A beautiful day for a sail.
Every Sunday the wake from hundreds of passing motorboats always stirs the river near the bridge into a frenzie. It was a perfect day so when Wendy’s brother Doug suggested we take the Pearson sailboat out on the lake we quickly hopped aboard. Doug remarked that the wind conditions and temperature made this one of the best sailing days he’s had this year.
On our way up the river we passed an incredible sight. Thousands of floating inflatable toys with people on them were bobbing along, going the other way, with the current, down the river. The crazies left from a beach on the lake and drifted down through the violently churning river current under the Bluewater Bridge to wind up in Marysville 10 km (6 ½ miles) later. I wanna go next year!
After a twenty year ban, it was determined that the Coast Guard in fact did not have jurisdiction over floating toys and the 12th annual Float Down was re-instated. Here’s part of the newspaper article featured in the Port Huron Times Herald:
Floating down a busy riverWet event attracts more than 3,000 participants
By JESSE DUNSMORE Times Herald
The first Port Huron Float Down in 20 years was held Sunday, attracting 3,000 to 4,000 people, according to estimates by St. Clair County sheriff Deputy Don Berg and Port Huron resident Patrick Bills, whose father Mark organized the event.
Patrick Bills, 26, used an electronic bullhorn to make announcements to the crowd on Lighthouse Beach prior to the 1 p.m. shove-off.
"Why is it fun?" Patrick said, gesturing at hundreds of people pushing their rafts and inner tubes into the water. "Does it look fun? What's not fun about this? ... It's like a party on the water."
The last Float Down was held in 1988, before the Coast Guard shut down the event due to safety concerns.
"I have no worries," said Patrick, citing safety precautions such as a mandatory lifejacket rule, volunteers in watercraft and a 500-foot rope "keeping everyone herded up like cattle."
"It's more (safe) now than it was in 1988," he said.
Patrick said his father
spoke to several law-enforcement agencies to make the 2008 Float Down happen, including the Coast Guard, DNR and sheriff department.
In the end, Patrick said, all they needed was a permit from the DNR.
"My father, he's the kind of guy who doesn't like people telling him he can't do something," Patrick said. "He did what people said couldn't be done. And here we are today."
Mark Bills was not available for comment as he surveyed the scene from a personal watercraft.
The Coast Guard and Sheriff Department Marine Division were present to assist floaters.
Kathy McGarvie of Yale said she was looking forward to "a nice smooth ride down the St. Clair River."
"Which you're not gonna get," replyed Alyssa Young, 15, of Jeddo.
Though the water around the Blue Water Bridge was choppy, the Coast Guard reported no problems except a few people who fell from their flotation devices and needed help getting to shore.
The event attracted people of all ages.
Gunnar Kerrigan, 10, of Port Huron, came with his parents and brother.
"My parents told me about it, and I instantly said yeah, because I've been in swimming lessons since I was two and I love to swim and be in the water," Kerrigan said.
Betty Jawor, 55, of Port Huron said this was her second Float Down. Her first was in 1988.
"Everyone says I (am) ridiculous because of my age doing the Float Down," she said. "You gotta live, you gotta have fun."
The Float Down also brought people from a distance.
Anne Davich, 60, came from Haslett, a town near Lansing. She originally is from Port Huron.
"All my life I've just wanted to jump in the blue water under the bridge, and this will be my chance to float on it," Davich said.
Josh Rubin, 30, said he was a lifeguard at Lighthouse Beach in the early '90s. "I think it's way overdue, and finally someone stepped up to the plate and organized this event and got it done," he said.
Donna clicks a picture of the bridges 
Pete takes the Captain's station this week
Donna holds up her prize catch.
