July 31, 2006

N 43 12.937' W 077 56.131'
We have put on a lot of miles since our last posting. Wireless Internet isn't as available as we had thought so we have been having problems updating the blog. And we are getting lazy.
Anyway, we left Port Huron and traveled the St. Claire River to the mouth of the Detroit River where we stayed at the Bayview Yacht Club. The next day into Lake Erie to Put-In-Bay for some R & R. On Lake Erie we also stopped at Lorain (Anne Forgacs' parents picked us up and brought us to their house for cosmos,dinner & laundry), Fairport, Erie (stayed for 4 days anchored in a state park, very nice), Dunkirk then into the Erie Canal to get our mast down.
Here Cindy is enjoying the shower facilities at Wardell's Boat Yard where we had our mast taken down and secured on the top of the boat for our trip down the Erie Canal. Bridge clearance in 15.6 feet and our mast was about 50 feet. All went well taking down the mast. As it turned out Canal Days was going on so we had all weekend to enjoy the festivities and prepare. Caught a ride to Niagara Falls with the parents of the boat we met at Erie, PA ("Black Pearl" Charlie & Kerri Cole who are heading for the Bahamas too!). We were embarrassed when we discovered that we all wore the same outfits.
On Monday morning we got 3 masts taken down and one put back up. Cindy and I then moved over to the city tie ups in the town of Tonawanda.
I decided it was time to clean up so I got the razor out and started cutting. Before I knew it I had turned into my brother John. I have almost no hair now as Cindy has been practicing her barbering skills. I was her first customer and opted for the buzz. Brian, a passing biker from New Zealand decided to get a more traditional cut.
Life is good here in the Erie Canal. We are getting pretty lazy cruising 10-20 miles then tying up at some small town and hanging out with fellow boaters. Everyone is very friendly and helpful, (except some of the power boats), the lift bridge operators know where all the boats are and where they are going, so you don't want to get on their bad side. It looks like the Canal will open up by the end of the month but we will continue to monitor the situation.

July 8, 2006

N 42 58 44 W 82 25 24
Hello!
We are in Port Huron, MI. Landed here Thursday night about 1800 hours. Left Goderich, Ontario at 0630. had NW winds 15-20 knots with following seas at about 4-8 feet. Wow! What a ride! We were able to sail the whole way averaging 6 knots. 57.8 NM got in at 1645. We are staying at the Port Huron Yacht Club. Tom and Rose on SOJOURN found it and the club does courtesy dockage for yacht club members (1st night free then $15.00!!). The club is located on the Black River just off the St Clair. One of the members let me use his truck so I was able to do laundry, grocery shopping and go to the liquor store. It was wierd driving again!! Instead of waves of water coming at me there were waves of cars! We have been out 1 month yesterday! I can hardly believe it! We are so lucky to be doing this! It is a busy place. Lots of boats and freighters. I am having fun riding my bike all over town. Oh, the yacht club has a bar and the drinks are $1.25! Pump out is $1.00!!! Most places it is $7.00. We love a good deal! The whole club is volunteer. Amazing. Tomorrow we leave for the mouth of the Detroit River. We will now be dealing with currents and big city traffic instead of rock reefs!
Cindy/Bill & critters

July 1, 2006

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!
Our curent position is: 44 59 18 North, 81 23 08 West.
We are anchored off the SW side of Garden Island, Stokes Bay, Ontario in Lake Huron. We arrived last night about 6pm. We had a great close reach all the way from Fitzwilliam Island; probably our best sail yet! The water in Huron seems even cleaner that Superior if that can be. The big difference is it is all rock. Rock shores, rock bottom (tough anchoring!), and rocky Islands. We will be sailing along in 80+ feet of water then all of a sudden it will go to 15! Most of the rock reefs are well marked.
The wind indicator decided to take a break on us. We think it happened during a thunder storm 2 days ago as that is when it went out. Bill took it apart today and will need to check in with Raytheon. While this is not necessary to have, it is very helpful and fun to check wind strength and direction. Today for example, we decided to lay over as the winds are predicted to 30+ knots and waves 4-9 feet with thunderstorms passing through. Right now the wind is howling out of the South and the hazy sun is still trying to shine.
So what do we do all day?
Usually I get up at about 0700 and start the coffee then go back to bed.. I start the timer when I hear the perking that is if there is water and coffee in the pot!! Unfortunately, I cooked an empty stainless steel coffee pot for 20 minutes on high yesterday! Either one of us will fill it the night before so it is ready to go...guess we missed the boat that time!
Next, we dinghy Jess to shore so she can do her business and we can do a little walking. This has not been great do to the rocky island terrain. In fact we haven't had a good walk for a couple days. Today we dinghyd in to Stokes to walk to the General store. This was about a mile each way so that felt good.
We try to get under way by about 0830. The miles we have been doing for most of the trip have been about 50 per day. Lately we have been able to slow down, this is nice. Once underway I will make breakfast. This may consist anything from Malto Meal cereal (Bill's brother John, was kind enough to get us a nice supply of this!), yogurt, fruit, or eggs and toast (place tin foil on the burner and toast).
Bill has been doing a great job navigating through all the little islands, markers, bouys, range markers and shoals. It is very difficult. Why don't they put big signs on all the islands to let us know which ones they are!!! Jess has been good but had a nervous shaky day when we were going through some storms. Marty has become more bold in his climbing about the boat and now finds the top of the dodger as a great place to view things.
We have met many nice people. In the town of Little Current on Manatoulin Island we docked by a couple on a 42 foot trawler built in the 70's. Beautiful! They have a home in Corpus Christi and one in Ontario. They invited us over and shared their stories of completing the very same journey we are on. In fact Jim reminded us: "it is about the journey not the destination".