St. Ignace

We decided to stay in St Ignace for 3 days so we could do the bridge walk. This worked out well as the lake conditions were not that great the day we left Mackinaw Island and it was supposed to rain the next day.  The marina was really nice.  It was in town with good places to eat and the city had something planed for every night.  They were showing movies in the park one night, had a two day art fair, and fireworks another night.  We made our first friends on the dock that offered to take us to the grocery store.  Amy had provisioned to be able to feed us for about 3-4 weeks when we left but we were low on bread, milk, and of course the kids had eaten most of the chips, crackers, and other junk food by this point.  Needless to say we took the opportunity to restock a bit.  We had our first true off day where no one really wanted to do anything while it was raining so we watched movies and played a games together.

The bridge walk was a new experience for us.  I had heard about it, I had even ridden my bike over the bridge one year about 25years ago when I was still in collage. We found a kind soul on the dock who was willing to drive us up to the park where it starts at about 7am.  The Governor comes out gives a bit of a speech and then leads everyone (probably at least 1000 folks just on this side) across the bridge.  I had expected to to be cold but we got a pretty nice morning for it.  Once you get out on the bridge they have someone stationed about every 100 feet.  At first its bridge Maintance folks then it was State Police Officers.  I have no idea how they got that many to work on a holiday weekend unless they made all the ones in the training academy do it?  Anyway buy about the time your nearing the halfway point you can really start to feel the bridge sway.  They say it moves as much as 30ft side to side.  At the highest point we really looked like a group of drunken sailors out for a walk.  A few folks lost their balance fell down.  Because of the metal grating on the bridge we saw several they were cut up pretty badly from the fall.  We were lucky enough not to have any such accidents but it was a bit scary to look down though the grates to see the water so far below you.  Unfortunately this year because of CoVID they were not running the usual busing to bring folks back from Mackinaw City if you decided to walk all the way across it would mean we would need to catch a ferry over to Mackinaw Island then from there back to St. Ignace.  This was not going to be cheap for 4 of us.. So we elected to turn around at the halfway point and walk back.  I should note this was much to the disappointment of my daughter that was convinced she wanted to walk the fully 5 miles over the bridge, then 5 miles back, and 3 more back to the marina.  Once we got to the halfway point Amy did offer to keep going with her but she backed out opting to walk back with Max and I.  We appreciated the gesture :)

Once we got back we made breakfast and got the boat prepped to go.  The weather was good but the lake conditions under the bridge no so great.  It looked like we were supposed to have 4-6 foot waves for about 5 miles around the bridge.  Then things would level out to 2-3's rest the way.  If we did not leave Monday, it looked like we would be stuck in St Ignace for at least the next 2 days.  We really needed to start making some progress so we decided to go.  Sure enough the waves were big when we got out there.  I'm sure we saw a few that were 10 or more.  But like they predicted after about 5 miles we were down to 4's then about 20-30 miles after that the lake had calmed down to pretty consistent 3 foot swells.  We did a lot of rocking and rolling and were really happy to find an open dock in Petoskey for the night.

Ever since buying our first boat I had been wanting to bring it up to Mackinaw and say I took it under the bridge.  I'm not sure why but it was something I have wanted to do for over 13 years now.  We got close one time when we had the Beneteau up at the island a few years ago but for some reason I elected not to spend the 3 hours or so it would take to say I had crossed over into Lake Michigan.  I was pretty excited to go under the bridge that day so hardly noticed the huge waves breaking over our bow and it was a neat experience.  I really hope to have the time to do it again one day!  Hopefully a day with better conditions :). Plus how many folks can way they went over and under the bridge in the same day!

Mackinaw Island

 During our family planning sessions everyone voted that they wanted to stop by Mackinaw Island again (we had just been here in June with our exchange students).  We radioed in and were luck enough to get in for two nights right before the Labor Day weekend.  Its always fun being on the island.  We rented bikes.  Unfortunately the relatively flat loop around the island was mostly closed this time so we pedaled our way up the big hill to check on some of the stuff we had not seen in a few years like the Butterfly House, Carriage Museum, and Grand Hotel.  The kids got board at the Carriage Museum and decided to go back to the boat letting Amy and I take a slower pace enjoying other small stops along the way.  Before we left I sent Max a picture of the forge that was set up allowing tourists to craft their own knifes.  Of course by the time he saw this we had made our way to the bottom of the hill and was pretty excited to go back up and check it out.  Amy left us to head back to the boat.  I got another reminder of how out of shape I am now peddling up this hill for the 3rd time that day but Max was excited so that helped motivate me a bit.  Once there he decided to try the experience and pounded out his own knife from an old rail road spike.  Max has been bugging me for the last two years to build a forge with him at our house ever since earning his metal working badge at summer camp a couple years ago.  Not to mention that one of the older kids from his school is interested in this and has created a nice set up at home.

