08/29/2010, Port Salinac Harbor, MI
We did a short hop yesterday from Harbor Beach to Port Sanilac - 5 hours. Port Sanilac is a very nice little town and marina. We are a little ahead of schedule so we have decided to stay a 2nd day. We will do some provisioning here, laundry and do some more research concerning having the mast shipped from Buffalo, NY to Catskill, NY. We have posted the shipment on uship.com and have had several bids ranging from $500 to $1,500. Of course, the ones who quote the high price think they will do a better job and state we should worry about the low bidders. Might be the truth but we will either go closer to the $500 or not have it shipped and carry on the boat instead.
We met some nice people in the slip next to us - Bill and Martha on 'Eagle's Wings'. They are from Ontario Canada and went through the Erie Canal a couple of years ago so they had some good info for us.
Tomorrow we will reach the St Clair River, St Clair Lake, the Detroit River and finally Lake Erie. The plan is now to meet our friends Craig and Becky Horn in Sandusky, Ohio next Saturday. Becky will head back home on Sunday and Craig will stay with us until the Hudson River, around Albany, NY. Craig informed Bill yesterday that he is bringing 8 cases of beer with him!! As usual, when Bill and Craig get together I am the sober one who is their memory so I can tell them all the things they said/did the night before. Neither one has a filter after tipping a few (more accurately a dozen each) so one or the other has been known to offend a person or two i.e. anything from mooning the Coast Guard to peeing off the side of the dock. But with all that, looking forward to Craig joining us - we always have a good time together and many stories to tell afterward.
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Comments [2]
craig
08/27/2010, Harbor Beach, MI
We decided to make up a couple of days by doing an over night passage. We left DeTour Village yesterday morning and arrived at Harbor Beach, MI at around 8:30 this morning. We motored the entire way, 23 hours. This helped to make up 3 days. Until around 2:30 this morning we had the wind at the stern so we were surfing going around 7.5 mps then changed and had waves at our bow going about 4.5 mph until we arrived here this morning. Bill did the 8:00 pm to 1:30 am watch, I did the 1:30 am to 5:30 am watch , then both of us for the last couple of hours. Neither one of us got much sleep so we are a little warn out today. First thing after getting settled in was go have breakfast. We had our usual breakfasts - huge portions at half the price we usually pay. The marina has courtesy bikes so we biked into town to look around after letting the breakfast settle.
We thought we were going to ground coming into the harbor - depth gauge reading 3.5 feet (we draw 5) but turned out there was plenty of depth just all the tall weeds in the water causing the discrepancy. Nice marina with helpful staff.
The sailboat next to us had to call BoatU.S. to come from Sanilac (around 35 miles away) to tow him - he got one of his lines wrapped around his prop and bent the shaft. First thing I did was check our towing coverage to verify I had it changed to Unlimited coverage. Luckily the times we have been grounded we were able to either kedge off ourselves or another helpful boater has come to our aide so we haven't needed to pay for towing (knock on wood). With all the rivers and canals coming up with our luck it will probably be a good thing that I had the insurance changed.
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08/25/2010, DeTour Village Harbor
We are currently in DeTour Village Harbor, waiting for the next weather window. It looks like we may be here until Thursday or Friday. We had a great trip coming from Sault Ste. Marie. We were a little nervous when the first tanker passed but after the 5th one it was almost routine, well not quite. Lots of good pics.
DeTour Village is a very nice little town, with 3 pubs/restaurants, a grocery store and a couple of little gift shops all within easy walking distance to the marina. Marina staff is very helpful (unlike George Kemp Marina) and marina is well maintained.
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08/23/2010, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
We are at the George Kemp Municipal Marina in Sault Ste. Marie. We went through the MacArthur lock at around 2:00 today. Must have been a slow day today, did not pass a single tanker from White Fish Point to the locks. We locked-thru behind a Soo Lock Tour boat. Did get banged around a little initially, the lock line handlers were slow to throw us a stern line and the bow banged into the lock wall. Luckily, no real damage just a couple of scrapes on the bow pulpit. Oh well, we gave the people on the tour boat a chance for some good pics. Walked into town and had dinner at a Mexican/American Bar/Restaurant, feeling a little ill at the moment!
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08/21/2010, Grand Marais, MI
Bill just added a picture gallery - located on the right hand side of the page.
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08/20/2010, Grand Marais, MI
Well, we had one good weather day. Made it to Grand Marais, MI yesterday and here we sit. We might make it out of here on Sunday. Rain off and on all day and high winds all day. The boat is getting pushed against the dock wall and we are not happy campers. My son has decided to jump ship - he called his Dad and asked him to drive here from Marquette tomorrow to get him, I would too if I was him! Looks like what was supposed to be 4 days from Marquette to Sault Ste. Marie is turning into a minimum of 10 days.
Grand Marais is a nice little resort town with a small grocery store and 2 bars. It does, however, have the world famous Pickle Barrel House museum. That was our excitement for the day. It actually was a cute little house apparently built for William Donahey who wrote 'Teenie Weenie' comic strip from 1914 to the 1970's. It looks just like two huge pickle barrels.
We did discover today while doing some research on the internet concerning the Soo Locks that the Canadian lock is closed and will not reopen until next year. According to both our cruising guidebooks the Canadian lock is the preferred lock for recreational boats since the American side is primarily for commercial traffic. Looks like we will be playing boat-tag with the big boys!
That's all the news from exciting Grand Marais.
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Pam and Dan
