Rovinj the Great Lakes

We made it to the tip of the Michigan thumb but not without a casualty. The day started out typical, light  winds and smooth lake, waiting for the winds to pick up. It was warmer than we had been experiencing so far. There was also a fair amount of smoke from the Canadian fires. It had been predicted to be a nice day. The winds gradually picked up and we transitioned from motor to sail and motor eventually to just sail, all maintaining the same speed. Winds were coming from behind us as we travelled pretty much due north. Then at 10:00 AM all hell broke loose. In a matter of minutes it got very cold for Summer and the winds and waves picked up. We ended up in 4+ foot waves and 25 knot winds. Since conditions had been so light, we were totally caught off guard and had full sails up. The boat healed so far over the water almost came over the side. The waves crashed over the bow. We tried to reef the main and furl the foresail, but we were too late. The wind reeked havoc on our control of

Our worst fears did not happen and we made it through all of the St. Clair River. We followed the advice of several other boaters and stayed to the right when going under the Blue Water Bridge. This is the narrowest and thus fastest part of the river. At pretty much full throttle we made less that two knots. Fortunately we didn't have to go far at that speed. Approaching the Blue Water Bridge from the south. Under the Blue Water Bridge looking at the U.S. side. Under the Blue Water Bridge looking at the Canadian side. Looking back at the Blue Water Bridge from Lake Huron. It started out foggy/smoky but not as bad as yesterday. When we got into the lake, smoke conditions improved even more. We did not smell smoke and didn't notice a haze from it after leaving the river. Winds had been predicted to be bad, out of the north, the direction we were headed, and also light. We motored for a short time beyond the mouth of the river into Lake Huron when we decided we could at least moto

We had more concerns about the St. Clair River current than the Detroit River, but there was no issue. We had decent but not optimal wind for the better part of the day and made good time. We actually had time to stop in the village of Saint Clair for lunch with a friend. We were also able to make progress without the sail but it did drop noticeably. It was quite cool all day. I'm guessing that kept the bugs down. We had some rain early but it was foggy all day. Since it wasn't a wet fog, we figured that it was the Canadian forest fires. The air did smell of burning at times but we passed a lot of industry with smoke stacks of all types. A lot of the industry was on the Canadian side further north. The US side was mostly expensive homes, some of which had to look at the Canadian industry. We also saw passed or were passed by 10 freighters. They look slow going by but they are faster than we are. Stopped for lunch Several pictures of some of freighters and industry that we saw.

Due to the prediction of lightning for today, we reserved our slip for 2 nights. We planned to do a much needed oil change, refuel, do laundry and get groceries. We did accomplish those but at the expense of missing out on what turned out to be a day with favorable winds and no lightning. We also got to sleep in real beds at my cousin's house and do laundry. We are three days behind our original schedule but that did not include any planned down days.

The morning we left Bayview Yacht Club was extremely buggy. It had been buggy at Put-In-Bay with mayflies covering everything. They didn't bother us but landed all over the boat so where every you stepped you killed mayflies, making a mess of the deck. Coming out of Ford Yacht Club and again out of Bayview, these tiny flies were constantly buzzing around and landed everywhere. They were annoying. Any time you wanted to sit down you had to wipe the seat before sitting or you'd squish a bunch of them making a mess of your clothes and seat. Like mayflies, they didn't fly away once they settled on something. If you tried to swipe them away with your hand, you'd just smear them on the seat. There were also a lot of dead mayflies floating in Lake St. Clair. Fortunately, when  we got to the middle of the lake, the flies were gone. You have to zoom in to see all the bugs on the screen. These was an article in the local news about all the mayflies covering a freighter. I guess i

One thing that was made quite clear at this yacht club given the slip we had was that a 28' boat is not that big. There is some real money at some of these yacht clubs. We were always made to feel welcome, though. We left Ford Yacht Club at the mouth of the Detroit River at Lake Erie apprehensive as to whether the substantial 2 cylinder 13 HP 733 CC diesel engine would be able to contend with the Detroit River current. We had to back track about 2 miles back toward Lake Erie to get to the shipping channel. Taking a short cut outside the channel markers had a risk of running a ground. During our journey up the Detroit River, we saw some of what Detroit is knows for, auto manufacturing. We saw a huge steel factory. We also saw the construction of a new bridge from Detroit to Windsor Canada. I believe it is to be named in honor of Gordie Howe. Finally we came to the Ambassador Bridge, which is near downtown Detroit. At this point we were about three fourths of the way to our stop for

I finally have WIFI again at the Ford Yacht Club in Grosse Ile Michigan. This is the first place that had decent secure WIFI that reached the boat slip. I will use this opportunity to update the blog with more pictures. The two days ago we were at Cedar Point, a roller coaster focused amusement park. We managed 10 roller coasters in the 6 hours that we were there. There are several more including the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Steel Vengeance, Maverick and Raptor that we did not have time for. The ones that we did in the order that I recall we did them: Blue Streak Wild Mouse Gatekeeper Iron Dragon Rougarou Millennium Force Corkscrew Gemini Magnum XL-200 Valravn Since we arrived in the afternoon, we got evening passes that started at 4 PM and went until closing, 10 PM. Millennium Force was and may still be the highest and fastest coaster in which you are pulled up on a chain and just run down a hill. It is 310 feet high and reaches 90 MPH.  Coming into the channel that leads to Cedar Point