43°44’53.7″N 81°43’08.1″W

Sept 22 – On the Hard, Maitland Valley Marina

Today was the big day – our little boat was hauled out and set up on jackstands for winter storage.

It seemed a shame to end the boating season on a day when the weather was so beautiful but it’s also a good time to do this work – as opposed to in the pouring rain or snow.

The marina staff gave the bottom a good powerwash before the boat was set up for the winter.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much on the bottom except slime & that came off pretty easily.

After the bath, off we go to bed.

The whole process took about 90 minutes & then the boat was sitting pretty on blocks & jack stands.

Next week I’ll winterize the boat’s plumbing system & the engine’s fresh water cooling system.

I’m not sure of the boat’s entire history but I believe that this winter will be the longest time it has been out of the water since it was first launched in 1993 – & most definitely the coldest!

Cheers!

43°44’51.6″N 81°43’05.6″W
Sept 19 – Maitland Valley Marina

I arrived at the marina at 4:00pm. The trip from Sarnia to Goderich was approximately 58 nautical miles & it took 9 hours.

The first hour out of Sarnia was very slow going because of the current but once I was a few miles beyond the mouth of the St. Clair River my speed went from 2 to 7 knots. That’s not very fast for most power boaters but it was a major jump for a little single engine trawler!

It started to rain about 9:00am but it was not heavy & was coming straight down so it helped to flatten out the waves. That made my ride a lot more comfortable – even if I was confined to the inside helm.

The trip to Goderich was very straightforward. I set the autohelm on a direct course to the marina entrance & then didn’t have to make any course adjustments for the next 6 1/2 hours! During that entire time I didn’t see another boat.

The rain was intermittent so every hour or so I went up to the flybridge to take in the fresh air & enjoy the solitude.

Even in the rain I had good visibility & could see for several miles all around me. By 2:00 I started to get glimpses of the huge salt storage building in Goderich Harbour but as you can see in the photo below, the sky was very low & overcast & the shoreline is barely visible in the distance. By this time the lake had also flattened out like a millpond.

At 3:45 I was finally approaching Goderich Harbour & began to navigate towards the channel to the marina

Catherine & her Mom drove up to Goderich to take me home. But first we celebrated our reunion by going out for dinner at a local restaurant across the road from the Town Beach. We finished our meal just in time to enjoy another beautiful Lake Huron sunset.

Even though it was not part of my original plan for this year, I enjoyed my impromptu voyage from Port Stanley to Goderich. It brought back a lot of memories for me of my trip on Ananda – in the other direction – in 2010. My first real adventure on a boat.

I’ll go back to Goderich on Friday to have the boat hauled out of the water & set up on jack stands for winter storage. It will be a bit of a sad day but I’m ready for a rest & I’m sure the boat is too.

Cheers!

43°11′52″ N 82°15′57″ W
On Lake Huron – En Route To Goderich

I left Bridgeview Marina in Sarnia at 7:00am this morning. No sunrise today as the sky is heavily overcast.

My “climb up the hill” into Lake Huron was pretty much the same experience I had yesterday except that the boat steered a lot better – plus I met two freighters in the channel.

I met one of them right under the Bluewater Bridge & would have loved to have gotten a photo but I was kinda busy at the helm. Maybe I’ll get a GoPro camera for next year. Better check with the Admiral on that first :).

The lake is much calmer today. Still a bit lumpy, but not rough enough to slow me down or to motivate me to turn back again. Plus the forecast for the day shows the wind changing direction favorably & dropping in the afternoon so that helps.

It started to rain about an hour after I left Sarnia. Its not raining heavily & is coming straight down so that helps to flatten out the waves. This is when having a second steering station inside the cabin really pays off. I can stay warm & dry through bad weather spells.

I still have lots of visibility & can see several miles in each direction. Plus I’m nowhere near the freighter shipping channel so I’m not likely to encounter other boats.

The chartplotter shows that I now have about 6 hours & 39 nautical miles to go to reach Maitland Valley Marina in Goderich. With any luck I’ll be tied up on the dock by 4:00pm.

The boat is scheduled to be hauled out of the water for winter storage on Friday morning so Catherine is coming to Goderich to pick me up this afternoon.

Once I got past the Bluewater Bridge I started to travel in a straight line for the next 50 nautical miles to take me to the marina’s entrance channel in Goderich. Thank goodness for autohelm! It would be a really long & tiring day without “Otto’s” help!

Cheers!

42°59′43″ N 82°25′6″ W

Sept 18 – Overnight at Bridgeview Marina, Sarnia

I left the marina in Port Lambton at 7:00am Monday morning. It was a completely different day on the river – compared to Sunday.

