Lake Huron Humbles...and Uncle Ben

 The Emita and Lake Huron

When I talked to Dan on Thursday night he said the weather was changing and there were projected winds from the East (unusual and when you are traveling north on the western side of the Lake, not ideal) as well as decent waves, so he had decided to stay put at the Marina in Port Huron for Friday into Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon the winds and waves were projected to diminish so they would head out then, perhaps traveling through the night for the first time to pick up lost time.  We want to get the Emita II to her new home as quickly as possible, but safety for the crew and the boat always comes first.

However, on Friday morning Dan and Duane took the chase van north to scout out locations for the next few days, and as they checked out harbors they looked pretty good.  So, in the interest of time and getting the Emita to Michigan City as quickly as possible (and getting back home!) Dan made the decision in the afternoon to travel up Lake Huron.

So off she went...if you zoom in on the small rectangle going under the bridge, it is the Emita II.

However once they got out into Lake Huron, it was much worse than they expected.  The water level in Lake Huron is high and the winds and waves were significant.  The Emita was getting tossed around a bit and a number of glass items were broken in the Galley.  Gear on the lower deck was moving around - this was the first "bad" conditions of the trip.  Dan had some colorful language to describe it!  Overall the Emita and her crew handled conditions, but as Dan said after, "We are not doing that again."  After about 5 1/2 hours the Emita had only traveled 30 miles, and the decision was made to go to shore and hunker down safely in Port Sanilac, Michigan.  Again, that's 30 miles closer to Michigan City, but as Dan said, he was "humbled".

Back Home... 

Meanwhile back home life goes on.  While the adventure was happening on the Emita on Lake Huron, Colleen Nickerson and I stopped by to visit Uncle Ben Wiles, Dan's 101 year old uncle.  He is amazing and I thought you might enjoy our visit too.  When I started giving Uncle Ben the update on where his nephew was, he said "Let's go into the living room and get the charts." 

During our visit we mapped out the entire trip, as well as where Dan and the Emita was at that time.  I just happened that during the time we were there was a relative calm out for the boat and crew, and Dan was able to answer a few texts at that point and to say hi to his 101 year old Uncle as we was .  Isn't technology amazing?!

Me, Uncle Ben and Colleen Nickerson

Uncle Ben is awesome!  Having Dan away has not been fun for me and this visit was the highlight so far of this part of the trip for me.  By the way, Colleen worked with Dan on the Emita on and off for about 20 years.  Her visit to the Emita to wish her farewell was chronicled earlier in the blog.

I will keep you updated on progress as I know it!  Pray for good, calm weather!