Friday, August 11, 2023 Middle Bass Island Yacht Club

I had a nice start to my morning today. Instead of getting a snarky text from Big Jim he sent a picture of Kerry at a party at his house. Thanks Big Jim!

We had planned to leave at 6:00 AM this morning. But it was to dark to safely remove the power cord and dock lines. Peter came walking down the dock with a flashlight and accepted my offer for a cappuccino. We were able to pull out at 6:15. I was very happy that we were headed for MBIYC instead of Milliken State Park in Detroit - good idea Peter!

Voyager pulling out at 6:15 AM

The wind was calm in Algonac so it was easy to disembark. I didn't even check the weather until we were underway. Once I did, the weather seemed perfect for our plans. Today is a great day for travel. We plan to stay at Middle Bass tomorrow when it appears windy on Lake Erie. We plan to go go VYC on Sunday and it looks like a great travel day again. Can things really work out this well? We'll know soon. Kerry toasted pita bread for me before she took her normal cruising position in the V-berth.

It's about a 10 mile trip to Lake St. Clair. It's very scenic. Nice smooth seas greeted us once we arrived. This little lake can be very nasty at times. Not today. We didn't even pass any other boats in either direction until we were almost in the Detroit River. Amazing. 

Peaceful scene in the St. Clair River

A bird stop in the St. Clair River Channel

Voyager approaching Detroit

We passed Milliken at 10:45. Large boat wakes often make transiting the Detroit River unpleasant - like today! Boats seemed to be in packs today, and really rolled us at times. We saw Lee Holley from VYC in Buckshot zoom by at about 30 knots I would guess. He did not notice us. Work on the new international bridge continues to progress.

We arrived at Lake Erie at about 11:30 after 50 miles of travel. Our speed in the rivers averaged 9.2 knots. We were greeted with waves less than one foot and SSE winds of 6 knots. We would place this order anytime! Our entire trip to MBIYC was good, and uneventful. We traveled 78.6 miles at an average speed of 8.8 knots, and it took us 9 hours. We arrived at 3:00. We've done 787 miles to date. Alex and Karen Dade plus Copper and Benji were there to greet us. Big Jim was glad we avoided all the "big ass white birds." So was I.

Perry's Monument is the second highest doric column national monument

All the Dades were there to help us dock

Heavy appetizers and cocktails were scheduled on Voyager's fly bridge at 5:30. But a major storm came through with high winds and lots of rain postponing the event. All us sailors started cocktails on time, just not together. Kerry spent a lot of time preparing her appetizers. I, unfortunately, had not rigged for a thunderstorm and got a bit wet correcting for my negligence. 

Kerry's vegetable pizzas on pita and bacon twists with deviled eggs

Peter and Marianna did a great job of drying the flybridge (multiple times) We (Dades, Albaneses and Orros) were finally able to get together a little before 6:30. It rained just a little after that but the canvas on Voyager's fly bridge kept everyone dry. The ladies had brought wonderful appetizers and Marianna had a really nice presentation set up. I had planned on getting a picture but, before I could, someone bumped the table Kerry's drink was on and her new Yeti tumbler fell off the table and rolled into the drink and sunk. She was very distraught. While I was trying to see if a big magnet could recover it (nope - stainless steel) the group hit the goodie table and the presentation photo op was lost. Still, the food was great and it was a nice evening. Thanks to Peter and Marianna for hosting. 

We had one scary moment when a woman fell off a boat that was docking across from us as we were all cleaning up from the party. She was OK, just a little scared and cold. She said it was her first time. We both agreed you always remember your first time.

Tomorrow's agenda includes a barber shop quartet and a bring your own steak dinner cookout at the yacht club. More thunderstorms are possible.