Detroit River, Canada / USA Border
SV Meshugga
Nicholas & Deidre Mace
Fri 17 Aug 2018 12:19
Leaving Collins Inlet we had a good weather forecast of “Light Winds”, so it was a good time for us to cross the Georgian Bay and head south down Lake Huron. Moonless, we had good visibility of ships lights, and as always, having AIS is wonderful. (Automated Identification System - mandatory for all Commercial Ships)
We entered St Clare River late afternoon, a 4 knot current with us and spent the night at anchor in the small town basin of Sarnia, out of the current. The following day we motored through the 24 mile circular St Clare Lake and into the Detroit River, passing the skyline of Detroit. We had no wish to stop at this city, but took a few photos as we passed.
Detroit, USA
Windsor, Canada, opposite Detroit
Bridge spanning the Detroit River with Detroit, USA on the LHS and Canada on the RHS
Nicholas in his Captain spot
The current in the Detroit River leaving Lake St Clare starts at 2 knot rising to 4 knots in the narrows just before it enters Lake Erie. Unfortunately during the day the wind had increased to 15 - 20 knots from the South. Not much on it’s own but wind against tide caused a 1 meter sharp chop with only a 2 meter gap between the wave crests resulting in an awful yacht motion of rising and slamming. A few miles into Lake Erie we decided to turn around and go a few miles back up the Detroit River, and anchor just off the main shipping channel for the night, and wait for the wind to die as per the forecast. We had a restless night with the boat fighting to lie to current and wind but they were 180 degrees apart.
First light, the wind having abated in the early hours, we weighed anchor and headed out into Lake Erie, happy to find that the sea had settled, we started to traverse the lake from west to east - about 220 miles.
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