Well, hello everyone. It sure has been awhile since I have last blogged. Believe it or not this trip has had some issues. I will share with you some of the details as I am placing the photos in the story.  I wanted to be able to sail across Lake Michigan on the Wisconsin side after leaving Mackinac, but the winds were too high.

It  was a beautiful day heading across Lake Michigan to Hammond Marina from New Buffalo. Hammond Marina is near the bottom of Lake Michigan. I had phoned Hammond in April to check on if they would be able to unstep our mast. Hammond Marina asked me to call them ahead of time let them know when we would be arriving. (I did..)  The weather has been perfect too.  We anchored in the Calument Harbor because it was really close to the marina and it was already getting late. . The water here is near 20 feet and is mud and sand. Great holding power for the anchor.

Remember, I said I wanted to sail across Lake Michigan.. LOL We ended up motor sailing some to just plain motoring. The winds were too light.

It was such a nice day, but the bugs were out again. Bryce decided it was nap time, so he laid on the portside of the boat. It is the windward side (Less bugs.) 

Friday Morning arrived.. We had to be in Hammond Marina at 8 a.m. to get ready for unstepping of the mast.  The person in charge met us in the mast unstepping area. The mast unstepping area is a bit tight for a 40 footer and they have no 30 amp plugs or water, but you will be charged the same as other slips.  Most reputable marinas will provide a nights dockage during the unstepping.   On the flip side, Hammond Marine is a quite nice marina with friendly people and just next to a Casino.We docked along the wall. We were told to order the lumber from the local lumber yard and they would deliver to us at the marina. After giving us the phone number, we called and tried to place an order. However, they wanted a 500 dollar deposit and would not deliver the wood till some time the following week.. Well you know that wasn’t going to happen… Not knowing what to do, we thought hard about the issue and decided that we would call Menards. We could rent a truck from them and bring the lumber to the marina. We called Yellow Taxi to drive us to the lumber yard.

We had to meet the taxi at the security guard gate. That is where we met Bill, the nice security guard. He told us it would take forever for the taxi cap to get there. He worked it out so he could just take us with there truck and pick up the lumber.. Menards had it ready for us.  Steve, a manager at Menards arranged to have the lumber ready. Bryce emailed Steve our list and they had it ready for us to pick up within the hour.  Thank you very much Steve!!

Bill one of the nicest person you could could meet.  Thanks Bill it was great Meeting you.

 

This is Grumpy: really is his actual name and Eerick.  Yup that is how he spells his name.  His coworker is just behind. Grumpy helped us put the lumber in the truck.. Thanks..

Okay so we got back to the marina and worked getting the sails down and building our mast supports for the mast. There is always a lot of prep work to be done. We were so tired at the end of the night. The following morning we sat on the bow of Beauty drinking our tea and coffee.  What a beautiful morning… A little bit later we finished up with the lines and I removed the sealant around the mast.  Beauty was now ready for unstepping her mast.

This is Beauty on the dock at Hammond Marina

“Lier… Lier Pants on Fire” That is what we use to say as a child when some one told a fib.. That applies here..

Remember above when I said we had an issue…Now back to the story..We waited for the person to come to unstep the mast.. I was in the galley pouring some tea when I heard… “I am not able to unstep your mast!!!!”  I came out of the boat so fast it would have made you head spin… What? I looked at Bryce. The guy was holding a paper in his hand… “Yeah after thinking about it I don’t think the lift will hold your mast and I might have to drop it on your boat or in the water..” My heart dropped.. I asked why he waited so long to tell us.. the mast is bare naked and ready for unstepping.. He said “But no problem, Crowleys on the Calumet is a bit more expensive.. they can do it.” So I took the number and went back inside the boat… I lost it!!!I could not stop the tears from rolling down my checks… My heart was pounding..

We called Crowleys… no problem it will cost $20 dollars per foot of boat length.. oh.. that also includes 5 foot of lift and anchor platform on our boat. Crowleys wanted $900 for simply lifting onto our supports.  No way.. Bryce gave me a hug and said everything will work out. We turned on the computer and Looked at Active Captain.. Well we can go 60 miles back up to St. Joseph or 47 miles to Waukegan to Larsen Marina.. I was worried about going 60 miles, so we went the lesser of the two and headed to Waukegan.. I called and explained to the owner of Larsen in between my tears what had just happened.. I had to hand the phone to Bryce and let him talk.. Dough was the nicest person.. I will call him my Angel of rescue. 

This is Doug Larsen.. in the plaid shirt. I can’t believe this is a blurry photo..

This was Saturday..He told us just come on in and take a slip. They would remove our mast on Monday for $308. On Sunday morning I walked up to the marina store and explained what happen and that is why we are there.. No problem Greg said.. He took our info. Doug had already told them we were coming in. We needed supplies and laundry, so they provided a van with a map showing the way to the best stores. Talk about service!!

Jeff, Bryan and Bryce..Jeff works for Larsen Marine after work was done for the day we sat and enjoyed a few beers with our new friends.

