Aug1-Aug3

Tuesday August 1, we awoke to another fantastic day although very warm. It is a struggle to get our young crew rolling early in the morning but we keep telling them they are practicing for when school starts. After pulling anchor we headed for the St. Clair River. A large freighter pulled in ahead of us into the shipping channel. He must of been empty because he was rocking right along and it took a wide spot in the river and full throttle to pass him. Today was a "go fast day"--we traveled at 2800 rpm or about 13 mph in the St. Clair River (we were pushing against a 2 mph current). Once we passed under the Blue Water bridge in Port Huron and into Lake Huron our speed picked up to 15mph. Today Lake Huron was a twin to Lake Erie when crossed on Tuesday. Brightly colored, calm and beautiful. Arrival at Port Sanilac on Lake Huron meant we traveled 79 miles today. Another long day and warm--95 Deg when we arrived and no wind! There is a nice little restaurant in Port Sanilac where we dined. A visit to the local True Value Store was in order so we could purchase some bug spray

Thursday we told the "kids" this was an "easy" day. They could sleep in a little. We took on 181 gals of diesel. Recalibrated our newly installed FloScan Fuel gauges, with this fill up, which tells how much fuel we are burning per hour as well as the mpg. We were off to the next port which is Harbor Beach Mi. We left at the crack of noon. Today was a "goslow" day. We covered the 32 miles at about 8.5 mph at which speed we get about 2.5 mpg. Just before we arrived at Harbor Beach the wind picked up. Our plans were to anchor inside of the harbor where it is somewhat protected and that is what we did. The water was about 10 feet deep where we anchored and we did rock and roll quite well for several hours before the wind died down. Dinner consisting of steak and grilled Vidalia onions was delayed somewhat when the generator shut down due to overload--Both AC units and the Jenn Air made the generator "talk" very loudly as we used to say on the farm. No one has troubling sleeping at night, although the kids have to be pushed to bed. I have even slept good the nights we have been at anchor. In Lake Erie we don't anchor overnight so this experience is new to us. We have a 35# Delta Anchor and 100' of 5/16" chain plus 120' of Anchor Line

Today August 3rd we travelled 70 miles to Harrisville MI at "gomedium" speed. 12.2 mph. All of the Marina facilities in Michigan are great. The water is very clear here. You can see lots of large fish 6-8' below the surface. We meet our first fellow "loopers" here in Harrisville--we all fly a "loopers" flag or burgee, so we are easy to spot. We met Brian & Francine Jacobs (Endeavour) from California. The had their boat trucked from San Jose to Mobile AL and plan on spending 3 years traveling this part of the Country on their boat. We also met Paul & Yvonne Mueller from Baltimore MD (Precarious). Eats tonight were at a local restaurant. Restocking of the pantry was also in order. It takes a lot of snacks and food to keep a 11 and 15 yr old satisfied

The picture is of Connor washing down the anchor. We pulled up about 50 lbs of weeds and mud this morning as we lifted the anchor. Luckily we have an electric windlass