Day 12: Heading to St. Clair

Sunrise in the Shipping Channel

Morning found us once again on the edge of the shipping channel (at this point the shipping channel approached the coast) and we started to notice the freighter traffic increasing. In this short section we were to see more ships and boats than in the rest of the trip!

Passing boats

In fact as we started to approach the end of the lake, we found quite a few speedboats and a couple of sailboats that were heading in the same direction as well as some that were just out enjoying the day. One of the latter was clearly having fun, a yacht called "Obsession" that took great delight in demonstrating that under sail he could go faster than us (at this point we had dropped the sails and were motoring).

Flags at Port Huron

As we passed under the bridge we did notice that both the USA and Canadian flags flew both flags, an usual sight but reasonable given the short distance between them! We passed under the bridge and into the St Clair River, having completed yet another stage of our journey across the lakes.

USA Side Canadian Side

The trip down the river presented us with a series of interesting sights, on the USA side there were lines of gorgeous houses while directly in front of these houses, on the Canadian side was mainly industrial. It was also slightly stressful due to the number of fast boats zooming along as well as a couple of large freighters that pass up and down the river.

A Passing Freighter

However our destination was not far away. We had arranged to meet up in the town of St. Clair which is about halfway along the river. The marina was behind a low bridge that opened every half hour (provided that there was some-one waiting to pass of course). Naturally Murphy was waiting for us and we arrived just in time to miss one opening. We circled around in the river for a half hour and then headed in to a lovely protected harbour.

Entrance to St Clair

Since we arrived so early we had time to clean up and relax on the boat - taking full advantage of the wireless internet - before our guest arrived and we headed off for a short walk along the river, followed by a nice dinner in a seafood reasturant.

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