Day 16, Friday, June 5

Port Sanilac to Port Huron

Because of yesterdays marathon sail, today I could take it easy and I left port only at 10 o'clock. As the weather forecast had said the wind would shift from the south to the north and build up over the course of the day. It started very comfortably, with a following breeze just strong enough to push me at 3.5-4 knots, and calm water. Under those conditions Caprice can go wing-on-wing with the autopilot capable of keeping her balanced.

The wind quickly increased though, and I was eventually flying at 7 knots, at which point I had to start steering by hand because the waves also started building and as usual the autopilot freaks out. I think I give the autopilot a name, maybe 'Danny'? Gotta sleep over it.
Going wing-on-wing became difficult now and I started a slight zig-zag to keep both sails to either port or starboard.
Eventually the wind and waves build up enough for me to decide to reduce sails. But which one? I first rolled up the genoa because that's kind of easy and can be done from the cockpit. That reduced speed enough, and the annoying flapping of the genoa was over. However, going with the main sail only is very unstable and after hand steering some time I decided to switch to genoa only. That meant lowering the main while running (unless I wanted to turn into the wind). Letting the main halyard go didn't do much, the sail sagged a little but it wouldn't come down. Leaving the cockpit without the autopilot keeping us on course wasn't possible either. I unfurled the genoa again, and with that the autopilot was able to keep us going straight, and so I could walk to the mast to pull the main down (I needed to pull it to center a lot first though). With genoa only our speed was now a manageable 6 knots.
I had tied the dinghy closer to the Caprice this time, to see if this would keep it dry. It worked much better, also because the waves weren't really very big, The dinghy bumped the Caprice a few times, but that wasn't a big deal.
Approaching the lower end of Lake Huron, the waves started to get rather steep and confused, causing the usual sickening rolling. By now I'm used to it though, Also, the fog increased more and more, so I could only hear ships in the distance, but rarely saw them.
Eventually I entered the St Claire River and soon had the Blue Water bridge(s) in sight.

An amazing sight, thankfully the fog now lifted a little and I got to see that marvel. The older one of the two bridges was built almost 80 years ago, and had to be very high to allow all ships to pass under it. The second one (the one closer to me in this picture) is only 17 years or so old (and of course as high as the other one.

I had timed my passage to avoid any other ships (the AIS program worked well this time) in the river during my passage. I was whisked through very quickly thanks to the strong current, and finally docked at the Port Huron Yacht Club. I needed two approaches to the wall though since I had the wind pushing me off it the first time. So that's where I am tonight, the wall at the Black River in Port Huron.

In the bar of the club I met Joe the dockmaster and a few other friendly fellows. We talked docking and storage, but nothing immediately got decided. The bar started filling with club members and got livelier by the minute. I got introduced to the commodore Steve and he got on the phone with the club's boss of storage and dock assignments, and they offered me to keep the boat in the water at a dock up the river for $600 for the 6 weeks. That is a nice deal, even though they warned me that after 6 weeks sitting the boat will need an underwater scrubbing.
I will spend tomorrow cleaning up and explore Port Huron a little, and on Sunday morning take a taxi to the Amtrak Station and Chicago.
Phase One of Caprice's trip to the sea is over.

Day 15, Thursday June 4th 2015

Tawas Bay to Port Sanilac

I left very early today because I was planning my longest leg so far, all the way to Port Sanilac. The reason is that I want to get to Port Huron tomorrow early enough to start researching storage of Caprice for the next 6 weeks or so.

I raised anchor before the sun was up and was half way through Tawas Bay when the sun rose. Unfortunately the wind was against me and kicking up some chop. I had to motor all the way, raising any sails would have been useless today. It was also kind of misty or foggy the whole day, so there's no photos either. The AIS program showed quite a few ships in the vicinity, but I never spotted any. I did encounter some motor cruisers, but again no sail boats at all.

By afternoon the wind actually died and my speed increased, so I made it to Sanilac just after sunset but before dark. I anchored right behind the breakwater, and was immediately visited by a coast guard boat that had followed me into the harbor. They were circling me, first asking about my anchor light (doesn't work at the moment), then about my next port and previous port. I was busy trying to fix some torches as auxiliary anchor lights, and couldn't immediately remember my last port (Tawas Bay), but they were cool and didn't ask for papers or inspect me. I'd heard that the coast guard is apparently quite active here looking for illegal Canadian immigrants, but I guess when they heard my Chicago accent they let me be.

Day 14 Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Tawas Bay

I rowed ashore after a good night's sleep and a lazy breakfast. This bay is beautifully calm. At the marina I found some boats that have owners with a love of pigs that possibly exceeds my own:

I headed to the Tawas Point State Park. The light house looked very pretty but there were several school buses of kids waiting to climb it, so I decided to skip this one.

