Next morning after breakfast and coffee, Melanie ran a few errands like laundry and last minute supplies and then we left and headed East towards Presque Isle. The wind was light so we motored and made a steady five to six knots. The wind gradually faded and then turned to the southeast which was against us. It gradually built until we were seeing guests over 20 with 2 to 3 ft waves! I raised the mainsail and we rolled up our large jib and used the staysail and the main to zig-zag our way into Presque Isle Harbor. Using just the motor it would have taken us 3 hours to go 4 miles but even though we Zig zagged and probably doubled the distance we were safely there within an hour or so. We dropped anchor, cleaned up and Melanie made us a hot bowl of soup and boat-lox, it’s the Cruisers version of Lox, smoked salmon and cream cheese with onion and tomato on a bagel. Only we use canned salmon and mix it with the cream cheese. It’s quite delicious. We watched a show on TV before falling into bed exhausted. We were asleep before 9:30!
The wind switched during the night to a southerly breeze and so when we woke up, hauled up the anchor and set off the wind was once again in our face. We decided to motor sail not only to make speed but to make sure that I had enough power as our batteries are starting to misbehave. We started off with the gentle 10 to 12 knot breeze and made good progress along the North Shore of Presque Isle, past Stoneport and then headed south towards the entrance of Thunder Bay.
The weather forecast was for 10 knot winds, but as we rounded the corner of Thunder Bay the winds increased to 20 to 25 knots. Waves quickly built up to four to six feet. We slogged along, zigzagging our way towards Harrisville as we were not able to really make any decent speed with just the engine. About 7 miles from the harbor, the winds started to die a little, but the waves were still big. We decided to unroll the jib to help with our speed as the wind was slowly decreasing. As the sail filled the bolt in the turnbuckle holding the forestay onto the front of the boat sheared in half!
The full sail flapped backwards crashing into the staysail and the mast and spreaders. We quickly turned the boat around so the wind was coming from behind to take the load off the front of the boat to prevent the Mast from breaking. I wrestled with the forestay and together, Melanie and I managed to finally roll up the sail around the roller furler and then we managed to secure the furling to the starboard shroud so it would not fly about and do damage to the boat and to us. We dropped the main as well and limped in to Harrisville under engine with the staysail providing support and a little extra speed. Thankfully the wind calmed down some more and the waves died down so that the seas calmed which limited the rocking and rolling. We were concerned that the mast would break so we were careful about making safe way to port. We arrived in Harrisville about 2 hours after our scheduled arrival but the dock hands waited for us and helped us in much to our surprise. We settled in and once the boat was safely tied up we took a long walk on Shore with Windsor and went to the local restaurant for a glass of champagne and some food.
After work the following day I spent time searching for and procuring a new fitting to replace the one that broke. We found exactly what we needed online so it was just a matter of ordering and waiting for the part to be delivered. In the meantime we busied ourselves with resupplying, going to a farmers market and buying fruit and vegetables. Saturday morning we walked into town to the local coffee shop for some breakfast and coffee. After that we went to the local Farmers Market and then came back to the boat to unpack everything. During the night the wind switched to the northwest and blew quite hard with large waves on the lake. It was in the mid-40s when we got up! We have no heat so we kept the boat closed up and did the best we could to stay warm under Cloudy Skies.
The Marina has a courtesy car and they took us to the hardware store so we could get a heater. Thankfully they had one in stock and we were able to warm the boat up nicely. Sunday we spent time chatting with locals and had dinner with our dock neighbors. Melanie made a turkey dinner with sweet potatoes broccoli and salad, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and some great companionship for the evening. Monday they hauled their boat out to head south for Florida and we made arrangements for the part we needed to be delivered to the marina by Tuesday.
Tuesday came and went. The parts did not arrive. What really angered me was it arrived in Alpena at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a bright sunny day with light winds, and UPS marked on my status delayed due to bad weather. They lied! I chatted with the parts company and they apologized, but it wasn’t really their fault it was UPS. The part finally arrived just after noon on Wednesday. I got to work putting it onto the boat and to my dismay, found that one side did not fit properly! I had to drill out a hole through stainless and got halfway before another boater arrived that had helped us a few days prior. Between the two of us we found some parts in my toolbox and with the addition of a bolt, a nut and a few washers, we engineered a jury rig so that my forestay would at least be in place for us to get home. I would need a different, larger turnbuckle. We won’t use the jib, only the staysail which has its own stay so the forestay will hold the Mast up but not be under any significant load. After getting everything in place and preparing for departure, we said our goodbyes and left around 4:30 p.m.. we had about 120 miles to do in order to reach Port Huron sometime Thursday.
