Mile 873: Little Current

We left Kagawong first thing this morning to head for Little Current.  Unlike yesterday, the wind went from 2-3 knots to zero.  It was like glass for most of the trip.

We pulled into Spider Bay Marine, but after we wandered through the town we realize that being downtown at the city docks, while less private, might have been more central.  The marine here is nice and clean, but just a little out of the way.

Once tied up, we located the showers, got cleaned up, ate some lunch and headed to a walk through town with a small list of supplies to get.

We stopped in at a small gift/art shop and picked up a few books, and looked at some nice art, and native crafts.

As we were walking along the city dock, I spotted a tall mast with a KYC burgee!  ... First Light!  ... we left a note for Richard and June after knocking and not getting an answer (except for their guard dog!).  We ended up bumping into them further in town (at the car show).  Nice to catch up, and get some good tips on where to go and what to see.

Linda went one way, and I went the other.  My trip included a beer top up, and 2 GFCIs (apparently 2 of mine are permanently interrupted).

Back at the boat, we had a slow afternoon hiding from the sun under the tarp.  I eventually did some wiring repairs, and working on some loose things here and there around the boat.

We had heard the Playfair and Pathfinder on the VHF the day before, and this afternoon they both passed by our slip at Little Current.

Finally a fuel up and pump out so we can leave first thing in the morning.  Weather permitting, we're off to Baie Finn.

Chris

Mile 855: Kagawong

A quiet leisurely morning was had by all.  The bay was calm when we first woke, but a brisk breeze eventually started over the island and tugged at our mooring lines.  At one point in the morning, a thick fog engulfed the island.  Our view of everything beyond our little cove disappeared.

During breakfast, I had this feeling that I'm sure all sailors get once and a while, that things felt wrong.  I looked out the companion way, and could no longer see land!  I hopped up into the cockpit, and saw that our stern lines to shore were slack and in the water.  We were a safe distance from the shore swinging from our anchor.  I pull in our stern lines, wondering if they had chafed through, but they hadn't, they had somehow slipped off the rock on shore.  Anyway ... there are always lessons to be learned.

Linda an I rowed over to the Western gap.  A patch of smooth, polished rocks with a small passage through it.  We called out to a motor boat entering the gap, asking how deep he was reading.  He reply'd "28 feet", so it's something we could have used as /in/out entrance if the conditions were right.

We went ashore again to explore and collect our blueberries.  Breakfast pancakes for tomorrow!  We took a final look at the blasting site.  Apparently, some time ago, there was a plan afoot to quary the islands.  They started the process, and small section of shore is riddled with bore holes and a section has been blasted to rubble.

When we finally cast off, it was early afternoon, and the breeze was building.  After breaking around the shelter of the Benjamin's, we got a blast of 20+ knots of wind.  Today, we were heading to Kagawong, a harbour not too far away, but even still, the winds kept picking up until we had to furl everything and power along by motor.  We wind speed peaked out at 36 knots.  It was a rough we ride with the wind on the beam.

There's not much on the charts about Kagawong, but the Ports book did have a paragraph indicating that there was mooring available.  Sure enough, there was a small marina, with protected dockage, ice, and ice cream!

Once tied down and secured, and after our very generous servings of ice cream, we wandered into town.  passing a few little stores, stopping in at the old Mill (now an art studio/store).  We continued on toward the Bridal Veil falls.  A pretty spot with a very nice waking path back along the river, back to the Mill at the base of the bay.

Chris

Mile 842: South Benjamin Island

Perfectly protected little harbour inside the Benjamins on the Southmost island of this circular island chain.
Beautiful and seculded, except from the 30+ boats variously achored.  Some swinging freely at anchor, and others, like us, med moored near shore.

We spent the evening with our stern 2 feet from shore, and used our fender board as a plank to walk to shore.  It took a little fiddling to get it just right to keep from touching our rudder and transom on the rocks.

