harbor hopping on the great lakes: July 2024

Day 1 of 30

July 12, 2024: It took 6 months of detailed planning and nearly a lifetime of dreams to get to this day. The boat is stocked and ready for our 30-day long adventure. At 5:24 p.m., we backed away from D dock in St. Clair Shores and headed out into Lake St. Clair.

The lake was calm, the sky above was crystal clear and brilliant blue with some white fluffy clouds, very low on the horizon and the 30 minute cruise across the lake was so serene.  As we entered the St. Clair River, we started seeing a significant amount of debris floating along. There were storms in the area a couple of days earlier and now we're literally dodging logs and boards that are drifting down the river. Thankfully, the currently calm conditions made it easy to identify them. We may have looked like drunken sailors as we swerved our way up the river. :-)

At 6:55 p.m., we arrived at our first destination; St. Clair Boat Harbor. Weekends are busy for transient harbors like this one and since today is Friday, there are already several boats hovering in the river, waiting for the draw bridge to open. On schedule, the draw bridge opens at 7:00 p.m. and we follow the other boaters into the Pine River. 

There are some restaurants along the river and we can already see that they are hopping. We can hear the music drifting from the restaurants and as we motor our way around the bend, there's a musician performing on the dock, waving to the boaters as they go by. We mostly prefer to fuel up when we arrive but the gas dock is busy so we will wait until the morning to fuel up as we are leaving.

After securing our lines in the boat slip, we hooked up power and water. It's such a luxury to have a/c inside the cabin! Soon we are sitting on the back of our boat on the "sea of couch" (as we like to call it), celebrating our first night with some light snacks and drinks. 

We walked over to Pepper Joe's to add our name to the waitlist and then walked to the plaza where it was packed with people waiting for the weekly summer concert to begin. Making our way to the boardwalk, along the edge of the St. Clair River, we were happy to see some activities at the St. Clair Inn. We discovered a set of stairs leading down from the boardwalk, directly into the river. It felt wonderful to stand in cool water, up to our knees. Heading back to the restaurant, it was heartwarming to see the benches filled with people chatting and savoring the night. ​

Our walk back to the boat, after dinner, was beneath a black, starry sky and a gentle, warm breeze. Summertime bliss.