Bryce just loved their setup. He says these guys have the best setup in lower Lake Michigan for unstepping for the trip down the Mississippi.  Their mast hoists include a huge jib crane that could lift a boat and a smaller tower crane when appropriate.  Here is picture of Jeff in the mobile lift for attaching the harness and removing your windex.  No one will be lifted in a bosun chair!!

For anyone needing to take a boat out, they have two huge travel lifts and a few fork trucks for smaller boats.  They will detach your standing rigging and place the mast on deck for wrapping.  The price they charge is very reasonable and includes a night at the dock in their rates.  Larsen is considerably less expensive than anyone near the Calument.  And they are incredibly knowledgeable and know exactly what to do for those loopers that are apprehensive about removing the mast.  For loopers, the Chicago loop inlet is about 30 miles south.  The Calumet loop inlet is about 50 miles south.  So these guys are not too far away.

Another Jeff and Gary helping with the mast.

They are laying the mast on these neat rollers so we can tie off all our lines.  With these rollers, they can move the mast anywhere in the yard.. Really slick!!

They are now placing the mast on our mast supports

 

There were so many people involve with helping us at Larsen Marine they were just incredible… Friendly!

LaDonna Thank you….

There are so many other great team members I didn’t get photos of everyone.  My our Thanks to you all!!!

Nina… One day I would love to see your photos.. Her side job is photographer.

So if you are looking to unstep your mast we recommend of course Larsen Marine on Waukegan on the Illinois side of Lake Michigan.   

Thanks for following us.

Grand Haven is a lovely place. We read on Active Captain that we could tie up to the sea wall for free. This is true for daily users. For overnight, it only 10 dollars a night. We had no issues really with rolling or wakes. Our son Justin and his wife Tera came to visit us with our grandchildren Bailey and Evan. What a great time it was. The following day I had to find the post office. I woke up early and went for a walk while Bryce worked. I looked for a bakery to pick up some fresh doughnuts. It’s funny how everything is closed on Mondays. Okay not everything but some places that I was interested in going into. The weather over this next few days is going to be great. We looked at wind alert and decided  Thursday would be a good day to cross over to Illinois. As we have great friends in St Joseph, we thought about going back to St. Joseph Mi to have our mast taken down; however, the weather is so nice we decided we better cross Lake Michigan while the winds are in our favor.  

Beauty on the wall at Grand Haven

Shorty after we arrived, Justin and his family showed up. We walked the boardwalk The kids had a goodtime. We played in the park.

Bryce & Justin were happy to explore the large 2-8-4 Steam Locomotive on display.

Tera and Justin

Our Youngest son Justin and me.

We sadly said our goodbyes. It was awesome to see them. We kept telling Tera that we weren’t going to be able to see them. That we wanted to cross over to Wisconsin this time around. It didn’t work out for us to do that.

This is an over view of the boardwalk and Coast Guard Station.

The Coast Guard area here is pretty neat too.

This is part of the 1.5 mile walk along the boardwalk in Grand Haven. Boy, I reached my Fitbit goal of 10,000 steps twice over today. They have all kinds of shops and places to eat and ice cream here too.

This is a cool looking piece of art along the boardwalk..

I never knew there was such a thing as a life saving house. It is pretty interesting to learn about.  They rowed out to stranded vessels to save the crew.

The Saving House.. Today is now a privately owned home.

 

Grand Haven lighthouse pier is under construction.  When the waves rushed over the walkway during storms apparently it erodes the piers.

Look my toes are in the water..LOL  Finally warm enough to walk on the beach. What a great day.

Walking down the board walk we noticed Tammi & Michael with Kato coming into Grand Haven.  We met them in Charlevoix.

Bryce is peeking in the window at Board, Lights and Power… Just like a child he wanted a tour of the inside so bad.. but everyone saw him coming and ran the other way. LOL kidding a side, the next visit I will have to call and see if they give tours.

He was able to see the two story tall diesels than ran the generators.

What a perfect way to end a day.  Our favorite pass time..

The following day we let the lines loose and headed further South to Saugatuck.

With winds on our stern, Bryce was able to use his whisker pole.

These are the channel markers for Saugatuck. Nice wide channel.

As we cruised into Sugatuck, It was mind-blowing to see the homes along the river.

Retro Boat rental.. These are so cute… Want to rent one?  www.retroboatrentals.com 

Saugatuck Paddle Wheel Boat Cruises: www.saugatuckboatcruises.com  or phone 269-857-4261

We took the dinghy into the dinghy dock. The first restaurant we saw was Pizza. We haven’t had pizza  since we left home. 

The following morning we fueled up and headed towards New Buffalo. We anchored outside the breakwater near the beach.  It was great! How often does this happen on Lake Michigan..

We will be crossing over this afternoon to Hammond Marina to have our mast unstepped.  Here is an overview of our trip so far from http://trackmytour.com/35L17#1836754

Thank you for following our blog.  We always enjoy feedback.

