Delivery of Just Us II

Hello sports fans. It is Friday September 13th. Yes Friday the 13th! I am making final preparations for our trip to get the Kadey Krogen 44 Widebody that we just bought back to home port. My life long friend Jonathan Boyd will be coming along as Chris is not able to get this kind of time off from school.

Jonathan and I land in Chicago this afternoon and Nephew Danny and his wife Tanya will pick us up and drive us to Kenosha with a stop at West Marine in Winthrop Harbor IL for a couple of odds and ends. We will then head to the grocery store and buy provisions for the trip then we call Bob and Lyla. They will meet us at the marina and hand over the keys and a dock fob so that we can go where we need to when we need to. We have quite a bit of organizing to do so that we are able to get a good night's sleep and then up early on Saturday so that we can shove off at sunrise. If we are in motion by 7am central I will be happy.

The goal is to make it to Sheboygan by 4:30 - 5pm and take on 200 gallons of fuel when we check in. That will give us more fuel than necessary for the entire trip and we do not need to worry about fuel dock hours in Mack City. The weather looks favorable so we should be in very good shape. Day 2, which is Sunday, will be when we cross Lake Michigan to Manistee. Once we are in Michigan we will be visiting marinas that we know and 2 that will be new to us.

Greetings from Manistee! We have been hard at work moving Sojourn and now is the first time I have had some spare time to post an update.

FRIDAY September 13

We arrived in Chicago as planned and Danny picked us up and we headed for West Marine in Winthrop Harbor. We needed to buy a couple items for the trip. Once we finished at WM, we headed to Meijer grocery store in the Kenosha area and did a rather substantial shop. That was the largest grocery bill I have every seen. Anyhow, we called Bob and Lyla and they met us one last time at the marina in Kenosha and we got our stuff loaded on and in the fridge.

Off to the Brat Stop for dinner. We sat down and the same gal who served Chris and me last week, took care of us. Jonathan and Danny enjoyed the food and experience. Back to the boat for final prep and a good night's sleep.

SATURDAY September 14

Up in the morning at "Oh Dark Thirty" And there is some wind out there. The waves are 2-3 and lumpy. Swells. We get ship shape, have our morning coffee. We use the facilities one last time then drop the key fob in the drop box just inside the gate to the pier. We get set to cast off and away we go. I was able to maneuver the boat out of the slip with out any drama and then we head out of the inlet to meet the waves head on. We are being tossed around a bit as we make our way out and get pointed in the direction that we want. as we get out farther the waves stabilize a bit as we get in deeper water. It is still going to be a bit of a fun ride as the waves are on our bow quartering a bit until we get far enough out to turn north and get them behind us a bit.

As we make our turn, the boat motion eases a bit as we take the waves more from our stern quartering to the starboard. That makes the boat motion much easier but still it takes a little getting used to. Jonathan is indicating that he is not feeling well. We find out later in the day that food in the morning is important and proper hydration is also key. So Jonathan stretches out for a couple of hours as we work our way North. As we head North the waves seem to get bigger then smaller. The sea state is a bit confused but we get into a rhythm. The Fin Stabilizers are a godsend.

The boat exterior is covered in spiders and spider webs. It makes life interesting when it comes time to move around and get docked at Sheboygan. The approach to Sheboygan was actually quite nice. As the day went on the waves seemed to lay down a bit and the wind swung around behind us and gave us a little push. We were doing close to 10mph as we did our final approach to the inlet.

As we approached we noticed quite a few boats loitering at the mouth of the inlet. Fishing Boats! Why do you fish the mouth of an active inlet???? It makes life a little fun trying to plan an run of the inlet without getting in their way and tangled in the lines. We slow down and take an easy approach and two boats move a bit to make a "Hole" so we can get through and in in the inlet. Once in the inlet we have a couple boats fishing inside the inlet. We do see 2 big fish jump so I guess we have our answer to Why? are they fishing the inlet.

Nick, the dock master, at Sheboygan called us at about 3pm to confirm our arrival and we told him we were set for an on time arrival. He met us at the fuel dock and took on 200gallons of Diesel. We asked about a pump out and he said we could have one on him since we bought so much fuel. We thanked him and pumped out the holding tank.