Ben and I went onshore for a hike.  The climbing was a little tricky.  Lots of smooth granite and some slippery
lichien.  The Jack Pine trees contained large numbers of spiders.  Ben counted 36 in a single tree.  It makes you wonder what they are all waiting for?  (We found out later in the evening when the witching hour came and the mosquitoes came out on mass.  They seem to subside by midnight though.  A look out the companionway in the morning showed a blanket of Shad-flies all over the cockpit.  I must have picked off 100 and tossed them to the wind or the fish (some of them just flew back to the boat only to repeat the process).

We found wild blueberries and raspberries trying to eek out a living in the crevises in the granite.  All tiny little berries but very sweet.  We may go back with a container to bring a snack back to the boat.

At bedtime, we re-adjusted to be 15' off the shore to be safe.  We put up our borrowed windscoop and had a perfect nights sleep.

We woke up a little late today to a wonderful morning.  A number of boat had already left or were in the process of weighing anchor.  Linda and I rowed to the West gap to walk around on the smooth rock.

We made breakfast when we returned.  Pancakes with Peach sauce! (Thanks Kathy).  During breakfast, something didn't quite look right, as I could no longer see the island out the companion way.  Turns out our line to the island had popped off the rock, and we were swining free.  No problem, anchor holding well and all clear of other boats.

Now we plan where we go next.

Chris

Mile 831: Spanish

After a brief visit to Gore Bay, we packed up and headed over to Spanish to Meet Andrew, Ben and Kathy, and drop John off to return to Sudbury with Kathy.  We very much appreciate the effort that Kathy put forth to get the boys all the way up here.  We now also have Boaty Boat boat and a loaned motor (that D&K).

The facilities here are excellent. Docks, power, showers, fuel dock are all top notch.  The town on the other hand looks a little sad.  We are finishing up showers and final prep to head over to the Benjamins for a day or so as we trek East on our journey home.

Chris

Mile 813: "The Race" & Gore Bay

Fighting the current to get to
the start

I'm writing this as we leave Mackinac Island.  We haven't had good (read "free") internet access since arriving at Mackinac so I'll upload this next time we have access (turns out to be Gore Bay).

Short Summary of the race:
Saturday (it's all a little fuzzy, so apologies in advance):

The starting area was perfectly bisected
by the shipping channel!  yikes

• Painful start with very light winds... many postponments, last fleet got off the line at 4pm.  We were postponed for only about 30 minutes.
• Very light winds until 9pm.  Our whole fleet was all bunched up together (not good for us as we're rated the fastest boat in the fleet)

Saturday Night:

• Watching the shoreline, we were sure we saw fireworks on west shore ... no idea what the event was, but maybe it was distant lightning.
• Lots of isolated rain cells passing across the lake.  We monitored the radar frequently to watch for anything that might cause us trouble.
• With some careful timing and watching the storm track toward us on the GPS (yeah WX weather), we managed to strip the spinnaker down and get under control just minutes before edge of the cell came over us.  Others around us struggled with sail changes in the strong winds.
• Managed to slip by the back side of the storm and avoided the major winds and nastiness, and picked us a nice lift to keep us moving.
• We had a stretch of decent wind that kept us moving for a while.
• Once the cells has passed, we still were seeing lightning, but looking at the radar, the storms were more than 300nm away to the west of lake michigan.  Incredible how far you can see this stuff out on a lake.

Sunday Early AM

• The wind died completely (somewhere 2-6am).  GPS track showed us moving toward shore (SW), but boat was pointed north'ish.  Current dragging us inshore and backwards.
• Swells preceded the return of some wind.  Likely from the more active weather and cells that passed to the East on the upper portion of the lake.

Sunday

• Grey day, occasional light rain, and a few sunny breaks, but mostly grey.

Monday Early AM

• Rogers City .... oh how I hate Rogers city ..... might be the nicest place int the world, but I never want to see it again.  The wind died out completely.  Windex and electronic indicator spinning in circles sails slapping.  Night was spent watching the other running lights to see if they were moving any better.  For the most part, we continued to take boats.
• At times, the boat speed was 0.0, wind speed was 0.0, but we were still doing ~1.0 over ground.  A quick check on the WX lake conditions, show a favourable current which at least kept up moving toward out destination.  
• Linda came on shift and did her usualy magic and got the boat going again.
• The winds built back up through the wee hours of the morning until I was awoken to the sound of rushing water moving by my head in the aft berth.

