My first draft was novel length, let’s see if I can do a highlight reel instead.
First of all, it’s beautiful, like picture postcard beautiful. I have pictures, they don’t do it justice, I’ll post them anyway. After sailing on Lake St. Clair all summer last year, it was really nice to be somewhere peaceful. I felt like I was the only one there most of the time . . . And it was a weekend in July.
Despite the many islands, depth was not a problem for us (we only have a 2.5’ draft, but depth wouldn’t be a problem for the big boys either). The boat ramps were another story. They are shallow and peppered with boulders. They are well marked, and there are ample warning signs, but it was hard at times to figure out exactly where they wanted me to sail. I went with the philosophy of ”don’t go faster than the speed at which you want to hit a big rock.” We went very slow near the ramps, with my wife sitting on the bow, and there was a lot of discussion about “does it look like we’re supposed to go between those two? or around them?“
the distances are all pretty small. We stayed at the De Tour Village Marina, 7 nm to Harbor island, 8 nm to Lime Island. Friday the wind was perfect, so we did not make a direct course to Harbor Island. We chased the wind for several hours, then we dropped the hook in the harbor. As was previously mentioned, the harbor is much bigger than it looks on a map. There is an inner harbor and an outer harbor. There were a pretty good number of boats there, yet there was plenty of room. we stayed at anchor for several hours and had a picnic, but we decided to sail back to the marina. It was cold, and we opted not to swim or go ashore. Sitting at anchor didn’t appeal as much as sailing did.
Saturday the wind was very light all day, it took us all of 8 hours to sail the 16 mile round trip to lime island and back. We spent about an hour on the island. Neither of us felt the need to walk the 2.9 miles to the beach (and then the 2.9 miles back).
Lime Island is a 10 out of 10 for destinations for me. It's a state park built on a ghost town. There are 8 cottages that you can rent, and raised platforms that you can set a tent on. Once upon a time it was a very productive rookery of the common tern. Seagulls have pushed them off of the prime location, it’s still a productive rookery for the terns, but the gulls are crazy! I was grateful that the gulls stay on the old coal dock, and dont go to the main part of the island in great numbers.
one of my pictures that looks like a freighter coming out of the woods . . . That’s a house, made from an old freighter.
When I go again, and I will, I’ll want at least 4 days on the water. I might be tempted to rent a cottage on Lime for three, sleep at anchor for one, and avoid the marina completely. My wife isn’t so sure about that plan, because it took us a long time to get out of the River and into the bay, but we were sailing straight into a very light wind, tacking back and forth with very little power.
freighters and ferries were less of a challenge than I anticipated. I kept my head on a swivel, when we saw a freighter approaching we had plenty of time to get out of its way. I only fired up the motor once, as we were crossing the shipping lane, making a blistering .5 kts, and I just wanted to be well away from his wake when eventually he passed us.
ok, still reads like a novel . . . Sorry
