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We left at 1145 after extracting ourselves from the middle of  raft of six boats on the east side of the PIB YC pier. Our string of grea t days continued for this last day of our 3 month trip. The 6- 9 knot breeze we had from the NW was on our stern so even though we had the mainsail raised we were not really getting much of any drive though it was helping stabilize the boat against the leftover NE swells on the lake. It was an uneventful crossing to Vermilion and the culmination of the trip north to Lake Superior. After arriving at VYC at 1545, we started the arduous task of off-loading some of the “stuff” that went on board for the  trip such as the two folding bikes. I plan to do one last summary log on Monday or Tuesday, and I hope  those who have stayed tuned enjoyed my odyssey as much as I did.

Historic Weekend is my favorite time at PIB. Among other things there is an old fashioned parade on Saturday, the Boy Scouts come in droves from Ohio and Michigan and camp out near Perry’s Monument, the Toledo Symphony gives a concert on the lawn, and Gibraltar Island is open to the public. This year it was an especially good weekend as we had perfect weather: cloudless skies, cool nights, warm days and no heavy NE winds and on Friday Marcy came over on Tom and Patty Grisez’ power boat. After 3 months it was GOOD to see her again. Bill Boaz’ wife Cindy came with her so the four of us will sail back to Vermilion on Sunday. I will not bore all of you with the details of what we did over the weekend. I’ll just say it was a good one with the exception of the Buckeyes loss to USC Saturday night

We left Scudder at 1100 for our short sail to PIB under clear skies and light SE winds. We hoisted sail outside the harbor and we were able to sail the whole way to PIB. In fact after we cleared the north end of Pelee Island and turned south to PIB the wind came up to 8-11 knots and we had one of our better sailing days. At 1330 at PIB we picked up a mooring ball in the west end of the mooring field which will give us some protection if the wind should shift to the NE. We plan to stay on board tonight and watch the Steelers/Titans game and then early tomorrow we will move all of a 1000 yards to the pier at PIB YC where we will be joined by eight other boats from VYC who are coming to PIB for Historic Weekend.

Hooray my electrical dilemma is resolved. After several hours of troubleshooting and trying various things, I finally discovered the 250 amp fuse in the negative lead from my house battery bank was blown. I do not know when or why it happened, but in essence the house bank has not been getting or delivering “juice” since the fuse blew. We have been living off the 105 amp hour starting battery since who knows when. The 250 amp fuse is in the form of a fuse block and there was no way to tell visually that it had blown. I had a spare on board and after replacing the fuse the house battery started to charge up and everything in the system returned to normal. Now we will be able to go to a mooring ball when we go to PIB tomorrow.

We departed at 1100 after the rain that started last night had stopped and I am happy to say it remained dry the rest of the day. We were able to sail at about 6 knots but I had to run the engine to keep our battery voltage up. Yes, I am still having mysterious problems with my house battery bank. We arrived at Scudder around 1315, ate lunch and then set off on our bikes for the 5 mile pedal to West Dock. This is the aptly named place on the southwest side of Pelee where the Jiiman ferry docks. It is the only way off the Island other than private boat or aircraft. We were surprised to find the grocery store at West Dock is no longer open . Just another victim of the retail demise we have seen in many of the Canadian ports we have visited. However, the LCBO store is still open. I guess that says something about priorities. BTW I forgot to mention the hardware/convenience store at Scudder is no longer there. It burned to the ground in Febuary. That must have been a tense fire scene as the store is within 30 feet of the gasoline storage tanks for the Island. On our trip back we did not reverse course up West Shore Road but went through the interior of the Island via West Pump Road, Victoria Rd. and Homeward Rd. It turned out to be a tough bike back since we were pedaling into a stiff wind. We did not arrive back at Scudder until nearly 1800 so we elected to go out to dinner at the Scudder Beach Bar and Grill. We plan to stay here tomorrow and I will try and resolve my electrical Problems.