The reason we did the pump out was that we thought the head was clogged. Jonathan used it in the morning and then I used it midmorning and it would not flush. No vacuum. We could not hear the vacuum generator so we were not sure what was going on. So we assumed that it was clogged and started to figure out tactics for troubleshooting. In the interim, we use a bucket and tossed the "proceeds" overboard. Ah it is fun to be the Delivery Crew. Once we get to our slip after the pump out we found the vacuum generator and checked for voltage. We did not see anything. We know that the switch on the power panel is on. Hmmmmm. is there something we are missing? sure enough, Jonathan asks "Is there a switch in the head?" Son of a *****. there is a switch in the head. Flick it on and the vacuum pump starts going. We did not even have to call Bob and Lyla about it. Little victories.

We decided to make the fish tacos for dinner. There are propane grills for use by the marina so we get prepared and head over with the cast iron and the salmon we bought the day before. A very nice dinner, showers and then off to bed.

Windy Night! The waves will be lumpy again in the morning.

INTERLUDE

It is time to get ship shape for our run up to Leland MI. Once we are there I will have more time to write about day two which was our run from Sheboygan to Manistee. we are in Manistee right now having our morning oatmeal and coffee. It is approaching 6am so we need to get going and ready for the day so that we can shove off at 7am sharp. That buys us time in Leland to visit the grocery store, get the pork loin in the Sous Vide and maybe even go to the tasting room of Grand Traverse Distillery for a flight.

SUNDAY September 15

Our crossing to Manistee was interesting. It was lumpy coming out of Sheboygan harbor and once again the fishing boats were hogging the mouth of the inlet. There were 2 paddle boarders in the inlet as well so we took it easy nosing out and we found an opening and were able to pass through and start our trek. We decided to head north towards Manitowoc and then arc around and head across. We checked AIS for traffic and the Ludington to Manitowoc ferry was running and we figured we would encounter it once we started our crossing. As we headed north the waves really did not let up or change direction. We started our turn to head north east so that we could cross to Manistee. We had the stabilizers running so it was not a bad go of it. As we crossed, the waves seemed to pick up but not too much. As we crossed over the half way point our phones changed over to Eastern time. That was kinda fun to see. We also noticed that there was an upbound freighter that we needed to watch. The port side GPS screen has been flaky all day and now it is not visible at all. Jonathan thinks they have a spare Raymarine E120 at the boat yard that we could buy since it was taken off a boat as part of a refit.

We actually do encounter the Upbound freighter and we had to alter our course to the south to go behind it. No worries as the lake laid down as we got closer to Michigan. In fact the lake was flat for the last 2 hours of our run to Manistee. Quite nice actually. And for good measure I downloaded the Armstrong EXP app on my phone and we watched the last 1.5 quarters of the Cleveland Browns football game on my phone. We have a suction cup mount phone holder so we placed it within view of our helm position. Nail biter but the Browns won. Still too many penalties!

We made Manistee and it is a nice place except for the metal posts and collars that are on the posts. We had to pay very close attention to bumper placement. We did learn that the boat does not maneuver like the American Tug we chartered earlier this summer. When shifting in reverse it does not walk to starboard as much as the tug. I think that has to do with the substantial rudder and keel that helps hold a straight course. Anyhow we mess around shifting forward and reverse to walk it around and use the thruster to get the boat lined up and then in the slip. Not bad but we did learn a few things. We had to adjust again once we tried to attach power. We were short about 10 feet so we moved the boat and got hooked up to power. I was going to buy a 25' extension at West Marine but forgot. Might have to buy it up in Mackinaw. Now it is time to wash and De-Spider the boat. This boat is in need of a serious bath.

We hooked up the hoses and scrubbed the boat stem to stern and got most of the spiders off and even in the dark the boat looked nicer. we made sandwiches for dinner since we were tired and did not want to put much effort into making dinner and we were not going out to eat.

Off to bed.

MONDAY September 16

Up at "Oh Dark Thirty" and breakfast and coffee. we went over to the clubhouse, used the facilities, which are quite nice and then back to the boat to get set. The Navigation lights trip the breaker when we try to turn them on. So we did a No No and left at first light without Nav Lights. It was light enough that we could be seen so we did not feel too bad about it. We will need to look at that and the GPS once we get to Leland. Off to Leland......

The run to Leland was GORGEOUS!!!!! There was a fresh breeze from the east but we were close enough to shore that we had shelter and once we got to Manitou Pass it it was flat as glass. The sun was shining, the air was cool and a bit hazy but you could see Sleeping Bear Dunes quite well. Took lots of pictures, which I will add at some point and sent text messages with pics to a few folks. We did encounter some down bound traffic. a tug towing a barge, 2 freighters and some recreational craft.

