"Saturday December 16th I’ve paddled 3582 miles. It’s been a life changing adventure but... Winter is here and it’s time to stop. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in this endeavor. Thank you to all of my team members and hosts..." Kayak racer Traci Lynn Martin has spent most of year 2017 kayaking to break the existing world record for the most miles traveled by kayak in a year. Her route was to include the circumferences of each of the Great Lakes, however, her journey has come to an end due to the frigid temperatures, ice and high winds this December. She started in Port Huron, Mich. at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse and concluded in Lake Ontario in Canada. Please click here to read more...
GLCC News
Please join us as we thank and congratulate Port Captain’s Brad Somers and Ed Mahoney on being appointed another port of watch! They volunteered and were assigned the additional responsibility on October 22, 2016; Brad for Bob Lo Island, Ont. (D-86) and Ed for Cleveland, Ohio (E-10). Please give them a call or stop by and say “hello” next time you are “cruising” through one of the ports — by land or by sea!
London is a landlocked city in southwestern Ontario that Dave and Kathy Spencer have called home for most of their lives. Despite the absence of navigable water in London, Dave has spent most of his life sailing dinghies and runabouts thanks to a family cottage on the Trent Severn Waterway. Dave and Kathy didn’t get into the joys of cruising until 2005 when they bought a good old CS27. They got hooked while cruising from Bayfield, Ont. up to Georgian Bay’s North Channel and back several times. Since then, they have graduated to their beloved Catalina 34, Good Idea, and have moved their home port to Lion’s Head to enjoy its proximity to the North Channel and the wonderful anchorages on Georgian Bay within a couple of hours sail of Lion’s Head — perfect for a weekend getaway. Please click here to read more.
Member Fred Bagley, a frequent writer for sailing magazines, is featured in the 40th Anniversary issue of Cruising World. He writes about cruising into uncharted waters in Georgian Bay. Besides his wife Jennnifer, he credits GLCC members Jim & Bobbie Wooll and Ron & Jo Dwelle for leading him into "white" areas. Click the title to read his article "Uncharted on the Great Lakes."
Dan and Linda Cline, previous Port Captains for Port Sheldon (M-23.5) since January, 2014 have enjoyed cruising Lake Michigan on their Island Packet 320 sailboat since 2004. Originally berthed in Holland, Michigan, they recently moved to Traverse City this year and moved their boat Wildwood to Betsie Bay Marina in Frankfort (M-16) to be closer to their new home; subsequently becoming the harbors new GLCC Port Captains. Both are expecting to devote more time to exploring northern Lake Michigan, Green Bay, and the Great Lakes. Please click here to read further.
The 1884 wreck of the J.S. Seaverns has been located near Michipicoten Harbor along the remote Canadian Superior shore. A team of divers including Ken Merriman, recent speaker at the 2015 Lake Superior Dinner meeting, found the wreck and captured the stunning images and video in this article.
Andy has been sailing since summer camp back in the 1960s. In the 1990s he started sailing keel boats out of Bayfield on the east side of Lake Huron and has spent many summer weeks in and around Tobermory and in the North Channel. Several years ago he and Jann went to the dark side and became power boat cruisers, and relocated to Port Lambton. Please click here to read more!
Daniel DeWeese and Julie Thorndycraft on Gaviidae blog about the 2016 Wilderness Rally at http://gaviidaesails.com/ramblings/great-lakes-cruising-club-2016-wilde….
We want to congratulate Dan & Julie on being the winners of the 2016 Founders Award winners with their blog of their 2015 cruise. The blog will be published in an upcoming issue of the Lifeline.
Great Lakes Crusing Club Member Spotlight - Matthew Cook & Walt Grabowski GLCC members Matthew Cook and Walt Grabowski, are out on Lake Huron this month conducting an underwater inspection of the water intake. The sixteen foot wide, six mile long tunnel has a capacity of 400 million gallons a day, and was the site of one of the worst construction accidents in Michigan history. Click here to read more
This week's GLCC Facebook Page administrator's report noted that our GLCC FB page has now passed 500 likes, and one of the page's posts from last week has now reached over 3,700 viewers! The club's Facebook presence is positioned to help introduce our club to the broader boating community, hopefully attracting potential new GLCC members while complimenting the more club-specific content and information provided on the club's glcclub.com web site.Click here for more information and a link to the GLCC Facebook page.
