42°36′8″ N 81°17′11″ W

Sept 15 – en route to Goderich

This portion of my journey comes as a total surprise to me!

My original plan was to have the boat hauled out in Port Stanley & trucked to my friend’s shop in Ailsa Craig for a refit over the winter & then trucked back to Port Stanley in the spring for relaunch.

Unfortunately I just learned yesterday that it would cost me a small fortune for the (there & back) trucking because the flybridge on the boat is too high for unrestricted passage under power & phone lines that cross the roads everywhere.

The maximum allowable height for any road transport is just over 14 feet & this trawler will sit at over 15 feet when it’s on a trailer.

If it had to be trucked then that would mean extensive route planning, escort vehicles & hiring the power authority to raise any power lines along the route that the truck & boat could not pass under without assistance. That alone could cost even more than the trucking – to make a combined total of roughly $3,000-$4,000 each way!

As a result I abandoned my trucking plan & tried to come up with a “Plan B”.

“Plan B” was to store the boat in a yard across from the marina in Port Stanley. Unfortunately the marina there cannot handle boats unless they are on their own trailer or on a cradle. I investigated having a cradle built but that can’t be done unless the fabricator/welder has the boat on site & the cost of bringing a custom fabricator/welder to the marina is prohibitive.

So, now I have moved on to “Plan C” & am now underway to Maitland Valley Marina in Goderich on Lake Huron. They have a travelift large enough to handle our boat & can store it for the winter easily in their yard.

We kept our Nauticat “Ananda” in this marina for several years so I am very familiar with all the resources & amenities there, plus my boat-builder friend Ed is often there working on other customer’s boats – so I will be able to make the best of the situation.

The trip from Port Stanley to Goderich is roughly 200 nautical miles so it will take me about 4 days to get there. I had to leave on short notice to take advantage of the weather so I am making the trip alone as Catherine has commitments over the weekend. Not a problem. I know the boat well & the route is familiar to me.

This trip involves traveling to the western end of Lake Erie, up the Detroit River to Lake St Clair & then into Lake Huron.

The red-circled blue dot in the screen shot above shows my current position on Lake Erie & the red-circled “pin” shows my destination – Goderich.

I plan to make 3 overnight stops along the way. My first stop will be at a marina in Erieau & I should arrive there around 3:30pm today.

I will figure out the next 2 stops along the way – depending upon my rate of progress.

I am very fortunate that the weather forecast for the next week is ideal for trawler traveling. Very light winds & calm waters.

However, I have just discovered a major downside to this weather!

It’s a beautiful day on the water but I was only underway about 30 minutes when the boat was invaded by THOUSANDS of mosquitoes & flys.

I had no choice but to retreat to the inside helm station & shut all the doors & windows. Hopefully the wind will pick up just a little bit & blow these pests away.

Stay tuned!

(Note to self – pick up a case of Deep Woods Off at next port of call)