We made Leland and hailed the marina on VHF68 and got our location assignment. we are on the main walkway Starboard side to the dock facing out to the lake. As we enter the Harbor a little crowd gathered to watch as we made the sharp turns to make our way, spin around and lay up and tie off. easily done with Jonathan on the lines and I was at the helm. headsets and all. We had 4 different couples come say hello as it was a bit of a novelty to have a Kady Krogen in the harbor.

Time to get going on some of the "repairs". The salon aircon is misbehaving. After quite a bit of effort to remove the access panel under the sink we figure it is more along the lines of water flow, or lack there of, to cool the unit. That means going into the engine compartment. too hot right now for that so Jonathan mounts the fire extinguisher and then head to the pilot house to figure out the GPS. We had settled on switching out the units in the pilot house for the one on the fly bridge. So that did not take too long. I was on the front side of things, Jonathan was back behind the console. There is a rather roomy compartment behind the helm console. Enough space that J could crawl back in there and lay down. He called out the cable connections and I drew a picture so that when we went to connect the new one we had a template. I got the "new" one ready and then set it into place. I called out the cabling and J plugged them in. Once the whole thing was complete, we tested it out and it all works. So we cleaned all of that up and then it was time for dinner. Pork loin in sous vide then we walked everything over to the clubhouse to use the grill and the microwave. Nice dinner. The fun thing about the sous vide is that the hot water temp is around 180 because there is a loop from the engine cooling circuit over to the water heater. so as we are cruising to our destination, the engine heats the water in the hot water tank. IT IS HOT!!!!! That works out nicely for the sous vide since the water is already at cooking temp when it is coming out of the faucet. So the usual 30minute warm up time is not needed. That is pretty efficient and a nice way to do dishes as the water is still warm and we dump that sous vide water into the dish bin for washing.

Back to the boat to look at Nav Lights and the Aircon. Nav Lights kinda fixed themselves as I just flipped the switch 3 times and third time was a charm.

Jonathan headed down into the engine compartment as I washed dishes and he found the water pump and was able to flush it out. There is a T fitting that he opened and flushed some water through after opening the strainer and looking to see that it is clean. He got water flushed through and then he cleaned out the bilge area where the water settled. We went through a few rags and figured we wold just through those out instead of trying to save them for future use.

We called and spoke with our respective spouses and then called it a night. Off to bed.

TUESDAY September 17

It is now Tuesday September 17th and we just finished our oats and coffee. I am writing this blog as Jonathan is rinsing the dishes. we will head over to the clubhouse for facilities then we will get ship shape for a 7am departure.

Mackinaw City here we come!

We got ship shape and started our engine. We turned on all of the electronics and got the Nav Lights on. You have to engage the switch three times. Third time it stays on. So we had some help on the dock courtesy of our neighbor. We shoved off and got going just before first light. We navigated by memory so we were able to stay in the deep areas of the fairway and out onto the lake. We have a south east wind and it is kicking up a very light chop. We figure that this will be the weather we keep for the trip. Not so much.........

We were about half way up the leelanau peninsula when the wind picked up. As we crossed the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay the wind and wave were kicked up and we had 2-3 foot swells. Not bad for this boat and the stabilizers. We made good headway and we saw the AIS traffic on the GPS that we saw on the Marine Traffic App. So good to go. We are keeping an eye on the 2 freighters that are in the Straits of Mackinaw as they may turn and head south through Grays Reef Passage just as we arrive north bound. That passage is tight when a freighter is in there. We saw a group of boats that looked like they were traveling together. Turns out they were not. We will get to that in a bit. We did see a boat off to our Port that was on an intercept course. We are the stand on vessel and he is the give way vessel. He did not give way so we had to change our track. We crossed quite close for being out in the middle of the lake. It almost looked like no one was at the helm. I used the binoculars and saw the captain. I think he saw us look at him so he got up walked into the cockpit and waved at us like he was saying hello. I was not happy with him for being negligent in his seamanship so I did not wave back. J and I discussed whether to hail him and ask what his read of the situation was. We decided not to and just keep on going. Asshole...... So that was encounter #1. Not so fun. The second encounter was more fun. We saw a boat with the Name Olympia on AIS. I know a Kadey Krogen 55 that is over at Cedar Point marina. So I hailed Olympia and they answered. I asked if they were a Krogen 55 out of Sandusky and he answered yes. So I indicated that we are a Krogen 44 wide body and headed to Marblehead and that we are familiar with their boat as we have seen them in the North bay on Kelleys. It was a nice chance encounter with another Krogen from our home area. They are starting the Loop and headed to Chicago. I wished them well.

