Planning a long trip

[HaveADay]

Wednesday night I'm planning to leave Chicago to drive to Port Clinton, OH. I just bought a 2003 Carver Voyager 570 that's located there. The boat has been surveyed, inspected and should be ready to go.

The plan is a Thursday morning departure from Port Clinton, head from there, up the Erie to the Detroit River, onto Lake St. Claire and then up the St. Claire river to Lake Huron. We'll spend Thursday night in Port Sanillac most likely. Then Friday morning make the trip up the Huron to the Straits of Mackinac and spend the night in Cheboygan County. Saturday will take us to Luddington or somewhere around there. Wake up Sunday and make the run across Lake Michigan to Chicago.

So, obviously that's a fair amount of running. Roughly 30 hours over 4 days. I'm hoping for, and currently seeing a pretty decent forecast on the water all four days. The worst conditions I'm seeing right now are likely to be 2-3 footers on Lake Huron. I've done the run from the Straits of Mackinac back to Chicago but not the Erie portion or up through Detroit. I'm probably the most concerned about the trip out of Port Clinton, as I'm told there are some shallows to deal with. I've got good charts for everywhere we will be travelling. I've been told the run up through Detroit is pretty easy so overall I'm pretty confident things won't be too tough. I'm planning on doing all our running during daylight hours with a pretty wide margin for error.

What am I forgetting? I'll have typical safety gear on board, tools, EPIRB, flares, PFDs, etc. Basically all of the running I'm doing is coastal or near coastal.

Thanks
Ben

 

[The Other Gary]

Just the usual precaution about drifting logs and keeping a good lookout. This is the time of year that the lakes fill from their winter lows and we are almost at normal high. Plenty of logs float off the beaches as the water rises and the spring winds blow.

 

[HaveADay]

Thanks Gary, definitely good advice. I'll make sure we have two sets of eyes on watch while we're under way.

Ben

 

[PascalG]

Make sure you pack in some anti getheritis medicine... getheritis (pronounced get there it is) is a potentially serious disease that affects pilots and boaters making then take silly risks.

"30 hours in 4 days" on a new to you boat is one of the first symptom. "Boat has been surveyed, inspected and should be ready" is another symptom.

How long has the boat been sitting, how much old fuel is in there and do you have spare racors? Also, when is the last time the primaries but also secondaries have been changed?

 

[captainwjm]

Excellent point, Pascal

 

[HaveADay]

Pascal,

Probably my single largest reason for posting was exactly what you mention. I wanted the check on if I'm being too aggressive. Unfortunately one of the realities for me is that I don't have as much time as I'd like to make the trip. That means that I have a confined window in which I can make the run. That doesn't mean that I have to finish the run this week if the weather doesn't cooperate. I've been watching the weather and as it looks right now conditions appear fairly favorable. That said, if conditions don't line up as I'd like I'm perfectly prepared to leave the boat where ever she may be and pick up the trip subsequently. Additionally, I can go a few days longer should I need to, though, if the water forecast holds it's currently lining up surprisingly well.

The boat was taken into inventory by the dealer last July. Since then about 15 hours have been put on the boat so it has been run but obviously sparingly. I've asked to have all the fuel filters changed and will make sure I have ample spare elements for the racors.

Pascal and others, I appreciate the check in my approach. If what I wrote above makes you think I'm still not getting it, please, challenge me again. This is a leisure activity, I don't have any desire to take unnecessary or unwise risks in pursuit of leisure.

Thanks
Ben

 

[getakey]

Ben - what did you do with your 4450 ?

 

[HaveADay]

Jerry,

Traded it in on the 570. Took a little bit of a bath on the trade but really didn't want to own two boats.

Ben

 

[eric_b]

quote:

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Originally posted by HaveADay

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Make sure you ask Marine Max about the channel markers in West Harbor. There is a section between the breakwall entrance and the last set of day markers on the way out of the harbor that is not always marked well. We hit bottom there a couple of weeks ago during our sea trial. Fortunately there was no damage to the boat, props or running gear. The bottom is mostly silt and sand. For that section it is deeper closer to the port side as you are exiting.

