July 7, 20011
We left Port Sanilac this morning @ 0700 hrs. Another one of those glorious days on Lake Huron without wind. The Volvo Penta 2003T diesel is working great and hasn't shown a sign of a single leak. I'm taking it easy on the old gal and checking to make sure all here needs are being met. To date the only thing I have had to do was to clean the raw water intake strainer. The algae in some of the marinas gets sucked up into the water intake. I check this almost everyday.
Distance for today's run was about 37 nm. Once we entered the St Clair River we picked up an extra 2 kts of current and were averaging 8.2 kts to our destination at the St Clair/Charles F. Moore Harbor. We were all fast at the marina @1400 hrs. Piloting on Rivers is one of my great enjoyments. It felt like old times seeing the big Great Lakers carrying their cargo North and South. I have installed a system called AIS (Automatic Identification System) onboard "Solstice" so I am sending and receiving information on every ship carrying the same system. On the big freighters it is required. On my charting program, the ship's name, heading, speed over ground, and closest point of approach shown up and help me make decisions on how to arrange a safe passing: great aid to navigation.
Tomorrow we depart St Clair for Detroit. I really look forward to piloting this stretch of water. We will be going into Detroit at a time that the Hydro- Plane Races begin. I have selected a berth just North of the marked area.
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