Lake St. Clair to the North Channel - Trip Log.

[WTP07]

Leg 1: Lighthouse Cove to Sarnia. 87.59km

Left at 11am with very light chop directly off the bow, stopped in Marine City, MI and took on 204 gallons of fuel. Arrived in Sarnia at 230PM or so.

St. Clair River was a fun trip, as always. A few giant freighters for the kids to ooooh and aaaaah at as they went past, a bunch of jet-skiers jumping our wake.

Interesting to note that with all of our gear on board, 4 people and a FULL load of fuel, I have to run at 3400 rpm to get 20MPH. With a 1/4 tank of fuel, I can run at 2900 and keep the secondaries closed and still do 20.

Oh well, 16 MPH is just fine with me, the throaty sound with the secondaries open reminds me of just how much $$$ is going out the exhaust pipe!

We were planning on running from Sarnia to Port Elgin tomorrow, but have decided to go as far a Goderich, then head to Pt. Elgin on Saturday, hopefully arriving in Tobermory on Sunday. This is due to the "spousal aggravation factor". Apparantly, about 3-4 hours is the max for her to run without getting super-cranky. OK by me. More cocktail time with shorter runs!

More to come, pictures to follow.

Cheers,

Randy.

 

[RollerCoastr]

Awwwwe. I wanted to be writing that. Instead, I'll be lucky to get away from the dock this wkd.

I usually recommend a stop in Bayfield to counter the "spousal aggravation factor"... but maybe she's not impressed?

I heard that the chef of Bailey's in Goderich passed away. If you go into town for any fine dining, I'm anxious to hear about the state of his legacy.

 

[WTP07]

Leg 2: Sarnia to Goderich

Today's Leg: 99.6 KM
Total Distance: 187.3 KM
Took on 496.6 liters in Goderich.

Lake Huron was about as nice as you can possibly ask for today. Less than 1' waves, and those following. Sunny skies, about 20C or so. In otherwords...PERFECT.

Here's a shot the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia, just before passing under:

A shot of just how calm it was out there:

Some interesting sailboats in the harbour in Goderich, a beautiful 3 masted, all wood boat from Toronto, and this gorgeous ocean-going trimaran:

Horrible background in that shot, but what can you do, it's a working port...not terribly pretty, but functional.

Kids were in and out of the pool here most of the day, and we took the dinghy up to the beach for a while this afternoon, although the "beach' is mostly small round stones, rather than sand.

Tomorrow's leg is Goderich to Port Elgin. 96 kms according to the GPS.

Something interesting to note, I took almost an extra 100 liters in the port tank than in the starboard. Each engine is running of their respective tanks. The port engine is running at about 130F, the starboard at 160F. I am assuming that someone has put the cooler T-stat in the port engine, but would that account for the giant difference in fuel consumption? Any thoughts on that dilemma would be appreciated.

More tomorrow...

Cheers.

Randy.

 

[WTP07]

Well, our long-awaited trip is over, and more than a week too soon.

We hit something Wednesday while cruising in 150ft of water, between Tobermory and Killarney.

I don't know what it was, there was nothing on the surface at all, the water was as flat as a mill pond.

Cruising along at 18MPH, then "CLUNK"...and the starboard tach jumps up into the red immediately! Kill the throttles, pull it back into neutral, and we try to figure out what happened.

I pull the hatches and get my wife to put the port engine in gear, everything fine there. Put the starboard engine in gear and while the shaft spins, I have no propulsion.

We limp into Killarney and I put the mask on and hop in. UH oh. No prop. Gone. Snapped off just behind the cutlass bearing.

Close up of the break:

Amazingly, only 2 minor scuffs that you can see in the pic. A small white smudge from whatever we hit and a small gouge in the fiberglass from the prop hitting it.

So far, everyone I have talked to about this has never heard of a shaft breaking, just bending, Including the mechanics at Harbour Vue in Little Current that are doing the repairs.

The good news is, no one was hurt, we made it into port just fine on one engine, and the repairs and incidental costs are covered by our insurance.

On a side note, the marina in Tobermory was the nicest one we stayed at....until we got to Killarney. The Sportsman Inn in Killarney is fantastic!

They have done a great job with that place!

Anyway, hopefully they will have this put back together in another week or so and we can get back to boating!

Cheers,

Randy.
_________________

 

[Big Dave]

Sorry about the bad news. The pictures are great. Its funny that is broke right there. Hope you can get things fixed quickly and get back to your trip! We often thought about taking this trip our self. So keep us posted so we can follow your story.


Thanks again good luck
Dave

 

[out-n-aboat]

Re: Leg 2: Sarnia to Goderich

Today's Leg: 99.6 KM
Total Distance: 187.3 KM
Took on 496.6 liters in Goderich.

Lake Huron was about as nice as you can possibly ask for today. Less than 1' waves, and those following. Sunny skies, about 20C or so. In otherwords...PERFECT.

Here's a shot the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia, just before passing under:

A shot of just how calm it was out there:

Some interesting sailboats in the harbour in Goderich, a beautiful 3 masted, all wood boat from Toronto, and this gorgeous ocean-going trimaran:

Horrible background in that shot, but what can you do, it's a working port...not terribly pretty, but functional.

Kids were in and out of the pool here most of the day, and we took the dinghy up to the beach for a while this afternoon, although the "beach' is mostly small round stones, rather than sand.

Tomorrow's leg is Goderich to Port Elgin. 96 kms according to the GPS.

Something interesting to note, I took almost an extra 100 liters in the port tank than in the starboard. Each engine is running of their respective tanks. The port engine is running at about 130F, the starboard at 160F. I am assuming that someone has put the cooler T-stat in the port engine, but would that account for the giant difference in fuel consumption? Any thoughts on that dilemma would be appreciated.

More tomorrow...

Cheers.

Randy.

Do you run a generator on one of the tanks?