Week 5 Started out with an early exit out of East Tawas after an all nighter of drinking. The fog was thick heading south across Saginaw Bay and the air was light forcing me to motor out for the first 5 miles running blind except for the Chart Plotter GPS and a dose of luck. It turned into an interesting sail lasting about five hours until reaching Pt. Austin again. Once there I found my way up for some Lasagna at Joe's, Stocked up on supplies at the IGA then crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.

Early the next morning I pulled out through some very thick fog with less than 50 foot visibility. The Pt. Austin Reef is a mean and nasty piece of work with no mercy!! You have to go straight out for two miles to round the Turning Bouy in order to avoid a nasty bunch of rocks just under the surface. Glued to the GPS I tiptoed out and around and turned south fumbling my way to Harbor Beach. The water level is too low to allow me to get into the marina there but there is a good anchorage about a mile outside the marina just inside the walls of the harbor. This is a monster man made harbor (largest fresh water harbor in the world) and gets a lot of sailboats anchoring every night.

Kevin Joined me here and after a long dingy ride we had him settled back in on the boat. With an early start we had a nice run to Port Sanilac to rest up and get ready for Mike and Deb's wedding and reception on Saturday. After several days of bar hopping with some old friends Kevin rolled home Saturday afternoon and I cleaned up for the big party.

The reception went great and the bon fire party afterwards was wild too. I slid out quietly the next morning after breakfast at Mary's Diner and soloed down to Port Huron and home...

What a great time this trip was. I can't wait for next year. I wanted to get allot farther north but the weather kept the water churned up so I made the best of it in East Tawas. And I mean the BEST. Still racking up over 350 miles of sailing before it was done.

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