Detroit

We arrived at Bayview Yacht Club on Friday (26th) early enough to have dinner. The City of Detroit has cleaned up Connor Creek which runs along the west side of Bayview. That has allowed the Yacht Club to build more docks which are great. The situation couldn't have been better. Most other boat owners live nearby, so we were the only "live-aboards." It was quiet!

Saturday morning (at early early o'clock as Kyle used to say) a shell came gliding past us with a happy wave from Molly & Libby (friends). We watched them doing their morning rowing workout in the creek while drinking our coffee. These "girls" are long and lean while the coffee drinkers are short and round. Hummmmm? Maybe it's time to trade in Tequila.

Libby and Molly returned for us and off we went to watch Molly's and Todd's boys in a mini-swim-meet. Certainly felt familiar. Tucker is just 5 and swam a 25 freestyle and a 25 fly. It was so cute! Ethan (9) is a "fish". He has qualified for the State Meet in EVERY event for 9 and 10 year olds. That's amazing.

The rest of the day was devoted to doing errands with our friend's car. What a good friend is Sherryl Benton! We even made it to Costco and stopped in to see Lou's sister, Marie. (Just a little note here ----- Marie took us in for 5 summers while Tequila was SLOWLY being retrofitted from racer to cruiser, and we were "homeless." We'll never be able to pay her back!

Walt and Sherryl and Lou and I went out for dinner and did some catching up. Walt and Lou have been friends since Mackenzie High School, Olivet College, and MEA days. (58 years)

Sunday (still had Sherryl's car) was laundry, food shopping, and a sail on the Detroit River with Todd & Molly and their boys, Libby, and Mike & Sally (M's & L's mom and dad. ) Wouldn't you know that it was a rock-n-roll sail with winds gusting up to 25 - 27 knots? Fortunately, everyone has sea legs and it was a short sail, so no one got sick. At some point we dropped the sail and Todd and the boys jumped in for a swim. Remember......Tucker is only 5. Then we went home with them for a delicious dinner and celebrated Sally's birthday.

Monday brought our first good sail since the Charlevoix-Cheboygan leg. Winds were 17 to 19 knots and gusting higher. We were doing 8 to 9 knows with the jib reefed in (that means not all the way out) and the rail in the water. The waves were only 2 to 3 feet high with some white caps but they were hitting us on the beam (the side of the boat). This makes the boat rock back and forth A LOT!

This is my first time in Lake Erie. I was prepared for it to be a lot different than Lake Michigan (it is the most shallow of the Great Lakes), but so far the only thing different is the water is green and not blue.

One of the first stories Lou told me in our early dating days was about coming to Put-in-Bay for the PAR-TY. He was 24 and living life to the fullest. I'm sure he had his fair share of Cold Duck.

This time around his boat partner is a little old lady who can't drink much before getting tipsy. Oh how life tricks us! We came 51 miles in 8 1/2 hours. We've come 386 miles so far.

We read the charts and came into the mooring field. Who has ever tried to hook a mooring ball in 14 knot winds? It was an exciting (never to be repeated I hope) experience. We'll spent a day exploring this little tourist spot before heading farther east.

Life on a sailboat....

Life on a sailboat slows down to the basic necessary elements. With no car, no landline phone, and no TV what does one do? We spend our time when there is no wind and the motor runs all day by:



*wishing we had Rich's and Diane's big engines but not their big fuel bills.



*cleaning the cabin ----everything has a place, but it's usually not in it.



*scrubbing the bugs off the deck and out of the cockpit - those pesky flies!



*doing projects - hanging up towel hooks in the head, sanding the deck wood, coating the deck
wood with Sikkins, calibrating the instruments, etc.



*practicing with the remote wireless, the radar, the navigation program.



*listening to music on the Serius radio (thank you Scott and Cheryl)



*reading, reading, reading (Donna) and doing Sudoku puzzles (Lou).



*thinking about doing some exercises.



*drinking a beer now and then.



*killing flies!!!!!



On windy days the fine adjustments of the sails requires a lot of attention and "tweaking" by Lou. I'm kept busy bracing myself and navigating the companionway steps. It's on the day's when the boat is heeled over that we discover all the items that haven't been stowed in their proper place (see item #2 on the previous list) as they fly across the cabin.



Our immediate daily concerns are:



*Do we need to get fuel?



*Is the holding tank needing a pump out?



*How much water do we have on board?



