A Trip Down Memory Lane

Saturday September 17, 2011

While running my weekly Saturday errands I had to make a trip back to our old neighborhood to pick up an Rx refill I hadn’t yet transferred to a closer location.  Since all my other errand running spots (bank, grocery store, Taco Bell) were also in that area, I was able to spend a few hours in my old life visiting all the spots I used to visit regularly.  It was kind of a weird feeling where everything is the same, but it’s not.  Because if it were you’d go back to your old house when you were finished and wander around the familiar rooms as you did your daily business.  I chose to take a drive by the old house as long as I was out there to see how much had changed.  Creeping down the culdesac (and feeling a little bit like a stalker)  I could see that besides a few small differences it still looked like my house, with the exception of someone else’s car in my garage.  It felt strange not to be pulling in the driveway and unloading my groceries , on my way up to the bedroom to pack an overnight bag for the boat.

Pulling away I was flooded with memories of Matt and I in that house.  Watching movies on the projector while cuddled up on the couch.  Doing loads of laundry and then running them up to the bedroom where all the walls were flooded in sunlight.  And the part I missed most of all was knowing that Mazzii would always be there when I got home to follow me through the house and take up the bed while I was trying to fold laundry on it, often rolling herself on top of the socks.  And here I am in this moment with no house and no dog.  As I was beginning to become emotional and sentimental (and quite sad) I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that there was a purpouse for this.  I may be sacrificing now, but the end goal will be worth it.  We knew we were going to get rid of the house, we knew Mazzii would have been left behind.  We still sacrificed everything we knew we would, but just with quite a long waiting period for the fun stuff to begin.  I think if we had been able to jump right into the trip these changes would have been easier, but with spending a year inbetween our old life and our new one it’s hard to feel the payoff for any of these changes.

At least the boat is still a constant in my life and I always feel better when I’m there.  Since we had a late start to the afternoon we were both ravenous by the time we got there and I started dinner right away.  Although in my attempt to make spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread, I had only brought the meat and garlic bread with me.  After a quick trip to Save-A-Lot on the way (I guess you save a lot by only having one brand choice of each item and not having your items placed in any kind of bag when you leave) we were enjoying a nice meal which left me a ton of dishes to do in the end.  The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful where I worked on blogs for an hour while Matt played around on the internet.  Before popping in a movie to carry us through the rest of the night I pulled out a bottle of Witches Brew I had picked up at the store earlier that day.  It’s a red wine spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and then heated up to just under a boil and served.  It’s perfect for fall days when the air starts to get a little crisp.  Plus it’s made by one of my favorite wineries, Leelanau Cellars.  If you ever get a chance to visit this winery, please do.  It’s located on beautiful Lake Leeland, has delicious wines, and some of the friendliest staff in the world.  And if you’re up that way, also make a stop at Black Star Farms.

Snuggling up on the settee with my steaming glass of Witches Brew and a new blockbuster in the DVD player I thought ‘As long as I have this in my life, the next nine months might not be so bad’.

Just Keep Swimming….Just Keep Swimming

Sunday September 11, 2011

Last night when we got to the marina there was some work that needed to be done on the new dink before we could make it to the boat.  Matt was going to work on getting the wheels attached so it wouldn’t be so much of a pain for us to bring her up and down to the water, even though it was only about 50 feet.  My job was to ink her with her new registration numbers.  We decided against sticky or glued on pieces of fabric in case she was ever stolen from us.  Those would be too easy to rip right off.  So instead she was going to get tatttooed with a sharpie.  I had the stencils in my hand and I was all ready to go.  Unfortunately for Matt, the epoxy he used to fill the initil drill holes the day before (after a previous failed attempt last weekend too) was not fully hard and would have to be redone.  I’m sure I was good entertainment for him while he sat and watched me work for 30 minutes while I colored.

It was still decently early when we climbed aboard Serdendip, but my vigorus workout of keeping my arms at a 45 degree angle had built up quite an appetite and I was ready to eat.  Earlier that day I had gone to my favorite butcher shop by our old house to pick up NY strips again, this time in their famous home seasoning.  Knowing I wanted my steak to come out med-rare while Matt prefers his med-well, I made him throw his on about 10 minutes before mine.  Being the ‘steak-expert’ I now was from spending five months working at Outback, I could judge the temperature by of the steak by poking my finger at it to see how firm it was.  I announced to him that it was pretty close to med-well and he wouldn’t want to leave it on much longer or there would be no pink at all in the center.  Poking a finger at mine I was afraid it would be a little brown on the outer edges and begged Matt to take it off.  Forcing me to leave it on another two minutes he said he coudn’t bear to watch me eat an undercooked steak.  When i was finally able to get it off the grill and onto my plate I cut it open to find it was still purple inside.  Back on the grill it went.  Guess I’ll have to work on my finger poking skills a little.  Matt’s came out medium but agreed it was good enough to eat, and waited the two minutes for me that my steak was cooking and I was convinced it was burning again.

The rest of the night was quiet.  We both remembered to pack our e-readers this time and settled into the settes.  I started out reading something knowledgeable by Dashew and Dashew, but my concentration quickly drained and I was quickly on to the next Harry Potter book in the series.  When 10:30 came around I didn’t care that it was so early.  My eyes were drooping closed and I was ready for bed.  What the hell is going to happen to me when I hit 30?

The next morning we woke up and everything outside the hatch looked a little hazy.  I knew I couldn’t see perfectly without my contacts in, but I didn’t think my eyes were that bad.  Climing out into the cockpit there were blankets of fog covering the water.  It was a very pretty sight, so serene and calm.  But also a little disappointing since my friend Bri was coming out and I wanted it to be a sunny beautiful day she would enjoy.  After hearing about the great times Jared and Jeff had out with us (we’re all mutual friends) I wanted to be able to deliver the same to her.  For an hour or two the sun couldn’t decide what it wanted to do, it would burn up the fog and then new patches would roll in.

So serene

This cycle went on about 5 times and when Bri called in saying she was getting close the sun looked like it was winning the battle.  Waiting at the marina for her car to pull in we started talking to a few fishermen pulling their boat out of the water.  They mentioned they had just come in from the big lake where the fog was incredibly thick  and the temperatures were very low.  Not what I wanted to hear since that’s where we were planning on spending our day, but I figured it was becoming clear on Muskegon Lake it would soon on Lake Michigan too.  Bri pulled into the parking lot a minute later and we were all on our way to the boat.  Deciding to take our chances on Lake Michigan we made our way to the channel where we were still in sunny skies.  About half way though it we went from clear to slightly foggy to ‘I can’t see 50 feet in front of me’ by the time we hit the breakwalls.  Guess the fisherman were right.  We opted to be adventurous and keep going even though we couldn’t see where that was.  Our eyes were peeled as we left the channel figuring if there were any other boats out there, that’s where we’d be most likely to run into them.  After we were clear into open water we were able to let our guard down just a little and somewhat enjoy our day outside.  The temperature did definitley drop and there was tons of moisture (duh) in the air to where you could see the whisps in front of you and inhale the thickness of the air into your lungs.  All of our lifelines and stanchions were beading with condensation.  Even the bottom layer of my hair had become soaking wet.  After spending 30 minutes like this we quickly realized this would not be the most enjoyable way to spend our day and turned around to go back to the small lake where we knew the sun was shining.