We continued north and into Gray's reef passage. We were on our own through there and the waves had subsided and were on our stern. We made our turn east and now we were headed along the Straits of Mackinaw toward the Mighty Mack! The big bridge.

We are pretty much on our own. There are 2 up bound freighters but the Straits are big enough that we did not need to get out of the way.

Jonathan wanted to try some maneuverability so we found 2 wreck markers that were close together and he practiced the turning and spinning motion to get a feel for how the boat reacts to steering and throttle input. He got the boat turned around nicely. As we approached the bridge his brother Christopher called and was indicating that he will be running audio for a Movie and Interview with William Shatner. Now that is cool. We switch out helmsman as we approach the bridge. The ferries are in motion and it looks like we will slot into a gap in their runs out to Mackinac Island. That is good timing. The GPS screen on the unit we installed is starting to flicker. HMMMMMMMMM

Jonathan piloted us into the marina and ended up docking the boat. Nicely done. The neighbors in slip 9 came over to lend a hand and we said thank you. We got tied up, power attached and opened the windows as there is a rather fresh and cool breeze up here. We have had the AC running each night at the marinas. It will be nice to open things up and get some fresh air through.

We walked to town and did some shopping in the grocery store for some odds and ends. Came back, made dinner. Spaghetti Squash, RAO's red sauce and a nice side salad using the dressing we just bought. We were craving something sweet so back into town for ice cream. That was naughty but very good!

Tonight is a partial eclipse of the moon. We have a superb view front and center. The moon is in full view off our starboard bow and up in the sky. It is starting to shade over. Not happening quickly. The water pump seems to be running more than it should so Jonathan looked at the filter attached to the pump. That is a nice twist on filter and one very big pump. The filter gasket seems to be damaged a bit so we will see if Shepler's is open at 7am like Google says it is. Maybe they have a gasket kit and a 25' power extension.

We are tired and ready to go to bed and get up and be ready for another day.

Off to Presque Isle, MI in the morning. In the middle of no where. Looks like the wind and wave will cooperate. At least that is what the forecast is indicating but I think we all know how dependable, or not, these forecasts are.........

WEDNESDAY September 18

I am writing some updates to the blog post while having morning coffee and oats. We can not believe it is Wednesday already. Half Way!

Up at first light and we get ship shape then head over to Shepler's. They do not have the Gasket we seek but the gal behind the counter really put forth some effort to help us so I bought a new 75foot potable water hose. Need it anyway since the hoses that are on board look like they are done. We go back to the dock and our neighbors are getting ready to shove off. Their dog Maddie meets us halfway up the pier as we had given her some love yesterday. What a sweet dog. she "smiles" by lifting her front lips. The first time I saw that it looked she was bearing her teeth. But her owner indicated that we were an immediate hit with their dog because she smiled at us as we pet her.

Off they went headed to Leland. We shoved off and headed south ish and our destination is Presque Isle, MI. Pronounced "Presk Eel". We set off and we have traffic on our stern. Eagle One. A 66foot sailboat under power. He is motoring at 10.9 mph and we are at 9 so he is gaining on us. The AIS is barking since they are at a skewed angle that means they are on an intercept course. That means they are overtaking us. They should give way to us or signal their intent on how they are going to pass. Nothing........ just a course that crowds us. we slow and alter our course so that Eagle One can pass in front and once they are clear we make an obvious turn so that we can resume our course. I really hate people sometimes.

The sea state is smooth and we are making good way. As we turn and start to run past Rogers City, our forward progress slows a bit. Instead of 9.1/9.2 we are now running 8.5/8.6. I seem to recall that on this stretch of the lake we slow down. I am guessing that there is a current. I recall both Sea Rays slowing for no real reason. I see Eagle One again following behind us by about 4 miles. His boat slows a similar amount in the same stretch so there has to be something from a current going on there.

Eagle One keeps gaining on us and once we are about to make our turn and run into Presque Isle harbor guess who is cutting the corner and crowding us again. I hope I never see him again.......