On our second day we met another couple on a custom tug that it turned out had been part of our sailing club many years ago.  They told us about their plans to do the bridge walk that weekend and we decided to stay and take advantage of the one day a year folks were allowed to walk the Mackinaw Bridge.  Overall it was nice to spend a couple of nice nights on the island.  The next day we planed to venture over to St. Ignace where we planned to stay until the bridge walk on Labor Day. 

Our Journey up Lake Huron

Our journey up Lake Huron was a quick one.  This was well traveled cruising ground for us as we had stopped in along most the ports along the way over the years.  I would have liked to have traveled into the thumb area to visit Bay City or Tawais but we will have to save those ports for another year.  We only ended up with one weather day in Harbor Beach.  We met another family doing the loop here with a son a year older then Max.  He was pretty excited to meet Max as he was the first kid doing the loop they had met since leaving from South Carolina.  Max being new to this I don't think yet appreciated how rare this opportunity might be along the way but we invited him over to play video games and even brought him into town with us to check out the new Jungle Cruise movie during a storm that was passing though.  

Most days we ran 50-60 miles a day taking us about a week to get to Mackinaw Island.  The kids found their own spots on the boat and I think Penelope was enjoying the constant attention she got from being in close proximity to her people and so far has yet to get sea sick.  In the past we have taken her with us on day trips and the occasional weekend trip to Put-in-Bay.  She never much liked the sail boat and really hated it when the boat healed.  So far she seems to be doing ok on the tug but still does not enjoy the rolly days on the water.

When we got to Presque Isle we decided to attempt anchoring for the first time with this boat/anchor.  Before leaving I had attempted to put our larger anchor on from the sail boat (a 85lb Mantis) but found the shank was to long to fit with our current set up so just ended up replacing the swivel with the Mantis one.  I'll keep an eye out as we go for marine consignment stores to see if I can find something else that might work along the way as our current 30lb anchor seems a bit light for our boat.  As soon as we got in Blake (Max's new found friend) was over saying hi on his families dingy.  We launched ours so the kids to could take Penelope in to shore for a walk.  This quickly turned into dingy racing and it was fun watching the boys have a good time on the water.  The evening was amazing at anchor but the night was pretty rolly. The wind shifted more than predicted which brought in waves off the lake making for a pretty uncomfortable night on the hook.  The good news is the Anchor did well.  It seemed to reset quickly as the boat shifted around but I think I would still feel more comfortable with something heavier.  All in all it was just your typical bad night on anchor, no big storms or anything exciting.  We had a lot of movement and a bad nights sleep.  With that we were up and out the next morning and on our way to the next stop.

Harrisville was nice but it seemed the cute little summer town was struggling a bit.  We ended up meeting our first looper that had just crossed their wake and another group that was working on a slow loop (3-5 year experence).  Unfortunately the kids were hungry and we didn't have much time to chat with them.  We wondered into town and found a pretty good place known for their broasted chicken.  The food was great.  While there we also ran into a few other couples from out dock as well.  One of which it turned out was celebrating his first book release that day.

Overall our trip up Lake Huron was great.  We had a really good weather window with calm seas.  We made good time and enjoyed each of our stops along the way.

Made it to Lake Huron

Today we left Metro Beach and started heading up the St Clair River to Lake Huron.  It was fairly uneventful until a storm came though and the fog rolled in making visibility a bit scary for an hour or two.  We had the chart plotter and radar to help get us though.  Luckily there were not many boats still out on the water during the storm so we just kept chugging along.  Seems I still need to learn how to use the radar as I could not figure out how to tune out the storm clouds over us to see the channel but I guess I'll work on that for another day.  Other then this the river was peaceful as ever and we enjoyed our trip under the Bluewater Bridge and made it into Lexington for the night.

And we're off like a screaming herd of turtles

 

We finally left the dock!  There were no parades or music playing when we left but we felt like it as we finally started this adventure we've been talking about for more then 20 years and planning for the better part of the last five.  Weather was nice and we went from Monroe Boat Club up the Detroit River and stoped at Metro Beach for the night.  The boat did a great job pushing itself up the river and we are looking forward to our next day and getting out on to Lake Huron!

