The following eight days took us down the Canadian east shore of Lake Huron from Tobermory to the St. Clair River at the bottom of Lake Huron. Leaving the anchorages of the North Channel and Georgian Bay behind, we would now be cruising a shoreline with virtually no safe anchorages, jumping from city to city and mooring in marinas. Join us as we relive a wonderful week spent cruising down the Lake Huron shore.
8/29/2007 - Tobermory to Port Elgin - 57.0 Miles
After a simply wonderful dinner Tuesday night at the Grandview Motel and Restaurant about 3 blocks from the marina (we'd give it 4 stars but with a 2 to 3 star price), we departed Tobermory on Wednesday morning, winding our way the first five miles or so around the well-marked shoal areas until we could lay a direct path to Port Elgin (hard "g", unlike the Illinois city). Several other boats departed Tobermory to head south that day, all like us having waited out the prior day's threatening weather. With light westerlies (a perfect direction but unfortunately too light to get us to Port Elgin in daylight), it quickly became a motorsail day for all six sailboats running down-lake.
Thick haze brought visibility down to about a mile so we ran the radar all day to make sure we stayed out of harms way. Early in the afternoon Environment Canada began issuing severe thunderstorm warnings for southern Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, and Western Lake Erie. Although we did see some menacing clouds and hear thunder to the south (Port Elgin is right on the "dividing line" between north and south Lake Huron), luckily we didn't experience any threatening weather.
At Port Elgin, we did experience the first of many shallow harbor approaches to come. The outside buoy here is about 2 miles offshore. From the buoy one follows a range (two land markers which you line up to ensure that an safe deeper water course is maintained into the harbor). The final entrance is also marked with several buoys. We saw a least depth of 8.5 feet in this narrow channel ... plenty of water today for our 6' draft, but we wouldn't want to be attempting this entry with 6' or higher seas running. Once inside the harbor, depths immediately increased to about 14'.
We decided to stay a 2nd night in Port Elgin, so after some boat chores on Thursday morning we had lunch at the little beach restaurant by the marina building. We then got our bikes out to do some exploring (the accompanying photos show the Port Elgin Marina and the adjacent beach). The road north along the shoreline passed by several other beaches and almost continuous vacation homes, cottages and B&B's all the way to Southampton, about 4 miles to the north. We were particularly intrigued by the sand dunes and beach opposite Chantry Island and the Chantry Island light, especially the 
kite boarder sailing back and forth between the island and the mainland in a stiff 15-knot breeze. Bill has tried sailboarding (not very successfully), but we could hardly imagine controlling a board while managing and being propelled by a parasail. At times the boarder was totally out of the water for 15 or 20 feet before landing and skimming on. When he dumped he managed to keep the kite inflated and flying in a way that re-launched him right out of the water. We were thinking that this might be the perfect extra sail for Judy to fly while standing on the foredeck of Jubilee when it's blowing like stink.
Our turn-around point was the Southampton harbor. Virtually all of the limited mooring space in Southampton is taken by commercial fishing boats and a few local pleasure boats, so the only effective way for cruisers to get here is to bike up from Port Elgin.
In Southampton we saw a historic storm signal used to communicate forecast conditions via shapes and colored lights whenever heavy weather was approaching. (See accompanying photos. You may want to click the plaque photo for a larger, more readable, image.) Hard to believe, but this method was still being used here in the early 1950s. We've certainly progressed a long way since then, given today's continuous VHF marine weather broadcasts, as well as downloadable weather maps, GRIB files and weather projections for several days out ... all easily available on the internet (when you can get a connection).
One of the highlights of cruising is the wonderful people you meet and keep running across along the way. We had initially met Hank and Gretta on Light Wave in the Benjamins, and subsequently ran across them several other evenings. 
Tonight, in his home harbor, Hank introduced us to Thunder Bay sailors Grant and Marilyn Arnold, who also keep their boat here. It turns out Grant and Marilyn are friends of Dennis and Cam Raedeke who many Lake Superior sailors know (Wild Wind) & many Minnesota skiers know (Wild Mountain). It's truly a small world.
We gave Elgin a 4-star rating. When coming through this area definitely plan a stop.
08/31/2007 - Port Elgin to Kincardine - 24.8 Miles (Plus 9/1 Kincardine Lay Day)
Our trip to Kincardine was uneventful, sailing, motorsailing and motoring in light to lighter winds. 
About half way to Kincardine we passed reportedly one of the largest energy plants in the world, the Bruce Generating Station. Its two nuclear generators alone produce some 3 million kilowatts of power. In addition there is an oil-fired generator and several wind generators. Although not the most interesting landmark we've seen so far, it certainly ranks as one of the largest. It seemed to take forever to pass.