We make Presque Isle and enter the harbor. I will spare you the details but suffice it to say that the markings are hard to see. Now that I have been through there I will remember how the range finders are kind of hidden in the trees. Someone really needs to get in there and cut back some trees.

The gal who is in the office is very nice but just not a boater. She was not particularly helpful in communicating the orientation and situation. All she said was meet me out by the fuel dock and I will waive you in. I asked if we had a stern in Starboard tie and that was like speaking a foreign language to her. Anyhow, I executed a rather nice 270degree turn and laid Sojourn up against the pier with the help of Jonathan in the cockpit. The neighbors helped and we ended up inviting them over for the obligatory Arrival Beverage. I have Traverse City Whiskey Co. Bourbon and he said that he had just bought the Cherry infused bottle. He brought it over and we shared some stories.

Jonathan and I found what the funky smell in the fridge is....... Dead Chicken Breast. Man was that ripe. We ended up using the propane tank and lighting the stove and cooking the burgers in the cast iron skillet. Yummy burgers and Broccoli. we plan for an early start so that we can use every last minute of day light.

Off to bed and man I am tired.

THURSDAY September 19

5am comes very quickly. Up and at em! Coffee, Oats and a final trip to the facilities. Off we go and the sea state is smooth. There is a bit of haze but otherwise quite nice. As we head south we are taking note of the lack of echo on the radar. Also we can not see very far. FOG...... In fact the fog was thick enough that a north bound freighter passed within 2 miles of us and we could not see her. we saw the buoy marker for the wreck off Thunder Bay Island. that we could see and that was ahead of us at about 4 miles distance. The freighter was on our Port Beam. 2 miles according to AIS but no radar echo and we could not see or hear her. That was kinda freaky.

As time went on the sun got higher in the sky and burned off the fog. Fog is moister in the air and that absorbs the Microwave radiation that is RADAR. So nothing was returning an echo until the fog burned off. It was not until after lunch that we could really see a good solid echo on the radar. We figured we would see a ton of fishing nets but we saw none..... We were lucky but we did run an offshore course just inside the down bound route on the charts.

Pretty much no one out there. We called Tawas to ask for the bathroom codes and the WiFi password as we would be coming in after hours.

we arrive just as planned. We round the outer marker at 5:15 or so and make our way to the marina. It is a bit windy and I know that we are in a bit of an interesting slip. D7 is right where the Fuel Dock pier stops so there is some maneuvering to be done. Also the wind will be blowing us around a bit but I think I have this handled and J is in the cockpit as my eyes. we pull in and round up bow to the wind. That puts us perpendicular to the slip. we start backing and I have to fuss around a bit to get the stern lined up where I want it. We then back her down with judicious use of forward with the rudder hard over to the port to keep the stern swinging the way I want it. We have a tight fit but nothing crazy. We do have a boat next to us that I need to avoid hitting. No issues and 2 guys on the dock came down to help handle lines. we in turn help another boater coming in. A Tiara fishing boat that does not have thrusters or appropriately long lines. Short lines that are not helpful.

I have the stern and Jonathan is waiting for the bow to get close enough to get the bow line. I think this is an older 4300 so a bit of a big boat. I am able to handle the stern line, wrap it around the cleat and put some muscle, what little I have left, into pulling her in. I won that battle. The guy on the stern said something like "Yeah she ways over 20". I said back "Yeah we had a 460 dancer that weighed over 30". He said "Oh well there ya go". the captain said thank you and asked if we dock here. We said no we just came in our selves. The Krogen up the dock.... They said thank you and we were on our way.

Off to do some shopping and back for dinner. Left overs of chopped up Ribeye burgers in pasta sauce on top of Spaghetti Squash with some green pepper and onion for good measure. Wine of course.

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The wind is fresh and chilly. It moans through any gap in any fence, rail or rigging. It reminds me of Mackinaw City Marina back in 2020.

We need to add water to the fresh water tank so we get that done and are planning another early start. First light is around 6:17am according to Weather Underground. we will push to Lexington tomorrow. The forecast wind is out of the South. Not out of the Southwest so at least the usually snotty waves out of Saginaw Bay may not present themselves.

I have made calls to both Grosse Pointe Yacht Club and Middle Bass Island Yacht club to see if we can get a slip over night on Saturday. GPYC says there is no reciprocity with MBIYC but he will ask his GM if they will oblige. Middle Bass is having the Chili Cook Off so things are full at this point. Call back Saturday morning. Last chance is Detroit Yacht Club. Maybe that will work. I will call tomorrow and see what we get. I will also call lexington and get the codes as we will be arriving after their office closes.