Hello our friends and family, I would like to say I am sorry for not updating our blog. All my spare time has been occupied with hurricane Irma.

My latest position is at: trackmytour.com/35L17

Well our friends, I must say this was a nail biting crossing from Charlevoix to Manitou. We were back into the North West winds.  We saw on our wind meter 24.5 knots and of course rain. We were able to make the winds work for us but it was a bit bumpy.  Look how much smoother this area is protected by the island. In the morning, we woke up the winds completely from the North; however, we are protected from the winds..   We are staying here till tomorrow then will make a decision where to head next.  Here Bryce was able to get a few extra hours in for work. In 2015 we had to pull up anchor from here due to the heavy South winds.  South Manitou is a place well worth visiting. You can walk around the island on the trails, see old sunken schooner boats and the Francisco Morazan shipwreck. South Manitou is part of a chain of islands in Michigan that extends to the Straits of Mackinac. You can find out more about this islands by  going to the National Park Services website.

Two days later we headed to Frankfort. It was a chilly day. This was a great day for sailing with no engine.  Frankfort is a really nice place. We stayed at the State Docks. The price for a slip was a little expensive and we rocked & rolled all night long. There is a really nice anchorage area there too.  Next time we will probably anchor out in the quite well protected harbor.

This is the lighthouse that guides us into Frankfort MI

The following day we headed to Ludington Mi. Ludington has always been one of our favorite places to stay either by boat or by car. The Badger’s home port is in Ludington Mi. She passed us as she was heading home from Wisconsin. The Badger offers you a ride to Wisconsin with or without your car.  Bryce and I have taken our car over to Wisconsin as a short cut further west rather than going through Chicago or the UP.

As we approached the channel to Ludington we could see some dancing waves on the pier to the lighthouse, but it was a great cruise from Manitou Island. We didn’t spend anytime in Ludington this time only anchored for the night. We anchored over by what I think is a power plant. The depth was 23 feet and the bottom was mud. Great holding power for our Danforth.

Sometime after noon we headed back out. This time we decided to see what White Lake was like. We have never anchored here.  While motor-sailing over there, the sun decided to shine. We sat up on Beauty’s bow. We have waited a long time for this. I was a bit cold… Bryce is hot blooded..he is in shorts…

As we looked at the sand dunes we noticed we were passing Silver Lake Dunes. This is an area that you can take your off road vehicles and play in the sand dunes. We have done this quite a few times with ATVs and Jeeps. Much…much fun.. I zoomed in on this photo. If you look close you will be able to see a line of trucks and jeeps at the bottom.  A few are climbing power hill.  My Jeep and ATV had no problem climbing her.

 

This is a photo of Silver Lake Dunes before I edited it…LOL  We were about 1 mile offshore.

We have 4 one hundred watt solar panels on the bimini.  Bryce has never been happy with the single MPPT charger he had.  So he now has individual displays and chargers for each panel.  He can now monitor voltage, current and power from each panel.  This is what the display looks like.

 

Earlier I was bundled up.. I am so Happy…..Look it is so nice out I was able to wear shorts.. Now this is awesome..

A while later after enjoying the sun we were getting ready to enter the channel to White Lake. Again we only anchored for the night. This is a really nice deep lake.  We had to anchor close to shore to get into the shallow waters of 33 feet. We anchored in the South West corner of the Lake. This is a great place to anchor.

As always thank you all for following us.

To all our Family and Friends who were affected by Irma our prayers are still with you all.

We pulled into Mackinac for an over night stay. It was extremely windy even at the states docks. We walked around the city and despite  cool temp & wind we had a Diary Queen. The following morning we left early to make it to Charlevoix. It was an 8  hour run under motor sail. Not sure what is going on weather wise but the winds are blowing on our nose. We anchored one night in Lake Charlevoix South-West side with a sandy bottom that had great holding power. Two nights in the marina. We both got a bit restless and headed back out to the often bouncy Lake Michigan….to be continued  

Pulling out of the State Docks with a great view of the Mackinaw Bridge.

Passing under the bridge…It isn’t a big deal passing under the bridge just pretty cool.

We past our most northern point of the trip.  Bryce doing is happy dance for me…. I think maybe what’s in the solo cup makes him Happy. LOL

It was a bit overcast as we came into the channel of Charlevoix.  Winds died down.

It was so pretty pulling into the Pine River…LOL not our Kayaking Pine River to all our Kayaking friends.

That Big White boat behind us is a 130 foot vessel. Named Three Sons…Should have “My” in font of  “Three Sons” ..LOL

Looking forward we had to wait for the bridge to open it opens every 1/2 hour or on the hour.

Here Is a view of Beauty in her slip.. It was nice and wide and a great marina.

We had the opportunity to met some really good people. The photo below shows Shari and Richard. They were on the Hatteras  next to us. We enjoyed some time with them in the early afternoon on our boat. The following morning we enjoyed a visit with them on their lovely boat. Can’t wait to see them again.   We also had a great evening together with three looper boats:  Marshall, Judy, Mike, Tammi, Bev and Bruce.  We expect to see more of them further on.  Unfortunately, no pictures of them.

