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| Lake Erie to Charlevoix in 61 Hours |
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Log of Rebel Rouser , our Beneteau Oceanis 370 |
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| Written by Chad Aerts |
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| This summer we bought our new boat and delivered it back to Grand Haven from Toledo Beach Marina on Lake Erie. The first part of the trip was planned to be a nonstop run over Labor Day Weekend as far as conditions would allow but I was hoping to at least make Mackinaw City. I recruited fellow club members Tim Poulton and Jeff Fuller and a work colleague, John Szmadzinski as crew. |
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| Sunday August 24 ? We officially take possession of the boat. Marsha and I spend the entire day cleaning and doing a final inventory of everything onboard. I changed engine oil and noted part numbers for filters and other spares that need to be acquired before the delivery. I also spend a lot of time poking around and getting familiar with hose and wire routings and all the onboard systems. Our only experience sailing the boat was during the sea trial so I want to make certain everything is in order before we set out on the delivery. We brought down an entire carload of gear, safety items, and tools and stowed them aboard. |
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| Friday August 29, 6 PM ? We all meet Friday night after everyone is out of work and make the drive to the boat arriving around 9:30 PM. It?s dead calm and sticky hot, no air is moving at all. Everyone gets to work stowing food and gear. I spend a little time showing everyone the boat systems and where safety gear is located. Tim takes a trip up the mast to install the VHF antenna and a new wind vane. |
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| Friday Aug 29, Midnight - We back out of the slip and a building breeze has set in. We enter a very dark Lake Erie with 10-15 knots of wind and small 1-2 foot waves. John and myself take the first 4-hour watch so Tim and Jeff head below to get some sleep. A half hour after leaving the marina we were heading straight into 24 knots of true wind and the waves had built to 4-6 feet. Within the next hour the waves were 6-8 feet with an occasional 10 footer mixed in for laughs. We were pounding through very hard and lots of water was sweeping the deck thoroughly soaking John and myself. |
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| Sat Aug 30, 3:30 AM - We entered the Detroit River. The wind had decreased and with the protection of shore we had flat calm water. Tim had been sleeping in the vee and when he came on shift reported having to restrain his arms since they keep floating up beside him as we pounded into waves. At sunrise Tim and Jeff were surprised to find seaweed scattered across the entire deck of the boat as evidence to just how rough the lake had been. In the river was very tricky to pick out the navigation lights from the city lights in the background. I was glad I had plotted waypoints and compass headings to follow since it made it much easier to stay in the main channel. On one occasion I got out of the channel and the water depth dropped from 30 feet to 10 feet is seconds. It was definitely a two-man job to navigate the river in the dark. |
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| Sat Aug 30, 8 AM ? We passed the Detroit waterfront and the Ambassador Bridge and enter into Lake St Clair. For the first time we unroll the headsail and motor sail with a 8-10 knot north wind. Around noon we have made the 24 miles across Lake St Clair and enter the St Clair River. |
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| Sat Aug 30, 1:30 PM ? We make a stop for fuel in Algonac. When we pulled back into the river we encounter our first freighters of the trip and find ourselves sharing the channel with 3 very big ships, 2 down-bound and 1 up-bound. |
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Traffic jam in St Clair River |
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| Sat Aug 30, 7 PM ? We pull into Port Huron across from PHYC to top off the fuel tanks. Nineteen hours to make the first 100 miles. Since leaving Lake Erie we?ve pretty much been going up hill and into current the entire way. The last half-mile before entering Lake Huron is supposed to have the worst current and can exceed 4-5 knots. I had been advised to stick to the Canadian shore where the current is usually slower. As we passed under the Bluewater Bridge our boat speed was 6 knots but SOG was only 3.2 knots. We must have caught a ride on some kind of eddy because our SOG quickly accelerated to almost 9.5 knots and we charged out into Lake Huron. After we enter Lake Huron we unroll the jib and start motor sailing making 7 to 7.5 knots for most of the night. Numerous freighters were passed during the night. (We didn?t keep count but would estimate we passed at least 30 or more freighters over the entire weekend.) It definitely helped keep the night watch alert. |
