Blessed are the Flexible…

After our first travel day on the new R&R, we spent the night at Jefferson Beach Marina, planning to cruise North the next day. But…strong winds and rain at St. Clair Shores kept us there for two nights. Yesterday we waited at Jefferson Beach Marina until noon when the weather improved and then left JBM, crossed Lake St. Clair, traveled up the St. Clair River that connects to Lake Huron, and entered the Black River at Port Huron, at the southern tip of Lake Huron. About 50 miles at 22-24 mph.

After refueling at Desmond Marine just inside the Black River, the Military Street drawbridge lifted for us, but got stuck on the way down. Only a few city blocks up the river is the Seventh Street drawbridge, which we also needed to pass under. For safety reasons, Port Huron law does not allow both of these drawbridges to be open at the same time, and we were drifting in the river between those bridges, so we tied up to a riverside dock for about an hour to wait. Eventually the Military Street bridge went down, the Seventh Street bridge went up, and we got to the River Street Marina, a nice parkside location that adjoins the downtown St. Clair Community College campus.

We walked to a downtown restaurant for late lunch and to Sperry’s Theatre to see Oppenheimer, then back to the boat for the evening.

Today Windy (an app we use to check wind and waves) indicated that the southern end of Lake Huron had high wind and wave conditions predicted to improve during the day, so we delayed our departure, hoping to travel this afternoon and make it to Harbor Beach, about 65 miles north along the lakeshore. I worked for awhile in my new mobile office and we did some boat cleaning chores.

But…then we were notified that the Military Street drawbridge is broken (again). It will not raise at all. ETA for completion of repairs will be at least hours, hopefully not days. So we probably will enjoy Port Huron for another day. Gotta be flexible!