Day 18, Saturday, August 8 

Port Huron

The journey continues

The original plan to return to Port Huron after 6 weeks fell through because I had carpal tunnel surgery, and getting an appointment wasn't as quick as I had imagined. Also, my idea to do both hands at once was dismissed as idiotic, and for good reason, since each hand is rather useless for a week or two after surgery. Anyways, here I'm back in Port Huron, after a an evening train ride from Chicago yesterday. Amtrak tried to be funny this time by breaking down inside of Union station after going about a hundred meters. Even though the fault was quickly found and fixed, eventual further delays made me arrive in Port Huron late last night.

The boat was afloat, but the dried out stuffing box had allowed the bilge to fill almost to the top with water, because I hadn't left the bilge pump on auto when I left.
This mean that all the goo in the bilge now covered a lot of the cans and bottles I had stored in the bilge, I had fun cleaning all that stuff.
I spent today shopping and cleaning, in preparation for the arrival of my first mate Ira who will accompany me on the first leg to Buffalo where my admiral will join. As last time here, the club members were super friendly, and Joe the dock master graciously gave me rides to the hardware store and supermarket to buy tons of food for the next week. The stuff filled a whole shopping cart, but I found space in the Caprice for it all. The fridge though is now filled to the top.
I was hanging out in the club chatting with the friendly crowd when Wayne showed up to give me promised hints where to go on the Erie canal and the Hudson. I'm looking forward to checking out his tips.
Ira arrived at night and we got everything stowed and set up, and had a great night sleep.

Day 19, Sunday, August 9

Port Huron to Detroit

Track on ViewRanger (pt1)
Track on ViewRanger (pt2)

We had to leave before 11AM to avoid the closure of the river for the annual speedboat race. I had seen these sleek machines the day before (and heard them even better), and many of them were quite impressive, with crews wearing helmets and space suits. Conditions were beautiful, and we benefited from a 2 knot current downriver. The St. Clair River is dotted with homes and vacation cottages, especially on the US side. The opposite river bank is Canada, and especially in the northern part close to Sarnia many industrial plants (refineries, power plants) mar the views a little.  But the further down we got the prettier it turned, on both sides. We passed lots of pleasure boaters, many people swimming and lounging on the beach. We almost ran aground in the middle of the river when we didn't pay attention to markers and the charts, but a quick turn by the helmsman got us out of trouble. We were passed by a few large ships:

Day 20, Monday, August 10

Detroit (Bayview yacht club) to Put In Bay (South Bass Island)

Track on ViewRanger

My computer hard drive gave up the ghost and I'm only now (8/28) filling in the details of this blog. Sorry for the delay, and I hope to be able to remember much of what happened during this second part of the Caprice Journey.

The Bayview Yacht club was a great place to stay the night, and we departed well rested and showered. Today we were motoring the Detroit river and then hopefully sail the first part of Lake Erie to South Bass Island.

Approaching downtown Detroit

Past the Ambassador Bridge

We reached the end of the Detroit River without incident and soon got good wind to start sailing towards the bass Islands. We encountered some showers but nothing worse and reached Put In Bay quickly. We are now officially in Ohio.
When we got close we noticed a tall ship in the harbor - which eventually turned out to be the brig Niagara, touring the lakes.

Approaching Put In Bay

We went to the 'Put In Bay Yacht Club', but nobody was there and we tied up and walked around some this party town before we got dinner.
On a Monday night this place is not too busy. We heard it's a different story on weekends.

Day 21, Tuesday, August 11

Put-In-Bay to (overnight) Geneva-on-the-lake

Track on ViewRanger

While we were preparing breakfast some lady from the club appeared and demanded money for dockage. She wasn't impressed by us being from another yacht club, in fact she stated that Put In bay Yacht Club doesn't even have many boats and sailors. Quite a contrast to Bayview yacht Club and Port Huron Yacht club which welcomed us with open arms and didn't charge us for our stay.

We walked the town some more and went to the brig 'Niagara', but unfortunately it wasn't open for visitors. Next we got to the Perry Monument, celebrating the victory of 1812 and the ensuing peace between the UK and the US (and Canada). Fantastic views, and we got in for free because Ira is a veteran. In fact, the official said 'Thank you for your service' when she gave us tickets. Ira deserves and enjoys the recognition.