Monday Morning

• Upwind to the finish, with a good stiff breeze.  New jib looked nice, boat doing a consistent 6-7 knots.
• The boat was feeling really nice.  We double reef'd the main and kept the jib up for a while as the wind built to over 20 knts.  It eventually eased back down to the high teens and we shook out both reefs and kept our speed up.   As we approached the island, the breeze funnelled and picked up again, but we kept full sail until the finish.
• The last 10 miles it really tough as the islands (Bois Blanch, Round and Mackinac) move into view.
• The two towers of the bridge became visible a long way out.
• What we thought were fire boats turned out to be ferries that produce rooster tails 60 feet high!
•  A pair of large lighthouses mark the straights of Mackinac between Mackinac and Round Island.

A view from above.

Finish:

• 12:36pm ... not bad .... 47 hours ... at times it seem'd like it would take forever

John catching some shade

Getting into the harbour was sedated mayhem.  People trying to fit boats into impossible spots, at really funny angles, hovering, doing circles, but at the same time, already you could feel the tension of the race dissipating.  The harbour appears to be designed for very large craft, and the arrangment of finger and pilings did not facilitate convenient rafting.  We ended up bow to a finger at 45 degrees, against a pile.  By the end of it all, we had 4 other boats rafter off of us mostly resting on a single fender!

Fort Mackinac

Before we hit the dock, the harbour master informed us that we were going to be subject to an inspection.  We weren't exactly sure of what type as the SI's indicated that the DNR might inspect boats looking for unregistered ones, and be fining people.  In the end it was just a random safety inspection. The inspection covered about 15 selected requirements from the MSRs.  Aside from having to tear up an already messy stinky boat to locate various bits of equipment, we passed without issue.

Channel between
Round and Mackinac Island

After pulling out all the fenders we had to protect ourselves, we stepped ashore to absorb the island a little.  Priorities were to find the showers, and wander around the main street.

The island appears to be the fudge capital of the country.



Chris

A final view back toward Mackinac

Race Morning

Cooler night last night ... I think most of us slept reasonably well.   The "Blue Water Fest" crowds are hung over at home, and the place is all sailors now.

Weather briefing was at 8am, and it looks like we'll have a mixed bag of everything.  Definitely some rain and electricity in our future and various fronts pass over the lake.  The start will be light winds, but later on Sunday the winds in the north part of the lake will improve with prediction in the low 20's.

Might have an upwind finish as a Low slowly moves by and disrupts the wind patterns a bit.

We're charging batteries, and doing final cleanup on the boat so we're all ready.

I think the race tracking is work now, except we're listed as a US boat.  Open up:

http://www.bellsbeer.com/bycmack2011/

- click on "Shore Course",
- On the left of the screen is a "Teams" pull out, click on that, and
- Clear all other checkboxes except PHRF F.

We are the fast boat in the division, so given some of the ratings, we need to beat some boats by a very large margin.

Cheers
Chris and all the crew (Linda, John, Conrad, & Elsabe)

24 hours to go

Hot again ... what else is new ...

Today is prep day and we're finishing up a bunch a final tasks.  We picked up our registration package, and have our transponder on the boat now.  Go to:

http://www.bellsbeer.com/bycmack2011/

and click on "Shore Course" (Cove Island is for the big boys).  We're Ramble On, CAN 787 in PHRF F division.  We've got our transponder, but at this point in time, I don't see us showing up yet.  I'll check with the organizers if we're not pinging soon.

We've finally tracked down a shower code, so we're off to get ourselves clean and cool, at least for a few minutes.

Chris

Mile 480: Sailing Porn

Took our final dip in the pool at the marina, called the Nexus office (friendly person on the other end!) and pre-cleared out entry to Port Huron.  Very quick indeed!.

We then slipped out lines, and headed out for our next leg of our journey .... 10 minutes later I was on the radio with the Port Huron Harbour master, and was assigned a rafting position right near the mouth of the river (no bridges to wait for) ... we didn't even remove our fenders ... 

