Monday, August 12: We Cross Saginaw Bay

Date:                           August 12, 2013

Day on the Cruise:     119

From:                          Harbor Beach Marina, Harbor Beach, MI
                                       
To:                              Harrisville Marina, Harrisville, MI

Statute Miles:              68.6 SM

Time:                           7.75 Hrs

Cumulative Miles:       2,796.9 SM

On Board:                   Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut

We are on still on Lake Huron tonight at Harrisville, MI, off The Thumb" and onto the "The Hand".

In the Marina at Harrisville

Off the Thumb and onto "The Mitten" at Harrisville

We finally got AT&T 3G service when we got to this marina, so I have published Blogs from two previous days and then this one. Internet and wi-fi has been non-existent up here for getting the Blog out.

These Harbor of Refuge's on the Michigan coast are very basic and generally out in the middle of nowhere. They serve their purpose, and I love to tie up to a dock with power and water in a protected harbor, but there is not much beyond that. Not complaining at all!!!!

Leaving Harbor Beach at First Light

Our view out the front door this morning

We left right after sunrise this morning from Harbor Beach. It was cold and heavily overcast. Thanks to poor AT&T reception, I could not get full weather radar, so we had to do a seat of the pants forecast based upon local observations. There was no wind and the forecast was for seas less than 1', and this is what we found when we got out into Lake Huron. I was expecting rain showers based on the clouds that were overhead. Our run today was to be about 70 miles, including a crossing of the mouth of the huge Saginaw Bay at about a 28 mile leg. My fall back if the weather turned snotty was to put in at Port Austin, before we would cross the bay.

The "Top of the Thumb" and going into Saginaw Bay

I set the autopilot to do a route composed of four waypoints. After getting out of Harbor Beach, I maybe touched the steering wheel two or three times in about 7 and a half hours. The first time I touched it was 13 miles into the trip when I had to steer around a buoy that we were going to run smack dab over because it was the first waypoint! I could not believe the accuracy of my fickle autopilot on this day. The thing eventually landed me right at the entrance to Harrisville Harbor, taking us 68 miles! Thank you Auto Pilot! In the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, the auto pilot would not track to a way point worth a darn, but up here, it works. I sure don't understand it.

The sun came out not long after we started the Saginaw Bay crossing. It turned into a beautiful day, and the seas were very flat. When I had gone far enough across the Bay to be able to see land very clearly, and with the good weather, I decided to shorten our trip by eliminating two waypoints that I had set to get us closer to shore. In effect, I decided to travel on the hypotenuse of a big triangle instead of continuing the horizontal leg then taking a vertical leg. This hypotenuse took us from about two thirds across the Bay straight up to Harrisville.

Steering around the Buoy at the first waypoint

We arrived at the dock at 2:30 PM, making it almost 8 hours on the water. Even with the calm seas and auto pilot, still a very long day.

It gets cooler and cooler the farther North we go. We have been wearing jackets on the fly bridge in the mornings. When the sun gets up it begins to warm up, and it is usually pleasant.

Since we left Detroit, we have found that it is overcast until 10 or 11, then the sun comes out and we have had very nice days. Tonight the temps are supposed to be in the low 50's. It makes for good sleeping weather.

We had thunderstorms come through about 6 this evening, so that put the quash on going into town to find a place to eat. There is a grocery store here that we will visit tomorrow.

Beautiful rainbow over Lake Huron

We are staying here for at least another day. Tomorrow, winds are forecast to be 10-20+, with seas at 4'. Not for these sailors! Wednesday is an iffy weather day. Might be here Wednesday also. Thursday looks better. We have about 3 or 4 cruising days remaining to get to the top of "The Mitten" of Michigan at Mackinaw City.

I am having trouble getting pictures uploaded to the Blog. I am continuing to work on it, and will post pics as soon as possible.

Thanks for Reading!