Wow, we just finished up a fantastic week!

We traveled down Lake Huron, on the east side of Michigan and past Detroit, which, with all due respect, is not the touristy side of Michigan, but the more industrial. Not super exciting towns and, frankly, well…a little redneck. We were serenaded by horrible rock bands, surrounded by hordes of fishermen drinking gallons of the cheapest beer available, and treated to many scenes of belching factories and nuclear plants. Will we return to this side? Hmmmm…probably not.

Detroit

Fast boats, freighters and factories

Grosse Point Yacht Club – the elite of Detroit

800 slip Jefferson Beach Marina in the Nautical Mile, outside Detroit

Freighter passing us at Port Huron

Sunrise in Detroit River

Sunrise over Lake Erie

These people party 🙂

We did see the Petoskey High School Steel Drum Band again, a phenomenally talented group of kids who tour Michigan during the summer. Give them a listen, they are amazing and fun to watch. If you need a pick me up today, this could be it…

The St Clair river spits you out into Lake Erie, which is known to be the choppiest of all the lakes. Yes, we agree. So rough that we had to take cover in Toledo for a couple days after being tossed in three footers and poor Scully getting seasick.

But when we finally arrived in Port Clinton, Ohio to see Uncle Joe and Aunt Lynn, it was all worth it! They are a fantastic couple and we had a blast with them, plus my brother Steve drove over from Chicago. It was around 80 degrees with 85% humidity (ackkk!) but their Port Clinton Yacht Club was wonderful (thanks for getting us in, Joe 🙂 ) and we had great family times!

Well, yeah…

The fam!

Joy Girl at the Port Clinton Yacht Club

One morning, my uncle ran into his friend Jim, a former nuclear plant electrician. After hearing about our electrical woes, he very kindly offered to take a look at it. After examining wires for 4 hours he snipped the offending ground wire inside our inverter, and, voila, PROBLEM FIXED!! Craig walked around in a daze for a full day, hardly able to believe it was real. We were expecting to pay $2,000 for the part alone and now we were just in for some labor time. So many thanks to Jim and Joe!! Steve graciously provided the celebratory champagne that night.

On our last day in Ohio, we a fun visit from Kyle, a friend from church in Colorado, and his in-laws. They were in Akron and drove over to see us and meet Joy Girl. We had just enough time for a short boat ride out into the bay. They had a good time and it was so great to see Kyle and meet his family!

Captain Kyle at the helm

So great to meet the family!

We have now been on all five Great Lakes and have gone over 4,300 nautical miles total. We are heading back up towards Mackinaw Island, then on to the bay of Green Bay in Wisconsin. If all remains a-okay at home, I plan to visit Colorado in late August, then we are on to Chicago and down the rivers in early September.

Kitties are doing well!