The 2016 GLCC Rendezvous in Superior, Wisconsin, on western Lake Superior, wrapped up on Wednesday July 20th. What a fun-filled Rendezvous it was! For a recap of some of the Rendezvous events, including pictures of selected Rendezvous highlights, check out the several GLCC Facebook Page Rendezvous posts at https://www.facebook.com/glcclub/
04/27/2023 Corrected link to harbor report. JM
We are happy to announce 2 new Harbor Reports For Lake Michigan. In the Lake Michigan Overview section, you'll find report M-00 Lake Michigan Overview and M-00.1 Commnications and Weather - Crossing lake Michigan. The reports were written by Lou Bruska and Marilyn Kinsey with editing help from Jim Wooll. Marilyn was the sole author of M-00.1, we thank her for the report. These two reports were created with next year's Rendezvous in Sturgeon Bay in mind. Lou Bruska, Log Book Editor.
02/08/2022 Removed link to unavailable article. JM Fellow Great Lakes Cruising Club member Dennis Bailey of Drummond Island, Mich. NC-1 (link available to GLCC members), and owner of a TowBoatU.S. vessel was recently featured in an article in the BoatU.S. May 25, 2016 publication. It talks about how Dennis has been helping boaters since he was a child and now owns his families’ business; Drummond Island Yacht Haven. Please click here to read the article.
Bill Stover, fellow Great Lakes Cruising Club member and Deputy Port Captain for Honey Harbor, Ont. GB-25 (link available to GLCC members) recently had an article published in the South Bay Cove Marina’s spring 2016 newsletter, Sounds of South Bay. In his piece, Bill does a wonderful job promoting the Club. Please click here to read more.
Running a search on the last name "Rohde" via the Great Lakes Cruising Club homepage happens to bring up a lengthy list of hits for this prolific couple. These long time members surely have kicked up some dust! Now they’ve affected yet another organization with their presence in acquiring another dignified title. Check out this link to the May 2016 Seven Seas Cruising Association monthly Commodores’ Bulletin announcing GLCC Director Bill and Judy Rohde as newly-appointed SSCA Great Lakes Cruising Station Hosts (a similar function as GLCC Port Captains). Click here (GLCC members only) and find a dynamic bio on the duo — direct from Bill himself. Many congratulations Bill and Judy!
UPDATE: KILLARNEY MOUNTAIN LODGE UNDETERRED BY FIRE! Killarney Mountain Lodge, the planned site of the 2018 Rendezvous, is featured in Great Lakes Boating. Holden & Carey Rhodes, owners since 2015, are GLCC members as were previous owners, Maury & Annabelle East. Phase two of a three phase plan to extensively renovate the lodge has been completed. Included is a new, full service marina. Next time you are in Killarney, be sure to check out the new boating and lodge facilities. Hungry but don't want to get dressed for dinner, they will even deliver meals to your boat!
01/20/2024 Updated link to article. JM Just in time for the 2016 GLCC Lake Superior Rendezvous, GLCC member and frequent author on Great Lakes cruising destinations, Fred Bagley, recently had his latest article on cruising Lake Superior's Isle Royale published by Sail Magazine. Check it out here!
In this Sept. 12, 2013 file photo, the Fox River flows through downtown Waukesha, Wis. A push for expanded access to water from the Great Lakes is at a key point for the city of Waukesha. A regional regulating body meets in Chicago Thursday, April 21, 2016, to consider a request from the Milwaukee suburb to draw from Lake Michigan. The group's upcoming recommendation promises to have major implications for future requests from other cities that might want to stick a straw in the Great Lakes someday. (AP Photo/John Flesher, File) Read more here.
