Bahamas or Bust

It took about 2 months of work evenings and weekends to complete all the projects I wanted to do before we left. Then I began taking Indiscipline apart and getting ready for the shipping. I resigned by job and got to work. This last part took 2 weeks full time. But Indiscipline was stripped, packed and ready to go to the boatyard.

Chula Vista Boatyard was right next door, and one fine Monday morning we cruised over there. Karen and I have never been so nervous in our lives. There is a razor sharp plan to get Indiscipline to Milwaukee on time for Great Lakes Boatyard to receive her on Friday before they close for the weekend. Then, 4^th of July is coming up and they only have a short window to work on her before then.

The big problem is height, Indiscipline must load under 13 feet 6 inches high. Well, to make a long story short, the truck arrives, and the boatyard has removed the radar arch and stored it in the cockpit. The travel-lift puts her on the truck. Our driver does everything possible to get the load low. Final verdict – over 15 feet. So the flybridge must come off. I give Matt some money for his hotel and dinner and we wait for the boatyard to get the bridge off. Karen and I drive home, nervous wrecks. The next morning I get a welcome call before noon – Matt has left and Indiscipline is on her way! We drive in and pay the bill. 3 days later Indiscipline and I are in Milwaukee waiting for Matt to arrive. My nerves continue at an unheard of peak. Friday morning Matt calls south of Chicago asking for directions. I am afraid he will never make it! The boatyard says he must arrive by 2 or they will not unload.

Dad and I drive over there and arrive about 1:30. Matt is sitting on the side of the road waiting! The worst is over.

Karen and I have completed 2 weeks of work in 2 days and Indiscipline is to get wet tomorrow. There is still a lot of work to be done, storing everything inside, but the boatyard phase is over (and we are so worn out.) Karen did the wiring, I did hull work, we put in a new VHF antenna, bottom paint touch-up, some epoxy work, got the bimini up, and more I can't even remember. We still have to get the salon VHF radio working and run a new cable to the antenna, get the cockpit cover up, and get all of our gear moved in and stored. We'll do that in the slip over the next few days.

The weather here is great, we went to the park to see a free big band concert last night and had to run home in a real slam-banger thunderstorm! Everyone was soaked (the foul weather gear is on the boat). We decided to wait until the locals left, but they had cars!

I am writing from Luddington, Michigan, in a little boaters lounge with an internet plug. It is around 11 PM. Things are going great on our cruise. After waiting out some severe storms and 3 inches of rain in one day, We crossed from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to Pentwater, Michigan on July 9, and we had a great time in Pentwater. We made friends with another family on a boat and we are all travelling together for the next few days. They also have young daughters for Amy and Heidi to play with. We caught a 8 lb Coho salmon out of Port Washington (WI), that was very exciting and fed us for 4 meals. We'll try for another tomorrow on the next jump north to Frankfort, MI.

A couple of vignettes from the last 2 weeks:

Today, we watched the Badger -- a car ferry - dock in Luddington. This giant ship came motoring straight to the dock. About a ship length away they let go their starboard anchor. As they powered forward, the ship pivoted around the anchor and then they backed against it to the slip. After the pivoting around maneuver, they just dragged it backward to the slip but it acted like a spring line holding the bow up a little. What an amazing skill - no bow thrusters here and only a big single prop. Not like watching the Middletown (a coal ship) maneuver out of Port Washington - I would guess that they had a 2000 HP bow thruster to steer the ship with.

Prior to our 55 nautical mile crossing of Lake Michigan, we waited out very bad weather in Sheboygan harbor. A nice place with good facilities, but quite expensive. However, we got about 3 inches of rain in one day. We were in the boater’s lounge, along with all the other cruisers. The rain stopped. A large black wall of clouds was approaching from the north east - strange since the main storm was coming from the north west. As the wall approached, we watched one, then two and then about 5 waterspouts form and blow to the south at tremendous speed. Karen asked me "When does a storm like this get dangerous?" I said "When the cloud is rotating." She said, "You mean, like that?" pointing directly overhead. Just then a tremendous blast of wind I would estimate at 75 mph hit the marina. Many of the sailboats were knocked down in their slips! All sailors not in the lounge came running up from their boats. I jumped into my foulies and went running to our boat. We were sitting fine on our spring lines when I got there but even before I was out the door the storm was gone.

Thankfully we were in port, that would have been terrifying on the lake in a small boat. It was terrifying in port.

We have not yet been in a port in which we have not seen someone come in on one engine with major mechanical problems. They have all been big, expensive, motor yachts. Mostly with Mercruiser inboards. We saw one with a thrown rod and one today with a broken transmission. And this on a boat with less than 30 hours on her.

By Great Lakes standards, we are small, slow and we don't gleem very much. These big motor yachts cruise 30 miles per hour and get 0.7 mpg. Airconditioned, with dual 50 amp shore power connections. And they hold 700 gallons of fuel. The aft cabin motor yachts have more windage than the Queen Mary. Yet their skippers handle them very well and I can learn a lot watching the good ones. Beautiful boats, nice people. Marine Gas here is $2.35/gallon. I paid $1.91/gallon in Wisconsin for marine diesel. Here in Michigan I can get filled up for $1.55 but we don't need fuel for a while.

