Here it comes kids. F'ing winter. Gimme shelter is in her cradle. I changed the oil and winterized the water system and waste tank. All the sails are in the garage and we wait for the dark season to pass. Big plans for next summer.

HELP!!

I headed out on Saturday with my better half for 4 hours out on Lake St.Clair. 8 knots of wind, warm but cloudy. Hey, not bad for October.
I am getting better at this sailing stuff. I sailed into the flow of the river and tacked back and forth between Peche isle and Belle Isle on the US side.
I kept the tacks well over 130 degrees apart due to the wind coming up the channel and the fact that the two knots of current swept me along. Once clear of Peche I headed over into the secondary channel and worked my way back up against the current toward my marina (Wind astern). No motor and best of all I wasn't nervous about it. Working my way along an inclosed area with all sails up made me very uptight when I started sailing. It is one thing to motor out to the middle of a lake and raise the sails, quite another to confidently work your way along a narrow channel with huge freighters passing you.
  OH THE PHOTO?? as I headed back up the river this guy and his crew flew by. I thought "they're out of my league" They turned into the channel on the right side of the red buoy heading upstream. Then they promptly grounded Red Right Return. Red (To your)Right (When you are returning to the source of the water you are in)Return.
You have been educated.

 Last big sail of the season. We had SSE winds and followed the shoreline from Windsor to Belle River on Lake St.Clair. Another big fire over in Detroit to watch as we sailed along. Well next week I guess we will move her to the boat yard. What a drag! I hate winter. Lots to do this winter. New fridge, GPS, and maybe a dodger.$$$

Just back from two weeks in Hawaii. Some photos of sailboats and some crap that surfers live on.

sister boat

 Another 30 O'day

Westsail?

 Nice vessel. looked like he nailed something. There was a strip of stainless covering a Boo Boo.

Three guys on this boat were out for several years. Tough looking Trimaran ...but UUUgly.

Read about this old ship @......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falls_of_Clyde_%28ship%29

 What the He..??

 This is a surfers special. With the cost of living in Waikiki, they rent a boat slip and put a "thing" in there.

This guy had great Shrimp. They often film scenes from Hawaii 50 here.

Labor Day.  YIKES. I better get out there. man were did summer go??

DOG DAYS O' SUMMER
Not much getting done. Just sailing
.

We are planning to go up to Mackinaw Island working our way up the Michigan shore line next year
Priorities will be a new refrigeration system and a new GPS. I have an older grey scale Garmin. Sucks.

Drove up to Tobermory. Saw a couple of nice boats 46 footers.
My dog Marley a Briard.

This is a 52 Hlyas. Sweet boat!! I see the owner passed on the gun turrets . This is Bayfield marina on the Bruce peninsula .

Well we had over a week aboard GIMME SHELTER. We traveled down the Detroit river and stayed overnight in Crystal bay. Then onto Scudder marina at the north end of Pelee Island in Lake Erie. Liz and Marley pose for me.

We left Pelee and headed for Kelley's Island off the Ohio coast. No wind all day and temps in the 90's.
We planned on having a fire that night but it was too hot at 10 at night.We spent a night a PUT IN BAY before heading back home to check our lottery tickets and then go back to work.

Days like this make it all worth while.
Even if I can't get the sails up. The next day we had a great sail home keeping the boat between 5 and 6 knots for the 30 mile run across Lake Erie. Then the dreaded slog up the river against 2 knots of current. 
A 13 hour day. The microwave worked great but we realize that we need more battery power to stay on the hook. Also the toilet started acting up (hard to operate) I looked into rebuilding it but it wasn't much more to replace the thing. Did it yesterday and it is working great.