Monday, May 21, 2018

Making a Run For It!

Leaving Port Sanilac
The weather continued to be poor after waiting a day at the dock in Port Sanilac.  You can see in this picture that the harbors were calm, but the east winds were still creating havoc out on Lake Huron itself.  Unfortunately the weather was not predicted to change for a number of days.  However in researching all the information available to them, the Captains found the weather further north to be favorable.  With a delivery date looming, crew who wanted to go home and a small weather window the decision was made at 3pm on Sunday afternoon to make a run for it.  As Captain Duane said, "This was a nice place to visit but it's time to go!"

A route was plotted and posted on the wall.
 
On the last "run" from Port Huron into the bad weather a number of things were broken in the Galley, so precautions were taken this time to get everything packed away.

Even the refrigerator was tied shut!

With Captain Dan at the wheel, Captain Steve in the bow and Captain Duane navigating and watching weather it was time to give it a go.


 Success!
After battling weather for 5 hours (during which Dan said it was "Not Fun") the Emita broke through into calm weather, weather and water.  In fact the sunset was beautiful, probably made even prettier by the feeling of safety and accomplishment.


An Overnight Adventure?
While plotting the course out of the weather the crew had allowed for Plan B, wherein if the conditions were right they would keep going through the night in order to make up for lost time. Dan had originally said they would not travel through the night on this trip, but after becoming extremely confident in the radar and other navigation equipment he felt more comfortable traveling overnight and picking up lost time so the decision was made to continue forward.

And everything and everyone did its job!  The Emita successfully traveled throughout the night.
The three Captains took roughly three hour shifts; one drove for 3 hours, a second stayed in the pilot house and helped navigate and keep the driver alert and the third slept.  Every 3-4 hours the Captains rotated.  (It should be noted it was Captain Ben's day to drive the van, so he had gone ahead to wait for the Emita to dock.)

Dan assured me Duane was looking at the instruments and not asleep!  :-)

And a beautiful sunrise...

Lake Huron's Last Laugh
As the Emita approached the northern end of Lake Huron, the boat was enveloped by bugs!  Luckily they did not bite, but they covered everything!  Dan said it was "Lake Huron's last laugh!"  YUCK!


Mackinaw City
27 hours after making the decision to leave Port Sanlilac the Emita reached Mackinaw City.
And she finally, safely, docked!


The crew will get a good night's sleep and leave tomorrow (Tuesday) probably before dawn for another 12+ hour day. 

2 comments:

  1. Ha! I’ll be driving over the Mac bridge early afternoon. Thx for heads up re: bugs

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  2. Good to have met you all in Port Sanilac. My daughter, Lauren, loved the tour! Glad you made it to Mackinaw. Hope Lake Michigan treats you well. Good luck! Jim Luke

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