I am tired...... Again....... This is a great trip but I am definitely tired. These long days, one after another are teaching me a lesson.. Shorter days work better.

Both Jonathan and I are loving this boat. we wish our wives were along to experience this trip. I have learned a ton and will share with Chris and dream of far away places that we can visit in this little ship.

Time to go count Sheep.

FRIDAY September 20

UP and At 'em...... 5am comes around way too early each day. I slept well but could always use more sleep. We are going to run a long day from Tawas to Lexington. We need to get going since Saginaw Bay is notorious, by our standards, for having bad weather forecast. meaning the forecast is wrong. So we get up and get ready. Engine start at 6:43am and we shove off at 6:47. We motor out and get throttled up to head to the marker at the point of Tawas Bay. IT is protected by land and when we clear the point the wind is blowing. Not bad but definitely more than forecast. It is out of a different direction than we have encountered int he past. Instead of Southwest it is blowing ESE. So favorable. Well it keeps building and building. In the Sea Ray we would have been miserable but in the Kadey Krogen we are comfy and safe. This thing is a tank and it cuts through the waves like I dreamed it would. We are slowing as the wind is on our nose so that means we have a longer day. It keeps building as we approach Port Austin and Point Hope. We turn south to make Harbor Beach and the wind shifts south so still on our nose. At this point the stabilizers are off. We are finding that when we have too many things running on 12Vdc the GPS units flicker the screens. WE can shut down things strategically and keep them happy. Our total electric system will need some looking at but I have some theories on how to design a better system.

Jonathan and I are enforcing Watch Shift Discipline. Long days require that we switch on and off the helm at regular intervals and get some rest. We both close our eyes and get some "Sleep" on the bench behind the helm chair. If the "On Watch" person needs a hand it is easy to get the off watch person up and helping when they are on that bench. It is comfy so we both get some shut eye and are fresh when we dock.

We get situated at Lexington and head over to the Windjammer Restaurant and have a bottle of White wine and Sushi. IT is very busy at the WJ but our server is happy and we respond in kind. We enjoy our Sushi and at the very end, it starts to rain. People get up and head inside, but being boaters we are not afraid of getting wet. Our server comes out to ask how we are doing and we say that we do not mind the rain but would she prefer us to move inside. She seemed happy that we asked and she escorted us to a high top table by the bar where we ordered some Chocolate Cake for desert and what ever is left over will be breakfast with our coffee. Don't Judge! We have earned this "splurge".

We will get up early. 4:30am and get going. We want to shove off by 6:30 so engine start at 6:25 and then we push off. We have 13.5 hours of day light and we should be able to do this in 12.5. Back to home port so that we can sleep in Sunday morning and then get things ship shape for the arrival of the welcome committee.

Sweet Dreams. J and S "Out and back to 16"

SATURDAY September 21

Day 8 - The final Day of Cruising. Lexington,MI to Marblehead, OH - 13hours

We are up early this morning and so are the Ducks. Quacking..... 4am rolled around way too fast and we are just about done eating breakfast and drinking coffee. We are checking Marine Traffic for upbound and downbound freighters that we might encounter on the Rivers. Today is River Day. St. Clair River and Detroit River. It will also be hot in Detroit so we might just have to close things up and run the Genset and AC in the pilot house. That is fine since the Genset will provide power instead of the Inverter so we can run anything we like without having the Raymarine Screens flicker. We shall see. Once we get to home port I will update the blog with todays events. Hopefully not much just a long day of making way.

We shoved off before sunrise. I believe engine start was 6:43 and we were out of the slip and on the lake by 6:47. We could see 2 freighters downbound with our eyes and there were 2 others visible on AIS. We were watching them closely as we would need to slot in behind one of them and maintain formation once on the St. Clair river. All along this trip we were operating under the idea that the freighters would use the standard VHF13 channel for bridge to bridge communication. We were wondering why we did not hear anything. So on a whim I googled VHF Traffic for Freighters or something like that and we found out the freighters use 11. So we switched over to VHF11 and immediately heard that chatter. "Sarnia Traffic" is the control authority and the ships coordinate through them and "Check In" at various points along the way. Which is how we determined that we would form up behind the Paul R. Tregurtha. We stayed about 1 mile behind but that still looked close as that is a huge ship. They are all huge. We called them on 11 and shared our intent to follow them down bound. They were fine with that. As we approached the mouth of the St. Clair river from Lake Huron we started to see that our speed was picking up. This is the down bound current we were depending on it to make time as this is a long day.