Planning on visiting Isle Royale while you are in Lake Superior for the Rendezvous this summer? Be sure and check out member Fred Bagley's article "A Royale Cruising Ground" in the April, 2016 issue of Sail magazine. Pick up your copy now if you don't subscribe.
As a follow-up to the Wednesday 12/16 GLCC Webinar "Safety for Shorthanded Cruisers and Cruising Couples", the popular SUDDENLY ALONE (SA) program originally developed by the Cruising Club of America (CCA) and the Bonnell Cove Foundation has been repackaged as a small scale "do it yourself" presentation for sailing clubs and organizations and renamed Safety for Cruising Couples (SCC). For more information click HERE.
At the 2015 GLCC Annual General Meeting in London, ON, Executive Director of Georgian Bay Forever, David Sweetnam spoke on invasive species in the Great Lakes. The key message is to be vigilant and to help prevent invasive species from establishing themselves in these waters. Once established, the costs to eradicate them are extremely high. Here are some examples of the costs of invasive zebra mussels: • Cost the power industry alone $3.1 billion in the 1993-1999 period • Impact on industries, businesses, and communities over $5 billion • Ontario Hydro reported zebra mussel impacts of $376,000 annually per generating station
Georgian Bay Forever is a charity dedicated to scientific research and public education on Georgian Bay's aquatic ecosystem. To learn more about their efforts, please visit GeorgianBayForever.
The GLCC now has a Facebook page, but we'd like help in reaching more Great Lakes boaters. You can start helping by simply inviting your Facebook friends to like the GLCC Facebook site. It's as simple as 1, 2, 3! To start click HERE.
The GLCC has announced a new collaboration with the Cruising Club of America (CCA) to help make the CCA’s “Safety for Cruising Couples” seminar more widely and very affordably available over the internet. A news release was sent to 54 Publications, 101 US Yacht Clubs and 84 Canadian Yacht Clubs as part of the larger announcement on the start of GLCCSchool’s 2015-16 school year. For more information, to view the news release, and to learn how you can help further spread the word, click here.
Have you noticed something new on the home page? We have replaced the rotating pictures with a new capability to view charts of the Great Lakes (or any place else in the world). Navionics, known for their extensive set of charts for many brands of chart plotters, has provided the ability for users to look at charts in depth. We are pleased to give our members and others this opportunity to explore the waters of the Great Lakes and further with this new tool. Please note that one cannot create routes with this tool. Click on the Acknowledgements for further information. Although this tool is rather intuitive to use, one can click here for further instructions.
The July 8th PBS News Hour featured a report on concerns about the aging oil pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac. To view click http://www.pbs.org/newshour/videos/#149344
Great Lakes Marine Weather Guru and GLCCSchool weather instructor Mark Thornton recently created several new climatology pages on his marine weather company's web site. To view the more detailed post about this analysis with links to each Great Lake click HERE. To look at a sample analysis for Lake Huron click Huron.
We can all cite innumerable examples of radio abuse by people keying their mic without first learning VHFbasics. Plus the potential life-saving capabilities of VHF Digital Selective Calling (DSC), not to mention its convenience, seem to remain a mystery to many. Today's issue of Sail Magazine's electronic publication addresses both of those subjects. The article is short and well worth a read by both captain and crew.
Coincident with Earth Day BoatUS made its Clean Boating course available free. For more information and links to register click HERE.
We are saddened to report the loss of Port Captain (Ret) David A. Jeffries. David was a long term member of the GLCC serving as Port Captain of Rocky River from 2005-2012. He was an avid single-handed trailer sailor, taking his Catalina 22, WYNDANCER to many GLCC events. He was found frequently in the North Channel during the summer. He was the proud recipient of the Commodore's Award at the 2014 Leamington Rendezvous. As he said, he sailed up I75 at 70 MPH bringing his boat from Florida for the distinct purpose of attending the Rendezvous. Later he attended the Wilderness Rally at Turnbull Island and the Georgian Bay Rally at Keyhole. He died on April 9 in Florida spending his last hours comfortably with his son. There are no immediate services planned but a memorial service is expected to be held this summer on Lake Erie.