There was so much to see and do in Charlevoix that we will have do do another trip there.

Thanks for following us.  

Jane & Bryce

OM..Goodness, I really never realized how beautiful and clear the water is up here in Presque Isle. We stopped here on our last adventure to drop off Shawn and Jim Rathbun: Bryce’s sister and brother-in-law. We really liked what we saw and were looking forward to coming back. Yesterday we Kayaked the bay. If only the water was warmer; I could snorkel here.  This is a really neat place to stop. Not too many people/boaters know about Presque Isle. So if you are in the area you should stop in and visit the area. Oh yeah.. the restaurant at the marina gets a 5 star from us. I had Maui Maui for dinner and it was great.

The water is so clear.

This is me enjoying the Presque Isle Bay.  Winds were light.. Sun was shining.

We decided to explore this point so I beached my kayak on the rocks. I believe this launch ramp that is open to the public.

We found a hidden pond between Lake Huron & The rocky point on the south side of the bay.

Presque Isle anchorage is one of the best on Lake Huron. From Alpena it is approximately 40 miles to this area. The bottom is sandy and water depth 8-14 feet. Crystal clear water.  Although not as clear as the Bahamas.

Bryce just had to drop in the jet-ski to see how his new hoist was working. Even with his hand in a cast nothing slows him down.

The winds are turning Northeasterly 25 mph ( Wednesday night), so we headed into the harbor and took a slip. It was a great decision. We were able to walk to the old light house and get some Fitbit steps in for me.  We took slip 16.  The docks and the whole marina is very clean and in good shape. They use channel 9 on the radio or phone is 989-595-3069.  No issue with water depth and it is crystal clear in the harbor also.

This is us Beauty is resting for the night.

We took a walk around the marina and then off to the lighthouse. The new lighthouse is a 123-foot tall and is the known as the tallest Lighthouse on  the Great Lakes but I couldn’t get to it to get a picture. This is a picture of the old lighthouse.  Due to the rocky shoals, there are numerous shipwrecks in the area even with two working lighthouses.

The Bronze Bell was taken from the old Lansing City Hall clock tower when the building was torn down in 1959…This is crazy, the bell weighs 3425 lb. It’s also 60% heavier than the Liberty Bell. It was built (cast) in 1896.

Bryce had to be put in irons because he is doing to much with his broken had and needed a time-out.

We headed back to the marina. I was getting hungry. We stopped and spoke with a all of the sail boaters before we headed back for the night.  We met a number of people here.

The following day we were getting ready to untie our lines when a guy walked up and started talking to us. Then his wife joined us too. They had noticed us anchoring out as they were leaving and sailing down to Harrisville. They noticed we had taken a slip for the night when they came back to fetch their car. Kirsten & JaneK are owners of a 36 Catalina with their dog Bailey. Boat name (AirBorne).

After we said our goodbyes we headed out into Lake Huron. Remember I had said that we had high winds that night? Well, even though the winds were lowering we had rollers again out of the east coming across Lake Huron from Canada.  We were just hoping that we had enough winds to keep our sails on bloom. That makes a sailboat very steady.

Nearly six hours later we motored into Hammond Harbor for the night. We anchored on the West side of the break wall. It was a great place to anchor for a few hours. Of course when night sets in and the winds start blowing again the anchor alarm goes off. Sure enough we have to pull up anchor and try to see our way into the docks in the dark.  We did fine but let me tell you it looked like a huge boulder but it was all seaweed.  Seaweed does not hold well when the winds come up.

The smiles before night falls….LOL

This is Hammond Harbor a great place for a slip and very nice people here. the phone: 989-938-6291 They also answer the radio on channel 9. They do have very cleans restrooms and diesel, pump-out, dog-run.

 

Thanks to you all for following us and reading about our journey,

August 25, 2016 We did it. We untied our lines at 4:00 p.m and pushed ourselves away from the dock. (seawall)  LOL Our first few hours took us up around Algonac & Marine City. I don’t know if words can even explain our excitement. We had North winds so as we approached Lake Huron our ride was a bit bumpy.

The first thing Bryce noticed was that Beauty was handling differently. Normally as the waves hit her bow, often, the next wave crashes over her. Now her bow just glides over the next. It is amazing but it is as if the hoist is a perfect fit for her in many ways. The added 500 pound weight of Sea-doo and hoist in the stern has caused her bow to lighten up and she has no tendency to plunge into succeeding waves and slow down.  The result is Beauty is much faster in the waves!

We owe a big thanks to our expert welder who did such an excellent job of welding up the aluminum hoist.  Bryce has no ability to weld aluminum.  So his timely service was instrumental in our leaving on time.  The most complicated part of the welding was the two cradles that support the Sea-doo hull. Thank you Terry at Pin-Point Welding.  This picture shows the cradle that he welded.

