Tugboat Annie's 2025 Return To The North Channel

I am sure that our daughter Anne would tell you that one of the most memorable events in her young life was when her daddy decided to have her join him watching the movie Jaws. She was so scared. I don't think she has forgiven me to this day. I mention this because this is the 50th anniversary of the movie's release. Of course I had to mention it to her.  It's very breezy on Annie this morning. Cousin Marty lives in an area open to the winds coming down the river and off the lake. It's a great boating community with boat yards, marine stores and old broken down boats everywhere. One could wander around for hours. Marty lives where the Clinton River meets Lake St Clair. Spring on the Great Lakes is known for bugs, muffle heads, black flies, etc. One favorite of course is the mayfly. Here in Harrison Township, MI they do not have mayflies. Instead, they have fishflies which look like our mayflies but are spotted and darker than the tan ones we in Ohio love.  About 11:30 e...

We had a peaceful night on Annie docked at cousin Marty's home. The wakes from the passing boats that had troubled Marty Fred ended as night progressed and we slept quite soundly. I was up early, made coffee, posted today's blog and then went in to visit with cousin Marty.  Picture of cousin Marty's home from Annie Once everyone was up we decided to go to brunch at a nice downtown restaurant near a shop that was repairing cousin Marty's van. Marty hoped the repairs were done and that I could drive one of the cars home, which actually worked out. What did not work out was that we got stuck in the restaurant waiting for this torrential rain storm to end. We had parked about a block away and had no umbrellas or raingear. We must have sat there for an hour after finishing dinner waiting for the rain to slow. The restaurant was packed with courthouse workers from across the street all waiting for an opportunity to get back to work. Kerry talked the waitress into another Coke...

We had a very nice night on the ball at PIB. The wind was southernly so there were no waves coming through the harbor. I was up before the 5:30 alarm to get ready for our 6:00 AM departure. I actually left PIB 5 minutes early. I was very pleased to find a flat sea waiting for us. When we made this trip last year, it was so rough and nasty that Kerry declared she was no longer going to travel on Annie! Today she is peacefully snoozing in the V-berth. I set a course for the Detroit River with an ETA about 9:00 AM. I watched Peter pull out of Middle Bass Island on my AIS. We chatted briefly on VHF.  Having Starlink to provide internet anywhere is so nice. I'm using it to blog, email and also provide a signal to a phone I use for my navigation routing that does not have a mobile subscription. We reached the Detroit River at 9:15. The voyage was distinguished by smooth seas, bugs (lots of them) commercial fishing boats, a freighter crossing and birds that look like white pelicans. I als...

As usual, before a travel day I tossed and turned a lot last night. While we are not going far today, we are departing for 8 weeks or so, which makes it a major departure.  We spent yesterday doing final preparations for our trip. I also got a ride on Jimbo's new boat, Liberty 3, which was fun. We had a dinner in the club house attended by the Kumars, Karpinski's, Orros and us. We all brought our own food. I grilled ribs. I'm a little off my blogging game and did not get a picture of the event, but it was a nice final dinner at VYC.  We watched two episodes of "Alone", a History Channel show we enjoy before turning in about 9:00 PM. We have Starlink now which gives us great internet. I'm sure to be talking about it many times in upcoming blog posts.  Our departure time is not determined, but likely around noon. I need to fill the water tanks, tie down the bikes and dingy, empty the garbage, pumpout etc. But, as is tradition on departure day, I enjoyed coffee w...

Our in laws, Larry and Nancy Clark, who we really love, had their 50th wedding anniversary today in Homerville. We all attended and came up with a plan that Anne would drive us to Vermilion after the celebration, allowing us to leave our car at home. We had a great time at the party. There was a lot of delicious food and we got to visit with friends and their family members that we had not seen in years.  Larry could not behave during the cake cutting ceremony and insisted smearing the cake on Nancy's face, as I imagine he did 50 years ago. Nancy is not a pushover and retaliated very effectively! Anne delivered us to Vermilion about 5:00. It's hard to believe but we had another car full of stuff to load onto Annie. Kerry got it all stowed somehow. I must comment that our neighbor Dan Klein has really stepped up to help us out and make this trip possible. He is watching after our home. In past years, his wife Pat took care of the outside of our home and another neighbor, Dave, w...

Today was the day when we brought our final big load of stuff to Annie. Today's load included our new dingy from West Marine. Even though we bought a small one, it is still large and heavy. Jimbo helped me load it onto the top deck. Our plan is to haul it to the North channel uninflated, then open it there and hopefully tow it from place to place.  We had to buy so much stuff to accessorize the dingy - tow ropes, anchor, bailer, lines of various sizes, Ohio number plates, license, etc. The biggest accessory is an electric motor for it. I did not want to mess with gas and oil and also have to worry about where to store it so an electric motor seemed to be the answer. Jimbo has one be bought last year. We tried it on our dingy and it seemed to work well. We got everything stowed away. The motor, oars, seat, lines and other dingy items are all stowed in the generator side of the engine compartment. Officially, I don't like doing this, but have no choice really. Kerry already has r...

This was to be a different year, and it was. Since the big old maple tree that Annie docked under was cut down last fall, I decided to launch Annie 3 weeks earlier than normal, hoping that we could anchor out at East Harbor before Memorial Day. With that tree gone, none of the normal tree dirt would be falling on Annie.  Well, the weather this year turned out to be horrible and we did not get to travel in Annie even once before Memorial Day. And it got even worse. We had to move out of our normal dock because of dredging in the channel. We moved down to the very end of the lagoon which turned out to be pretty much a sewer at times. Then, the decision was made (not by me) to allow the dredger to use our wonderful dock until they were finished dredging the entire lagoons area, so we had to stay in this temporary dock the entire Spring.  We are still in this dock even as we prepare to leave Vermilion for the North Channel tomorrow. Here is Annie decked out in her Memorial Day fin...