We left to a headwind between 15 and 20 knots with Lumpy 2 ft Seas. Initially it was slow going but the wind gradually moderated over the course of the evening and the waves subsequently dissipated until we were pretty much on calm water. We were able to make a good five knots and after a snack, we prepared for overnight. I would stand First Watch because I needed to work in the morning and Melanie would stand the midnight watch.
We set up the downstairs salon for sleeping and Melanie went down around Sunset to try and get some sleep. We moved nicely through ever decreasing waves with a steady 10 to 12 knot winds pushing us along. Ship traffic abounded and the shore of the thumb of Michigan was outlined in red lights, all flashing in unison on top of the windmills that lined the sky. It was a beautiful starry night, clear skies above with some clouds on the horizon but it was great for stargazing. I’m always amazed at the beauty and the grandeur of God’s creation.
Around 11:30 the flashing green light indicating the shallow area between Port Austin and Harbor Beach made its appearance about 3 miles off the starboard bow. I plotted a conservative track to keep myself in deep water, not really being able to see the shoreline except for the lights. Depth perception at night is quite an issue. We hummed along making good progress into the night. At 1:00 a.m. I went to bed and Melanie took over. We made fairly decent progress through the night and when I awoke in the morning around 6:30, we were only about 35 miles from Port Huron. Needless to say, the wind did not cooperate with us and we gradually slowed down until there was almost no wind at all. It also started to get hot! That was something we have not had on this trip for quite a while!
Around 4:30 or so we entered the St Clair River and our speed jumped to 9.5 knots or more! We passed under the bridge and a short while thereafter turned into the Black River and docked safely at Port Huron Yacht Club. We went out to dinner and enjoyed some Michigan pothole ice cream for the last time before returning to the boat. We took showers and Melanie went to bed at 8:00! I stayed up and did a little reading until 9:00 and then went to bed. We slept hard all night. When the motor is running, it’s very hard to get sleep and even the slightest rocking or hobby horsing distort disturbs your sleep, overnights take a toll but we had to do it in order to be able to be in Grosse Ile on Friday to meet family.
The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. the next day. There was barely a hint of daylight when we dropped our dock lines after walking the dog for the last time and heading into the river for our trip down to the entrance of Lake Erie. We watched a beautiful sunrise, the Sun, a large red ball Rose slowly above the trees and shone through the haze to welcome us into a new day. We made quick progress down the river, there was virtually no wind to speak of but the currents kept us moving at a healthy six to eight knots. By 11:30 we were crossing Lake St Clair and entering the Detroit River a few hours later where once again the current picked us up and moved us nicely. It was hot! We both had short sleeves and shorts, the first time we have worn shorts on the water since starting this trip at the beginning of August! With the water temperatures of Lakes Michigan and Huron only being in the low 60s, it’s quite brisk and chilly on the water. Today we sweated. The wind was supposed to be out of the East which would have helped us but instead was out of the North, so going in the same direction as the wind makes it much lighter and it gave us virtually no relief from the heat. It was only in the 80s but to us it was very hot.
We eventually made it to our anchoring spot near Sugar Island. Around 6:30 we dropped anchor and lowered the dinghy before heading into Shore to meet up with Carol, Art, Lynn and John and their daughter Katy. We enjoyed a nice dinner before heading back to the boat around sunset. We went straight to sleep, We Were tired. We woke the next morning around 7:30 and after a few chores, raised the anchor and motored out into the down Channel. We scooted off into the bay at around 7 knots with zero wind. We tried raising the sails but they helped very little. Nevertheless we kept them up and kept the motor running and after a while a gentle breeze from on the nose, East, came up and helped us a little with our speed. We passed Middle Sister Island sister, and shortly thereafter our familiar Islands came into view.
As we approached our home grounds the boat traffic got heavier. We forgot how busy it is around our area of the lake on weekends. We have been gone for weeks and rarely saw a boat as most of the ports in Michigan are travel ports, people are going from one place to another. There’s not much going on except around the big cities like Traverse City and Port Huron. Around 4:00 p.m. we arrived and after pumping out and filling up with diesel we headed back to our Dock and tied up, another trip in the books! We arrived safely home to a beautiful blue sky and are glad we’re home safely. We celebrated with an extravagant night out at our favorite restaurant – Orchards. Planning now Begins for next year!