Into the fog

Fortunately Matt had the GPS on ensuring we would not end up beached at the State Park.  On our way in we could hear the motor of a nearby power boat but could not see through the thick fog to tell it’s direction.  Then through the air we heard the loud blast of a fog horn and determined the boat was coming at us.  Another loud blast put it on our starboard side although we still had no visual on it.  Being prepared with our fog horn out I gave a loud blast, scaring the crap out of Bri in the process, and hoping it would give the other boat a good bearing of our location.  A few moments later we finally saw it come into sight for a starboard to starboard pass.  Not proper rules of the road, but I was just happy not to have a collision.  Bri and I made our way up to the bow to be on ‘look-out’ in case other boats we may come up on don’t have radar like the last one did.

Matt did manage to get us on a path directly to the channel but by the time the lighthouse was visible we were right on top of it.  Directing him toward the center we called back fishing boat sightings and were soon in the clear again.  I honestly have to say I’m surprised at how smooth the whole thing went considering you couldn’t see 100 ft in front of you and we were still operating without radar.  All of us agreed that we would like to go swimming at some point and since the water near the mooring was not a pristine bathing location we made a beeline for the dunes where all the other boats were hanging out.  Knowing that we might want to make a swim to shore we anchored much closer than last time, but still a few hundred feet away since there was so much other traffic.  Opening a fresh bottle of rum we hung out in the cockpit chatting and watching other boats in the area.  A few of the powerboats had anchored very close and rafted together creating mini parties.  There were a few groups of ‘boat buddies’ around us and we were beginning to get jealous that we did not have one of our own.  Feeling a little silly we would call out “Boat buddy?” to any other sailboats that passed us by, but no one acknowledged us to take us up on our offer.  There was eventually another boat that dropped anchor not too far from us but we thought we’d be polite and leave them alone for the most part.  Although when the guy on that boat started up his grill for lunch we were automatically quizzing him about what he was going to make.  It was a pork tenderloing and sounded so much better than the french bread pizzas I had brought for us to heat up in the oven.  So twenty minutes later when we had enough liquid courage to jump into the chilly water, our neighboring boat offered us some tenderloin as we passed by.  Matt was already almost to shore but Bri and I stopped by for a bite.  They guy handed us each a slice and Bri ate hers while dangling from the swim ladder and I enjoyed mine while treading water.  The food given to us was some of the best pork tenderloin I have ever tasted, juicy and moist, and marinated with a bacon-pepper flavoring.  Ther was no way I could let Matt miss out on this.  Saving half my piece I began the swim to shore holding the tenderloin above my head with one hand.  We had gone about 20 feet and Bri started struggling with the swim a little.  I told her we were still close enough to the boat to go back if she wanted.  She declined and we pushed forward.  Another 30-40 feet and she was struggling still, making gasping noises as she swam.  By this time we were half way, so I encouraged her to keep going forward.  I was starting to think she might need rescue, but that would mean letting go of my food.  With constant praise I kept encouraging her to keep going, ‘just a little bit further!!’.  Coming up on the powerboats anchored just off shore, they started to notice Bri’s troubles as well.  Or it could also be that her gasps started to sound like noises that belonged in the bedroom and was starting to draw a bit of attention to herself.  One very nice (or curious) man tossed a flotation device to help with the last bit and soon we were both to shore.  Bri didn’t drown and my pork didn’t get a drop of water on it!   (For all you that probably think I’m a terrible person, I offered to assist her in and she declined)

Not even letting Bri catch her breath we dragged her to the top of the first dune were we layed on a towel (brought over in a dry bag by Matt) where we had a beautiful view of Muskegon Lake and all the boats out that day.  It looked like a scene from a postcard and I was happily snapping away with the camera.  When everyone was rested up a bit we did some exploring further back into the dunes.  The sand was still warm on our feet and it was one of those days where you fully take in your surroundings and appriciate them because you know it might be eight months before you get to experience it again.  The sky was a brilliant Michigan blue and just popped off the color of the sand.  Finding another tall dune to rest on we sat for awhile just taking it all in.  When we decided it was time to get back to the boat we raced down the dune and took a shortcut through some trees leading us out to the shore.

With Bri being a little apprehensive about getting back in the water we filled the dry bag full of air so it would act as a mini flotation device and let her hang on to make the swim back.  I’m starting to think I shouldn’t make my friends swim to shore anymore for fear of eventually losing one of them.  Might be a good spot  to take enemies though…..  .  All of us were starving by the time we got back onboard and I threw our pathetic little french bread pizzas in the oven.  While we were waiting for them to bake we broke out the dominoes to play in the cockpit.  It wasn’t the easiest thing trying to spread out all our tiles on the  cockpit table which does not offer a lot of space, but someone would always win the game before we ran out of space.  The first win was surprisingly mine, but I was harshly punished after that by ending the next game with about 9 tiles in my hand.  We continued on like this for ahwhile, just enjoying what  was left of the sun and eachothers company.  Annoying what few boating neighbors we had left, we blasted some LMFAO from the speakers and introduced Bri to ‘The Wiggle Song’ which she had never heard before.  As the sun dropped lower and lower in the sky we realized we were the only boat still  anchored.  Although I could have continued to stay out all night we needed to get Bri back for other engagements she had and Matt and I had work the next morning.  I don’t know how many more nice days we’ll have out on the boat this year before temperatures drop and don’t go back up, or how many  more evenings we’ll be able to enjoyably waste in the cockpit, but if this does happen to be the last one it was a great note to go out on.

Whitecaps and White Knuckles

Monday September 5, 2011

Sunday morning we woke up to a tradition we like to call ‘Let’s make at least one day of the holiday weekend (usually Sunday) totally crappy and un-enjoyable’, weather-wise at least’.  Two years ago this resulted with a nice scar above my knee cap from when the tiller on the Hunter had wildly swung across the stern and over my leg.  Someone (um, me) had forgotten to secure it with a bungee cord. This year with the curse we had gone from sunny and 80 with light breezes the day before to 60’s, still sunny, but very windy.  Not that we did have any grand plans for the day, they all involved working on the new dinghy.  Now that we had brought it up on deck we wanted to make sure that all areas were water tight.  This included the area around the drain, and well as the holes we’d be drilling in to attach the wheels from our previous dinghy.  First and foremost we had to drill those holes so they could be epoxied before we could drill them a second time for wheels and screws.  Out came tape measures, straight edges, pens and sharpies.  Surprisingly the movement on deck from the wind wasn’t terrible and didn’t affect our stability.  Wheels were held, lines were drawn, and holes were made.