Far more interesting was Kincardine. The Kincardine entry follows a light-range to a narrow breakwall channel leading to a wonderful town. With numerous boats making their way back home from the North Channel this time of year, it wasn't unusual to run into boats we'd seen further north. 
Friday night we invited Klaas and Linda from Dutch Helm, and John and Sharon from Audacity, over to Jubilee for hors d'oeuvres. 
We wrapped up the party around 7:30 pm as a bagpiper climbed to the top of the lighthouse to pipe the sun down, a Kincardine tradition every sunny summer evening (
click plaque photo for a more readable description of Kincardine's phantom piper tradition).
Wouldn't you know that we lucked out again, and hit a town in the midst of its 156th annual Fall Fair? After watching the lighthouse piper, the six of us walked up to the center of town to Kincardine Cruise Night, one of the four Friday nights in the summer when well over 100 restored and customized cars convene for a 6-block-long car show. It was hard to believe a town this size could attract this number of truly classic cars. Sorry car buffs, we forgot to bring the camera.
On Saturday we hit some of the town's galleries and strolled some of the side streets. If there was any doubt about this town's heritage, this sign, and the photo we took of these two strolling residents should make it clear that we were in Scottish country. The town has a beautiful area of well restored and maintained historic homes, murals on several downtown buildings, and flowers planted everywhere. Judy caught the noon Fall Fair parade and went to the fair in the afternoon, while Bill gave the boat a much-needed bath and refreshed the Cetol on our outside teak handrails, pinrails, and dorades.
Later in the afternoon two GLCC boats arrived in Kincardine. Mel Wallbank & Mariette Labrosse invited us to join them for evening sundowners on their C&C 51 Bliss, along with Chuck and Joann Mead from Blue Horizon, a Tartan 3700. Both had been at the GLCC Rendezvous in Superior, Wisconsin, and were now on their way back home.
Capping off our Kincardine experience, after dinner aboard we hustled up town again to catch the last parade of the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band for the year. What an experience. The band marched from one end of the town to the other, and as they passed the throngs assembled to hear them simply filed in line, creating a human parade over a city block long. After a bit of a rest at one end of town (conveniently next to a very busy ice cream shop), the pipers started up again and marched back to Victoria park, again with over a block of spectators in tow. Once at the park they put on a bagpipe concert. What an experience!
We broke our rating system in Kincardine. We had been using the traditional 1-5 scale. Kincardine blew the top out of the scale with a solid 6 ... another don't-miss port when in this area.
9/2/2007 - Kincardine to Goderich - 44.8 Miles
While our planned route between Kincardine to Goderich was only 31 miles, those miles were directly upwind. As a result we logged almost 45 miles tacking back and forth to make the Goderich harbor. Notwithstanding the tacking, it was good to be sailing again. Most of the way we were comfortably making 6+ knots through the water in 4-5-foot swells & 16-18 knots apparent wind, but in mid-afternoon the wind eased to 8-10 knots ... not sufficient to maintain a reasonable boat speed for our remaining distance given the opposing head seas left over from earlier in the day. We reluctantly fired up the engine and motorsailed the last 10 miles.
Chuck and Joann on Blue Horizon had left Kincardine before us, but bound for Bayfield, Ontario (10 miles further down-lake from Goderich). However, given the headwinds and rough seas, they decided to stop at Goderich for the night too. We joined them on Blue Horizon for cocktails before dinner that evening.
While sitting in their cockpit we heard a loud noise, then some "Oh no's!", then nothing, so we simply thought a boat had hit a dock in the main basin of the marina (we were moored in the transient slips outside the main basin & couldn't see what might have happened there). A few minutes later we heard and saw an orange medivac helicopter buzzing overhead. It was only later that evening that we learned someone in the main basin had climbed to the top of their mast using only ascenders with no back-up. Somehow the ascender came off the rope and the person fell to the deck. Note to ourselves and all our sailing friends: when climbing the mast always use a separate line as a redundant safety backup. The boat was a smaller boat, perhaps 27', but nevertheless the mast truck was probably 35' above the deck. That'd be a darned serious fall. Unbelievably, we understand that the person, other than being very sore and bruised, only broke a toe.
On Monday we walked across and up the hill for breakfast and to explore the town, but unfortunately virtually everything was closed for the Canadian Labor Day holiday. We found only one restaurant open, the Godrich Grill, and they had a continuous wait for tables. It was worth the wait, though. Great breakfast.