The view from up there:

During the weekend the harbor is totally full, they tell us, with every buoy taken. it's called 'the Key West of the North'

We departed at lunch time for our long overnight passage to Geneva-on-the-lake. We started with a nice brisk wind from the NW and used the auto-pilot until it blew a fuse again. This has happened several times now, and I was finally wondering if there might be a problem with the cabling. Bingo - the cable was frayed and creating an occasional short at the plug. While Ira steered by hand I got the soldering iron out and fixed it. This is one of those occasions when having crew makes all the difference. Without Ira I would have had to heave-to and would have had a hard time soldering this.

The wind slowly diminished in the afternoon and we motorsailed for two hours, but then it started again and we made good progress. Also, a system of thunderstorms started approaching from the west and eventually caught up with us.

Torrential rain but no near lightning. We had reefed the main and the jib in time and rode this weather out just nicely.

I had planned to sleep from 10PM to 2AM and take the second watch from 2AM to 6AM, but I wasn't quite able to sleep below, the waves were steadily growing from the N and causing a lot of rolling that made me sick multiple times. 

We were approaching what appeared like a huge harbor channel light close to Cleveland, but curiously we didn't seem to get closer for a long time, and I couldn't find the thing on the charts at all. We finally realized we both were totally wrong and the light was a huge structure on land, at least 5 miles away, probably a power plant.

When I took over for Ira at 2AM I wasn't feeling all that fresh and by 3:30 I was exhausted and felt like falling asleep multiple times. I proposed to heave-to for a while to recover, but Ira suggested we try to move on some more and offered to take part of my watch. 

I was glad to get a rest and managed to sleep for almost an hour before I was able to take over again. Ira is a power house. He's 17 years older than I but has double the energy. He took a rest now and I was able to keep awake until it got light again.

Day 22, Wednesday, August 12

Geneva-on-the-lake

At 7AM we finally approached Geneva-on-the-lake, an old style resort town, and tied up. We both fell into our bunks and didn't wake until 12PM.

We chatted with a power boater Richard who said he'd been stuck at Geneva for 2 days waiting out the rough weather. Lake Erie is true to its reputation, with high choppy seas. 

Ira and I walked into town and found 'Effin Burrito', which was a fantastic lunch (and dinner actually, it was a full pound of goodness). The owner was super friendly and funny too.

Day 23, Thursday, August 13

Geneva-on-the-lake to Erie

Track on ViewRanger

The wind was still nice and brisk, but the waves were a little smaller and we took off early to get to Erie. With the following wind, the jib was largely blanketed by the main, and Ira suggested we try to run with the main only. This worked really well, and also reduced the danger from an uncommanded gybe. We made great headway all day and officially entered Pennsylvania around noon. The dinghy was doing its usual dance. It sometimes filled with a lot of water, but would quite often lose the water again, too, so I was getting used to its antics.

Only one hour out of Erie it finally happened. The dinghy turned turtle for the third or fourth time, and this time the painter snapped...

Since the waves were still high we hesitated for a moment but then decided to turn around and attempt to rescue it. We rolled in the jib and started the engine.

We did several approaches from downwind, but they didn't work - when we slowed the Caprice to avoid running over the dingy we would always drift off from it. We finally remembered the right procedure, go upwind and drift down on it. That worked well, and since there was enough line remaining we managed to snag it and cleat it. Ira quickly tied another line to the stub and we started dragging the still filled dinghy. I thought it would lose its water again, as it did before, but instead it turned turtle again, and ripped the painter again!

We took this as a sign that it wasn't supposed to be, and abandoned the poor dinghy at this point. We had managed to rescue it once, but the remaining painter was too short, and conditions still too rough to risk injury for it. I kicked myself for not tying a second line and a bridle, I think this would have stabilized it enough to prevent the whole mishap.

We arrived at Preque Isle Bay an hour later, passing one of the largest ships on the lake which was moored close to the entrance. We had been wondering why we didn't encounter any sail boats on the lake during our day, but now we saw why - the bay is huge and sailors have enough space to sail in here where the waves are not nearly as big. The northern edge of the bay is formed by Presque Isle State Park, and here is the marina we went to. We had planned to anchor, but for lack of a dinghy we decided to dock again. There were no slips free, but the fuel dock was already closed (in fact, temporarily closed altogether), and we tied up there to use the facilities. Richard, who we had met the day before at Geneva, came by with his kajak. After dinner we cast off and went into the harbor basin and anchored for the night.