Our raft is 3 deep, with a neighbour from Windsor.  Any deeper would encroach on the harbour width.  Our entrance (as is everyone's) was announced to the whole harbour via PA system.  A steady stream of arrivals, and accompanying announcements, streamed into the river all day.  Many boats from Chicago, probably having just finished the Chicago/Mac race last weekend.  It's not 8:30pm, and the traffic has changed to non-stop pontoon boats, and 1000hp motor boats, and everything in between.  Seems like the locals returning from a day on the water, or just putting up and down the main drag/river.

Beyond the first two bridges more boats are moored, and that's where the big boys are moored.  There is a whole fleet of Santa Cruz 70's in this race.  Very big boats indeed.

The weather here is sweltering, as I think it is for much of the country.  It's 35 down below in the boat, and the nice breeze we've had all day seems to be dying.  We are keeping cool by consuming a steady stream of ice water and other fine beverages.  I expect that we'll buy a bunch more ice tonight and tomorrow just to stay cool.

The town host a huge harbour event on this weekend too, and the streets are closed off and lined with vendors.  There are multiple stages with live music going all day (and probably all night).  It is truly a huge event and I expect that tomorrow will have more boats arriving and everything will ramp up a little more.  

Conrad and Elsabe will arrive tomorrow evening, and will go over final prep, safety, equipment, etc.  Saturday will require us to get on the water early to fight the current to the starting line, and be sure we're ready.  Our start signal is at noon.  We're in PHRF F with about 14 other boats.  We're fastest boat in our division, so we have to  work hard to keep in front of everyone.  Weather is a little hard to pin down, but most wind directions are favourable to some degree.  Ramble On shines off the wind, and struggles with the wind on the nose.

We are moored just West of PHYC 3 deep on F11.

Cheers from Port Huron!

Chris

[Update: I forgot to mention ... 38 Special was the headlining act right onshore from where we are moored.   Deja high School! or what.]  

Still Mile 479: Were to eat in Sarnia?

If you have any suggestions, post a comment.

A view form Salvatore's

[Updated]: Ok, we ended up at Salvatore's Trattoria E Ristoranté.  Recommended by a few as an authentic Italian place to go.  The decor was a little blue collar, but the woman who appears to runs the operation introduced herself and asked if we had any special food requirements, and then told us that the rest was up to her (no menu!).  She proceeded to bring us pasta dishes, some steak and chicken dishes, bruschetta,  fresh bread, wine.  In general it was very good, and certainly an interesting place to try out.

[Updated more]: Smoking hot here, and getting hotter.  We've been soaking in the marina pool regularly, and were quite upset to find it locked yesterday evening.    Out plan is to head over to the Port Huron side today, and join the raft up, and get involved.  Forcasts for the weekend generally have favourable wind direction, but strength is looking a little light.  Chances of thunderstorm are scattered throughout the forecast.  The WX weather on my GPS has been very good with it's forecasts, and up to date radar, so we should be able to get fair warning of any nasty weather approaching.

Some pics from a walking path in the waterfront park.  Abused women & children.

Chris

Mile 479: Sarnia

Pushing water ...

The trip from Windsor to Sarnia was uneventful and hot.  No sailing involved for this leg.  The light winds were on the nose, and this is NOT sailing territory.

One of many large lights
along the Saint Claire dredge

This stretch is the sheet pile capital of the world.  A solid 2/3 of the shoreline was neatly sheet piled.  At least the American side was.  For the most part, the Canadian side was undeveloped marsh and relatively undisturbed shoreline.  The American side was a continuum of posh to modestly expensive waterfront mansions, each with their own water slide, boat lift, boat house, etc.

Lake Saint Claire was two GPS legs.  Both straight as arrows.  We passed one freighter, a handful of fishing boats, and two sail boats (heading for Port Huron like us).

Where old marks go to die ...

The Saint Claire river eventually turned into an industrial flanked playground for swimmers.  Large industry increased on both sides (mostly on the Canadian side), interspersed with shoreline homes.  On the final approaches to Sarnia, the smoke and burn off stacks turned into a forest of their own.   Not quite as dirty looking as Detroit, but I'm sure the pollution is able to keep pace.