Ready to get to work

After everything was drawn and drilled came the fun part.  Matt had not informed me that we’d be working with it over the weekend and I had not brought any ‘dirty’ clothes with me, so I tried to assist him while keeping as much distance as possible.  I learned the hard way a few winters ago while we were making our nesting dinghy what happens when epoxy gets on your clothes and I had to say bye bye to one of my favorite fleeces.  Making sure to keep our deck clean above everything else I had gone below to grab a beach towel to put underneath the work to catch any dripping epoxy.  The rest of my job was just doing things like pouring colloidal silica (a kind of thickening powder/dust) to the mix of liquids, or constantly running below deck to dispose of paper towel before it could blow across the deck and ruin the finish.  It ended up being a much quicker project than I expected, and after a thorough cleaning all we could do was wait for it to harden which would take overnight.

Everything’s drilled and filled

She’s so pretty…..and so big!

There wasn’t much else we could do for the rest of the day.  It wasn’t nice enough to want to spend time on deck or in the cockpit so we kept ourselves below, going back and forth from watching movies, reading books, and napping.  Dinner was warmed up hot dog and hamburger that we had swiped the day before and of course more frozen snickers.  Since we already used up the Netflix movies we’d just gotten in I’d started going through our collection of DVDs at home.  Coming up to the end of the book after going ‘meh’ to half the collection I came across a movie that we’ve had for years, is a classic in a lot of people’s eyes, and have gotten a lot of slack over the years for never having watched before, and that was Tommy Boy.  We popped it into the DVD player that night, all snuggled up in bed for the third day in a row, and Matt prematurely belting out a lot of the well known lines.  Maybe it was because I was expecting a lot after all the years of hype or because humor was different in the 90’s than it is now but I didn’t find it as funny as everyone made it out to be.  Kind of a let down in my book.  Sorry to disappoint all of you that have it in your top 5 of all time.  Who knows though, maybe it just takes a few viewings before it starts to grow on you.  I know the same thing happened with me and Anchorman.  And now that I think about it, is probably the Tommy Boy of the 2000’s.

The plan for the next morning was to finish work on the dinghy before my family came out to spend the day with us.  This was after being woken up a few times in the very early morning because of the wind trying to get under it and lift it off the deck even though we though we had it secured.  So after a few times of getting up, rearranging, and trying to go back to sleep we finally got up for good just before 10:00.  Matt had gone above deck to check on the epoxy and when he came back down he said that temperatures must have been too cold through the evening and overnight because the holes were still a little tacky to the touch instead of completely hard as they should have been.  I panicked for a slight second thinking that as soon as it was placed in the water it would start pouring through the holes and we had no way of getting off the boat until it did in fact harden.  Matt assured me that it was still solid enough to keep water out, just not hard enough to be able to finish our intended project.

This gave us an extra hour to clean up before my parents and brother came.  It’s surprising how quickly that space can turn into a disaster.  It doesn’t take much, a pair of pants thrown across the settee, and un-made bed, and a few groceries sitting on the counter for the place to look like a total mess.  The good news is it usually cleans up just as easily.  Since we now had a larger dink to cart everyone around in, I jumped in with Matt to go to shore once my parents called to say they were close.  Again my brother was meeting us out separate but wouldn’t be able to use the excuse of getting lost for coming in much later than everyone else.  Knowing that he was about 20 minutes behind my parents the four of us made the run up to Subway to grab lunch for everyone.  The timing worked out perfect and as soon as we were pulling back into the marina with our food, my brother was just behind us.  Loading everyone into the dink  we brought my family out for their third trip aboard Serendipity.

As we were getting everything loaded our friends Tom and Connie from s/v Andiamo noticed we were out and stopped to talk.  When we were on their boat in July they had gone on about their new RIB and now much they loved it and noticed that we had just gotten one of our own.  While Matt was going over details with them I stocked everything below and dug into my sandwich as soon as I had the green light since I hadn’t eaten anything all day and was starving.  It didn’t take us long to clean our wrappers and go through a bag of chips.  We were ready to unhook our lines and do a little sailing.  Although temperatures had gone up a bit from the previous day to high 60’s there was still a good 20-25 knots blowing across the lake and making it cold enough for everyone but Matt to put on some kind of long sleeves.

Since we didn’t have all day to travel around we decided to stay on the small lake and just ride up and down it a few times.  With winds as strong as they were and not wanting to go through the hassle of uncovering the main we just unfurled the genoa which was more than enough to carry us along that day.  For awhile we had just set the autopilot to start carrying us toward the East (far) end of the lake when my dad decided he’d like a shot at steering.  Disengaging auto we showed him what course to keep and to try not to deviate too far from it so the sails wouldn’t have to be trimmed.  He caught on very quickly and was a pro behind the wheel.

Way to go Dad!!

Even with just the genoa up we were getting a steady 6 knots of speed.  Even my brother, who’s dream it is to own a power boat that he can hit 70 mph in, was surprised at how fast that would feel while on a sailboat.  Headed down to the East side it was a comfortable ride although there would be a wave every now and then which would catch the bow and send a little spray into the cockpit.  After coming about to start our way back to the other end, the wind was hitting us on a close reach and giving the boat a constant heel of about 15 degrees.  I  remember when anything over 10 used to make me uneasy but now 15 is nothing to me.  Matt was completely comfortable with it, and my dad a and brother were wedged into the leeward side enjoying the ride.  Then I look over to see my mom with a white knuckle grasp making sure that she was not going to slide out of her spot and over the railing on the other side.  I had forgotten that she wasn’t much for thrill rides and the heavy winds plus the building waves and spray off the water and now a non fully upright vessel, I had a feeling that she’d enjoy the afternoon much better if we were safely attached to the mooring.  Taking the wheel from Matt I suggested we head back in.

Thinking we could spend the next hour or two slightly out of the wind and enjoying a few cocktails.  Somehow it happened that we went through our last beers while cruising up and down the lake and all that was left on board were two coke zeros.  Not very appetizing.  I suggested we hit up one of the bars on the strip for a quick drink before all of us had to start making our separate ways home.  There had been a place a few miles up the road with a cute outdoor sitting area that I’d always drove past and wanted to check out.  Matt and I hopped in a car with my parents while my brother followed behind.  When the five of us walked in we were a little surprised as the inside was dark and dank and completely different from the sunny yellow exterior.  Luckily directly across the street was another pub that we figured would at least have a decent booth to seat us all in.  Same story when we walked in the door.  Very small with a bar and a few tables.  Not wanting to drive miles to find another place we pushed two small tables together and took a seat while we waited for a server to come by and take our order.  We stayed long enough for two rounds and some delicious onion rings while we enjoyed the five of us being together since it only happens once or twice a year.  In late afternoon when my parents needed to get back to their hotel to start packing and my brother needed to make his way back to the Detroit area we said our goodbyes.