Day 24, Friday, August 14

Erie to Dunkirk

Track on ViewRanger

We had breakfast and then raised the anchor. As we motored by another sailboat with a mast on deck called Pyxis, we had a brief 'good morning' chat with the owners. We didn't know it then, but Dana and I would meet those guys again in the Erie canal. We docked on shore again to go for a quick bike rental and ride in the state park. Ira isn't used to biking anymore and got a good workout - we went the whole length of the state park and back, something like 9 miles, in one hour. The state park is beautiful and we could have stayed for days here, exploring all the paths, waterways and beaches. It's hugely popular with the Erie population.

We took off towards Dunkirk, and once we left the protection of the bay encountered the usual big swells from astern. Now, without the dinghy, things were well under control and we had an uneventful sail which we eventually turned into a motorsail when the winds finally calmed down towards the evening. We now entered New York State, which means that we had touched four states in five days of sailing.

Entering Dunkirk harbor and approaching Dunkirk Yacht Club we noticed a group of five people walking on the dock toward an open slip, and waiting to help us tie up. We were warmly greeted as if we had been expected, and whisked to the club and treated to beer and great company. The club members were super friendly and we just couldn't believe the hospitality we received. Again they didn't charge us and even left the doors unlocked for us to use when they departed at night. They had a party next day which we would have loved to attend, but we had plans for Saturday in Buffalo, so we left in the early morning to sail on.

Day 25, Saturday, August 15

Dunkirk to Buffalo

Track on Viewranger

We had another good sail to Buffalo today. Ira called Amtrak to buy a ticket to Chicago for the night, and was amazed to find that they were totally sold out. Southwest airlines was much more expensive and we decided that he'd stay on another day to take the train the next night.

We arrived at Buffalo's First River Marina shortly after lunchtime and found that nobody was there at all. I didn't realize that this is a private marina and that there's no staff to give us keys for bathrooms etc. We eventually managed to sneak in with some of the few regulars and jimmy the door open, but it was a problem that we wouldn't be able to prepare much for the mast drop on Monday.

We took a little ferry across the water to the museum ships - a WW2 destroyer, a cruiser and a submarine. Surprisingly they didn't give Ira much of a discount, and I had to pay full price, but the ships were very interesting and full of displays and info. One could spend days exploring them.

Day 17, Saturday, June 6

I received an email from Desmond Marine, the place on the other side of the river, offering me a slighly higher price to store my boat on land, instead of in the river. I hesitated and wrote them that I had already committed to keeping the boat with the club. I felt Joe and Steve would be upset after I had already agreed to their offer to dock the Caprice at their docks.
I woke up to people outside readying their boats for a race event, in spite of the frigid weather and the expected chop. Some people were in shorts or t-shits, while I was sitting in my ski pants and wearing my hat, and still feeling cold.
I spent time cleaning the Caprice (especially the bilge) and then met Joe who I told about the offer of keeping the boat on land for just a little more money. Instead of being disappointed in my considering pulling out of the deal with the club, he showed full understanding and gave me a lift to their office to sign the deal - they will even come and get the Caprice from its current position on the wall and do the pumpout for me on Monday. Very nice people here!
I wanted to do some laundry and Sandy, a friendly lady in the club, offered me the use of her car to do that errand. This place is getting nicer and nicer. In the end I didn't have to use her generosity because I located a laundry in borderline walking distance, and I wanted to walk a bit anyways.
Next I walked along the river watching the various lakers go by. The AIS program correctly gave me the names and positions of all ships, I don't know what had happened a few days back when several ships didn't show.

Some of those ships are seriously large, up to 300 meters in length, and 20000-30000 tons displacement.

This one had an odd 'articulated pusher' design.

Traffic jam! Three big ships in quick succession.

I enjoyed walking the town so much that I didn't get back to the club until about 8, and by then almost nobody was left. I regretted not seeing Joe again, and Steve, but in 6 weeks I'll be back here.
Also to quiz Wayne about the Erie canal. I met so many nice people here that I should become a club member I think.

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.