6/30/23 - Port Sanilac to Port Huron

 

Exiting Lake Huron onto The St Clair River
Blue Water Bridge center
Sarnia, Ontario Canada 🇨🇦 on left
Port Huron, Michigan USA 🇺🇸 on right
Both respectively flying their own and the other nations flag 
☮️ 

Another milestone in our Loop was accomplished today as we completed our travels on Lake Huron.  Two Great Lakes down and most likely only one other (Lake Erie) to go for us…at least this time around!

After sleeping in a bit this morning and preparing ourselves a big breakfast of omelets, bacon and toast we got busy on the internet and phones with an investigative search for  where Happy Destiny will call home for the remainder of the season and winter once we complete our travels for this leg of our voyage.   Erik had THOUGHT we had a slip lined up as well as winter storage at Catawba Landing Marina on Catawba  Island.   This was based on phone conversations with the marinas owner several months ago where he had assured us that he would have availability; turns out not so much 😠  Upon calling a couple of days ago and after a couple shaky communications it turns out that they do NOT have a large enough slip available nor room for us to store over the winter.   We pulled out the spreadsheet we had made while shopping around months ago and began contacting other facilities.   Pretty much all marinas in the Catawba Island area are now full and couldn’t accommodate us.  Many phone calls later we do now have a couple of options available to us.  Pier 53 Marina, also on Catawba Island, can accommodate us but is a little pricier than we had planned and were hoping for.   Anchor Point Marina in Curtice OH (further west….closer to Toledo) was another that we had considered some months ago and will likely be our choice.  They have very competitive pricing and nice facilities (pool, nice bath house, etc) but are about 25 minutes further from home and also in an area with not as much to do close by.   We will be making our final decision in the next couple of days.   

We departed Port Sanilac at 11:15 am and enjoyed nice, smooth lake conditions for almost the entirety of our 35 mile cruise.   What was not so nice or enjoyable was the thick smoky haze that our bow had to penetrate and our eyes had to attempt to peer through.  At times we had well less than 1/2 mile visibility but yet a sunny brightness that was very annoying to look into.  

Smoky, low visibility made radar our best friend
This was really the first time we’ve cruised NEEDING to use radar
Nice to have it when it’s needed!
Take your damned smoke back Canada….eh! 😂 

For the last several miles on Lake Huron as we approached the entrance to the St Clair River the smoke did dissipate considerably which made life much better for navigating a very busy area.  The waterway directly inside the mouth of the River was congested with lots of boats of all sizes zooming around in many directions.  The large wakes made for a wash basin effect ruining our smooth run we had been having up to that point.   Additionally there was a quite strong current for the first mile or so going up the river; internet said +/- 5mph.   We had the throttle just a touch above idle speed to maintain steerage and we were still traveling at about 14mph as the current pushed us along through the topsy tervy, congested water.  

More boats coming at us at the same time than we’d seen in a long time

Considering upgrading our dinghy!
Yep….that’s 900 hp on that puppy 

Just a couple miles down the St Clair River we turned off onto The Black River where we headed up it a couple of miles to a marina we had secured a slip at, Bridge Harbor Marina.   It is named appropriately given that in the 2 mile or so trip up it we encountered 3 bridges that were to low for us to navigate under.  Fortunately our timing was pretty good as we only had to wait at the first one for about 7 minutes (it raises only twice an hour on the hour and half hour).  After the first lift bridge the second one was only a hundred yards or so downriver and was listed in Navionics as lifting on the quarter hour but as we approached and prepared to wait it opened….nice!   The third and final one opened as soon as the second one closed.   We arrived and got tied up in our slip at 2:35pm.  The sun was now out in force heating the air up to what for the first time in our trip felt like true summer.   We plugged into shore power and stared up both AC units simultaneously for the first time this year.   Riva went to shore with us to check in and do her business and we then changed into our suits to head up to the nice refreshing pool where we spent a couple of hours relaxing.  

This marina is a little rough around the edges out on the docks
BUT…
has a really nice clubhouse and pool

From other side looking out at docks 
Can you find Renee?

The remainder of the evening was spent relaxing, having some leftovers for dinner and doing some dock walking and talking to people in the marina.  This is definitely a much more blue collar type marina with one member even self proclaiming it to be a redkneck yacht club 😂 

We know nothing about those! 
😝 
A fellow Marinette