Monday, we pushed off from Jefferson Beach Marina at 5:15AM. We had a surprise visit from Pam & Pete to help us cast off. VERY nice of them to show up at such an early hour.
The plan was to cover 70 miles to Port Sanilac. That is across Lake St. Clair and all the way up the St. Clair River and up the Lake Huron coastline. The river flows down against us at 3 to 4 knots so we loose quite a bit of speed, especially at the mouth under the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron. Sanilac was chosen because there is sufficient room to anchor (free!). Anchor down at 5:45pm.
We had one bad thing and one good thing happen. The engine drive refrigeration compressor wasn't working right and was actually warming the freezer! The 12 volt system was fighting the good fight and trying to keep it cold. In the process the 12 volt system was consuming a LOT of battery juice. Fortunately I installed a BIG battery bank, 900 amp/hours of wet cell golf cart Trojan batteries. It took me until Tuesday morning to realize what had happened. Overnight everything settled down because the engine was not running and I'd turned off the engine drive compressor. Called Cleve at Seafrost to confirm the diagnosis. Now all I have to do is find the leak in the engine drive system and fix it, then recharge that system. Great to have redundant refer systems!
The "good thing" is the Manson Supreme. Our 45 lb. primary anchor. We anchored in Sanilac harbor with winds of 12 to 20 knots with a 5:1 scope of chain. We had a 180 degree wind shift this morning with more gusty wind into the low 20's. Didn't budge an inch! Good? GREAT!!
I thought I activated my Spot Messenger tracking feature. Evidently something did not work right so we did not record a track of the first day trip. Bummer. More confusing techno gadgets to figure out. Hopefully we'll be able to post maps with tracks of our journey here on the blog.
This entry sent courtesy of free WiFi at the Port Sanilac Municipal Marina!
Still looking for time to figure out my new camera...stills & video to come.
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