A Day on Lake Huron

Our last day in this area was spent on a boat tour of shipwrecks of Lake Huron.  We drove over in time to make the 1:00 tour.  I had made the reservations on line and that's a good thing because as I waited to claim our tickets the folks in front of us were told it was sold out.

As we departed we had to go under the drawbridge as it was opened for us.  The flag was on our boat's roof.  We had nice blue skies and sunshine but we all had bought new windbreakers to wear.

Next up was Little Red, a small lighthouse at the end of the cut.  I don't remember the numbers but we were told how many lighthouses are still in existence and how many are still in use and it's a considerable number.

We were fortunate to pass next to the Alpena freighter.  Our captain had to request permission to come that close.  She carries cement from the LaForge plant which has its next five years' output sold.

Photographing things in the water is difficult but here are a few of the things we saw.  The Haltliner Barge is broken into three pieces with the large steel crane, steam boiler, deck wenches and anchor all visible in the field. 

Plagiarized stock photo.

The last of my photos is called "the erector set."  Curtis, our tour guide, said that no one on the last tour knew what an erector set was!  It is actually the cranes preserved by the pure, cold water. There were windows on the lower level which gave us a better view but poorer photographs.

We also floated over the W. P. Rend that sank outside the cement plant on 9/22/17 loaded with limestone.

My favorite part of the trip was entering the area where barges are loaded and unloaded.  The Carpathia was being unloaded of coke as we went past.  

We were permittted to pull up to the stacks and the process of loading was explained to us.

We had a leisurely trip back to the Marine Museum where we took in some of the exhibits and a film.  A stop at Walmart was last on the agenda before heading home.

We had ribs in the crockpot for dinner and then played cards.  Tom had a Shanghai on the first hand, something I have never seen done.  He had a 7 card run of Clubs and a book of 2's!  We all were caught still holding our entire hand but I won in the end anyway!  Tom was second.

Today we move on to Mackinac City.  The Port Huron to Mackinac yacht race is this weekend and we aren't sure if that will be a good thing with lots going on or will just cause crowds.