Two years of less than perfect sailing weather while out with my family, but if that means saving it up for one perfect weekend in the Bahamas or Panama or New Zealand when we can all meet up again I think it will be worth it.

Shiny New Dinghy

Saturday September 3, 2011

Where’s the dinghy to this trailer?  It’s on our boat!

One thing that we keep going back in forth with on our trip is what kind of dinghy we want to use.  The discussion has gone back and forth with pros and cons of having a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) which are close to the top of the line for the dinghy world but has issues of being stolen the most, or keeping the wooden nesting dinghy that we made ourselves a few winters ago.  In the end we figured we’d start with the nesting dinghy and after working with that for a few months if we decided we wanted a RIB we’d pick up a used one in Florida where it would be much cheaper than if we were to try and get one here.  Forgetting that Matt spends any free time of his on the internet scouring for deals, I came home after work on the Friday leading into Labor Day weekend to find a shiny new dingy sitting on a trailer in the street.  I was launched into an excited speiel about how much the dinghy and Car Carrier Trailers Hire cost, and if we sell the trailer for X amount of dollars and our current inflatable for Y amount of dollars then it’s really only going to cost us Z, which will be a great deal!  Oh, not to mention an even better deal if we sell the nesting dinghy, but I ran out of letters without having to go back to A.

So borrowing Jack’s truck for the night we hitched up the trailer, threw our bags in the bed, and made our way to the boat to start our holiday weekend.  After a stop for dinner and picking up last minute things at Meijer it was pitch black by the time we arrived at the marina.  Not a big deal at all if we were just rolling our normal dingy to the water and motoring out to the boat, but our plans tonight involved backing the trailer into the drop off to get the new dinghy in the water and getting the old one on the trailer to take home the next day.  I was pretty sure it would end with the the truck in the water knowing our luck, but somehow everything went smoothly and without issues. In case one wants to rent then they can see more regarding all about van and buses and choose the one that suits their need.

Since we had gotten there so late and had already eaten there wasn’t much for us to do.  I had rented a movie for us to watch and after rotating the tv to be viewed in the v-berth and shoving all our pillows toward the bow we snuggled in under the covers for a nice relaxing night in our future home.  As usual there’s just something about the boat that always puts us to bed early and as soon as the movie was finished we went through our nightly routine and crashed.

Weather reports for the next day, Saturday, was calling for hot sunny weather for most of the day with a few storms in the morning.  While still lying and bed and sleeping around 8:30 in the morning everything was calm.  Then we felt a few rocks of the boat and the wind started to pick up a little, and all of a sudden out of nowhere the boat was heeled close to 40 degrees which forced Matt to literally roll on top of me as a strong gust came upon us and forced us on our side.  Wondering what the hell was going on both of us jumped out of bed to look out the port side windows facing the lake.  I’ve never seen a squall before in real life, but I’m guessing this had to be one because you couldn’t see 50 feet in front of you because the wind was so thick and blinding.  Thunder and lightning began to break out of the sky as winds whipped higher and higher.  Matt turned on our instumnets and took a look out the companionway to check wind speeds.  A constant 40-45 was blowing at the moment and things looked like they were only going to get worse before getting better.  We turned on the VHF to see if there were any distress calls since we knew this was a popular fishing area for small boats in the morning, and they were probably as surprised by this sudden storm as we were.  There was one message coming through of a little flat bottomed fishing that was taking on a lot of water.  The message kept cutting in and out, but after we heard the Coast Guard reply we heard it was in Grand Haven.  Not that we really would have been able to do much anyway without putting ourselves in harms way.  Matt crawled back in bed after making sure we were secure and would not blow away.  For awhile I stayed pressed against the glass watching the lightnining touch down all around us and split off into tiny little fingers.  I don’t know why I’m so amazed by lightning, but I could always just sit and watch it for hours.  Finally when things started to calm down a little I crawled back into bed and passed out next to Matt.

We woke up for good about two hours later.  Opening the hatches and companionway the view looked completely different than it had just a few hours before.  The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and temperatures were already spiking close to 80.  Relaxing on deck while enjoying a pop tart breakfast I watched Matt take a reading of the tension of our standing rigging and also of the other people in the mooring field make their way out to their boats for the holiday weekend.  Instead of taking advantage of this beautiful day by going for a sail or just sitting on the deck of the boat we had to head back into town to return the truck to Jack and meet up with my family who was having a Labor Day BBQ.  Making our way back home we showered, dressed, and changed cars while we made our way to my aunt and uncle’s house where my family was waiting, including my parents who had flown in for the weekend.  We spent a great few hours catching up with everyone and eating perfectly grilled souvlaki (or burgers or brats) and enjoying a few glasses of riesling.  We were even lucky enough to score a few leftover hot dogs and burgers on our way out the door.  Yes, no grocery shopping or cooking!!

After our afternoon of socializing it was straight back to the boat for the remainder of the weekend.  By the time we got back in late afternoon it turned into any other Saturday afternoon.  Too late to do anything but lounge.  We had stuffed ourselves on so much food that afternoon that we didn’t even need to make dinner that night.  Our only project for the evening was using a halyard to winch the new dinghy out of the water and get it on the deck of the boat so that the next day Matt could drill in holes to the transom and we’d be able to transfer over the wheels that were on our old dinghy.  In some ways this project went better than I imagined it would since Matt was smart enough to be in charge of winching while I guided the boat over the lifelines and onto the deck.  The only trouble came when I had blocked myself up by the bow pulpit and was slowly getting pushed back over the lifelines.  At least it was a warm enough day where an accidental swim wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, but I somehow managed to keep my balance and maneuver my way back to safety.

The remainder of the night was spent in bed watching movies in bed again snuggled up under down covers and eating frozen Snickers.  An eventful and uneventful day at the same time.

Hot Fudge Sunday

Sunday August 28, 2011

Back in July when we had our friends Jared, Jeff and Darryl out with us I promised that we  had to get them out again sometime.  It didn’t take much twisting of the arm on either side as we all love to spend time together and had such a blast the last time we had gone sailing.  I was a little worried that Darryl and Jeff would be sick of seeing me since I had dragged them out from morning to well past night just a few days before for my birthday, but they were just as excited to see us and our boat again as we were to see them.  Without having the good sense to pull up to a dock to pick them up again we made 2 trips in the dink to get everyone aboard.  The day was already becoming quite hot and we were all ready to get our sun and drink on.  Even in late August the nice days become more rare and I think we all wanted at least one more weekend with the heat of the sun on our skin.  The weather report for the day had me depending on winds not over 10 knots, but once out on the big lake they were blowing at a steady 15.  Since everyone seemed to be enjoying our swift ride of 6 knots of speed versus having the heat of the day on their skin, I sat back with my glass of boxed wine and enjoyed the company.

