16 Sep Day 3 – Water Water Everywhere

Today was an offshore travel day from Harbor Beach, Mi across Saginaw Bay to Harrisville, MI.

The plan was to leave early and hopefully beat the building winds in the afternoon.  Up at 6AM, quick shower (They have great showers) and depart @6:50.

About an hour into the trip the fog settled in and we saw nothing farther than 500′ from the boat for about 4 hours.  Bill was watching us on radar and since we have an operational AIS transponder (Automatic Information System) running, we were pretty sure we wouldn’t get hit by anything big.  This is fishing country and there is always the chance of meeting a boat load of Salmon fishermen.  Somewhere after the fog lifted a bit we came upon the “Porcupine Boat”.

I counted 5 people on board and 35 fishing poles.  I can’t keep one spincaster rod from being a tangled mess, so I can’t imagine keeping that many poles sorted out.

A while later I spotted a ship, the H Lee White on the AIS screen and for a while it looked like we were on a collision course, but the closer he got to us it was apparent he would pass well ahead of us.

He was 1.2 nautical miles ahead when he crossed our path. It takes us about 8 or 9 minutes to cover that distance and when we got to the point you could still see his path on the water.

It amazes me that with all those waves and ripples you can still see a trail on the water.

The rest of the trip was uneventful with the sun coming out as we arrived at Harrisville.  They have made some nice improvements since we were here in 2014. Beautiful new docks and building upgrades, with a few more additioms to come in the near future.

Trip totals: Days 3, Distance 113 NM, Bars 2