George is relaxing again. We can tell he loves being back on the boat… What a sailing cat…LOL

As we traveled between Algonac and Marine City we noticed the Pride of Michigan. This vessel is a component of the U.S Naval Sea Cadet Corps. For the young boys and girls between the ages of 13-17. This is a non-profit organization that gives first hands on deck and engineering as crew members.

  

You can tell my the smile on his face that he is happy to be back on the boat. While we were on somewhat smooth water Bryce cleaned the bugs off the enclosure.

 

As we navigated though the St. Clair River we came upon the Algoma Transport it’s a cargo vessel. It was built in 1979. Its overall length is 222.59m x 23.17m and has the gross tong weight of 23,399 tons.  She carries the Canadian flag.

 

Well, we had planned to anchor on the West side on Lake Huron but the North-East winds did not allow that to happen. After given it some thought, we decided we wanted to try and make up for some lost travel time. So we motor sailed up to Port Sanilac and arrived around 5 a.m. a little over 12 hours. We slept for nearly 4 hours and then continued to motor sail up to Port Austin. Port Austin also had a great anchorage for the night. It seems like all we have been doing is pulling into the anchorage areas and sleeping and waking up. Then pulling up anchor and heading to the next port. This has been okay because we have been to these ports several times. But I miss stopping and socializing.

   

Light house just off the entrance of Port Austin                                      This is our Trackmytour map of our distances so far.

The weather has been on the cool side. No Bud-light on bow on Beauty so far.  We are still pushing the calendar to catch up with the week we lost. Bryce woke up early and worked for work till around 12:00 a.m.so we could pull up anchor before the heavy winds rolled in. Although we only had 10-15 knot winds we had rollers coming from the East out of Canada That just made Saginaw Bay messy. We arrived at Harrisville Harbor. This is also a nice deep harbor with great anchorage or take a slip.

We fueled up at the gas docks before we left Harrisville. I just really like how friendly people are.. 

We are anchored up in Presque Isle Bay. We plan to stay here till the winds moves through Wednesday night.  This beautiful bay is a must stop for anyone cruising Lake Huron.

 

Also a big Thanks to our friends Dirk and Silvia who came by to see us off… Dirk and Silvia will be leaving soon for their next adventure. They have already completed 4 years of sailing around the world. 

As always thanks for following us and remember if you have a question I will do my best to answer it.

Hello our dear friends. Once again we are preparing for another journey. We are planning on leaving on the 19th of August 2017. However, between Bryce breaking his hand and George biting my finger we had a few setbacks. I’ve been asked if I would continue to blog about our travels. Yes, I will.  Thanks for reading about us. This has been what I would call a very busy time at home. As many of you know we arrived back home last August of 2016.  We put Beauty up on dry dock for the winter and did a few minor repairs to her this Spring. We put new stanchions on her and painted her bottom. along with a few other things.

As many of you might remember, when we made it to the Everglades we were asked to leave because we were towing a jet-ski. On Christmas Eve of 2015 we we forced into small craft warnings on the Gulf by the National Park Service.  LOL then 5 Alive broke lose on the Atlantic Ocean. She was returned to us by a shrimper.  This summer Bryce has spent it making a hydraulic hoist for Beauty to carry our light weight Jet-ski named Patch.  She only weighs 400 pounds. We still have 5-Alive but due to the fact that she weights 800 pounds we wanted something lighter for Beauty to carry on her stern. Our New journey will take us back again around Michigan and this time we will travel along the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan. We are planning on traveling the Mississippi again.

 

In the photo above on the Port side of the scree (left) are our new Stanchions. Bryce is  giving her a new coat of paint.

Of course you all know that I couldn’t go without showing off my new rug again. Yes, I was drinking a glass of wine when I took the photo..LOL

Below you will noticed a picture of the new electric toilets that we put in both heads.  They are called Raritan Elegance. They are so awesome.

Okay the highlight of Bryce’s Summer.. The new hydraulic hoist! Built by Bryce! The beginning of the hoist was coming up with the blue prints. Many hours of planning.

Then he had to make the decision of what type of material he wanted to make it out of. He decided to go with aluminum knowing it would be light and less weight that Beauty would have to hold on her stern. As soon as the aluminum started to be delivered Bryce went to work immediately. Without hesitation the work began.

 

After many days in the garage, I noticed that all his hard work was starting to look like something.LOL Okay before you look below. You are going to noticed it looks like a ball of green snot in the middle of his glasses. He broke them and didn’t take time to get new ones so he epoxied them together. I tease him about that. I have so many photos of Bryce building the hoist but will not bore you with them. After nearly 300 hours we finally saw it coming together.

       

The final stages..carpet time to protect jet ski while it’s resting on the hoist/cradle.

  

Time to start mounting it. Bryce continued working on the hoist even with a broken hand. Then the moment came to test how Patch glides on Beauty’s stern. She did awesome!!!!

