Sunday, August 3, 2025, East Harbor

I had an alarm set on Alexa for 5:45. Later than usual for an early departure, but it hasn't been light until just after 6:00 these past mornings. At 5:44 I cancelled the alarm and got going. We pulled out of Cousin Marty's dock at 6:10 and motored out of the channel with a bunch of fishermen. I had not yet checked the weather since we were committed to travel today and had not even made my coffee. I did make a pot of tea for Kerry.  I got to see the sun rise. Kerry made me coffee. then went back to bed.

Lake St Clair was nice when we got on it. 7 knots of winds and waves less than 1'. I deviated from the Navionics suggested route to the channel to stay in deeper water. We were in the main channel in a little over an hour. We had a great crossing. I only had to turn into one motor boat wake (to avoid being really rolled). I stepped outside once with my bug zapper to nail a spider building a web right in the window in front of me. By the time we reached the Detroit River about 8:20 we had picked up a knot of speed from the current, doing over 10.0 knots at times.

Mid Lake Rest Stop!

The River was like a sheet of glass when we entered it. It was such a nice smooth ride, perfect actually. You could see both the Ambassador and the Gordie Howe Bridge spans at the same time, which is kind of cool. It was strange seeing the former GM building without the GM logo on it. We passed Milliken State Park and Harbor 23 miles into the trip.

Where have all the logos gone?

The Ambassador and Gordie Howe Bridges

Annie always share the channel with her bigger friends!

41 miles into the trip we arrived at Lake Erie, 4 1/2 hours after our start. We were greeted with an East wind of about 10 knots, and 1' waves just forward of the beam. It wasn't the worst ride we've had on Lake Erie, nor the best. It was pretty bouncy actually. Kerry made us lunch and went back to napping. I finished the book I had been reading and saw the PIB Monument 14 miles ahead when I looked up. 

OSU Lighthouse on South Bass Island

The waters around the islands were the worst ride wise. There were so many boat wakes. Annie did not know which way to roll as wakes were coming from all directions. The ride between PIB and East Harbor was particularly terrible. I even sped Annie's little engine up to hopefully get a better ride and off the lake quicker. We were at our anchoring location at 3:00 PM. There is a lot of seaweed here, but we got the anchor to dig in on the first try. 

The voyage today was 77.6 miles. It took us 9 hours at an overall speed of 8.7 knots. We hit 11.5 knots once with the strong current pushing us along. We have gone 814 miles to date, and will add 22 more when we sail to VYC on Tuesday. I was pretty tired after our 9 hour trip. The part of the voyage down to Lake Erie takes full attention to navigation. I stood most of the way to reach and adjust the autopilot. I wanted  a drink once we were anchored, and decided on a martini instead of a rum and coke. Tough choice. We sat on the top of the V-Berth and enjoyed our drinks in the sun and warm breeze.

Later I went outside to smoke a cigar while preparing to cook hamburgers. Kerry and Marty were talking about their book and are not happy with their progress. I could hear the disagreement so I stayed out back. When my cigar was finished I said I was ready to cook our hamburgers. They were still talking when the burgers were done but ended the conversation so we could eat. They tasted really good. 

Kerry worked on the computer after dinner. She is now going through years of Google Photos trying to search out pictures for subjects she plans to do a photo books on. I sat outside for awhile, went on a spider hunt, etc., and just pleasantly passed the time until the bed called. 

Peter and Marianna made it to Bayfield today. They plan to stay at least 2 nights, but could probably stay longer with the weather forecasts looking good for a trip to Port Huron for a couple more days. They are docked next to John Robertson from VYC who is on his way to the North Channel.