Goderich has an interesting layout, built in a star around Courthouse Square, which is actuall a 2-block by 2-block octagon with the courthouse in the middle. The largest Canadian commercial harbor on Lake Huron, Goderich was less a tourist town and more a business and commercial center. Like the other towns we visited on this eastern shore of Lake Huron, there were a number of well restored and maintained historic houses, but not as many as Kincardine.
Down by the waterfront and across from the commercial docks were a string of three beaches with adjacent picnic areas below a steep hill topped by a lighthouse. In our walk we ran across this accompanying plaque (click on photo for a larger view) with a poem about Vicki Keith. Vicki was a Canadian woman who in 1988 was the first to swim across Lake Huron. She went on to similarly swim across all five great lakes. But the most interesting thing about the poem and plaque was that it was written by Mary Southerland. Mary and her husband Mike were very active members of the Great Lakes Cruising Club who we had met two or three times at different GLCC functions about 15-20 years ago. The Southerland's boat, Scotia Blue, was well know across the Great Lakes. Unfortunately neither Mike nor Mary are with us today, but they will be long remembered for their gregarious personalities and extensive service to the boating community, of which their personal support of Vicki in her quest to swim all five lakes is just one example.
9/3/2007 - Goderich to Bayfield - 14.7 Miles (Plus 9/4 lay day in Bayfield)
We've been looking forward to visiting our sister "Bayfield" harbor for some time, but unlike Bayfield Wisconsin with its simple deep entry, there were confirmed reports of heavy silting at the bar at the end of the Bayfield breakwater As a result we held off making a decision to leave Goderich until mid-afternoon, after the winds had laid down a bit. We were told to expect 7-8' depths at the entry if we stuck very close to the south breakwall (depths as shallow as 4' were being reported in the middle and nearer the north breakwall. We clearly needed to negotiate the right spot in the opening and not be in any kind of heavy sea when we did it, since as little as a 2' sea could drop us on the sand in a wave trough. The partially submerged shipwreck just off the Bayfield beach was a sobering reminder of things that can go wrong, but as it turns out we made it through just fine.
Having cleared the breakwater we discovered the mouth of the Bayfield River chock-a-block with slips and little marinas along both banks. We had reserved a slip at the Municipal Marina, a short walk from the town.
Prior to arriving in Bayfield we had made arrangements to connect with John and Terri Kennedy, who have a beautiful vacation home on the lake shore near Grand Bend, a few miles to the south. We first met John and Terri in 1993 and 1994 when John was Great Lakes Cruising Club Commodore (Terri is presently GLCC Port Captain for Grand Bend). John took us for a driving tour of the area, followed by dinner at their home that evening. The accompanying picture captures a view of their beach at sunset, with John and one of their dogs walking up to the house.
Tuesday was spent exploring the town. 
Bayfield's downtown felt more like a tree-lined residential street than a city business district (see typical downtown scene at right). Like other towns in this area, there were a number of very well restored and maintained historic homes, and even this lighthouse-style home that's currently for sale (any takers?). Being the day after Labor Day, things were pretty quiet, so we didn't feel rushed or crowded exploring the many galleries and other tourist-oriented businesses. John is a Federal Circuit Court Judge who happened to be working out of the Goderich Courthouse on Tuesday, so he stopped by the boat on his way home after work. 
The sun was setting over the Bayfield Entry piers as he departed, first dropping us off up the hill in town for dinner.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stop in Bayfield, and would highly recommend a stop should any of you be cruising along this shoreline. But before entering, do check with the GLCC Port Captain for current entry conditions, and plan to stop in Goderich instead, should a heavy sea be running.
9/5/2007 - Bayfield to Port Huron - 46.7 Miles
The start of the day was an unbelievable sail, beam reaching in the high 6's to the mid-7's (our theoretical hull speed is 7.2), all under a clear sky with minimal sea. It seemed too good to be true.
And it was.
Around 11:00 am the wind had dropped to 5 or less knots true, so we started the Yanmar and motorsailed. By noon we were motoring into a weakening 5-knot SSW breeze with a slight assist from the main and shortly thereafter we were running in 1-2-mile visibility haze with the radar (and spotted our first up-bound freighter about 3 1/2 miles off as soon as the radar came up, welcoming us back to the world of shipping channels). So after our great start we were now settling in for a long afternoon under the motor while watching the "Raytheon TV".
