Captain's Choice blog: Lake Superior bound

Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and among freshwater lakes, it is the world's largest by surface and the third-largest by volume. This is the only Great Lake that Captain's Choice has not visited. When we did the great loop we thought about sticking our nose in Lake Superior but decided we would wait until we could do it right. That time is now and we are off on another boat adventure.

With our eye on the weather we thought we might be able to leave Friday, June 4 as winds were very favorable but Saturday they were calling for gusts of 30+ mph so we waited. Sunday was the next possible departure date and after the winds Saturday we thought "probably not" but readied the boat anyway. Were we surprised when we woke Sunday morning to no wind. We left Buffalo ASAP. The lake was a little lumpy from all the wind and waves Saturday but very doable. We were even more surprised at how much the lake laid down once we got past Erie, PA. By the time we passed Geneva on the Lake, OH, Lake Erie was a mirror and we traveled 231 miles and anchored at Kelly's Island, Ohio.

Rising at 0'dark thirty we left the anchorage Monday passing Put-In-Bay much too early for a quick stop at my favorite Mojito Bar. We traveled 106 miles and stayed at the Algonac Harbour Club. There was a lot of ship traffic which always makes the day interesting. We also saw the start of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The bridge will be a cable-stayed international bridge that will connect Detroit to Windsor, Ontario by linking Interstate 75 and 95 in Michigan to Hwy 401 in Ontario. This will be the longest cable-stayed bridge ever built in North America and the fourth largest in the world. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. Hopefully Canada and the US Border will be open well before the opening of the bridge!

Fog, fog and more fog - Tuesday has been dubbed "radar all day day". We left Algonac early with a mininal amount of fog but once we got out in the St. Clair River the fog really rolled in. Once again the captain reminded me you just have to trust your instrumentation. I had just asked Mark yesterday if he wished he had AIS (Automatic Identification System) when we did the loop as we do have it now. He said it would have been nice but obviously not necessary since we had no problems doing the loop. The AIS system works by taking your position and movements via the vessels' GPS or internal sensor. That information is then collated along with programmable information from the AIS (Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number, vessel name, destination, cargo type) and is transmitted in the background at regular intervals whilst also receiving other vessels AIS information. AIS was very valuable this morning as we could see the vessels approaching on the screen before we could actually see them on the water. The fog made for some very interesting photos! We followed the Federal Leda out to Lake Huron and watched as they changed pilots from the river pilot to the lake pilot.
The winds were 2 mph and the lake was like glass, unfortuately we couldn't see anything due to the fog! After traveling 90 miles we dropped anchor at Harbor Beach, MI and waited for the fog to lift so we could see land.