St Clair River to Colchester Harbour
St. Clair River, Lake St Clair, Detroit River and Lake Erie
Saturday, June 25
The 25th dawned beautiful and sunny. Our ad-hoc anchorage in the St Clair River had worked perfectly. No one had taken notice of us and we were well out of the way of any river traffic. Roland claimed to have been woken up by the sound and motions of passing heavy traffic in the night, but I hadn't noticed anything.
After a reasonably leisurely breakfast, we prepared to head off. Today's objective was to get as far as we could down the combined waterways of the St Clair and Detroit Rivers. If things went really well, we'd end up reaching Lake Erie. Along the way, we'd have to cross the shallow expanse of Lake St Clair and between the cities of Windsor, ON and Detroit, MI.
courtesy RHanel
Morning on St Clair River
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
Being in the river, we set out under engine power. Immediately we noticed an uptick in recreational watercraft, which I suppose wasn't surprising given that it was a beautiful weekend morning.
The industrial installations on the riverbanks of the St Clair River eventually gave way to stretches lined with tidy and upscale waterfront homes. In the river itself, however, industrial traffic continued unabated, and huge carrier after huge carrier passed us by. We even got overtaken by a rusty old barge, which seemed slightly humiliating.
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
Two and a half hours of motoring brought us to the delta that empties into Lake St Clair. Homes and buildings disappeared, replaced by wetland shores and marshes. Soon we motored out into the lake itself, which is quite large but fairly shallow (average depth 11 feet). The dredged shipping channel was well-indicated with marker buoys, and marked our path across the lake.
Although technically we could have considered sailing across Lake St Clair (Simply Blue's draft is such that it could probably manage the shallow waters of much of the lake), there wasn't much in the way of wind. So, we decided to just continue motoring right down the shipping channel.
Approaching Lake St Clair
Far, far off into the distance, we could see a distinctive black shape - stepped and almost ziggurat-like. This was the Renaissance Center - world headquarters of General Motors, one of the largest (if not the largest) auto manufacturer in the world. At 700+ feet high, the structure was visible to us even at this far distance. It was a useful landmark, since it was located in downtown Detroit, and we would be cruising right by it at some point.
courtesy RHanel
Approaching Lake St Clair
Colonized Port Hand Marker.
As mentioned earlier, the conditions were fairly still. And hot. Stifling, actually. It didn't help that we started to encounter various insects as we cruised across Lake St Clair. They were small midges of some sort, mostly, and fortunately, they didn't bite.
Unfortunately, however, the midge-count increased. And increased. And increased. They began to get onto and into everything. There was no point in trying to swat them off, since for every one you flicked off, three more landed. One had to simply resign oneself to being a roost for hundreds of little insects.
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
The swarm of midges became more suffocating the further south we motored across Lake St Clair. It was impossible to avoid stepping or sitting on them, and a thin bug paste soon formed in several places on the boat. We began to see a different type of insect added into the mix as we progressed - a larger variety with long wings that stuck straight up from their bodies. These were mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies), and only hatch into their adult form at a very particular time. Fortunately, these also were insects of the non-biting kind.
We began to see large mats of brown on the surface of the lake. At first we thought these mats were composed of leaves or other vegetation, but when we looked closer, we could see that they were the bodies of dead insects - dead mayflies, in particular. This made sense if there was a hatching in progress, as mayflies only live a couple of days in their adult form.
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
courtesy RHanel
It took us about three hours to motor across the shallow waters of Lake St Clair, and at about 1pm, we reached the inlet into the Detroit River, which connects Lake St Clair to Lake Erie. The pleasure-craft traffic increased greatly in intensity, and there were speeding powerboats, fishing boats, and cruisers cross-crossing in all directions.
Now back in a river, we got a nice bump in speed again from the current. We also got many more bumps from the water, which was extremely unsettled and full of waves from the heavy marine traffic. The waves were entirely random, coming and going from all directions and reinforcing each other in weird and unpredictable ways. It made for a rather uncomfortable ride.
courtesy RHanel
Rivertown Warehouse District
The cruise down the river past Detroit and Windsor was actually quite scenic. Despite its bankrupt state and reputation for decay and ruin, Detroit looked pretty nice from the waters of the river. The GM headquarters complex was impressive and bold, and the early 20th-century skyscrapers of old downtown Detroit looked quaint yet well-kept.