We enjoyed our stay in Leamington and being with our friends especially the socializing and shared meals but there is nothing unusual to report. The weather was excellent; warm and dry days and cool nights. Late last night it started raining and poured all night long. It is supposed to stop mid morning tomorrow. That’s good for we will leave late morning for the short trip to the north end of Pelee Island and Scudder Marina.

Another nice day was in place when we got up. We left Boblo at 0830 and headed down the downbound freighter channel to the Lake. I was thinking how nice it was going to be back in Lake Erie even though we had no wind. However the lack of wind plus the warm weather we have had for a week has created a major algae bloom on this shallow end of the lake. There was a yellowish green carpet of algae covering the lake for as far as you could see. It started within a mile of the downbound channel and continued all the way to Leamington. I have seen isolated patches of this before but nothing like this. You could see our wake through it stretching behind us for miles. We arrived in Leamington at 1330 and docked beside Don and Kerry Albanese on Excalibur who you will remember started this trip with me in June. Across the dock were Jim and Jola Karpinski on Crescendo who also belong to VYC. It was good to see familiar faces again.  We will be here in Leamington for three days over the Labor Day weekend and I will not be doing a log each day. I will do a summary log at the end.

I cooked breakfast so we did not leave Windsor until 0945. Once again light winds and a pretty day. I hope this keeps up as forecasted. Before cutting off the main river to go down the small boat cut-off we passed the steel mills which were silent when we came by in June. Business activity must be picking up as at least two of the furnaces are back in operation. Once again we saw lots of swans and it was great to get out of the wakes from all the 40-50 foot powerboats on the main river. We pulled off the downbound channel and came down west of Boblo Island to the marina and found it is back in operation. The docks have been leveled, there is power and water at the docks and the store and restaurant are open. We arrived at 1215 thanks to the favorable 2 knot current we enjoyed most of the way. After checking in, we went over to the restaurant and sat outside enjoying, if you can believe it, sushi for lunch. While checking in we where given tags for free use of the ferry over to Amherstburg, so we went back to the boat, put the bicycles down and took the short ferry ride over to town. We played tourist for the afternoon including having ice cream cones and then took the ferry back to Boblo. We stopped by the closed dance hall which is still not functioning but one of the workers who was inside said there are plans to reopen it. We will eat on board tonight, and leave relatively early tomorrow for the short trip out into Lake Erie where we will turn east and head for Leamington. I hope we will have some winds that will allow us to sail.

We got uo early in order to catch the first bridge opening at 0800. I called the bridge master on the radio and told him of our intention to stay on the wall until he started to lower the traffic gates and he allowed us to do it which saved us from milling about in the river for 5-10 minutes. Once again we had another beautiful day and the forecast is for this weather to continue through Labor Day. I guess this is payback for the cold, overcast weather we had on the first part of the trip. We only had one barge and one freighter pass us going north while we were coming down the St. Clair but as soon as we got out into Lake St. Clair three freighters passed us right in a row all going north. Keeping track of them made the crossing of the lake a very quick affair and before we know it at 1300 we docked at Lakeview Park Marina. After checking into the marina we also checked in with Canada Customs and then went to the inside wall which put us in close proximity to the marina’s Laundromat. There is only one washer and dryer so we spent most of the afternoon doing the dreaded laundry. For dinner we went to the restaurant at the marina Lillie Kazillili’s and enjoyed another good meal. Tomorrow we plan to continue down the Detroit River to Boblo Island. We will check and see if the marina is in operation. If it is we will stay there otherwise we will anchor nearby.

This was our third beautiful day in a row for our short trip down the river to St. Clair. We left at about noon and we tied up on the north wall at 1400. We had to slow down in order to wait for the bridge which only opens on the hour and half hour. The lift bridge is only about 100 yards off the main river on the Pine River and the north wall is immediately to the right after clearing the bridge. It was a nice spot as this puts you right in the town of St. Clair. After a late lunch, we walked up the Boardwalk to the St. Clair Inn and spent a while watching the freighter traffic from their patio. We walked to the boat through the town’s shopping center, but we didn’t find anything to buy. Tomorrow we cross back into Canada as we plan to go to Windsor.