This trip has been a long time coming and I'm really looking forward to getting to experience it with my family.  I'm sure we will run into some issues along the way and I know home schooling may be a challenge (especially if we have to educate both kids).  Even though we are still waiting on a placement for Annabelle which the company assures us will happen we figure worst case we will park the boat for a few days rent a car head home for a few days and send her off!  For now I'm excited that she is with us for at least this part of the journey!  For now our goal is to work our way around Michigan fairly quickly and then slow down to smell the roses after we get to Chicago.

False Start

 It's the day we were supposed to leave.  The plan was that Amy would get up early head to the grocery store for a really large provisioning trip we would head to the boat and start our trip north up the Detroit River to Lake St. Clair.  Well the grocery store took way longer then expected & everyone seemed to be dragging their feet a bit so we loaded the car up put everything on the boat and started finding places for it and decided we would just leave the next day.  Even though we had been dropping off car loads of stuff each day to the boat you can still see that the grocery run & final load was a big one that made it look like our main room exploded.  Amazingly enough we found spots for everything getting it safely stowed away.  We are excited to hang our flag out tomorrow once we begin our loop trip!

Almost time to leave

 We are now down to our last week before we leave.  I finally have most of the projects done we wanted to complete prior to leaving.  Then the scary discussion came up of should we delay.  Amy had been working on a lot of projects around the house and was no where near where she wanted to be & Annabelle still has not been placed with a host family in Sweden.  To me this was my worst nightmare.  We had been planning to leave in mid August back in April/May when we were doing our initial planning then in June Amy & I agreed to push it back until Annabelle was placed and Amy wanted to be around to help get her program started at the ice rink.  At this point we have two problems.  1.  I have heard you want to be off Lake Michigan by September if you can as the lake starts to become less predictable and one will have to stay in port for more weather days.  2.  We had signed up for the Great Loop Association meet up in Alabama on October 18th.  This meant we were now on a timeline to get the boat somewhere which is never good!  I have to admit I was terrified of this discussion and my initial reaction was no way can we move the date.  We needed to get the boat moving one way or another.  We had several discussions about Max and I possibly heading out and the girls meeting us somewhere along the way but ultimately decided the logistics of that would be painful and to just stick with our original date.  We decided so what if some stuff did not get done and told ourselves once again there is never a perfect time to go and we just needed to get out the door to start this adventure we had talked about for so long!.

We really didn't have time for a trip to Chicago the two days before we left but we did it anyway at the Exchange agencies urging to get Annabelle a visa.  I had filled out the form and read what was on the website but unfortunately did not pay enough attention and it turned out we needed a lot more paperwork then what we had and stuff like proof of insurance, where she was going to say, and a indentation letter to the country would all need to be supplied by the agency.  So we waisted a full day in the car about 10+ hours and $250 for a trip to Chicago only to be denied a Visa.  Hopefully we can try this again on our way around in the boat.  Oh well back to boat prep.

We invited family over to see the boat and wish us goodby.  None of our extended family had yet to see the boat.  Some were surprised how small it was but all were excited for us and wished us well for the journey ahead.

Last trip on the sailboat for a while & winterization

We have gone back and fourth on what to do with our sail boat.  We have really enjoyed this boat for the last 4 years and feel like we still have a lot of adventuring to do with it.  But having two boats is dumb and I don't have enough time to keep both up.  After spending a couple weeks on a tug its boring compared to sailing where there is always something to trim or mess with while underway but it is comfortable.  We have decided to keep both for now and figure out what we want to do after some extended time on the tug.  We both think the tug is perfect for traveling but not very exciting for day or weekend trips both of which we would rather do by sail boat.  I guess after this trip if we decide we want to continue traveling by boat to do the Maine loop or even take it for a trip up to Alaska the tug is surely the way to go.  Both trips are on our long term to do list as is possibly a circumnavigation that may require something else yet, though I'm sure our sail boat would work fine for this trip it would require quite a few upgrades and it would be nice to not have to be healing all the time while underway.  Anyway we decided to put the sail boat into storage  while we decide what we want to do next.  A lot of this will depend on how Max feels about this trip and if he wants to go back to a traditional school or keep home schooling into high school.

Anyway we took the sail boat over to Put-in-Bay for the weekend.  It was really our first time to be there this year where we could enjoy the island vs working some sailing event, being a chaperone at the hotel, or attending a team dinner with the kids.  We had a good time and it proved to be a good distraction from boat projects and everything we have had going on with our lives.

After we got back it was time to start getting the boat ready for the winter and to figure out how to pull the mast (something I've never done on this boat).  The girls had something to do at home so Max and I stayed and worked on the boat.  Drained the water, cleaned, took the boom off, folded up the sails, and all the general stuff involved in winterization.  We treated this like the last time we might see this boat and took everything off and prepped it should we decide to list it for sale this spring.  I was amazed how much stuff we took off the boat.  It filled my entire truck and the water line came up at least an inch.  Compared to most in our boat club we really don't have much on our boat.

