North Channel Cruise Conclusion

[rfrance0718]

When I mapped out my trip I looked at the Tobermory to home leg as a challenge. I thought that it might take 5 days, or more if weather was an issue. Or it might take 3 days if I could sail the 165 mile portion from Tobermory to Port Huron in one hop. Ether way it was asking a lot of a 24 foot boat with a 6 hp outboard. When the weather broke and I sailed out of Tobermory I headed for Port Huron, but I encountered two issues. First, my solar panel wasn't charging my battery, and second, the breeze had laid down some, but not enough to flatten out the considerable lump. I decided to sail on into Kincardin, and then on to Bayfield, and across to Lexington. (which ended up being Port Sanilac) I found some dinner and got a good night's sleep, waking at 5:30 and departing with the first bit of light.

I had 146 miles to home port, with a reasonable anchorage 64 miles south in the delta of the St. Clair River. There's a lot of favorable current in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers and I envisioned 7 to 8 mph speeds. First I had a 30 mile sail in the lake to reach Port Huron and that went pretty well. I spent most of the time motor sailing close hulled on a calm lake. When I reached the river, however, the breeze had turned right on my nose, and it was making significant chop, apposing the current. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the river was full of boats as I passed under the Blue Water Bridges. The chop was in thee 3 ft range, but not terrible as I wasn't fighting the current. After a gas stop, I headed on down the river, and while the chop dissipated some, my speeds were in the 5.8 mph range. I passed, or was passed by, hundreds of boats in the river, and steering required full concentration. As you reach the river's mouth it becomes a beautiful grassy marsh, with my anchorage down the Basset Channel which appears, on the chart, not to be navigable beyond the anchorage. I set the anchor and the current supplied plenty of force to keep it set.

I was on the bow tucking excess line into the anchor locker when I looked up to see Rodney Dangerfield heading right at me on a full plane. He didn't let up a bit and I could easily hear the laughing and giggling of his passengers as he passed between me and the shore, which was less than 20 yards away. The boat sped on down the channel, right over the part of the chart colored dark blue, and disappeared around the bend.

I expected to see a tow boat U.S. next, but instead, about 5 Sea Rays, or their ilk, came down the channel, and 2 more came from the other direction. These boats were all courteous, giving me plenty of room, and even slowing down as they passed. My main concern, as the sun was setting, was that this might be something that would be enjoyed by moonlight as well, so I left my nav lights on and even hung a solar powered lantern on the boom. As it was, darkness brought peace, and mosquitos, which I enjoyed by myself inside the cabin.

I got up at 5:30 again and pulled up the anchor in the dark. I had 81 miles to go, and had a sailing practice to run the next evening. After just a few miles the river opened up into Lake St. Clair. I was able to motor-sail for most of the 21 miles, accept during a brief squall. It was Sunday morning, and the lake was busy with fishing boats, freighters, barges, and a Canadian Coast Guard ship. In the river, there were more of the same, but now there were other sailboats, and a Viking Cruise Ship.

In between Belle Isle and downtown Detroit I listened to a sad chain of messages on channel 16. The first notice was the Coast Guard announcing that a man was in the river near Belle Isle. Before the end of the post there were patrol boats speeding that way with lights and sirens blaring. There were further notices from different entities, but the last message, from the Coast Guard was that the search was suspended, and that the subject was no longer "In Distress".  It was a solemn moment. The next day I read that the victim was actually a teenage girl. She and a sister had gone for a swim. The sister was rescued.

After passing downtown, I went under the Ambassador Bridge. Just beyond was the new Gordy Howe bridge. It appears to be nearly finished, with all of the deck complete and the steel cables in place. After that, the incredible industrial section, including Ford's River Rouge compound. It's huge, black, throbbing, and fascinating. After that the Detroit River flows into its own delta with many different passages to choose from. and its own navy of pleasure craft of every size and shape.

I passed into Lake Erie by 3:00 PM and had 30 miles to go. My brother had called and wanted to meet me at Put in Bay. I thought that meeting up for dinner and a couple of beers sounded great. The only problem being that I was motoring into a light breeze and doing about 4.8 mph, putting me at the dock after 9:00. It was Sunday and there would be plenty of beer. but food would be scarce.

So, at 9:08, after the last bit of light had disappeared, I chugged in to Put in Bay. I usually grab a ball there, but I knew that the water taxi would quit at 10:00, and our foraging would take longer than that. I docked at The Boardwalk Marina, and after my longest day, of 81 miles, I called my trip complete. We would do the 7 miles to our harbor in the morning, but that was hardly to be an adventure.

We managed to get a pizza right at closing time, and took it to another place, whose kitchen had closed hours ago, and 2 cold IPAs were ordered. I was kind of grumpy and exhausted, so it was a bit anticlimactic. It took most of the energy I had left just to chew.

