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!