I pulled the boat up to the well at Sandusky Harbor.  They meet us with 5 guys to pull the mast & within two hours they had it down and ready to start prepping for winter.  About an hour after that they had the boat pulled and parked in their storage barn.  After a bit more work the boat was ready for winter.  Hopefully it will rest well and maybe we will be back to sailing next summer.

The kids are off to camp and the boat work begins

 

Our kids have been going to the same YMCA camp every summer for a week since they were both in 1st grade and its something they really seem to enjoy every year.  Unfortunately last year due to COVID the camp was closed.  This spring when sign ups came out they were excited to register but at the time we did not know for sure if we were going to do the Great Loop or not.  Usually we drop the kids off at camp and have a bit of a parents vacation.  Spend a week on the boat, sleep in, eat out and generally enjoy our time together and do all the stuff we enjoy doing that the kids want no part of.  Unfortunately this year because we only had about 3 weeks before we planned to leave for the Great Loop it meant we got to do a solid week of boat projects!  

After our shake down cruise we decided the boat came with just about everything we would need.  No additional fenders, lines or that kind of stuff would be needed.  We decided the freezer was a bit small and it would nice to be able to buy some frozen stuff to get meat in bulk when near a store vs having to walk to and from stores with this heavy stuff much more often.  So we purchased a small deep freezer.  While at the island for the week we found there were no public laundry facilities and when we did find something it meant a water taxi ride in and then a mile and a half hike to use someones washer drier.  We quickly decided that it would be worth the convince to have our own on board even if it would be much smaller then what we were used to at home.  The other thing I wanted was an AIS system.  We have had occasions where commercial traffic has reached out to us but did not know our boat name and would call out for the sail boat about a mile off of Marble Head or something to check our intended course.  I figured if we were going to spend this much time on the water I wanted them to know who I was and how to get a hold of me vs wondering which boat they were looking for.  Not to mention its also nice to see their name on the chart plotter as well should I want to call them when we get to the river system.    The chart plotter the boat came with was nice but was older and still used cartridges for the maps which seemed would require me finding a lot of older cartridges on eBay or the like to cover that area we would be causing in.  I decided to splurge and get a new Garmin Plotter that included maps of all the areas we would be traveling in along with their AIS system.  The last big thing was to figure out why the propane system was not working.

Most were not too involved.  Some were as easy as replacing a kitchen faucet (maybe a couple hours).  The biggest pain in the rear turned out to be installing the washer dryer unit.  The boat originally had come with a washer dryer that the previous owners decided to pull out and replace with a beer fridge and inverter to run it.  Note our boat does not have an inverter system that allows you to use the house bank while underway for outlets and what not, instead we have to run the generator.  I pulled out the beer fridge out and found a better spot to install the inverter and plugged the new freezer into the inverter.  I then started looking at how to plumb the washer in again.  Seems when they removed it they also filled in the drain hole.  I found the old spot and came pretty close to drilling it out exactly where it had been.  Borrowed a friends dingy in the marina and was able to caulk and install the new stainless barb fitting I had purchased.  Next up was the dryer vent.  This was a bit easier as it was up closer to the walk around deck.  Next problem became finding a vent hose long enough as the 8ft one I bought at Lowes turned out to be too short.  I ended up finding some HVAC tape and taped it together with another one I had left over from a previous install as the house.  Luckily some of the fresh water stuff was still in place so it meant I only had to run new hoses for the water hook ups.  Next came the problem of moving this 160lb beast.  I rounded up one of Annabelles friends from fair to help with this.  I will say its nice to have a cute teenage daughter living at home as that means there are almost always some strong teenage boys hanging around :).  We had measured everything and got luckily it all fit the first time with about two inches to spare.  After about 3 full days of working on this project we finally had the dumb thing hooked up.  Now I need to figure out a way to mount it to the floor so it does not move around while we are underway.

The chart plotter & AIS turned out to be pretty easy to install.  Though I still don't have the right sea talk adapters to get my auto pilot or depth finder to talk to the chart plotter but will leave that for another day as I never really trusted the auto pilot when engaged with the chart plotter for course directions and we have a separate depth display on that boat.  Turns out the trickiest part of this was finding the screen that allowed me to use the cameras installed on the boat.  FYI it only took about 3 hours and a lot of frustration chasing wires and power only to find out I was looking at the wrong menu.  The boat came with 3 working cameras all hooked up and working with the Raymarine stuff.  I knew when I switched to Garmin I would be limited to one camera unless I bought a $400 do dad to convert the analog cameras to an IP signal.  I figured as long as I had the rear camera I could see traffic behind me and if I really missed the side view cameras I would buy the do dad or upgrade the cameras to the wireless Garmin ones when we came home for the holidays.

