From the Helm

The Pointes have the waitlists. Harrison Township has the wells. Here's how boat ownership actually works on the busiest stretch of Lake St. Clair.

I run this lake for a living, and its tower is the first thing I see from the water. A working captain's look at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club.

Nobody wants to think about haul-out in July. That's exactly why July is when the good dates get taken.

Roughly 235 miles of the emptiest big water on the Great Lakes, with a harbor every few hours. Here's how I run it when a delivery takes me north.

The boats that winter in Florida don't decide in October. They decide in July. Here's the planning sequence that makes the snowbird run work.

Every raft-up has one boat everybody's keeping an eye on. Here's how to make sure it's never yours.

The Grosse Pointes have some of the best water on Lake St. Clair and the hardest slips to get. Here's how the harbors actually work.

Anchor Bay gets dismissed as too shallow to bother with. That's backwards. The top of Lake St. Clair is the best part, if you respect the chart.

The big freighters run the other side of the island. The Trenton Channel is where Downriver actually boats. Here's how my home water works.

Half the calls I get start with "I'm not sure if this is something you do." Here's everything I do, and how to tell which one you actually need.

The biggest boating day of the year rewards a little planning. Four things to get right, from the anchor-out to the ride home in the dark.

Owners see the departure and the arrival. Here's everything that happens in between, from the 5 a.m. engine room check to the last line on the dock.

There's no such thing as "having the right of way" on the water. There's only who's required to get out of whose way. Here's how it actually works.

After enough summers you stop reading the guest and start reading the cooler. A captain's field guide to boat snacks and the eight people who bring them. Find yourself in it.

Somebody invited you out on their boat. Here are the unwritten rules that make you the guest who gets asked back instead of the story told at the dock.

A boat burns fuel by the hour, not the mile. Here's a calculator with real Great Lakes routes built in, and the math behind the number.

A good trip is mostly decided before you leave the dock. Here's how I plan the daily legs, the ports, and the weather days for a multi-day Great Lakes run.

The wire clears, the keys are yours, and the boat is a stranger. What she'll teach you in the first 50 miles, and who should be aboard when she does.

Miles divided by boat speed is the floor. Weather, fuel stops, and daylight set the ceiling. How I build a delivery window you can plan around.

The checklist I send every owner before a delivery, and the one thing on it nobody can do but you. An afternoon of prep saves a billable day.

No rate sheet here, and there's a reason. How delivery pricing actually works, what the line items are, and what makes one trip cost more than another.

The shallowest Great Lake is the quickest to turn. How I think about the western basin, the islands run, and Erie's short, square waves.

Most owners start a log the day they go to sell. By then it's too late. Here's what to track from day one, and why it pays off at the dock.

It looks like the friendliest water in the region, and most days it is. The trouble is what eleven feet of average depth does when the wind comes up.

The boat needs to be somewhere it isn't, and you can't take it there. Here's the order it runs in when you hire a captain to move your boat.

Most captains don't wear theirs. Most First Mates should, and when they do, the crew follows within five minutes. The PFD is a leadership signal first.

A float plan isn't filed with the Coast Guard. It's the one piece of paper that brings the call in if something goes wrong on the water. Here's the First Mate's template.

There's no licensing board for delivery captains. The title isn't regulated. Here's how to sort the pros from the rest before you sign anything.

700-foot freighters, one-way commercial channels, and a current that lies to you. What the Detroit River actually asks of recreational boat owners.

That guy who drops the hook and drifts into someone's swim platform? He's not unlucky — he didn't set the anchor. Here's how to do it right.

Cold water, crowded channels, and rusty skills; a few minutes of preparation before you untie the lines makes the whole weekend better.

I served as its Commodore. An honest, insider's look at the Ford Yacht Club on Grosse Ile — its history, facilities, calendar, and what a club like it does for a boater.

The routes, the weather windows, and the harbors worth knowing.

The thirty minutes before the engine starts is where good first mates earn it.

What professional radio sounds like, and what makes you sound like an amateur.

The vocabulary every captain-first mate pair develops — eventually.

The first step in every delivery I quote, and why it's the easy one.

The delivery that doubles as the best lesson you'll ever take.

A Great Lakes captain's reference guide to America's Great Loop — the route, the segments, the Lakes leg, and what most guides leave out.

Truck or transit? The honest comparison for Great Lakes owners thinking about getting their boat to Florida for the winter — from someone who runs both.

It's the fastest, busiest stretch of water in the whole chain, and the head of the river off Port Huron is where it asks the most of you. Here's what to know before you run it.

Splash day is not the day to start thinking about splash day. Here's the two-week countdown I run with my own boat — and what to do if you find a problem at each stage.

Three different surveys, three different purposes. Most buyers find that out the hard way. Here's what each one catches — and what it won't.

What a professional yacht delivery on the Great Lakes actually looks like — credentials, insurance, and what owners get wrong.

Most boat buyers ask questions about the boat. The questions that actually matter are about the seller, the history, and the systems — and most people don't think to ask them until it's too late.

The captains who make docking look easy aren't more talented. They just do the hard part before anyone's watching.

When the captain can't run the boat, everything rides on the person beside them. Here's the protocol — before you need it.

Most owners think the insurance piece of a delivery is the captain's problem. It isn't. It's yours — and here's exactly what to do, why it matters, and how to get it right the first time.