 

Well solar panels are on. Bryce added our other mounts to hold our kayaks, our other jugs.  

 

Yes, the day came it was finally time to start our next journey.

Thanks for following us.

You can also see where we have been or are anchored at by going to Trackmytour sailbeauty-back to Bahamas.

Note that we are up at the top of Michigan..

http://trackmytour.com/35L17

Well I finally did it.. I called the Clay Township Police department to let them know of our arrival date home.  We left Grosse Point Farms and headed up to Lake St. Clair Metro-park. It’s was about 16 miles from Grosse Point Farms.  We  spent our last night of our trip on Beauty  at Metro-park.   There are so many thing to explore at Metro-park. For all of our boater friends, it a great place to anchor or get a boat slip. We always seem to anchor in the north bay and dinghy into shore. If you are wondering what to do there, here are just a few ideas.

• Biking, walking, running, skating: there is a huge asphalt trail around the park
• Bird watching, boat watching, fishing, swimming
• Outside water park and pool
• Large beach, picnic areas
• Put-Put Golf, regular golf
• Very large marina with excellent facilities, the most protected place to anchor in all of Lake St Clair

This is the entrance to the park from the water.

 

Tracing our trip up Detroit, we anchored off Grosse Point in the south west end of Lake St Clair.  This is a photo of the Church we anchor in front of when the winds are right.  From here, our adventure took us North to Metro-park.

 

As we traveled up the lake towards Metro-park, we were passed the James R Barker.  He is a cargo ship.  Beware if you travel up the shipping channel in Lake St Clair.  These freighters run wide open up the lake and will often times throw a 10 foot wake.  The better way to travel through Lake St Clair is up through the middle, through anchor bay and through the North Channel.

 

This is the view of Metro-park from Lake St. Clair.  Just to the right of this point is the beginning of Anchor Bay.

 

We decided to get a pump-out.  Typically, in the South, it cost $5.00 for a pump-out and it’s free on the Erie Canal.  At Metro-park, it cost… get ready;  $15.00!!  That is for one tank.  Welcome to Michigan.

 

I enjoyed the day relaxing in my chair as we anchored in the North bay at Metro-park.

 

Before we knew it, the sun was going down.  We sat on the bow and reminisced about our trip.  We just wanted to wave to everyone as we passed our canal and restart our trip.  But work is work and Bryce promised his boss he would come back.

 

The following morning, we made our final stretch to home. The sky was dark. Looks like rain coming. Bryce gave me the thumbs up for anchor up and I put Beauty in gear and off we went.

 

If you are in the area you can rent a slip in the marina.  This is one of the best stops in Lake St Clair. Or just anchor in the bay.  We always anchor & swim.  This is a picture of the south Marina.  There are two areas to get a slip.  The North Marina is less expensive.  Seawall dockage is cheaper yet.

 

It feels like fall has already set in. There really aren’t any boats out and about today.  On the weekend, it gets much more busy.  We saw one boat headed in as we were going out.  We can remember when there were so many boats cruising Metro it was like driving on I75 in rush hour.  On the right in the picture below is the park area with trails that run along the water.

 

These are the buoys that guide us into and out of the park area.  For the other boaters, the charts seem to indicate the lake is quite shallow.  However, the charts show low water datum that occurs maybe once in 30-40 years.  This year, the water depth is about 4 feet over charted depth.  So water depth is excellent… and no tides!!!  The water depth into this park is about 10 feet.  The channel inside and the bay is 12-15 feet.  Shallowest is on the north side of this channel near these no-wake buoys.

 

If you decide to walk the park in this area, you can also uses these fishing piers to fish from.  The park walk connects these piers.

 

We headed to to the North Channel on Lake St. Clair.  As you can see, we were hit by heavy rain showers.   The whole summer was dry, but we brought the rain back with us.

 

This is the North Chanel Yacht Club.  The rain is just seconds away. LOL

 

To our surprise, George didn’t smell the area of the North Channel.  Normally, he would pop out of his towel and be very excited that we were headed home…HMM…I wonder what’s up with him?

 

The view of our Canal.  I miss the light the neighbors once had in their upper window that would guide us in at night. But they moved and things change.  Now with GPS, its not so difficult to come in at night.

 

Here is a shot of the canal. We have to go around the curve  and straight down almost  to the end.

 

We are getting closer. I feel a bit on edge (nervous) after a year on Beauty.  We just weren’t ready to come home yet.

 

Well, here she is.  We made it back! Bryce is turning so we can dock up. The cover stayed on the power boat. That was a good sign. As we were positioning Beauty guess what we saw….see below

 

This is our sweet neighbor and her lovely daughter.  They were welcoming us home. They had been following us on our blog and figured this was the day of our arrival back. It was AWESOME!!