Hopefully they have that section of the channel marked now.

 

[HaveADay]

Eric,

Thanks for the heads up. I was there a few weeks ago seatrialing the boat and there were indeed several markers missing. I'm planning on asking them lots of questions about the best path out of their facility to open water. Also, I could have their delivery captain accompany me, is there a place I could then drop him?

Thanks
Ben

 

[eric_b]

quote:

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Originally posted by HaveADay

Eric,

Thanks for the heads up. I was there a few weeks ago seatrialing the boat and there were indeed several markers missing. I'm planning on asking them lots of questions about the best path out of their facility to open water. Also, I could have their delivery captain accompany me, is there a place I could then drop him?

Thanks
Ben

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Have him bring a dinghy and he could leave on that. Or have Marine Max supply a chase/lead boat to lead you out of the harbor and pick up the delivery captain outside of the harbor, which would be tough in anything other than calm waters.

 

[PascalG]

Beware that for most shops, when you say change th filters thy will only change the primaries (racors) but often ignore the secondaries. While secondaries rarely clog up, they are a pita to replace as the engines usually need bleeding. Make sure they have been done.

The key is to be aware and not push it. If it all goes fine then it s an easy run, but don't push it

 

[HaveADay]

Thanks Pascal, really do appreciate the insight. I explicitly requested both primaries and spin-on secondaries on the engines.

As I've looked at the forecast right now it looks like the diciest forecast is Thursday when we leave Port Clinton. I'll have the opportunity to pull out of the west harbor and take a look. The forecast looks to be 2-4. As long as it's not radically different from forecast I don't expect too much trouble. The other variable are the number of T-storms that have been rolling through. I'm not running in thunder storms.

Ben

 

[HaveADay]

Day 1: Not exactly a rousing success...

SO we drove from Chicago to Port Clinton last night. We were supposed to pick up one of our party in New Buffalo after he took Amtrak over. Amtrak was supposed to arrive in New Buffalo around 7:15 it arrive at 10:15. That put us behind with a 4 plus hour drive from there to Port Clinton. So, we arrived in Port Clinton around 2:30 central / 3:30 eastern. Got up this morning, provisioned, dealt with a few odds and ends and were finally ready to set out around 1:30 eastern. Went to retract the cablemasters and of course one of them wouldn't retract. 20 minutes of futzing around with that determined the switch was bad. So for now our switch is a jumper wire.

We finally drop the lines and right as we drop the lines the wind, which was already up ,picks up more. Unfortunately I didn't realize that. The boat was on a 300 foot long service dock with boats in front and behind me several of which had other boats rafted off. The channel in which the boat was located was also only about 150' wide. So, not realizing a couple of things I made a couple of mistakes. The first of which is I didn't realize how strong the wind was. The second was I didn't adequately factor in how much windage this boat has compared to my Cruisers 4450. The third mistake was I didn't have adequate awareness of the situation. so, having failed on at least those three points and probably more, I pushed off, used the thrusters to push the boat off, swung the stern with the engines and began backing out. Unfortunately the wind was coming off my port bow so swinging the stern off caused the boat to get pushed astern and into the shore, basically putting me on a collision course with the boat astern me. I then got behind the boat, putting too much power in the boat, having to use too much throttle to cancel the momentum created and generally not handling the boat well. Eventually got the bow over the dock and hit a 4x4 wood piling. That piling didn't stand a chance and snapped instantly. At that point I jammed port into reverse and put a good deal of throttle in, probably too much, but got extremely lucky. The bow pulpit and anchor were heading for the boats that were orignally astern my position. The port reverse pulled the bow away from the boats and I was then able to put starboard reverse in as well and back away enough to power the boat into a pivot and get the hell out of the channel.

I then headed for a fuel dock across the channel. I made it there but now had the same wind pushing me off the fuel dock. I was lined up nicely but the wind was strong enough and I didn't have enough dock space to screw with it. I headed back into the channel, circled a few times and waited for more dock space to free. I was then able to bow into the wind and get the boat on the fuel dock. Fueled up, worked to get my blood pressure under control and crafted a plan. Marine Max sent a captain over because at this point my confidence was shot and I decided it was windy enough not to be worth further escapades. We headed back across the channel, tied up and decided to spend another night. The truth was the open water wasn't that bad but I lacked the confidence to try again and decided the best thing I could do was rest up and try again fresh tomorrow. So that's the plan.