The Lake Michigan Carferry, SS Badger, will install a new conveyor system this spring to transport ash from the boiler to retension units on the cardeck of the ferry. This will put the Badger in compliance with the EPA mandate to stop discharging coal ash into the lake before sailing season this year. The Badger is the last coal-fired steamship operating in the U.S. See article here.
The famous freighter Arthur M. Anderson finally made it into port for winter lay-up on March 4. It's month-long futile slog from Indiana to Ohio to pick up cargo ended with it returning to Sturgeon Bay, WS with empty holds. It looks like this winter's ice build up on the Great Lakes will be a repeat of last year's deep freeze when the shipping slowdown cost 4000 jobs and $705 million in economic losses. See full article here.
A link has been added to the Weather, Navigation & Marine section of Links to view maps of the ice buildup on the Great Lakes.
NOAA and the British Geological Survey recently completed the most current update of their World Magnetic Model (WMM). For information on this model and what it means to you, click HERE.
Philip and Ann May's boat ZEPHYR, a Tartan 37, is featured as the boat review in the November issue of Soundings Magazine. Click here to read the article. Philip is editor of the GLCC quarterly magazine Lifeline and chairman of the club's publicity committee.
This not-to-be missed 40-minute video imagines what could be learned about each Great Lake and the overall Great Lakes system if the lakes could be drained to reveal the secrets of their bottoms in detail. The result is amazing and incredibly insightful. Click here for more information and to view.
Help get the word out about GLCC and GLCCSchool with a new mini-webinar recording created to serve as a "ready-made" program for presentation at local Yacht Club, Power Squadron or similar meetings. For more information about how you can provide this program to your local boating organization, click HERE.
The club's new Facebook presence is now up and running! To take a look click here or go to Facebook and search for Great Lakes Cruising Club. While the glcclub.com web site will remain the club's primary source for member services such as harbor reports, member benefit info, event registration and more, our new Facebook page offers a complimentary environment for existing and potential club members to share and interact around common cruising interests. Don't delay! Check it out today, add your "LIKE", invite your boating friends, and join in the community conversation!
In this, our final installment of the 80th anniversary review of vintage Harbor Reports, we saved the Big One for last. Lake Superior's superlatives are well known, so there's no need to list them.
Steve & Brenda Reinecke's boat BETS ON, a Mainship 43, is featured as the used boat review in the October issue of Soundings Magazine. Click here
So sang Gordon Lightfoot. It is true the Great Lakes are blessed, each lake has islands and bays beckoning the boater. Some are quite compact, while others sprawling, but in all cases they offer places to anchor and explore. Lake Ontario has it own island area, the Bay of Q
As we continue our journey through the Great Lakes via vintage Harbor Reports, it’s time to visit the gateway to Lake Ontario and the Southern Terminus of the Welland Canal, Port Colborne. The old report E-25 Port Colborne was a mere 4 pages long. We now have three reports to cover th
Long time GLCC member Angele Passe's article on escaping to Lake Superior by sailboat was featured in the July 25th Minneapolis Star Tribune. Angele and her husband Jim will also present their "Sharing the Helm" seminar at the upcoming GLCC Annual Meeting in Milwaukee. Don't miss it!
If you're headed to Lake Ontario there are two canals to get you there. This month's look back is about the Welland canal. As is always the case with these vintage reports, it is interesting and informative. Note the old photos, they speak well of the long history of the canal.&
The United States Coast Guard, Sector Detroit, Waterways Management Division has issued Marine Event #9, Permit #2. There will be a Special Local Regulation issued by the Coast Guard establishing a restricted area and other controls. which also establishes a local safety zone, and slow no-wake area during any testing and active racing. St. Clair River closings weekend of July 26-27, 2014. Click here to read further.
With the Rendezvous next month in Leamington, Ont.