We're back from our trip home. Everything was fine. Teresa, Lee and Wendy, along with the whole crew at the office are doing a great job. I got back to the boat on Thursday, or should I say Friday morning on the 22nd of June at about 1 AM. Of course, the boat was riding against the dock so the first thing I had to do was get it straightened out in the slip. Easier said than done at in the dark at 1 AM! An hour later, I'm finally ready to go below and get some sleep.
Up at sunrise and started off doing some work on the computer. I had to meet Denise at her brother Richard's house to return the car he had loaned us. His son Michael was getting married and that was one of the reasons I had to make it back on Friday. Denise's daughter, Kim, had also come in for the wedding and was going to be staying on the boat with us. It's amazing how three people could get ready for a wedding in a 38 foot boat and still making to the wedding...well, about 5 minutes late, but we made it. The wedding was beautiful and so were Mike and Jennie. Denise was able to spend time with her mom, brothers and sisters. We had a great time!
Our plans for Saturday was to recover from the wedding, take care of a few chores on the boat and decide what our next trip would be. Richard wanted to go sailing with us and we were trying to figure out the best way to take him and Kim on our next leg of the trip. We needed to make arrangements for Richard to get back home and for Kim to get to the airport for an early flight back to California on Tuesday. We tried all different scenarios, and nothing seemed to work, since there were not too many places to drop them off in Lake Erie that was convenient. The weather was the other factor. The forcast called for severe thunderstorms (again), so we finally just decided we would stay another day in Jefferson Beach Marina and take everybody out for a nice day sail on Lake St. Clair. Our friends Grant and Diane, our slip neighbors on their 50 foot Hinckley, also wanted to go sailing with us so we would wait for the weather to go through and take everybody out on Sunday. Grant and Diane plan to take their boat crusing soon. We had a late lunch at Brownies, one of those 'meat market" places that blast the music til one or two in the morning. Afterwords, I went over to talk to Grant and Diane and the rum began to flow along with the appetizers. Denise and Kim joined us and Diane wound up making a wonderful jumbalaya for everyone. Brownie's was having a bikini contest that night and Beach Grill was having a Hottie Fest, so we opted for the less expensive Bikini Contest. We had a good time, even though the contest was a little disappointing.
Sunday Morning, while I was in the showers, Denise decided we should go out before the storms came through and started rounding everyone up. When I got back, we decided that it would be better to wait until after the storms, since there was a high pressure system behind it that usually means good weather. The way it worked out, the storms dissipated before they got to us so we were on the water around noon. The winds were gusting up to 30, but with our crew of 6, we handled it all and had a great sail that let everyone experience a variety of sailing extremes. We had high winds, no winds, confused winds and wind from the wrong direction when we were on our way back. Why, we even sailed from the US to Canada and back! Richard appeared to really appreciate the sail. We had another nice evening on the boat. I played the guitar and sang while everyone had a few cocktails and relaxed. We capped off the night with a trip to Mike's Grill for dinner. We got a picture of the crew (minus the photographer Denise)
On the way home, the winds really kicked up from the North. We had to re-tie Manana to keep her off the dock. Of course, I still had to get up at least three times in the middle of the night to adjust the lines as the winds increased and continued to push us onto the dock. Another good reason to anchor out! You might drag the anchor but at least you won't be banging against a dock. We were supposed to be leaving early the next morning, but, apparently we slept in a little late as Grant and Diane returned the favor to Denise and came knocking on our boat around 8 to say goodbye. It was a good thing they did. We problably would have slept til 10 or later. The winds continued to howl and push us on the dock as we prepared to leave. We had decided we would try to get to Toledo Beach on Western Lake Erie by the end of the day. We had a difficult time trying to figure out how to get out of the slip with all that wind without breaking anything, but with the help of Kim and a couple of boaters from the marina, we were on our way by 10:30. The wind was blowing even stronger on Lake St. Claire but as we motored down wind, the waves and wind pushed us forward faster and our ride smoothed out. It didn't take us long to get down to the Detroit River entrance. The Grosse Point Yacht Club below was a picture worth taking.
Along the way, I realized we probably should have topped off the fuel before leaving, but we figured there should be someplace we could stop along the way. We planned on taking the Detroit river and go starboard to the Trenton Channel rather than the shipping channel to port, in the hopes that one of the marinas would be deep enough for us to grab some fuel. Although Detroit has an impressive skyline, we really enjoyed the St. Claire River passage much more than this one.
We went around Grosse Ile to starboard also and encountered one of our first swing bridges on the way. Our charts or the guide book did not give us the names of the bridges, so we had a little confusion trying to hail them so they could open up and let us through. We finally talked to the first one, which was known as the Grosse Isle toll bridge, but they were having the bridge worked on and we had to wait 20 minutes while the work barge disengaged from the bridge. We didn't realize how strong the current and wind was until we turned around and tried to stay in place away from the bridge. We were motoring at 2 to 3 knots and were still going back toward the bridge. Strange feeling. The bridge finally opened right when they said it would and we headed down to the next one. We tried to hail this one (without the proper name) and got no response. We motored closer and a sign said there was no attendant and that we would have to call a number and give them a 5 hour notice! We tried to call the number, but it was disconnected! We hailed the first bridge again and she gave us a new telephone number to call. This time, someone answered. Apparently the sign was for the winter operation of the bridge and the bridge tender was a little confused as to why we had turned around. He opened it and we were on our way. Whew!