The Sandy Hook nature path starts at the light house and leads you to the spit and back, and it was really beautiful and peaceful.
This place is beloved by birders, there's apparently a big number of local and migratory birds using this as a home or a station during their journeys. I saw plenty birds and heard even more, and then I came across some conservationists/biologists putting up little fences around the nest of an extremely rare bird, called the Piping Plover.

There are only a few hundred of those tiny birds left. Their habitat is unfortunately being invaded by people and their dogs. I hope they can be saved and brought back from the brink of extinction.

I walked back through a massive campground that was at this time only harboring two dozen or so campers, but I can imagine this being a zoo at the top of the season here. It was interesting to see the different vehicles people used, from simple tents to massive Class A Motorhomes and everything in between. Some day I plan to get a nice Motorhome with my Admiral (then General) and tour the United States, maybe even Canada and Mexico.

I returned to the Caprice for lunch and then rowed towards East Tawas town, about 2.5 miles away. I had planned to go ashore somewhere along the way, but found that the whole shoreline was private property. Many very beautiful cottages and summer homes here, almost all of them still deserted. I ended up rowing all the way to town, The dinghy, when it floats right side up, is great to row, and since there was little wind and practically no waves it was delightful.

East Tawas town wasn't much to write home about, I strolled the main shopping street which was almost empty and many stores closed, and then found a supermarket that had those tasty smoked sausages I had found before. And then I rowed back to the Caprice to work on something and cook dinner.

My work was to rewire the bilge pump to use the float switch again. At some point in the past I had removed the float switch to use the bilge pump manually, the idea being that this way I could see how much water actually was seeping into the Caprice. But since I'm planning to leave the Caprice parked in Port Huron, possibly unattended  in the water for 6 weeks, I needed the auto-pump back.
The Caprice bilge is much too deep to reach the bottom by hand, so I needed to fabricate some wooden bracket thingy that put the pump and the float switch together. Good I have all kinds of tools with me and some scrap wood. Looks as if it works well.

Day 13 Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Harrisville to Tawas Bay

(en-route)

Currently I'm slowly drifting south towards Tawas, the winds are almost no-existent, but I have data reception and sit below updating the blog and avoiding the flies. Eventually I'll have to start the engine though unless I want to take 20 hours for 30 miles.

(after arrival)

I rather enjoyed the slow drift south, but eventually the wind started clocking around to the south. That just didn't do, drifting against the wind is beyond the Caprice. I started the reliable engine and motored the rest of the way to Tawas Bay. The flies were making a reappearance today, but weren't nearly as bad as at the Strait. I managed to avoid them much of the time by resting inside - popping out every 20 minutes to look out is sufficient when one just covers half a mile in that time. I saw just a single motor cruiser going north in all that time.
Tawas Bay looks lovely. It's a huge bay that offers protection to all but SW winds, which aren't forecast any time soon. The first living thing I saw after dropping anchor was a deer on shore. And there's good data reception here, so I was able to video-skype with the admiral.
I will take a day off tomorrow and explore the beach and Tawas Point State Park, and check out the town.

Day 12 Monday, June 1, 2015

Presque Isle to Harrisville

I just couldn't get myself out of bed and on deck this morning, it was freezing cold outside. I took my time with breakfast and read a little before I finally braved the cold. It was sunny though, and with enough layers of clothing it was nice.

Winds were nice, almost straight from the back, so I rigged the gennaker before leaving the harbor. Once out and on a good course, the gennaker worked very well, driving me at a nice speed, and the autopilot did well. The wind was slowly dying though, and my speed diminishing.
I'm using a web based AIS application to look for commercial shipping, but I had my doubts when I was passing through the Manitou passage in fog and one ship showed on the display, but he was talking to another one on an opposing course that wasn't displayed. I decided not to trust the AIS program and stay clear of the shipping line then. Today I saw two large lakers on opposing courses passing me about a mile off, plus a giant tug with a barge in tow. The only one that showed on the AIS program was the tug! Clearly that web app doesn't work reliably, and I'll use it just for fun in the future. A real AIS receiver will probably work correctly, I think.

Once I'd passed Thunder Bay light I turned south and promptly wrapped the cruising spinnaker around the forestay. This can be a very stressful problem, especially if one is alone and the wind is high. Fortunately the winds were already very low and the autopilot was able to keep a steady course while I cleaned up the mess on the fore deck. I couldn't untangle the thing without lowering it on deck altogether, and because the wind was almost gone I didn't bother resetting it. I generally love the cruising spinnaker though, and with its sock it's not hard to manage. However, in harder conditions I will not want to use it.

I kept on slowly drifting south over across Thunder Bay, and since visibility was excellent and the sun shining I just continued like that, until the wind completely died and I was forced to use the engine to make it to Harrisville before dark. I got into that little harbor at last light and anchored close to the breakwater. My anchoring light isn't working anymore, I suspect the cable or connector is loose, so I tied some LED lamp to the mast, but since it was a beautiful almost full moon it felt unnecessary.