The dense surface haze cleared but the sky remained heavy and humid as we approached the inner buoys marking the lead channel into the St. Clair river, no doubt helped by a southerly shore breeze coming up the river channel out to the calm lake beyond. Our passage under the Blue Water International Bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia was no where near as dramatic as our passages under the Mackinac Bridge back in July, but it did mark a milestone for us as we formally departed Lake Huron. We knew we were now in the river, though, as we encountered a 3.5-knot current helping us along as we passed under the bridge. The current will be a welcome assist, significantly shortening our passage through to Lake Erie. Glad we're not going the other way!
A couple miles down from the bridge we turned into the Black River and tied up at the Port Huron Yacht Club's guest docks. If you're a member of an ILYA or Yachting Club of America - affiliated yacht club (GLCC is ILYA, Bayfield Yacht Club is YCA), or a guest of a member, and if there's space available at their guest dock, your first night's dockage is free and your 2nd night is only $15.00. The PHYC has a beautiful facility, new in the mid-90's. It's totally volunteer-member run, including the yacht club bar, dockage and the like. Lots of things are at cost ... for example bar drinks were running $1.50 to $2.50 depending on what brand. Everyone we met was exceptionally friendly. The PHYC is definitely a good stop on your way from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, particularly if you're a member of a reciprocating yacht club.
Jim Acheson's facility, the Desmond Marina, is just across the river and less than 100 yards from our guest wall at PHYC, but since Jim was out on a business trip we decided to stop at the PHYC instead. The Desmond Marina wall would be another great choice for an overnight stop near the head of the St. Clair river.
After we arrived in Port Huron we called Mike Finnern, Judy's cousin Connie's (and Wayne's) son. Mike and his sailor-friend Kyle drove up to join us for dinner in a local watering hole that evening. About a year ago Kyle had taken a year's sabbatical from Ford Engineering. He bought an Albin Vega sailboat in the Netherlands, and sailed it down the western European coast and into the Med as far as Italy. Mike had joined up with him for a brief time aboard in Italian waters. Kyle's also a skier, and Mike has done a little boarding so we had lots in common to talk about. Unfortunately Mike's girlfriend wasn't free that evening to join us ... it would have been fun to see here again too.
Lake Huron Wrap-Up
And so ends our Lake Huron adventures. As you can tell from this posting, we thoroughly enjoyed our time along Huron's Canadian coast, and before that, the islands of northern Lake Huron. After cruising the North Channel we discovered a number of harbor towns along the eastern shore that were steeped in history and proudly celebrated their heritage. Marina hopping there also afforded the opportunity to meet more people, including slip neighbors who were often heading the same direction we were, and locals who we met along the way.
Counting our path from Detour to the Mackinac Bridge and back, including the North Channel and Georgian Bay areas, we spent a total of 39 days and traveled a total of 564 miles on Huron, the 2nd largest Great Lake.
The next few days will be spent working our way through the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and finally the Detroit River on our way to Lake Erie. We now plan to store on Lake Erie for the winter, probably in Lorain, Ohio, near Cleveland. We'll be providing more details on those travels later as our journey proceeds. As we always say ... stay tuned.
Friends Wayne and Cynthia LeBlanc from the Twin Cities, Hans and Ruth Deller from the Denver area, and the two of us did just that, spending a wonderful week together cruising the British Virgin Islands on a 41' Lagoon Catamaran from Pro Valor Charters. http://www.provalorcharters.com/index.php?pageid=29 
On Wednesday we tacked NE up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Gorda Sound on the north end of Virgin Gorda, picking up a Bitter End Yacht Club mooring ball and dining at Saba Rock that evening. After some make-shift sail repairs Thursday morning, we sailed a close reach in near-perfect conditions up to Anegada for Lobster on at the beach restaurant on Thursday night, followed by a day of beach exploring on Friday. Friday night we celebrated Hans' 66th birthday aboard, complete with a wonderful dinner and birthday cake with a singing candle (see photo). 
On Monday after a brisk 1 1/2 hour hike up the hills of Norman for some panoramic views of the surrounding channels (sorry, I forgot to bring my camera for the hike), we had another brisk upwind sail up to the Marina Cay area, where we anchored in one of Hans & Ruth's secret spots off Great Camanoe Island. The attached shots show Wayne checking our anchor for the evening, and a sting ray on the bottom near the boat (unfortunately I missed snapping the ray as he swam off a second later). 
sea stories, jokes, sing-a-longs which he led with guitar, harmonica, concertina, and the ever-present "drumming" with his feet on a case of Heineken, all liberally interspersed with audience interaction, musical participation, and his uniquely famous "pirate toasts". Wow, could that man get the crowd going. Amazing! 