 

With the rain, they had removed the sign. But it had stopped.  Before they could remount the signs, we pulled up. I think that is murphy…LOL

 

For some reason, George didn’t recognize the house.  Normally he jumps off the boat and runs up to the house.  Bryce had to carry him.  He cried all the way to the house.  He did not want to leave the boat!!  He still doesn’t seem to be happy that he is home.  Boy, we sure did turn him into a sailor…LOL

 

The final map of our journey shows the complete trip of about 7000 miles.  It completes what is referred to as the “Great Loop”.  With an added trip through the Bahamas.

I apologies for the delay of our finial blog.  I just have had an issues of closing it. I haven’t been on FB either.  Of course the most important reason is letting go of all  of you. We truly don’t want to say bye. But instead, THANK-YOU all for your support and listening to me whine about things.  Without you all, there would not have been a reason to even create a blog.  My tears are now rolling down my cheeks.  If I could I would hug you all. Until our next adventure I will see you all on Facebook. Jane Bryce Johnson is who we are if you are interested.

We are planning our next escape for 2017..  Stay tuned!!

Our adventure continues on for a bit longer today. It really wasn’t so hot for sailing. We put out the head sail and it helped some. But we went against the current of nearly 2-3 mph which sometimes dropped our speed down below 4 mph.  We finally got out of the Detroit River after about 6 hours. Anyways with that said I am switching subjects now!!  LOL..  You know I am not sure but I have read that animals remember where their homes are.  Do you believe that?  I am asking because George’s nose keeps wiggling as if he is sniffing the air remembering all the different places he was once the closer we get to home.

His personality has changed too. Nothing seems to be bothering him.   It’s as if he knows we will be home soon. (weird)      I am waiting to see if he jumps off the boat like he normally does as we are docking up. He normally runs to the back door to get into the house.  He has been a great cat to travel with.  He only jumped off the boat once to eat grass.  I think that was because that was the only time he saw grass.  LOL.. I must say though, he really has adjusted to sailing.  Now-a-days, when we invite people on the boat, he doesn’t runaway and hide.  Have you ever thought back why sailors didn’t mind cats on there boats?  I think George put out a certain aroma that keeps certain creatures from coming aboard Beauty.

Okay… enough about George…

As we traveled up the river towards Detroit from Stay Bay (Stoney Island), I noticed this buoy with all the birds on it.  I think they were having a class reunion or something….LOL

 

We continued on and were passed by the U.S. Coast Guard. I just think it is so cool to look at all the many types of vessels that travel through the waters.  Among other things, this Coast Guard boat has bubblers/water jets on its hull to help beak apart ice flows.

 

This small water plant sets in Canada and it is the Detroit water system.  According to the GPS it sits in Canadian waters.

 

Okay…if you are traveling up river for the first time, this is the view that you have on the starboard side when you enter the industry area along the shoreline  of Detroit River and Canada.

 

When you make your slight turn one of the first things you’ll notice is the Blue building on your Port side.  This is the Great Lakes Works.  It is located in the community of Ecorse and River Rouge, Michigan and situated along the Detroit River.

 

The Great lake Works consists of both steelmaking and is a finishing facility.  They produce such things as hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheets of steels.  That are used in the automotive industry.  Yea; I love to see our jobs here at home.

 

This building is also part of the Great Lakes Works.  I don’t want to bore you.  I am just very proud of Michigan and love to see jobs.

 

This is a Canada Steamship either unloading or loading on the Canadian shoreline.

 

An Army Core Of Engineers facility.  These guys are responsible for all the large water ways.  Except for the Erie Canal.

 

As you passed under the Ambassador Bridge….

 

Look to the Starboard side, which is Canada.  Of course, that is only if you are coming from the south. This is a park that they display the Canada and U.S.A. Flag.  I think that is beautiful.

 

On the other side of the river sits Detroit.  I must say, if you ever get the change to sail at night, this is the most awesome view you will see.  You will hear the sounds of laughter from the city.  You will hear the trains from the steel industry.  NO….Gun fire!!!  That is for a friend who thinks she hears gun fire in Detroit! LOL

 

You can come to Detroit and take a ride on the Detroit Princess.  It normally travels for 2-3 hours and takes you on a journey from hart Plaza past the Ambassador Bridge and just past the Belle Isle then to the dock.  They offer dinner cruises and lunch cruises; even a moonlight cruise.  For you fall lovers,  they offer a fall color cruise. You will hear the tones of the Musical Melodies and Motown Memories and Big Band.  Okay, now I want to go.  LOL http://detroitprincess.com   Have fun

 

On the other side of the river, we were passed by Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  You can see they were waving to us.

 

On the Canadian side you can see Caesar’s  Casino They offer lots of entertainment.

 

As we cruised out of the river, we were past by several freighters.  Isn’t she pretty. Algosea is her name..

 

Belle Isle Park.  One thing you will notice as you travel along the Detroit River is the Belle Isle DNR Park. It is rich with history..  They had marinas…Yacht clubs in the past but I didn’t notice any during my research.