*Is the navigation correct to get to the next port?



*What's the next meal?



Pretty simple isn't it?



Rainy days add some new elements to the daily concerns list:

*Is the plastic under the dripping ports?



*Where can we hang our foul weather gear when we come below into the cabin?



*How do we get things dry?



*What can we do for entertainment?



Think of everything you "NEED" and we've managed to fit it on the boat (not an easy task.)



We are making good time down the eastern side of Michigan in Lake Huron. This side of the state is marketed as "The Sunrise Side", but there's nothing as spectacular as the sunsets on the Lake Michigan side. On Wednesday we went into a port that I've never been in before - Harbor Beach. There is a shipping channel from the entrance to a Detroit Edison plant which allows the freighters a deep channel to deliver coal. We've always avoided this stop because the water isn't deep enough for us to dock. We "draw" 7.5 feet of water which means we always have to be aware of water depth AND rocks.



This was our first attempt at anchoring, and it couldn't have gone any better. The anchor held on the first try, and it was early enough for us to sit on deck and make sure it wasn't dragging. I love to anchor. The boat swings and bobs and rocks me to sleep. The captain, on the other hand, is completely vigilant and on guard for any difficulties with the anchor. I felt him scramble out of bed (pretty agile for a 73 year old!) at 4 am when there was a wind shift. The boat did a 180 degree swing on the line. I don't think he ever relaxed after that, so I can sense a nap on this day's program.



Now we're headed to Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit and as we approached the Detroit skyline, we passed through at least a hundred "go fast" boats on their way to A PARTY. When we turned to look at the meeting spot, we couldn't begin to "guest-a-mate" how many boats were already there. It looked like bees returning to the hive.



This is total togetherness in 550 square feet! What a life.


Charlevoix - Cheboygan - Presque Isle - Harrisville - East Tawas - Harbor Beach - Pt. Huron - Detroit

The Straits

Here's a little information about the Straits of Mackinac parapharsed from a book called The Living Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis. Thank you Karen and David for giving it to us.


The first landmark a boater can see when approaching the Straits is the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced MACK-in-awe). (Dave Himes will sail under it one day.) As the boat gets closer, the massiveness of the stanchions is overwhelming, and the roadway across seems to be at sky heighth (200 feet above the water.) However, when the boat passes beneath the road bed, it looks like mast and steel will meet and that will be the end of the story. It takes your breath away - even when you know it can't happen.

The Bridge opened in 1957 spanning the distance between the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. At that time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Under it flows the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (the only 2 great lakes on the same level). The winds funnel between the two lakes and the Straits can often be dangerous to navigate. Our trip, however, was "a piece of cake."






The shores of Lake Huron appear to be dinsely forested with an occassional "cottage" to be sighted. It turned out to be a 10 hour day on the water from Charlevoix, but what a great way to begin "The Adventure."

We docked at the Cheboygan County Marina which is a wonderful facility ---right next to Melissa who I mentioned in the second blog. You would have thought we were old old friends. Boaters bond that way! She's on her way to the North Channel and the Georgian Bay while we are headed south toward Detroit. Coffee and a few stories gave us a late start but well worth the delay.

Each day on the boat is a brand new experience. This day (6-21) the waters were as smooth as glass, the sun was shining brightly, and the wind was so light that the head sail couldn't stay filled. I so wanted to jump in for a swim but the water temperature was only 62 degrees.....brrrrrr. I tried to get Lou to live dangerously and sail naked (can you imagine that?!!!!) but we had a big frieghter off the stern and gaining on us quickly. Guess it was just a pipe dream.

I've developed a new hobby which is collecting boat names. The ones I saw in Cheboygan go in the I'D NEVER NAME A BOAT THAT category......Spider Haven (that's not even funny), NoName, What's Next. Our boat started out with the name Splash Dance and all the kids racing on her sat around eating pizza and drinking (soda probably) and thowing names in a hat. Finally we all decided that Tequila had some character.

It has been beautiful traveling down Lake Huron, but there is NO wind. The economy of Michigan is obvious in the marinas.......empty slips. At Harrisville the Harbor Master said it was his busiest day this year with 6 boats registering.

It Has Begun!

YEA!

We left the dock in Charlevoix in fog and misting rain on June 20th. Since the northern Great Lakes are cool, fog is a frequent morning visitor. As the day progressed, the winds held steady and the weather turned sunny. We zoomed (can you imagine a sailboat zooming?) passed Beaver Island (Hi Davi) and Mackinac Island (Hi Joan), through the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and entered the waters of the second largest of the Great Lakes - Huron.