Now we called the Humbug Marina that was one of the last ones before we entered Lake Erie. They said they had 8 to 10 feet of depth and gave us directions on how to get in. We even gave some thought to grabbing a slip there, since there were small craft warnings on Lake Erie. We came in, following the directions exactly as he told us. About 50 feet from the gas dock, we were stuck in the mud! The person we had talked to kept saying we have sail boats bigger than yours in here and they didn't have a problem. We gave up and called Towboat US. As we waited, we began to move a little so I began wiggling us around and broke loose. We headed out, dragging mud behind us, to deeper water. The tow boat had just arrived as we were breaking free and came out to help us. The boat felt sluggish, but we finally got her to feeling somewhat normal under power. The tow boat offered to pilot us back in to get fuel, so we followed, but got stuck again. He wound up dragging us to the gas dock and then back out again to deep water. He suggested we follow him to the Ford Yacht Club and we could get a free slip there with our yacht club reciprosity. So, here we are. In a beautiful, quiet marina looking out over Lake Erie for the night. Tomorrow, we'll finish our trip to Put In Bay.
We have finally figured out how to put the pictures on but are still trying to figure out the new format like how to put captions on ect.,. Hope you enjoy!
On the way home, the winds really kicked up from the North. We had to re-tie Manana to keep her off the dock. Of course, I still had to get up at least three times in the middle of the night to adjust the lines as the winds increased and continued to push us onto the dock. Another good reason to anchor out! You might drag the anchor but at least you won't be banging against a dock. We were supposed to be leaving early the next morning, but, apparently we slept in a little late as Grant and Diane returned the favor to Denise and came knocking on our boat around 8 to say goodbye. It was a good thing they did. We problably would have slept til 10 or later. The winds continued to howl and push us on the dock as we prepared to leave. We had decided we would try to get to Toledo Beach on Western Lake Erie by the end of the day. We had a difficult time trying to figure out how to get out of the slip with all that wind without breaking anything, but with the help of Kim and a couple of boaters from the marina, we were on our way by 10:30. The wind was blowing even stronger on Lake St. Claire but as we motored down wind, the waves and wind pushed us forward faster and our ride smoothed out. It didn't take us long to get down to the Detroit River entrance. The Grosse Point Yacht Club below was a picture worth taking.
Along the way, I realized we probably should have topped off the fuel before leaving, but we figured there should be someplace we could stop along the way. We planned on taking the Detroit river and go starboard to the Trenton Channel rather than the shipping channel to port, in the hopes that one of the marinas would be deep enough for us to grab some fuel. Although Detroit has an impressive skyline, we really enjoyed the St. Claire River passage much more than this one.
We went around Grosse Ile to starboard also and encountered one of our first swing bridges on the way. Our charts or the guide book did not give us the names of the bridges, so we had a little confusion trying to hail them so they could open up and let us through. We finally talked to the first one, which was known as the Grosse Isle toll bridge, but they were having the bridge worked on and we had to wait 20 minutes while the work barge disengaged from the bridge. We didn't realize how strong the current and wind was until we turned around and tried to stay in place away from the bridge. We were motoring at 2 to 3 knots and were still going back toward the bridge. Strange feeling. The bridge finally opened right when they said it would and we headed down to the next one. We tried to hail this one (without the proper name) and got no response. We motored closer and a sign said there was no attendant and that we would have to call a number and give them a 5 hour notice! We tried to call the number, but it was disconnected! We hailed the first bridge again and she gave us a new telephone number to call. This time, someone answered. Apparently the sign was for the winter operation of the bridge and the bridge tender was a little confused as to why we had turned around. He opened it and we were on our way. Whew!
Now we called the Humbug Marina that was one of the last ones before we entered Lake Erie. They said they had 8 to 10 feet of depth and gave us directions on how to get in. We even gave some thought to grabbing a slip there, since there were small craft warnings on Lake Erie. We came in, following the directions exactly as he told us. About 50 feet from the gas dock, we were stuck in the mud! The person we had talked to kept saying we have sail boats bigger than yours in here and they didn't have a problem. We gave up and called Towboat US. As we waited, we began to move a little so I began wiggling us around and broke loose. We headed out, dragging mud behind us, to deeper water. The tow boat had just arrived as we were breaking free and came out to help us. The boat felt sluggish, but we finally got her to feeling somewhat normal under power. The tow boat offered to pilot us back in to get fuel, so we followed, but got stuck again. He wound up dragging us to the gas dock and then back out again to deep water. He suggested we follow him to the Ford Yacht Club and we could get a free slip there with our yacht club reciprosity. So, here we are. In a beautiful, quiet marina looking out over Lake Erie for the night. Tomorrow, we'll finish our trip to Put In Bay.
We have finally figured out how to put the pictures on but are still trying to figure out the new format like how to put captions on ect.,. Hope you enjoy!
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