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| Sun Aug 31, Noon ? We pull into Harrisville for fuel. We had to wait to get into the fuel dock and so our stop takes almost an hour. After we are back on our way everyone finds something to scrub or clean and the skipper never even gave an order to do so! The cockpit and transom were scrubbed, an issue with the roller furling was repaired and the wind vane is not working so Tim volunteers to go up the mast to investigate. After coming back to deck Tim proposes we air out the spinnaker. Most of the day it was a NW wind but around 3:00 it shifted to the SW. With the engine turned off and the chute set we?re making 6.5 knots as we pass Alpena to port. We have a beautiful sail for about 3 hours when the wind along with our boat speed begin die so we fire up the engine again and go back to motor sailing. |
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The climbing monkey |
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| Sunday Aug 30, 7:30 PM ? While plotting our course into Mackinaw I confirm we are only 76 miles away and if we maintain our current speed we will arrive before 6 am. Everyone decides that I should plot a new course to the next port. I return below and scratch out a course under the Mac Bridge, through Grays reef and down to Charlevoix, ETA is mid afternoon on Labor day.. |
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| Monday, September 1, 3:00 AM ? Tim and Jeff are treated to an amazing Northern Lights show and Mars is very visible in the sky as we make our way through the Straits. |
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Monday September 1, 5:00 AM ? We approach the Mackinaw Bridge and everyone is on deck to pass under the bridge. We notice a small boat to the south of us with flashing lights and realize they must be coming at us since we are the only boat in view. We start to roll up sails to slow down when suddenly directly behind us a Coast Guard cutter appears out of the darkness when it turns on its flashers and spot lights and powers up to our port side. I?m sure they had quite a sight looking at eight large eyeballs and four wide-open mouths as we stared at them in complete surprise. Jeff was the first to move as he continued to roll up the headsail to slow us down for an apparent boarding. Once we were slowed down and engines on both boats had been quieted to an idle the cutter announced to us that we needed an escort to pass under the bridge. They told us they would escort us but we were not to exceed 10 knots and needed to pass under center span. Since we were aiming to pass close to the south tower we fell off, unfurled the sail, and passed under the bridge with the escort closely off our port stern. After passing under the bridge we were released and the cutter spun around and switched off all lights again and disappeared into the darkness. Later we heard other boats and ships contacting the USCG by VHF requesting escorts. We?re not sure how we missed the message but we concluded that the extra security was due to the Labor Day bridge walk that was taking place that morning |
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| Monday September 1, 10:45 AM ? We spent the morning motor sailing through the Straits and Grays Reef making 7.5 knots much of the way but the wind was slowly decreasing. We?re 16 miles from Charlevoix, it?s a gorgeous day, very flat water and not much wind so now all sails are furled. Powering along at 6.4 knots. |
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| Monday, September 1, 1:00 PM ? We?re outside the Charlevoix channel hoping for the one o?clock drawbridge opening. Earlier I asked Tim to hail the bridge to make sure they knew we were coming. After trying nearly every channel on the VHF and no success reaching the bridge operator another boater tells Tim they don?t monitor the radio often and they open the bridge on every half hour no matter what. We proceed into the channel and the bridge starts to lift. We only had to wait momentarily for it to fully open and we pass under and head for the fuel dock and a slip in the municipal marina. An hour later we are fueled and tied up in a slip. We open a round of beers to celebrate the trip and the shower brigade gets underway. We?re all tired but charged up by the experience we all just shared. We were treated with great weather and conditions all weekend and were able to move nearly 400 miles in 61 hours. |
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| A couple hours later Marsha and Keegan arrive at the boat and the crew loads their gear into our car and heads back to Grand Haven leaving Marsha, Keegan, and myself to spend another week ?cruising? the boat the last 180 miles home. |
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Lake Huron |
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Detroit Skyline |
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