Pink Floyd?

We are now at the Sarnia Bay Marine.  We chose that for it's proximity to the US side (Black River Marina) where we will head in a day or so.  We are the ONLY sailboat here.  Nice place, clean, nice amenities, but all motor boats.

Enroute to resuce a C&C we passed earlier

The temperature is a little cooler, but still warm and humid.

Hey guys, this is where her breast
implant were made!

Look closely ... a spill boom and launch are
at the end of this pier ... comforting ..

Thoughts of the race to come ... The Chicago/Mac race included some unfortunate events (see this link), and that certainly encourages caution to the weather and thank fullness that I added the full WX weather option to my GPS.  We've been checking is regularly, and will continue to do so during the race.  Being able to watch the approaching storm cells is very valuable.

Cheers

Black River Marina ... 

Chris (Linda, John)

Heading for Sarnia

A slight cooler morning than we've had for a while and we prepare to leave Windsor.  Debbie has parted company to catch a train to Toronto to search the streets for her car.  We wish her luck and suggest a grid pattern while pressing her key fob to try to find a car with horn tooting and lights flashing.

Windsor's historic gravel piles (look
at the poor house beside them ..
what a view)

We're sneaking out of the Windsor side channel (not a shipping channel) to join the main channel, where we'll let Ernest steer us along the dead straight shipping channel.

more from Sarnia.

Chris

Mile 355: Windsor Yacht Club

A hazy day's sail from Pelee Island.  Hard to see any shoreline for most of the trip out of Lake Erie.  As we approached the outlet from the Detroit river, we were presented with a vast array of channel markers.  There are two or more channels at the river mouth, and some of the channel have multiple lanes and include double red marks.  The channels include a few large light platforms which include a helicopter platform, and typically host a large number of cormorants.  Strangely, we saw no freighter traffic, for which all these buoys were really meant to guide.  We did pass the same ship that held us up at lock 8.

Much of the rest of the Detroit river was a combination of giant industrial and modestly expensive homes.

As you can see on the buoy at the right, there is a stiff current in the river.  Varying from 1.5-2.0 knots, it reduced progress and we certainly noticed our pace up the river was particularly leisurely.

We're the little boat at the bottom ...
BIG red cell in front of us.

Our passage up the river was not without some excitment brought on by a nasty line of cells passing perpendicular to the river.  The radar imagery on my GPS was busy using all the colours available to it to to tell us how wet we were going to get.  In the end, a number of cell passed in front and behind us and a few squalls hit us directly.  39 knots was the peak wind speed we saw.

Steel Factory #1: Before

Steel Factory #1: During

All that is nothing compared to the surreal effect squalls lofting up vast amounts of coal dust and other industrial left overs, and, at times, completely obscuring out view up and down the river.   The boat was literally being sand blasted as we passed through the dust clouds.

The pictures below have some before and after of the same factories.  I have to say, it was the strangest sight I have seen in a long while.

The rain was pelting so hard it hurt any exposed skin, and the coal and dust grit would get in your eyes if you looked upwind.  Given the prevailing winds and direction of storm tracks, I guess that the Canadian side spends a lot more time dusting and cleaning windows then do our American neighbours.    Squalls aside, the amount of pollution, noise, grime and grit produced by the US side is quite startling.  The size of some of the factories would cover most of downtown Kingston.   On the other hand, the Canadian side appears to be populated by modest commercial development, residential houses, and distilleries.

Steel Factor #2: Before

Steel Factory #2: During

We had called ahead to the Windsor Yacht Club to make sure we had a place for the night.  Upon our arrival, we found a welcome note taped to our designated slip with bathroom codes, but not a soul to be seen (~6pm arrival).  The club is clean and new looking, but primarily populated by large motor boats.  Less than 10 stick boats out of 60+ boats.    In any case, the showers were very clean, and the grounds neatly kept.  A few friendly boater dropped by to chat and say hi.

The night was hot a humid, scatter with some light rain.  I think a few additional fans are in order once we get to a chandlery.

Looking Back and the pollution blow from the US to Canada

Truck ferry pushed by a tug.