Once on the river we found the current to be variable in speed but we definitely picked up about 3mph in speed. So we were in the mid to high 11mph area with the occasional 12. At one point along the way I hollered out in delight as we momentarily hit 13! The current is strongest in the center of the river so we stayed in the center as best we could while still allowing for space as the upbound traffic was relatively light but present. We now know what the check points are and their names. The odd one is "Recourse". that is a factory of some sort and the Tregurtha was headed there to take on whatever load they were taking on. They indicated that they would "Turn on their right wheel". That appears to have meant that they would reverse their starboard engine and swing the stern of this big ship around and do a 180 to point north. I figure they did that while they were light which would make it easier. We passed them and got going again before they started their turn. We waited for the Up Bound CSL St. Laurent to pass on the "Two Whistle" which means Starboard to Starboard. That is opposite the normal convention but that is how the Tregurtha indicated they wanted to do the close quarters pass. COLREGS for situations where a vessel is proceeding along a river with the current dictate that the vessel that is going with the current has "Right of Way" and must initiate communications and indicate how they want the pass to happen. The vessel going against the current(they have better steerage) answer and complies.

We are making good time with the current and are just about to Algonac when we see a flotilla up bound and bunched together on the wrong side of the River. You are supposed to stay as far to the right as is practicable. They were crowding the left side which is the USA side of the River. We had to go out around them just like everyone else did. It was some kind of a Trump support rally of sorts. They were all flying their flags especially the big barge.

We made it to Lake St. Clair and started to make our crossing. You could not have asked for a nicer day. There was a nice breeze and there was a regatta on the west side of the channel. We had 2 upbound freighters that went by. We had to turn into their wakes so that we could take them without bad things happening. We straightened out and kept going. Once we made it off the Lake we were now on the Detroit River.

All along this trip people were gawking at us like they had never seen this kind of boat before. Kadey Krogens are unique but come on folks do you really have to pass that close to get a look? We made it around Belle Isle on the Canadian side since there are no low bridges. There is a bridge that connects Detroit to Belle Isle. It has an indicated vertical clearance of 32feet. Our mast is 23 feet off the waterline. Not sure I want to test that out in a following current so we stayed on the east side of Belle Isle. As we came around the Island, we saw the Viking Paradise. A cruise ship for the Great Lakes. I wonder what the shore excursions would visit.

We joined a few down bound boats and got delayed by a hand off of some mail to a mail boat. We were thinking that if we got out onto Lake Erie by 4pm we would make home port by 8pm. Well circumstances conspired to slow us down but in the end we made it out onto Lake Erie around 4:30. We took our time deciding how we wanted to route ourselves back to home port. We chose to take a slightly longer route that went north of North Bass Island which sets us up for a south bound leg from Middle Bass back to he mouth of the East Harbor inlet. We wanted that because it is a familiar stretch of water and there should be NO ONE out there at that time of night. The sun set at about 7:30 but we had light until we were even with Middle Bass Island Yacht Club. They were full so no ability to spend the night there. So we plotted our route and made our way. Once we were within 3 miles of the inlet I took the helm and Jonathan set the lines and fender balls and then took the spot light onto the foredeck as I will want him to light up some specific areas as we pass. we lined ourselves up to enter the inlet right down the middle and wouldn't you know it, there is a fishing boat in the inlet. I had Jonathan shine the spot light on the rock wall on the east side so that I could judge the inlet without shining the light on the fishing boat. The fishing boat moved over and we floated by just above idle. Around 800RPM and doing about 6mph. We held this speed along the channel and had to silence the depth alarm quite a bit. The water is low but there is enough depth for the boat. We draw 4.5feet and the water depth is about 6. The lake bottom is soft mud at this point so it would not be a bad thing if we touched.

We found Skipperbud's and the E dock fairway. We entered and all was quiet. Club Dock 4 is open as it should be and we took it very slowly and backed Sojourn into the slip and got her tied. We shut the engine down, connected power and then had a Bourbon and Ginger for our arrival drink.

14hours 16minutes.

Safe and Sound at Home Again.........