(Mar 2008)
Moved from Michigan Harbor Marina (MH) in Saint Clair Shores. Michigan to Harbor Club North (HCN) in Harrison Township. Michigan. This move was made to reduce the commuting distance between our home and the marina. The facilities at HCN were a cut above those at MH, including free holding tank pump outs. However, there was no winter storage at HCN. Which forced us to find an alternative, nearby winter storage facility. We selected Markley Marine (MM) in Harrison Township, Michigan for winter storage, mast stepping and unstepping.Access to HCN was good since the harbor, like MH, is located directly on Lake Saint Clair. However, the bay, L’anse Creuse, outside the marina is quite shallow. This promotes the growth of aquatic plants. These plants can grow to be quite dense and do get picked up by and can clog the boat propellor to the point that thrust is lost and control of the boat is seriously degraded. Dredging a deeper channel to the marina would help. However, HCN was either unwilling or unable to do any dredging.
We investigated various devices to reduce the clogging of the propellor and settled on the ProProtector, “Rope and Weed Cutter” that is manufactured in Canada. This sharp disc, about three inches in diameter, mounts on the propellor shaft, just ahead of the propellor. This device did reduce the propellor clogging by a great amount and when clogging did occur, a little bit of reverse thrust quickly cleared the clog. We were successful in negotiating transit to and from HCN for a few seasons after we installed this device, It is still on the shaft today.
In the fall of 2010, the water level dropped to the point where we could not negotiate the channel out side of Harbor Club North. We searched for alternative summer dockage, for 2011, and found it at the Land’s End Marina, on the south side of the Clinton River, in Harrison Township, Michigan.
This marina is located about a mile inland from Anchor Bay on Lake Saint Clair. This marina seemed the perfect place for us as it did reduce our commuting time, either by land or sea and the amenities were first class. However, there were some things that we did not appreciate. There was much rocking from all of the river traffic and there was a nasty buildup of crud on the waterline from the river. We opted, therefore. to seek an alternative for 2012.
We opted to dock for the summer of 2012 at Markley Marine which is located on the North shore of the Clinton River, about two miles upstream from the mouth of the river. This does increase our “by sea” commuting time. However, it is peaceful and the waterline crud problem is reduced. We have continued to stay at Markley for summer dockage and winter storage to this time.