After awhile the chilly breeze made everyone scramble to the little bit of sun shining on the port side.  Since we were on a tack that put our headsail directly in front of the sun creating 90% shade on the boat we decided to fall off a little and this would cover the whole starboard side in sun.  Darryl and I were sitting on the edge with our legs dangling over the side watching the water pass by.  Spending weekends on the lake I’ve seen tons of different things floating in the water from food wrappers and water bottles to balloons and magazines.  Staring into the distance I saw a while arch in the water, what looked like a swimming noodle just floating along.  Darryl spotted it as well and we pointed it out to Matt to see if he could make out what it was.  Now that all of our curiosities were piqued we changed our course again to get a closer look.

Once we came upon it within a few hundred feet it was unmistakable that the white arch was the side of an overturned boat.  A silence fell across Serendipity as we had all realized what we had just seen.  Everyone started scanning the water around to see if there were any stranded people along with the boat in distress.  It wasn’t very large, about 12-14 feet long, and at this point we were about 8-10 miles from shore.  Not a good spot for an overturned boat to be.  My heart sank into my stomach for a moment when I saw what looked to be an orange life vest floating near the hull.  Luckily when we got a little closer I could tell it was a wooden centerboard to what we could now see was a sailing dinghy.  It was still a little nerve wrecking not knowing if there might be someone still adrift out there, or even worse, trapped underneath.  We realized right away that we needed to call the Coast Guard on vhf and inform them of the situation.  With never having hailed anyone besides the fuel dock we were at a bit of a loss as what to say as ‘Mayday’ seemed too extreme for the case.  We settled on ‘Muskegon Coast Guard’ (3 times followed by our boat name) and waited for a response.  What seemed like forever and was probably only 30 seconds we heard back and gave them a description of what we had found.  They asked a few questions such as an exact description of the dinghy and our location.  We had floated away from it a bit while hailing the CG and also didn’t have our GPS on to give an exact (or any) coordinates.  With a guess we replied that we were 5 miles West of the pier and would have to get back to the dinghy to get a better description of it.  While questioning us the CG asked if the overturned boat had a rainbow sail and a laundry detergent bottle attached to the mast.  Since they seemed to know something close to our description was out there it made me wonder if they had been informed of a missing person and had a description of their boat, or if someone reported their boat missing and we happened to come upon it.  After telling them it would take us about five minutes to get back to it they jotted down our phone number and said they would give us a call.  Bringing our sails down and throwing on the engine we motored back.  Coming up to it again I could see Bennett 1400 written across the hull and the sail was mostly white with a three colored rainbow across it but no laundry detergent bottle at the mast.  We still weren’t sure if this was the one the Coast Guard was looking for or if there were multiple boats lost the day before.

While waiting to get a call on our phone we heard some chatter on the VHF relating to us.  It was another boat in the area, Hot Fudge, asking the Coast Guard if assistance was needed.  They had heard our ‘distress’ call with our very approximate location and wanted to seek us out.  By this time I had been circling the dinghy for about 5 minutes with no word from the CG on what we should do, or if they were planning to do anything.  We hadn’t seen anyone in the water yet and were leaning toward the idea that it was abandoned.  Matt and Jared’s friend Andrew decided the the dinghy needed a closer inspection and were thinking if no one was going to call us on what to do with it, we’d just tow it back ourselves.  Just as they were getting their life jackets zipped up and tow lines ready our phone finally rang.  It was a gentleman from the Coast Guard asking if we had gotten back and could give a very detailed description if what we were seeing.  I have him the name and size of the boat along with any other distinguishing features.  They also asked for our location again, which by this time I could tell we were a bit more south than we had originally thought plus a few more miles out, and even though I had told Matt we should turn on the laptop to get coordinates it had not been done.  The CG told us to stay put while they met us out there, but would still not give us any more info on the missing dinghy.  However, Jared had been below and heard more chatter from Hot Fudge mentioning someone had to be rescued off a dinghy the day before in bad weather and US Tow had never located the abandoned boat.  It looked as if they were still also trying to locate us on the water as well.

Trolling in small circles around the dinghy we kept a lookout to see who would reach us first, Hot Fudge or the Coast Guard.  I was finally able to get Matt to turn on our GPS and we gave a call back to the CG with our exact coordinates.  Another 5 minutes later we saw a big white boat speeding toward us that we assumed was them.  A few of us that were getting a little bored by this point thought it might be fun to add some excitement to the afternoon by jumping overboard and having some beefy guys from the Coast Guard come to our rescue.  Maybe even get a helicopter out.  Matt had a good laugh at this but made us promise that no one would drop over.  Once they were on top of us and the dinghy we got another call on the cell and they told us this had been the boat they were looking for the other day, thanked us for our assistance and dismissed us.  Heading back to shore we were making jokes that a.) The Coast Guard was probably pissed that we found the boat that US Tow couldn’t and now they’d have to go through the trouble of bringing it back to shore and b.) Hot Fudge was probably upset they couldn’t get to the boat first and we were the ones to take all the credit (all kidding aside they sounded like very nice people that just wanted to lend a hand).

Once out of sight of the CG everyone’s drinks came back out and we got back to enjoying our Sunday.  The wind and waves were building a little bit and it was fun to watch one of our unexpecting  guests get sprayed with a rogue wave over the side (I know, I’m so cruel).  As we neared closer to shore we were treated to a nice show of kite surfers getting 15-20 ft of air.  Some even came within a few hundred feet of us so we could get a close-up view.

Finally making it into the channel the winds died down a little and things started to warm up.  Darryl was dead set on going swimming and since the water by our mooring can be a little murky at times we detoured and dropped anchor next to a set of sand dunes next to the channel to do some grilling and swimming.  Matt fired up the grill while I dug into Jared’s cooler for his sweet-tea vodka and and lemonade (a very good combination).  Matt cooked the brats to perfection this time and we were all so hungry that they were scarfed right down.

I asked Darryl if he was up for a swim to the dunes so we could climb up them and run back down.  I may be close to turning 30, but this is something I don’t think I could ever tire of.  Standing on the side of the deck there were three of us that were going to jump together but Matt decided I needed to be the first one in the water and gave me a early shove.  The water was a bit colder than I expected but I didn’t want to let out that scream of “Holy S*%t, this is freezing!!” for fear of scaring anyone else from getting in.  I told Darryl the water was great and he should join me right away.  He blindingly trusted me and him and Andrew were in the water a moment later.  Knowing from past experience that a swim to shore could take quite awhile I started my trip in while the boys stayed around the boat getting out and jumping back in.  When Matt realized I was serious about going in he started following me, and shortly behind him was Darryl.  We all made it to shore safely, although Jeff who started out when we were about 2/3 of the way there and worked too hard to catch up and was a little more than exhausted when we reached the dunes.  He stayed by the water while the three of us crawled our way to the top.  No one wanted to do any further exploring with me and there was a creepy guy watching us from the next dune over.  Racing to the bottom we all made it without falling all over ourselves and waded back into the water.  Jeff and Darryl decided to stay behind and we would up anchor and swing around to get them.  I was surprised I had enough energy to get back to the boat although I did learn that whenever I started doing the backstroke I’d turn myself around and start swimming back to shore.  I did make it to the boat eventually and we brought it close to shore to grab the boys.  The sun was starting it’s descent and everyone was getting into a comatose stage.  Bringing ourselves back to the mooring we packed it in and began to shuttle our guests back to shore.