I made plenty of mistakes. It's possible some of them were symptoms of get-there-itis but I think most of them were born of simply not being adequately aware of the situation. I clearly failed that challenge and will work hard not to make that mistake again. Tomorrow is another day and another challenge in situational awareness, decision making and boat handling. The net impact of today's stupidity was an 18" scratch in the gel coat, demolished pride and reduced confidence. Hopefully that'll be the extent of the damage for the trip. I'll do my part to minimize the damage from here on out.

Ben

 

[Billylll]

Ben it's never good to push it especially in a new to you boat. Calm down get some rest I hope you're not reading this and start tomorrow off as if today never happened.
Good luck I'm changing boat styles from a high power sedan bridge with a huge thruster to a pair of small diesels and no thrusters. I'm used to being able to outrun most crummy weather.
That won't be the case in the trawler. The idea of boating is to have fun not stress over stuff you have no control over.
Good luck hopefully tomorrow will be a good day.
Best,
Bill

 

[timmotel]

Ben:
Hope today and the rest of the trip goes better. You described my biggest concern about when I get to Marblehead to grab my new to me boat, Its going to take some getting use to the additional surface area in the wind. I'm thinking I will have about 3 times the surface area with the 3650. Keep us updated.
Tim

 

[HaveADay]

So things definitely improved after the first day.

On Friday morning we departed Port Clinton without incident out onto Lake Erie. After a 35 or so nautical mile run across the western end of Lake Erie, up the Detroit River to Lake St. Claire then up the St. Claire river before making our way onto Lake Huron. On Lake Huron we ran up to Presque Isle. We made it there just before sunset and got docked without incident. The day ended with just over 250nm traveled and a little north of 500 gallons burned.

On Saturday we left Presque Isle, around the north end of Lake Huron and into the Straits of Mackinac. We had a great run with great conditions up through the straits and on the straits. As we ran by Mackinac it was a lovely, though really cold (39 degree), day. We decided to head into the marina at Mackinac and take in the sights for a few minutes. It was truly beautiful. Shortly after that we made the turn to the south on Lake Michigan. With winds out of the south east we started to take a little chop. Things picked up to a couple of feet of close great lakes chop for the next several hours. About 25nm from Ludington things got a good bit rougher with conditions probably picking up to 2-4 with occasionally larger stuff. We slowed down a bunch and eventually made our way in to Luddington. The last 25nm took around two hours and were a little punishing but we made it in unscathed.

This morning we woke up to worse conditions and greater wind. With 7 or so hours of running left today in open water on Lake Michigan we made the call it simply wasn't worth the pounding we were going to take and decided to leave the boat in Luddington and grab it once the conditions improve. I'm hoping later this week at some point.

From where we started on Thursday I'm pretty pleased with how the trip turned out. I knew when we left we didn't have enough time to deal with conditions challenges and that we might have to leave the boat. That's what happened but we had a good trip and will get her home soon.

Ben

 

[timmotel]

Ben:
You may want to get her picked up by Friday, with my luck when I go to get mine, we will have the first official hurricane season in the great lakes history. LOL

 

[HaveADay]

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our trip...

Setting out:

We saw a lot of these:

This is the dock for the old Boblo Island Amusement park

And the downtown Detroit dock for Boblo Island

The Ambassador Bridge

Some of the sites on the St. Claire River

Onto Lake Huron

And then the Straits of Mackinac
One of the ferries to Mackinac Island

The island itself

Finally onto Lake Michigan

Into Luddington where we found the Badger, the only steam powered ferry left on the lakes...

Lastly the boat as we left her on Sunday

 

[eric_b]

Ben,

Looking good so far. I hope the remainder of the trip goes as well or better than the first part. Aside from bad weather at the start, it looks like you had good weather so far.

Eric