the boat; our new wine cooler door was open and 3 bottles removed; the bar in my closet broke free and all my clothes were crumpled at the bottom (now they need to be ironed again, Ha), and all of the foamies and drinking mugs were scattered. That was the worse shake up that we have experienced.
Harrisville seems quite nice. If we have to stay, no problem but I would like to get further up the coast if the weather permits. I am sorry for sending out so many reports but there is no TV and Linda can entertainment me only so often. lol. Nice chatting with you. I have to chart out tomorrow's route now.
Bye
Tom and Linda
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Harbor Beach
Harbor Beach, nice sounding name but it is almost the opposite. It is an industrial town and the marina shares the harbor with a coal fired power generating station. There is also a huge Dow AgroSciences LLC plant on the waterfront. No condos here. The business district was about a 15 minute walk from the marina and it wasn't have bad for a small town. Lots of junk, I mean antique and collectible stores, in town as well as a couple of restaurants and bars and 2 ice cream parlours. No chance for my diet in the heat of the afternoon.
The trip up was rather unpleasant as we headed directly into the wind and had to battle 3 foot waves and a bit of a chop on top of that. Unfortunately, the next 3 days look worse. We are hoping to get an early start in the morning because we have to cross Saginaw Bay. For those not familiar with Michigan, we are currently near the tip of the thumb. On a map if you were to set your left hand with your fingers pointing north and then spread out your thumb, that area between the thumb and your index finger would be Saginaw Bay. It is probably about 30 miles across at the opening. We need to do that plus another 40 or so to get to Harrisville, our next target.
Have a good evening.
Tom and Linda
The trip up was rather unpleasant as we headed directly into the wind and had to battle 3 foot waves and a bit of a chop on top of that. Unfortunately, the next 3 days look worse. We are hoping to get an early start in the morning because we have to cross Saginaw Bay. For those not familiar with Michigan, we are currently near the tip of the thumb. On a map if you were to set your left hand with your fingers pointing north and then spread out your thumb, that area between the thumb and your index finger would be Saginaw Bay. It is probably about 30 miles across at the opening. We need to do that plus another 40 or so to get to Harrisville, our next target.
Have a good evening.
Tom and Linda
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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
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
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