Kelly's Island to Huron

The weather on Sunday, July 12 was beautiful. Partly cloudy skies, light winds from the west, and waves of less than 1 foot. Before heading off to Huron, our next destination, we decided to cruise to the north side of Kelly's and anchor out in Kelly's Cove. There is a State Park on the North side of the island with a long sandy beach. We frequently anchor out from the beach in order to enjoy the weather, swim, and walk along the beach. Our two Springer Spaniels also enjoy anchoring out. Molly & Brynn both like to swim, but Molly is a swimming fanatic. She will jump off the swim platform and "paddle" for as much 30 minutes at a time before resting. A couple of years ago she taught herself how to climb the swim ladder! It's really quite entertaining to watch.

After a few hours, we decided to weigh anchor and head for Huron along with our friends Don & Sierra. It was basically a straight run of about 16 statute miles from Kelly's Cove. The weather was still great with light winds, so we put "2nd Mates" on autopilot and cruised at 27 mph until we reached the entrance to Huron Harbor. We proceeded at no wake up the Huron River and docked uneventfully at Huron Boat Basin. The city was gearing down from their annual Riverfest, as we witnessed the carnival rides and the food trailers being disassembled and packed up. Just hours before, the marina was full, but now it was mostly empty, so we picked two slips close to the office and facilities. It was getting late and we were hungry, so we all walked next door to the Huron Yacht Club and ate dinner, showered, took care of Molly & Brynn, and went to bed!

Marblehead to Kelly's Island

Every July we travel with a group of other boats from Marina Del Isle and go for a three day, two night rendezvous to a close by destination. In recent times the marina of choice has been Portside at Kelly's Island, and this year was no exception. We spent July 10, 11 and part of July 12, 2009 along with our larger than normal group of 18 boats at Kelly's Island. The first picture is me along with our Springer Spaniel Molly making our way to the island. It is approximately 7.5 statute miles from Marina Del Isle to Portside Marina, located on the south side of the island. We enjoyed breakfast on the dock both Sat & Sun morning, with each boat contributing a dish. We feasted on blueberry pancakes, breakfast burritos, crock pot egg skillet, fresh assorted fruit, eggs benedict, bacon, sausage, coffee and Bloody Marys. In years past we rented golf carts and cruised the island, stopping at Wes

t Bay (outside bar & grill w/ live entertainment), the St

ate Park Beach for a swim, and the winery for a sampling of their many varieties of homemade wines. A couple of years ago competition between the separate golf carts began with the introduction of a couple of small squirt guns. That competition has now grown into water cannons, super soakers, sling shot balloons and devious plans to surprise and attack our opponents! This year the weather did not cooperate and we had to spend most of Sat close to the marina. However, since everyone came prepared, the water fight was transferred to the marina area using an inflatable canoe and a dingy! It's quite a sight to see questionably mature adults acting like kids! In the two pictures above the first is our friend Ken along with Molly leisurely paddling around the marina before the water fight began, while the next is Paul, Bill & Michael while the water fight was at its height!