Great lakes boating around the Detroit river is one of the greatest things one can experience.  Living along the river and not being a boater in such a waste of life.

    When I was single in my mid 20's I had two choices of activities, boating or flying.  I was an aircrew radio operator in the Naval Reserve and flew every chance I had.   I went to ground school at Metro airport and was learning to pilot the Cessna 150.  I had thoughts of flight training to get a commercial pilots license and fly for a living.  In spite my love of flying, I decided to get into Great Lakes boating and stay with the job I had in the electrical department at the Great Lakes Steel Division of National Steel Corporation.

    My first boat was a 23.5ft cuddy cabin.  I kept it at Humbug Marina in Gibraltar.  Spent a lot of good time around the western shore of Lake Erie.  I sold it to add to the down payment on my first House.  Thereafter I used my father's boat until my wife and I bought a 35ft Chris Craft Double Cabin a few years later.  By this time I held a management position and was a member of the Great Lakes Steel Boat Club.

    The Chris allowed us to go anywhere and do anything, just keep the fuel tanks full.  We were on that boat every weekend and spent at least two weeks of our vacation during the summers.  We carried an inflatable dingy with a 5hp outboard motor to explore the canals and wetlands we found.

    All our kids could deep water swim by age 5.  They grew up on the water.  Our boat was large enough for our kids to take one friend each.  We could sleep 10-12 kids and adults.

    My best memories are the weekends we would spend at the Bob-Lo marina.  We would get there Friday evening, spend all day Saturday in the park on all the rides then leave Sunday morning to anchor in Crystal Bay and swim all day there.  We did that 2-3 times a summer.  What a great life.

    Our favorite Marina is the Algonac Harbor club.  We would spend 4-5 days there then cruise down the Middle Channel to Metro Beach to finish out the week.  A stop at Lands End on the Black River to fuel up then go home.  The Harbor Club always had a beautiful Christmas party with dancing, partying with all the trimmings on the Labor Day weekend.

    One time at Lands End while I was fueling, my wife bought the boys a LARGE water balloon sling shot.  The first time I saw it was after we were docked at the horseshoe at Metro Beach.  The boys were lobbing water balloons at people hundreds of feet away.  I went into the cabin and told my wife to take that away from them but it was too late.  Two DNR officers caught them and were taking the thing.  My wife was yelling at the officers to mind their own business, they disagreed and were about to arrest her when I came out and stopped everything and saved her from arrest.  I wish I had a picture of that.

    We still have the boat but with kids gone it is used very little.  Our boat club has a number of fun activities for kids during the summer.  So I still have fun with my grandaughter and her friends.