Well we got most of the various projects done, we talked to the kids teachers, got their school books ordered, along with a bunch of other stuff.  It turned out to be a very productive week of prep work and was now time to pick the kids up from camp.  We decided to pick them up give them the night at home then head to Cedar Point in the morning for one more weekend trip in the sail boat before we had to winterize that and haul it out the next week. T-2 weeks till we leave.

Time for some boat work & the county fair

We had talked to Toledo Beach Marina before we left Put-in-Bay they told us no problem getting slip when we returned.  I called on our way in and guess what.. No slips available.  Luckily we thought of North Cape Yacht Club and called them to see if we might get a couple of nights on their wall.  After chatting with a few folks they were happy to have us and we had a dock for at least 3 days and we could have one for rest the season if needed.  At this point we still had our hopes up for getting a slip at Monroe Boat Club where a member had recently sold his boat making a big slip available.  They have a process to award the slip and while we had signed up for it two weeks prior because our seniority was so low we were concerned someone else might get it.  I guess everyone was happy with their slip for the moment and we were lucky enough to get it.  Best yet because we only needed it for about a month they let us rent it by the day at the astounding rate of $6 a day!  The boat club is about 10 miles from our house and would be a great place to get a few things fixed and updated while being close to home.

We got back from Put-in-Bay just in time for our local 4H activities to start at the county fair.  In our area 4H is really big with the kids and there are a lot of older adults that invest a lot of time an effort supporting all the various aspects of it.  A few years ago our kids got involved in showing goats then started entering some of the contests like photography, baking, and sewing.  It's all pretty neat and there is a category for any interest you might have from lego's to canning or any other kind of craft one can imagine.  This year they were both doing goats.  Max entered the photography category getting first place with the picture he took at the top of the mast in my last post. Annabelle entered cookie decorating and received honors.  Both did as well as can be expected with their goats seeing has they had not spent very much time practicing with the this year so both proved to be a bit stubborn during the jumping part of the course.  This kids love fair but it takes a lot of work as they both have to check on their animals multiple times a day then help setup and take down/clean up all the pens in the barn.  Of course parent have to volunteer some time to supervise all this and then the kids have daily chores they need to stay on top of as well to keep the barn clean for visitors to walk though all week.  The kids have a blast running around the fair grounds with their friends for the two weeks but all the early mornings and late nights make for some cranky kids/parents by the end of the actual week of fair.

As fair runs for about two weeks and our kids were no where to be seen having their time fully sucked up by fair Amy & I went on a bit of a showing spree for the boat.  I bought a new chart plotter & AIS system.  We bought a deep freezer, a washer dryer combo, new facuet, and a lot of spare consumable bits for the boat like impellers, belts, filters, stuff for oil changes and what not.  It seemed like UPS, USPS, or FeEx was at our house every day dropping off big boxes of stuff as we begin to finally move onto the boat in about 3 weeks time.

The boat sitting at its new home dock for the next four weeks.

Our sailboat does not like to be ignored

Well is now late July and I have yet to really go sailing.  So far we only have the main sail on the boat and the roller furling car is still stuck at the top of the mast.  We sent Max up the mast a job he is getting quite comfortable with as he got to go up two other boats masts during our one week summer cruise to help out with various issues.  We ran a line up from the anchor roller attached it to the car and then proceed to pull the car down.  This took a ton of effort but it finally came down.  If you recall from a previous post we had a set screw back out inside the car last year sometime which would not allow the car to come down.  I had to go up the mast prior to pulling the boat to release the head sail for the winter.  I attempted to pay someone to fix it but they wanted to take the mast down to work on it and that felt a bit unnecessary and something told me I would end up loosing much of the sailing season if we did this.  So I went the DIY route.  Alas it didn't work out the car is now stuck at the bottom of the mast with the set screw still in the car.  I still have no idea what the fix is and may now end up having to replace the entire roller furling unit and possibly the foil the dumb car slides on due to my scraping up the foil while pulling the car down.  I will say that at first it seemed like this idea had worked and the car was moving freely for about 5 min of playing with it before it froze up some how at the bottom.  I'm guessing the set screw got wedged in some where again.  I ended up calling the riggers and asked them to fix this when we take the mast down to put the boat in storage in August.  We'll see if anything actually happens?