The sky was overcast, more like what we expect to experience at this time of year. Sunrises are also getting a bit later each morning. Today the sunrise was on my starboard side whereas every day before it was on my stern.

There was no pleasure craft  traffic at all on the river. Refreshing compared to the chaos the day before!

The current in the river was pretty strong & I spent most of the day poking along at 4.5 knots “climbing the hill”. I encountered several freighters going each way. It’s surprising how quickly they catch up to me as the current doesn’t slow them down too much.

This part of the river to Sarnia is heavily developed on the US & the Canadian sides. Lots of big houses & very modest cottages too. This big place in the photo below is in Port Huron, MI. It has a crane on the dock to lift the “toys” out of the water & a waterslide off the balcony!

There were also several higher density developments on the US side of the river that appeared to be much more affordable.

I finally got to the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia at noon & began to head into Lake Huron.

The current here is incredibly strong & the boat speed slowed to less than 2 knots at several points. In addition, I had to work hard at keeping the boat on course because the current kept trying to push me to port & starboard.

I finally got out of the current & into the lake but the wind had come up & now I was constantly bashing into one meter high waves coming directly into the bow. Even with the waves I was making good progress but I still had over 50 nautical miles to get to Goderich so I decided to turn around & head back to a marina in Sarnia for the night.

The “trip” back to Sarnia was much quicker. Once I got into the river’s current my speed went up to over 12 knots!

On the way back in I also discovered that the steering on the upper helm was not very responsive so I went to the lower station to steer into the marina. Once I was tied up on the dock I took a closer look at the upper helm steering & found it to be barely working at all. Fortunately the marina had a mechanic on duty & he came over right away to check things out for me. He quickly discovered that my hydraulic steering system was low on oil & it also needed to be re-pressurized – with a bicycle pump, of all things. In less than an hour the steering system was all tuned up & it now works better than it did when I first left Jacksonville. So, having to abandon my goal of getting to Goderich that night worked out OK.

The weather forecast for Lake Huron on Tuesday is much better so hopefully I will make it there by dinner time.

Cheers!

42°38′10″ N 82°29′47″ W

Sept 17 – Port Lambert Encarte Marina

I left Colchester at 7:00am Sunday morning & arrived at Port Lambert at 5:30pm.

There was a beautiful sunrise behind me to light the way & burn off the light mist on the water.

This was an interesting & challenging segment of my trip to Goderich.

• Lake Erie to the Detroit River;
• Detroit River past Detroit & Windsor to Lake St. Clair;
• Lake St. Clair to the St. Clair River;
• St. Clair River to the south end of Lake Huron.

Colchester is very close to the western end of Lake Erie. Within an hour I was entering the Detroit River & my speed immediately dropped from 6.5 to 4.5 knots because of the current of the river flowing into Lake Erie. I also started to encounter large freighters. Thankfully most of them were headed in the other direction.

It wasn’t too long before the shoreline along the US side of the river was built up with power plants & many heavy industries.

Some of these facilities looked like something out of a Dickens novel.

By noon I was almost at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor & Detroit. It was an impressive view but unfortunately I didn’t have much time to enjoy it because of all the boat traffic on the water.

This part of the river also has a lot of current & turbulence so even though I was more or less traveling in a straight line it was not possible to use the auto-helm because it couldn’t make changes fast enough to maintain my course.

Downtown Detroit’s skyline is impressive with multiple “art deco” style hi-rise buildings. Windsor’s waterfront is modest by comparison but is beautifully developed with lots of parks, walking & bike paths. It also wasn’t hard to tell which side of the river was Canadian.

The weather was fantastic for mid-September Sunday afternoon & apparently hundreds of other boaters felt the same way because the river was jammed with all sizes of pleasure boats.

I encountered more “traffic” on this segment of my journey than I saw anywhere else on the trip from Florida – even when we went through New York City & the Hudson River!

By 2:00 I was finally past Detroit/Windsor & entering Lake St. Clair. Thankfully the pleasure craft traffic thinned out as well.

Crossing Lake St. Clair was relatively uneventful except that I met two freighters & was passed by another two freighters. The lake is relatively shallow & there is a deepened channel that crosses the lake for freighters to use. I set my course to travel parallel to the outside the channel so I didn’t have to worry about the freighter traffic.

I was quite intimated the first few times that I encountered freighters but after meeting & being passed by several of them it was much easier to be within a hundred feet of them. Plus, these big boats hardly generate any wake compared to most of the large powerboats that I was encountering.

Once I entered the St. Clair River I was back into pleasure boat chaos topped up with more freighter traffic! Thankfully I only had to endure this for a couple more hours before I arrived at my marina for the night.

It was only 5:30 in the afternoon by the time I was tied up to the dock but I was pooped from all the steering & concentration. Hopefully Monday will be an “easier” day.

Cheers!