Some of the Same

Saturday August 27, 2012

Today was a bit of a hectic departure for us getting out to Muskegon.  As usual Matt was working until 4:00, and I was at home with Chris and Jack working on a garage sale trying to get a little cash for our crap as well as our nicer things that we didn’t have room to store and would never need on our trip.  When Matt got home I didn’t have our bag packed, nor did I have the weekend groceries.  Stopping at Meijer (best place ever) on the way out we needed to pick up dinner for that night as well as lunch for our friends we were having out the next day.  Normally it wouldn’t be hard to run into a store, grab a few items and be out…but our minds were completely empty this day.  We also didn’t want to stock up on things that we had at home and would have to bring back from the boat with us.  Hamburgers….too many condiments.  Sandwiches…too many condiments.  Pasta…probably not what our friends would want for lunch.  I think we wandered around for over 30 minutes before concluding that a bunch of brats, buns, and a container of mustard would get us through the weekend.  Pulling back out on the main steet we were treated with the odd sight of a car at a restaurant across the street that had done a parking job worthy of youtube.  There was a 2-3 ft stone wall built up from the sidewalk to the parking lot of this restaurant, and a poor older gentleman did not stop when he was supposed to and took a little dip down towards the sidewalk where his vehicle was now at a 45 degree angle.

When we reached the boat neither of us felt like doing anything productive since we were both exhaused from the morning.  Enjoying the warm weather we sat in the cockpit for awhile and listened to the radio.  When it got to the point of the same songs playing over and over again  (surprisingly not as long as you would think) we turned our attention to cooking a few of the brats for dinner.  We’re still figuring out the grill a little because we can’t seem to get a constant temperature of under 500 degrees even when we use the lowest heat setting.  This usually results in meat that’s charred on the outside and not fully cooked on the inside.  Something I love when eating steaks because I’ll taking mine just above moo’ing, but Matt will freak out if there’s any bit of pink.  Leaving the brats on a little longer than we should have to ensure a ‘well done’ temperature, they came off completely black.  Biting into one there were showers of charred goodness falling onto my plate.  I think I’d rather have it pink next time.

The rest of the night passed pretty slowly.  I hadn’t brought my e-reader so Harry Potter was out.  Chapman’s didn’t seem like much of an entertaining read at the moment and I had a feeling it would put me to sleep at 9:00.  Matt was content with his laptop and wifi so I didn’t want to drag him away from that to watch a movie.  With not many options I settled on pulling out my blog notebook and a glass of wine.  From anyone who’s tried following post around this time (very few people I’m sure) you’ll have noticed that I’m very far behind.  Like over a year behind.  I’ve gotten a lot of my posts jotted down in my notebook but they haven’t gotten up on the website because I was missing a few dates from before the ones I had written down and my little bit of OCD would not let me put them up if they were not in chronological order.  Matt is trying to make me see that I should put up the post I do have now and go back to fill in the gaps later but I know that will still irk me.  Maybe we can find a compromise somewhere.  While working on my writing I had either had too much sun that day, too much wine, or my writing is just more boring than i thought because I was still ready for bed just after 9:30.  I really need to start finding something to keep me awake out here.

Easy A

 Sunday August 14, 2011

If everything had gone as planned today would have been a family day aboard Serendipity with Matt’s mom and step-dad, along with his younger brother and friend.  One look out the window though and I could tell it probably wasn’t going to happen.  They were expecting a warm sunny day with a light breeze, the perfect kind of lazy Sunday weather we’d been having all summer.  What we were faced with were clouds, 25 knot winds, and choppy waves.  Not the most relaxing of weather.  So we rescheduled for the following weekend while suiting up in our foul weather gear for today.  Neither of us really knew what to expect out there, but previous stormy days have taught us it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Motoring across the small space to the channel winds were a constant 25 with gusts up to 30.  We had no idea what Lake Michigan might have in store, but we were sure it would be the same to worse than the smaller lake.  Cruising down the channel everyone on land was in shorts and t-shirts and didn’t seem to be the least bit chilly.  Fishing boats and other smaller yachts were passing by in the same gear and the wind gauge had dropped down to a mere 9 knots.  Maybe we were wrong, maybe the sun was going to come out and it would have been a gorgeous day after all.  Of course we were wrong (or correct), once we were back out on open water the wind kicked up to over 20 knots.  Unfurling the headsail about 3/4 of the way we placed ourselves close hauled and set the autopilot.  Personally I don’t completely understand going out on days like this if you’re not racing.  We didn’t have a certain destination in mind or a certain time we needed to be anywhere.  We were in other words, going for a pleasure cruise in a small craft advisory.  Onboard Serendipity there was no finding the best point of sail, and no trimming sails to get the best speed.  It was ‘let’s set the sail, set the autopilot and relax while the sky grows darker and the waves build higher’.  Maybe Matt was just interested in finding out how the boat and autopilot handle conditions like this since there will be times when we’ll have to travel through it on our trip.  Or maybe he was going through sailing withdraw since we hadn’t been out in two weeks and figured as long as it was safe enough for the boat to stay afloat he wanted to be on it.  And since I love him I put up no complaints.  Plus it was a little exhilarating when the waves began to build to 5-6 feet (a decent size for Lake Michigan) and we’d rise up the crest and fall down the trough, almost like a roller coaster ride.  After awhile of watching ourselves go into the waves and appreciate how big they really appeared when in the trough, I rotated myself to face back and watch them roll out from under the stern.

Suddenly the wind changed direction by about 60 degrees to where we were now on a beam reach and the full force of the wind was hitting the sail full on and was enough to quickly heel us where we had a rail in the water.  Without any direction from Matt I quickly jumped up to disengage the autopilot and change our course, but in the practice of being safe that day I had attached the short part of the tether from my harness to be clipped on by the companionway and when I jumped up to run aft I was quickly yanked backwards.  Un-clipping myself I was able to get to the helm and put us back on a close hauled course, now heading almost directly East toward the shore.  Matt was busy adjusting the sails and soon we had ourselves back on a calm enough path.  I was actually kind of proud of myself for being able to act without direction, and was able to set my mind at ease a little bit about being on large bodies of open water in the future.  Although I’m still learning and not quite a certified sailor yet, I don’t think I’m stupid enough to kill both of us.