 

We finally made it out of the river and are headed to our anchorage for the night.  We often like to anchor about 5  miles from the Detroit River in Lake St Clair near Grosse Point Farms between two Yacht clubs and in front of a church. Thank you all for following us on our adventure

After reaching Put-N-Bay on Thursday afternoon. We were able to prevision for our trip home this following week.  Boy, I think the water taxi driver never though he would stop hearing.. ”Water Taxi can we get a pick-up on ball G-1 please?” We must of called for a pick-up 5 times.. LOL But we got everything we needed.  Friday afternoon, after the thunderstorms with 30 knot winds passed through we thought it would be a good time to go exploring.  We meet a really nice couple John and Sandy from Michigan on the water taxi.  They were headed to the Goat Restaurant and invited us to go with them.  It was so much fun.  Their boat was right next to us on a mooring ball. The weather map doesn’t look good for a Sunday departure & maybe not even on Monday.

Dark skys rolled in and dumped rain & wind on us.  Before the storm even started, all mooring balls were taken. You can see a few left in this photo. But as I was taking this photo, boats were coming in left & right.

 

Boats came in from every direction to grab a mooring ball; but soon they were full.  Not enough to go around.  So boat just pointed there nose in to the wind and road it out.  Dozens of sailboats came in from a race, they rafted off in the marina.  It was quite hectic.

 

These guys are trying to find a ball.

 

Our Friday afternoon with our new friends John & Sandy

 

This is a really nice place to eat.  But don’t eat to much. Because Ice-cream and desserts await downstairs.

 

Saturday was another nice day. We took the diesel cans into the board walk and filled them up for our way home incase we have no wind.  Bryce is taking the cans back to the boat.  This is a picture of the water taxi.  Rides are free with mooring on a ball.

 

One of our favorite things to do is to visit the pool bars and enjoy a few drinks.  This one is called Splash!  I like this one. It’s my favorite; but on Saturday it was wall to wall bodies no room for even a toe to get in.  LOL.. I didn’t take my camera because I didn’t want to leave it unattended while we were in the pool. We went back on Sunday to take the photo below.  I think Sunday might have been the best day to enjoy the pool.  Almost no one here.

 

Well, I don’t remember the name of this pool area, but we call it the Wild one.  It focuses on the younger generation; however, we always have a few beers here also.  Again, this picture was taken on Sunday, so few people are here.  Imagine standing room only in this pool.. That is how it was Friday and Saturday.

 

A few years or so ago, we found a third pool area to visit.  Crash Landing…. It is my second favorite.  It is a bit more family oriented.  It has two large pool areas and two pool bars.

 

Not so many people here on Sunday. There is also a second pool & hot tub across from this area.  This was much less crowded than earlier in the weekend.

 

We decided to take the jeep train around the Island to pick up a few bottles of champagne.  It’s $10 per person and is the best way to see the island.

 

Here we are on the jeep train.. ready to leave the station.

 

I have to laugh… This young lady saw Bryce taking pictures and yells.. Out Take my photo…..

 

Along our adventures here on Put-n-Bay we like to stop at Heineman Winery and pick up Champagne & wine. Today we only picked up some Champagne and Sparkling Wine.

 

At Heineman Winery, I tested a few reds.  They didn’t have any Merlot.

 

We went across the street to Perry’s Cave and had a hot dog & visited the antique cars.

 

Although this is very small pole barn, it was worth the stop.  It is the biggest collections of Antique cars on Put-in-Bay..

 

How cool is this 1924 model T snowmobile?  I think it would be a blast to take a ride in one. Poor Bryce is carrying my Champagne.

 

I like this yellow car the best….

 

They have antique bikes hanging on the walls…

 

A few moments later they had a antique car parade come through the area. I like this car-boat also.  It has two propellers and drives in the water!! Notice the Ohio boat registration numbers on the side!!

 

It is always so nice to see people take pride in their dreams.

 

After we got back on the train, we passed by the Heineman Winery Vineyards…

 

We have never stopped here.

 

This is a fun place to have a few cocktails..

 

As we were waiting for the arrival of the water taxi we sat on the bench and looked around and talked to the people setting next to us.  When the water taxi approached the sea wall… This beautiful young lady with a sparkling smile said… Hello Bryce and Jane… Welcome back.. It was Michelle & Bryan and their two adorable children Claire & Luke.   Below is a great picture of them with both our sailboats in the back ground along with Perry’s Monument.  They had just sailed from Michigan on  the western shore of Lake Erie. It was great to see them.

 

Michelle handed me a present.  I didn’t get a chance to open it till later that night after we arrived back to our boat. I couldn’t stop laughing. I can’t thank you all enough for this….  For those of you that don’t remember, a shot of Goldschlager is required for me per lock to steady my nerves.

 

We finally needed to head back. We had plans to met up with Brain & Melanie some good friends of ours around 7:00 p.m They toasted with a bottle of champagne to our first year long trip…

 

What an amazing night with the sunset. With great friends all round us…It was perfect!!!! Michelle and Brian, notice your sailboat in in the sunset…

 

Thank you all for following us….