Home At Last!

August 20, 2011

Kyle, Lisa, Brady, Don, Ryan

Charlevoix bridge opening to let us through to Round Lake and then Lake Charlevoix.

The journey is over. We're home finally. It was a fabulous experience, we saw places we'd never heard of before, we grew together as a team, we met the nicest people, and WE'RE HAPPY TO BE HOME. :-)

Lisa and her boys came to meet us at the dock in Boyne City on their bikes. We were so happy to see them. There's nothing that could make Papa happier than sharing his ice cream with two year old Brady.

Thank you everyone who read the blogs and gave me encouragement to keep writing. Now I

have a journal of our big adventure.

Lou and I are finding that it's great to be able to be in different rooms and get up in the morning without waking the other person up. At the same time we're remembering the "simple" life on the boat. On land we have to think about cutting the grass, weeding, dusting the house, finishing the laundry, unpacking the boat, finding places for all the "stuff" we're taking off the boat.......all at the same time. We're exhausted! :-) We won't feel so overwhelmed in a few days. It was easier to get the stuff together to go

Michigan Weather

Lou during a heavy rain and lightening storm on Lake Huron

You probably know the saying "If you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait 5 minutes."

That just about covers our day on Friday, August 12th.

We left our anchorage in Harbor Beach with south-southwest winds. That was great since we're headed north-northwest. The winds piped up to 15-20 knots, and the white capped waves were hitting our port beam. Up---slide down---up---slide down. Some of the waves were 7' to 8' rollers. Except for having to hold on to move around it wasn't an unpleasant ride. That's opposed to the waves coming over the bow. Then it's up (slide down the side if you can see and slide down)---slam down---up---slam down. Then the waves turned north and began building up to 26 knots. We were headed directly into a thunder, lightening, and rain storm centered over our destination harbor. Lou stayed off shore long enough for the eye of the storm to move on, but we still got wet.

As soon as we docked, the sun came out.

Saturday's predicted weather is rain with light winds and possible thunderstorms. Our next port is about 10 hours north, so we've decided to stay put for another day. We're sitting in the boater's lounge visiting with Ian, from Southhampton, UK. We've having a wonderful visit. There's a bright spot in every day!

Pt. Huron Days

Blue Water Bridge, Pt. Huron

It never fails with destination sailing.......the winds are usually not from the right direction. In this case we are going north and west, so the winds are north northwest with thundershowers and high winds thrown in to get our attention. It must be an unwritten rule! This time we only had to layover two days in Pt. Huron before slipping away from the dock and through the two draw bridges and heading for the Blue Water Bridge.

Passing under the Blue Water Bridge

No matter how high the bridge is it always seems like it's going to break the mast. Sometimes I don't even look.

We managed to sail/motor sail 25 miles closer to home to a little port called Port Sanilac on Lake Huron. We've been here lots of times and like the facilities. We might have to layover another day because our next closest port is Harbor Beach. We have to anchor at Harbor Beach and the winds are predicted to hit 25 knots on Wednesday sometime. It's not good to be on an anchor in those kinds of winds. Lou wouldn't rest a second expecting the boat to pull the anchor free. Our only hope is that the winds shift and we could have a LONG day and get to Harrisville. One day at a time.

As soon as I make a plan, something changes it. We were going to meet some friends from Bay City in Pt. Sanilac yesterday for dinner. Unfortunately, we had to stay in Pt. Huron. Sorry friends. We'll have to get together when we have access to our car. Then our plans are not quite so fragile.

Detroit Again

Put-In-Bay Harbor with the Perry Monument. It's a great landmark when approaching the islands.

We decided to stay an extra day in Cleveland because the winds were about 15 knots but would be directly on "the nose." All that pounding is exhausting. The next day the winds were just as high but had swung around to give us a "following sea." We only flew the jib and made a bee-line to Put-In-Bay. The 58 mile trip only took 8 hours. We arrived in time for Happy Hour. :-)

Ambassador Bridge and Detroit

Day two of this wind pattern saw us slipping out of the P-I-B harbor and heading toward Detroit.

The winds were a little lighter, but the difference was that we could use the autohelm. It was a nine hour day to travel a little over 50 miles. The Ambassador Bridge and the skyline of Detroit welcomed us "home."

I just noticed that I write about the problems on this Great Adventure. These are the challanges that are meant to break up the monotony of the "ho hum we had a beautiful sailing day." We are truly enjoying this opportunity. Lou scrambles around the boat like a 30 year old and then takes aspirins to ease the sore muscles. I have learned to appreciate the sturdiness of this little boat and the variety of the days. There have been many more beautiful sunsets than rainy days.

That being said, we are both ready to get back to familiar waters and known ports. Lake Michigan here we come.

CAUGHT.......

between a rock and a hard place. That was our story for August 1, 2011. We left Erie, PA, early to try to get a jump on some predicted high winds for the day. As we left the dock, Lou and I were extra cautious because we had been told that there was a shale ridge and approximately where it was. You guessed it......we found it. As we sat perched on this piece of rock, we pondered what to do. "Call Boat U S and get a tow." The tow guy's boat was on the same dock as we were on and he met us in less than 10 minutes. It didn't take much to move us forward, but we couldn't do it ourselves. The guy laughed about it being the shortest tow he had ever done - about 11 feet.

Now comes the "hard place" part of the saying. We headed west in 8, 10, 14, 20, 23 knot winds directly on the "nose." That means that the boat was like a bucking bull. After about 7 hours of battling the wind Lou decided that we should get off Lake Erie and finish the trip tomorrow. But, we certainly didn't want to go back to the rock place. So, we nipped into the next port on the chart. Unfortunately, their docks didn't have deep enough water for us, so we started trolling for a safe place to tie up for the night. With winds this high, Lou did not want to put down the anchor. U S Steel had a canal that was deep enough , but the concrete sides were going to be a problem. Before we could get a line attached the trucks started patrolling the banks and watching us. This was not going to be an option. So, back out into Lake Erie for the extra two hours of getting bounced around to reach Ashtabula.

This is a cute port and the Ashtabula Yacht Club has the friendliest members we have ever met.

They could set the standards on how to make a transient feel welcome.

The weather is a bit iffy for the next few days, but we are pushing to get to Detroit and familiar waters of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. I didn't have a good picture to add to this post so I used one taken in the cold months. Maybe it will cool us down!