Since we had been on our original course for awhile and lunchtime was getting past us, I forced Matt to go below and heat us up some soup since these waves were more than I could handle if I were to try and cook.  Over our lunch we joked about how hard it’s going to be to do things on long journeys in less than  perfect weather.  I’m not going to want to cook, I’m not going to want to clean, I’m probably not even going to want to shower.  Every three days I might gather enough strength to dip a wash cloth in a bucket of water and wipe myself off while being thankful that Matt can’t leave his now less than desirable wife because he’d have nowhere to run.  All this talk of personal hygiene made me realize that I needed to use the restroom and was going to need to go below into the rocking cave to do so.  Making matters worse, I was still all strapped up in my foulies and access to dropping trou was not going to be easy.  I was lucky enough to have a drop seat in mine but could just see myself getting more and more nauseous while standing in the head trying to figure it out for the first time.  Solving this problem I did as much as I could in the cockpit and then scrambled downstairs to go and get back up as quick as possible.  I strongly suggest for you ladies to practice finding a way to go in foulies before you out in bad weather because it is not a simple task.  At least not the first time around.

Once we were getting close enough to shore that we could no longer go straight we turned to go back to the channel.  My non complaints from earlier were about to start rising up and both of us were starting to get exhausted while not enjoying our pleasure cruise as much anymore.  When we got to the point by the lighthouse where we turn on the engine and bring down the sails, there seemed to be a glitch of getting the headsail furled properly.  It would roll up about 2/3 of the way and then get stuck.  We would then have to unfurl it all the way in the heavy winds and try again.  After four attempts we were not making any progress and the decision was made that it would have to come off completely.  This was a two person job, so after setting the autopilot with the engine on and now cruising South along the coast I dashed below to grab some rope and made my way to the foredeck to assist Matt.  He was already lowering and unhanking  it at quite a quick pace and didn’t realize that part of it had slid off the side and was dragging in the water.  I rapidly pulled it back on deck before any damage could be done and sat on it while Matt wrestled to get the remainder down.  Once we had it completely unattached I tried  gathering it into a ball to bring back to the cockpit, but it was too big for me to carry in my arms so I gathered it in sections taking care not to let it catch on anything and rip and also making sure I didn’t trip over it and fall overboard.  Before long we had everything secured and were able to make our way back in.

The weather changed dramatically when we had attached ourselves to the mooring as in all wind practically died.  It was nice to have the calmness but it also meant that we were able to go to work right away attaching the headsail and raising it.  Again Matt thought it would be best if I worked the winch while he hanked.  Didn’t I just do this?  I didn’t argue this time because I was feeling macho and thought I could get it all the way up on my own.  Which I did.  Then Matt noticed we didn’t pull the line to furl it first which meant there was no way to roll it once we had it up.  So back down it went where the problem was fixed and it was raised again.  I was able to get it about 2/3 of the way up this time before I forced a switch in positions.  Sitting on the deck still in my foulies after we had everything squared away I was happy for the day we had.  It may not have been the lounge around soak up the sun kind of day that I normally prefer, but I was tested as a sailor and I passed.  It may not have been with flying colors but at that moment I knew I was on my way.

The Day the Spiders Have Their Parade

Saturday August 13, 2011

I wasn’t sure if tonight was a night we would be heading to the boat.  Morning thunderstorms gave their way to a few hours of sunshine and then back to dark-as-night skies at 3:00 with more thunderstorms and sheets of rain.  I was surprised when Matt got home from work and gave me the option of staying or going.  It was tempting to have the thought of a Saturday night at home for once with a few Redbox movies and maybe a Jet’s pizza.  But I did miss the boat since we hadn’t seen her for two weeks and we could also do those things on the water since we had movies and frozen pizza.  Since the rain was starting to die out and the chances of me enduring a wet dinghy ride were getting slimmer we packed up and left.

On the car ride over Matt mentioned he had spent the previous day washing the entire boat along with the waterline and sprayed the whole thing down with an Ortho spider spray so we wouldn’t have another episode like we did a few weeks ago.  Once at the marina we quickly loaded the dinghy and unloaded again at the boat.  I was placing the last piece on deck when Matt, still standing n the dinghy, pointed near the toerail and stated, ‘Ugh, there’s a spider sitting right there, get rid it!’.  I squatted down and saw said spider trying to blend in unnoticed.  Without a few beers in me first this time I was a little more hesitant about just picking it up and dropping it over the side.  It was a pretty good size, not as big as the self circumnavigating spider from before, but pretty close.  I inched my fingers toward it and backed them away a few times trying to find the best angle to make this work.  Finally I just took a deep breath, grabbed a leg and tossed.  Unfortunately it only a flew a few inches in the direction of Matt and he let out a little shriek while I laughed.  Filled with a little more confidence I took a solid grab and made sure it went in the water this time.  We watched it sit in the unnaturally calm water for a moment until Matt noted, ‘Oh what the hell?, There’s another one’.  I looked at the lifeline and sure enough there was another much smaller spider perched atop of it.  This one I didn’t even give a second thought to and pitched it overboard.  However as soon as this one hit the water it started paddling its ass back to the boat at motor-speed.  My thoughts immediately turned to it’s larger brother and where it may be.  Sure enough it was traveling at more of a doggy-paddle pace back to the boat.  I watched it disappear under the waterline as Matt worked at disposing of the smaller one with our dinghy paddle.  When it had been successfully flung a far enough distance we started a search party for the escapee that was now at large.  We spotted it near the transom taking breaks between swimming and resting.  Matt swung the dingy around back and while preparing his paddle again spotted two more spiders on the davit lines.

This was an all out war now.  We worked together as I dropped them in the water and Matt made sure they would not make their way back.  After disposing of a few more I saw the King of spiders, sandwiched under the Lifesling and the hawse pipe.  This one was not going to make it easy for me as the Lifesling was blocking the area I’d normally toss it over.  This one was going to have to be moved first.  I poked its leg and it was like watching the wings span on a bird.  Suddenly it became about 3 times larger than it had originally appeared.  Before I could even let myself think about it I slid the spider toward the stern with my finger and then pinched a leg and threw it over.  This one may have actually been affected by the poison because it did not put up any kind of fight and started to sink immediately.  The next 15-20 minutes was spent scouring the cockpit and stern area.  They seemed to be coming out in droves tonight and we was not going to be able to relax if we knew they were creeping around.  Once we were satisfied any ones that could be found have been found we began to ease up a little.  There was only one more time after that I had to get up for spider disposal, and Matt promised he would spray again the next day.