Up or Down?

What goes down (can) (may) (should) will come up. The "little" problem we had requires hoisting the boat out of the water to pull the propeller shaft. Hummmmmm---how much is a safe boat worth?

I have noticed (and I bet you have too) that people come into our lives at just the right moments. In the past 2 weeks I can tell you three such stories:

*We are at a dock in Charlevoix - but just until we get things working and "ship shape." We met Melissa who is the owner of a trawler across the walkway. She came to dinner and talked about her westward trip (from Annapolis to Michigan) and shared charts and information that really put us at ease. Melissa is captain of her ship and my hero. She's spending the summer in the North Channel and the Georgian Bay.

*Last week our hard drive crashed. Almost all our navigational charts are run from the computer. The local computer shop installed a new hard drive, but our friend, Bill Murray, held our hands and got all the systems back in familiar running order. He was my personal tutor in setting up this blog. And, he's offered to help with computer problems along the way. What a guy!

*Lou installed a new hot water system on Tequila which required finding the method of moving motor coolant from around the engine to the tank and back around the motor. It was NOT and easy job. He got the plumbing, the electrical, and the hoses all completed but couldn't get the coolant to circulate around the tank. Our old time (and old) friend, Lloyd, helped him drill through the ribs to pass the hoses and the mechanics at Irish Boat Shop gave him hints and advice, but the system just wouldn't work. Lisa's and Bill's advice to Lou was "You can find anything on the internet." So, Lou fired off an email to Westerbeke and back came their advice. They sent a perfect description with a picture. It turns out that the fellow on the boat next to us, Rich, is a mechanical engineer who's career has been in the marine engine field. He came aboard to talk Lou through the adjustments and gave him the confidence he needed. The result is I HAVE HOT WATER. Thank you Rich!

Still no sail date. Rain is coming with winds from the wrong direction. More later.

Will it ever begin?

The "dream" is beginning. We're finally pushing off from the well known waters and ports of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. We call this our Great Adventure. Our dictionary says that an adventure is "an unusual experience or course of events, marked by excitement and suspense." So far the only suspenseful event has been what will need to be fixed next! (More on that later.)

It's been a 15 year journey with this old boat, Tequila. Many of you have lived through the years of us trying to get the boat into "sail away" shape (will that EVER happen?). Lou continues to dream about sailing in unknown waters, Our goal this year is to sail around Michigan and into Lake Erie. Then, it will be east to Buffalo, through the Erie Canal, and into the Hudson River. This will bring us out at Manhattan, NY. If time allows we'll make a sharp left into the East River and head for Maine. With our luck we'll have a few tales to tell along the way of broken parts and tides and surprises, but by sending you our progress we hope you'll be sharing in the adventure with us.

Matt was in Michigan at just the right time to wash and wax the hull. We would still be working on it without his strong arms! He had sore shoulders to prove that it wasn't an easy job. Lisa and her family were there on launch day and waited and waited and waited to help us move the boat to a neighboring marina. Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny day, but it was a painfully slow process. The picture shows the keel touching the water on May 25th. At that time we planned to commission the boat and push away from the dock on June 8th.

There has been one life lesson I've learned through the years with Tequila - NEVER make a schedule etched in stone! The goal is to get to Maine, but that might not happen this year. C'est la vie!

The new water heater that Lou installed will be a wonderful addition and I'm really proud of him for all the work and planning it took. However, we can't get it to heat the water from the engine. So, that limits it's use to being hooked to shore power. Not good!

While the mechanic was working on that something else occured (don't ask) which might or might not be an easy problem to solve. If we have to be hauled out to fix the problem, that will be another delay. THEN, the hard drive on the computer crashed. My new manta is "We'll go when we go!" Meanwhile, there has been lots of time to work on little projects, rearrange the storage, make the inventory lists and hand Lou tools. Tequila has turned into our unpaid job but has provided us with daily structure............

I am grateful to come home at the end of the day and jump in my shower with unlimited hot water. It seemed like it has rained for a month solid and I am happy to sleep in my king sized bed with windows that don't leak. See, there's a plus for every negative.

So, hopefully the next blog will be about our actual departure. We'll be able to send and receive emails, but will have to take the computer off the boat to the local coffee shops or libraries. Please, no jokes for the next few months.