The whole trip was 655 miles. Every minute was great. The first week with Tami on board was more relaxing and great fun. After I dropped her off the 163 miles to Little Current involved short runs, and easy sailing. I wished that I had more time as I passed up a dozen places to stop.

it was 6 more hops to Put in Bay, with a 3 day delay in Tobermory. The runs were 61, 77, 46, 43, 65, and 82 miles, totaling 374 miles. On these days I enjoyed the "getting there" more than being there. My little boat did everything I asked and I marveled at the little Tohatsu's performance, and depended heavily on the auto helm. My little stove allowed me to cook in a seaway, and I waas able to relax, read and even nap along the way. I would set my watch timer for 15 minutes, which proved to be safe. In the rivers and among the islands I stayed vigilant constantly.

After thoughts: I had kind of given up on these kinds of trips after Covid, but now I'm ready for more, as is Tami. I'm going to buy a new Tohatsu, using the old one around home and saving the new for these kinds of adventures. I think that a second auto helm is a good idea. It will be interesting to see if there are improvements. I'm going to buy a tablet to use with Navionics. It will yield a larger view, and not turn off every 5 minutes. My solar panel issue turned out to be a loose connection at the battery terminal and could have been avoided. The rigging, sails, tiller, and rudder all performed admirably. I have a new found appreciation for the Oday.

A sad note. After my return I joined my regular lunch group on Tuesday.  When I talked about the drowning in the Detroit River it reminded them to tell me of a  tragic occurrence on the Wednesday before. A good friend was racing his Interlake with his partner in the regular Wednesday night series. He evidently missed a hiking strap and flipped into the water. His girlfriend couldn't get the boat turned, around and neither of the 2 safety boats, or other racers, realized what had happened soon enough. Mark was a great sailor and wonderful asset to the sport. He wasn't wearing a PFD. 

[rfrance0718]

Oh crap! I had inserted all of the photos once but had to re attach them, and I missed  the last step. I'll repost them.

[rfrance0718]

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[Norm L.]

Welcome back...to reality   

What a great adventure. Yes, some trips are great but looked back on at how much greater it would have been if you had more time. I remember choices of alternatives and having to take a lesser choice because of time restrictions.

Your photos helped show the joy of such an adventure.

[Spot]

Wonderful journalism and photography, thanks for taking us along!

[Captain Kidd]

What an adventure!

More time rings true. On my one "big adventure", a 140 mile trip, we sailed and sailed. In retrospect, stopping and "smelling the roses" would have been nice. But the weather was good, the wind right, so we sailed.

Thanks for letting us go along.

Edit: ditto on the condolences. You have to respect the water. On my upcoming trip, better believe I'll be wearing a pfd.

[Roland of Macatawa]

Condolences,
Sad to hear of the loss of your friend!

[sesmith]

First time logging into this site in a while and just catching up on some of your travels.  Our paths likely crossed at some point this summer.  Had I bothered to check into this site, I would have looked for you.

We're wintering our boat in Port Huron now and left there in mid June.  Travelled up the Michigan side of Huron and south on Lake Michigan as far as Leeland.  We then headed across to Green Bay and explored there some as we had never been anywhere on the western side of Lake Michigan.  From that area, back across the lake to the southern anchorage on Garden Island.  We've been to Beaver several times and thought we'd try Garden for a change.  Great choice as we found an idyllic anchorage there with turquoise water reminiscent of somewhere in the Bahamas, and had it all to ourselves.  From there we headed up to the North Channel and spent 3 weeks or so there.  Then followed your path mostly. Tobermory was all filled up, so we found a great little anchorage tucked into Cove Island near there.  We were ahead of you at this point.  When you were stuck in Tobermory, we were further down the lake holed up in Bayfield for 3 days.  The waves were pretty huge down in the southern part of the lake during that northern blow.  Then went directly to Port Huron from there.

Sounds like you had a great trip.  I know we did.  My only suggestion is leave yourself more time next time so you can hit the places you missed along the way. Where you anchored at St. Helena, often there are a group of lighthouse caretakers there who will give you a tour of the lighthouse if you dingy over there.  Charlevoix and the towns in Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bay are great stops.  I bet you only touched some of the many anchorages up on the North Channel.  There are a group of trailer sailors there that have a 2 week cruise in July-Aug.  We no longer have a trailerable boat, but we and several other largish boats that are all old members of the group still tag along.  Great fun and a friendly group. We travel with our golden retriever, who I never have been able to train to go on the boat, so our sailing days are short.  10 hours is a long day for her so we work with that limitation.  Maybe our paths will cross up there next season.

[rfrance0718]

We were close! I definitely was short on time. I kind of focused on the long cruise home, just for the experience. I had too much fun! Sounds like you did as well!