July 24, 2021, Saturday, Huron Boat Basin

We had a nice night with just a little rain and importantly, no hatch leaks. I was up a little after 7 to update the blog and start my day with some delicious coffee. Big Jim was on me about getting it posted late. I took a little walk to the marina store gift shop after the posting.

Kerry was up about 10:00. I made a big pot of tea for her. We decided we might as well leave for Huron sooner rather than later. The ASPS group had a walking tour of historic Huron homes and we wanted to be there of that. We putted along leisurely just enjoying the pleasant voyage. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to cover the 12.1 miles. We left at 10:30 and arrived at noon. For years there was a big Con Agra cement plant in Huron that always provided a thick plume of white smoke that marked the entrance. It is gone now, so we spot the harbor using this modest marker.

Greg Arnold, the cruise organizer, welcomed us to Huron once we docked. He said they waited for us to arrive and planned to start the home tour in 1 hour. That gave us time to enjoy a nice lunch on Annie's top deck. We saw Sin Sal, the Tartan owned by our friends Max and Donna Guzman, but we did not see them. They live in Florida now but sail up here in the summer. We were in LETS (Lake Erie Tartan Sailors) together. 

The tour was fun. Mark and Linda Seeman conducted the tour. We discovered that they were married on the same day and year that we were- September 12, 1970. We must have visited about 20 historic homes, some in better condition that others. There is a lot of interesting history with these homes. Some had varied pasts, like school houses. Others were moved, one from Cleveland and one from an area that is now lake. We meet one homeowner whose family had owned the home for 4 generations. He spent a lot of time with us telling us about the history of the two homes he owned, both of which had been moved there in the 1950's.

It was hot on the tour and we felt rather dehydrated when we got back to Annie. We had ice tea on the top deck then took a nap until cocktail time. We took our cocktails to the pavilion near the marina office where we had dinner. The Commander, Lisa, and her husband, Steve, cooked a delicious Mexican dinner for us. Steve brought this huge griddle from home. I could not believe that it folded up completely and fit in the back of his Cadillac - but it did. 

After dinner we went to Annie and got a bottle of Fireball to share with the cooks and a few others. We sat around for an hour sipping the cinnamon whiskey and telling stories.  I would have enjoyed a cigar and could have too -  thanks to Big Jim. I ordered a fresh pack of cigars for this and our next voyage but had it shipped to Venice in error. Big Jim got them and shipped them to me in time for our trip. I'll have to buy him an oyster dinner in return!

We had some on and off rain throughout dinner and more rain was forecast during the evening. Tomorrow we go to Kelley's Island where we will stay at Seaway Marina.