Wanting to get a swim in before dinner I suited up and jumped in the water.  As soon as I submerged I regretted my decision.  Even though I knew the wind had pushed the spider carcasses far away I could just imagine them floating right next to me ready to exact their revenge.  I swam far past the bow trying to distance myself as much as possible.  Every piece of floating debris gave my heart a jump.  After a few minutes I realized I was being a baby and I’d have to swim back to the boat eventually anyway.  It was then I could let myself enjoy the rest of my swim, staying out until the pizza was almost ready to eat.  The rest of the night went exactly as planned, pigging out on pizza and watching movies.  It turned out to be a much better evening than I would have spent at home with one very large exception.  Frozen pizza will never compare to Jets.

Macaroni In the Buff

Sunday July 30, 2011

Late July in West Michigan and one event starts sending people from all over the state flocking to the coast.  This is the beginning of the Coast Guard Festival held in Grand Haven, MI.  If you happened upon last years post of our trip down the coast to this event you’ll remember that it did not go so well.  Either we’re gluttons for punishment or conditions were just much better this year because we decided to try again.  I have to say that this summer is turning out so much better than last year and we were blessed with yet another beautiful weekend with clear skies and 10 knots coming out of the northwest.  There was no need for layers of unnecessary clothing and I was able to enjoy the beginning of my the trip sprawled out in a bikini on the deck while reading from my Nook.  Maybe the universe was just tryingto make up for the fact that we were supposed to be leaving for our big journey the next day but instead are stuck in Michigan for another year.  I guess it figured it could help make that time easier for us by giving us gorgeous weekends,  reminding us that Michigan isn’t that bad of a place to be stuck.    And it’s working …….. for now.

After not even 20 minutes of sitting around, Matt being the ever productive person he is, suggested this would be a perfect opportunity to wash down the deck and get it all clean since it’s had almost two months of neglect now.  Normally I’d hate being pulled away from a perfectly relaxing day of doing nothing for manual labor, but I figured that 1. I did nothing to get the boat ready this year while we were on the hard (& in the water) and I really owe Matt  and 2. I was already warming up to the point where some cool lake water splashing on my feet was sounding really refreshing.  Since there was none of that green seagull poo on deck that doesn’t want to come off no matter how many different cleaners you try this was a really easy task today.  Spray, lightly scrub, rinse, done.  Mental note: washing the boat can be kind of fun while you’re moving along with the sun on your back and a fresh breeze on your face.  (Second note: Let Matt handle pulling buckets of water aboard while you’re moving because the drag is more than your little arms can handle)

Pretty soon we were back to lounging on deck.  I still had some of my boxed wine left from a few weeks ago to keep me refreshed and Harry Potter was yet again calling my name.  We were also now far enough away from Muskegon and not close enough to Grand Haven where there was no boat traffic around us which meant I was free to adjust my attire so I wouldn’t get any tan lines on my back or neck or chest.  While reapplying sunscreen to cover some new exposed skin Matt was below deck making us a gourmet lunch of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  Simple and classic.  Enjoying this lunch on deck I’d have a few close calls where a power boat would sneak up behind us and I’d have to drop my bowl and grab my towel to keep from flashing these people, but otherwise it was a mostly uneventful sail.

Eventually we became close enough to Grand Haven where it was safer just to put my top back on and assume I had gotten enough sun to blend in those pesky white lines on my shoulder that I received over 4th of July weekend.  This opening weekend of the festival looked to be even busier than last year as we could see boats anchored along the coast for about a mile before we even reached the pier.  Deciding that if it were this busy out here we weren’t even going to try entering the channel.  We were hoping that with the tack we were currently on that we could glide by the channel by a few hundred meters to get a glimpse of what was going on in there and then turn around 180 degrees to start our jaunt home.  Good old Auto though, kept pointing our bow anywhere from directly at the breakers of the channel to open water and we had no idea if we’d actually clear or not.  Once the water depth starting dropping below 30 feet we choose just to do the extra work of tacking out further into open water to prevent a collision with the channel or other boats.

Even with our change in course we crossed in front of the opening with just enough clearance to keep from being in the way of other boats entering and exiting.  Something you want to take much care to do in this area because I think a lot of the power boaters are unaware of the rule where a boat under sail has right of way over a boat under power, no matter which direction it it heading.  Making sure to give ourselves lots of extra space while making our turn to head back I accidentally pointed us too close into the wind and we came to a standstill.  Well that wasn’t going to work.  Turning the wheel full to starboard I had to wait for the wind to fill our sails enough so we’d start spinning back around again and I could put us on a better course still out of irons the next time around.  Round 2, same results.  Spinning in circles again we must have looked like the young couple who chartered a boat for the weekend but had never taken sailing lessons before.  And directly in front of one of the most crowded beaches you had ever seen.  Judging the wind direction again it looked like we were going to have to point directly West for awhile to get enough distance from shore before heading in a more Northerly direction.  Finally making way again instead of just going in circles we went back to enjoying what Michigan had to offer and thinking that another year might not be so bad.  Ask us again while we’re sitting at our desks tomorrow though.

52 Week Countdown

Sunday July 24, 2011

 

 

 

Ever since 4th of July weekend when the mass of fog rolled off the lake and brought out the sun we have been having nothing but perfect weather while we are out on the water.  I am also loving the heat that is coming with it.  Most people will give me a crazy look when I say this, but I really do prefer ‘hot’ weather.  When temps start getting up to the 90’s I get excited.  Maybe I’m a little cold blooded, I don’t know.

Not having anyone to entertain this weekend we didn’t have much more of a plan than to get the boat out in open water and just go.  We tend to do this a lot when it’s just the two of us.  If winds are fair we point the bow East and travel that direction for about 4 hours before turning around to make the trip back.  It was on one of these ‘go nowhere, do nothing’ days that we started talking about how nice it would be just to start our trip right now.  Nevermind that not only do we not have enough $ in the cruising kitty, the boat wasn’t near ready, and all of our belongings are still at home, we were ready to just run.  We had our backpack with a weekends worth of clothes, and Matt had his credit card on him.  We could just pick up what we needed along the way.  I know I have about six pairs of shoes set aside for the journey, but one pair of flip flops would do for now.

It was fun to spend the day pretending that we were heading off on our trip, even if we would have been heading in the wrong direction (side trip to Milwaukee?).  What it might be like if this was the last time we saw the Muskegon pier.  Have 99% of the places we stop next be places we’ve never been before.  To let go of the comfort of the predictable and head into the unknown.  Bringing myself back to the reality we actually have in front of us,  although we still have our weekends on the boat through the summer to look forward to, this next year of waiting is going to be very very hard.  This season is only going to be a band-aid on a wound that can only be healed by throwing of the mooring lines for good.  We’re still looking at a departure date of mid to late July of 2012, so in order to get myself there I’m officially starting it.  The 52 week countdown begins now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*These photos are of areas near Glen Arbor, MI.  A place I can not wait to get back to, especially in the boat!!