For those who do not know, this is where the famous bridge is and the dividing line between lakes Michigan and Huron. Tomorrow, we will be going up the St. Mary's River to Detour, Michigan which is where waters of Lake Superior in and mix with the other two. Detour is the gateway to the North channel so shortly after that we will be clearing into Canada in Meldrum Bay and leaving the easy life in Michigan Municipal Marinas for a while. For one, I am a little tired of the municipal marina life and ready to cruise on into more remote waters.

The last log entry was from Luddington, MI. and since then we have covered many miles and many ports. We loved Arcadia, a little lake mostly skipped by cruising boats. We had miles of beaches to ourselves, great dunes to explore, and we were held up for several days by bad weather and didn't care a bit since it was so nice. Next was a long 45 nm haul to Leland, where we also stayed for several days due to bad weather. Leland was like a non-stop, 24 hour, in the water boat show. There were so many boats, and boat-watchers walking the docks. I didn't care much for Leland because all the beaches were private and about the only thing to do there was gift shopping. But it is a very important port for those travelling this coast, because it is in a strtegic position where there are no other ready ports.

Next was another 45 mile passage to Traverse City, where, guess what, we were held up a couple of extra days due to bad weather. We received our first mail, paid bills, bought Karen a very nice mountain bike for $40, did major grocery shopping, took the kids to see the Pokemon 2000 movie on opening day, and had a wonderful evening at the Traverse City Friday night street fair.

After TC, we took a short boat ride to the other side of Grand Traverse Bay and stayed in Elk Rapids for 2 days. This was the nicest Michigan Municipal we have stayed at. We took a day trip to Old Mission Point Bay and anchored and spent the afternoon swimming off the back of the boat. It was one of our nicest days so far. We also picked up our first guest who crewed with us for the next 5 days. John was someone I met through the Trawler-World email list and we all enjoyed his company and were glad to have his help.

Elk Rapids to Charlevoix was the next passage, and we had good conditions, cruising mainly at 8.5 knots for economy, quiet, and comfort. A cooling hose on the starboard engine blew and our bilge pumps came on. The warning lights lit up on the bridge and we shut it down and finished the trip on the port engine with no problems. It was an easy repair once in port. Charlevoix has a drawbridge and we had quite an adventure trying to tie up to the wall and wait for an opening but we got it done.

Since the Charlevoix Municipal was crowded we stayed at the Irish Boat Shop Marina and made our repairs. Early the next day we left for Mackinaw City and made a passage of 55 nm in about 4 hours. We had about 2 hours of rough seas around White Shoals but once in the straits it was easy. We arrived just as the famous Chicago - Mackinaw Island sailboat race was finishing up and this area was very crowded. St. Ignace turned us away, as did the island. We had to raft up for the first time in Mackinaw City Municipal. We later got a slip and we are still here waiting for a stalled front to pass.

Reaching Mackinaw City was an important milestone for us since we have now stored away our Lake Michigan cruise guide and chartbook. We now have the Lake Huron ones out. We have been on our way for 3 weeks and have covered 350 miles and stayed in 10 ports. Everyone is having fun and we are tanned, relaxed, healthy and happy.

Hello. CJ suggested that I add to the newsletter, so here goes. It turns out that we have been cruising for only 21 days. It seems a lot longer. Not that is hasn't been great so far and I am looking forward to many more days. Going to the beach almost everyday is a blast. The water is too cold for me, but I go in anyway (if not, I get splashed and that is much worse). Duncan loves everything except big dogs, big boys, skateboarders, bikers, joggers... Well almost everything.

The actual boating has been pretty easy going with a few yucky hours of choppy conditions. When it is choppy, everything in the boat reduces its potential energy and when we come into the dock, we all play 52 pickup. Surprisingly, nothing has broken. When we first crossed big Lake Michigan, I noticed a few differences from being out in the Pacific ocean. This may sound silly to you, but I just take for granted certain things. On thing, it doesn't smell salty (I miss that wonderful smell). I expect to see dolphins jumping and pelicans diving. In fact, I see very few birds while we are underway. But I get to see some fun things that we don't see in the Pacific like Swans and their funny little signets, Canada geese, crayfish galore, black squirrels, and mayflies (aren't those funny bugs). And crazy weather!

Going to the different ports has been fun. Everybody, the marina people, fuel docks, boaters, and the kids are so nice. It is ok to let Flipper and Pokey go to the marina walkways on their scooters without supervision. They almost always find somebody nice to play with. So far they haven't asked when are we going home, I think they are enjoying the trip too. Although they miss their friends, they know that they will see them again in December. It helps to have them send email and phone their friends. Well that's it from Spike.

After Macinac City, we left that next morning for DeTour. It was a long passage, but the weather held and we arrived in the early afternoon. From there we finally entered the North Channel and went to Meldrum Bay the next day. It was an easy and fun passage, but strong winds came up just as we were arriving and also rain. We had to back into a cross wind slip and I blew the first approach but we pulled out and made it the 2nd time. Clearing into Canada was taken care of by phone. The next day I took the dinghy motor apart and cleaned the carb. It now works fine and continues to run great - as long as we go slow. If I try to put it up on plane it overheats. However, it will run all day at slow speeds so we have been living with that.

At Meldrum, which was like a summer camp, we met some nice kids and so we stayed a few days for the girls to play. Karen and I enjoyed it very much when a Boy Scout tall ship tied up for the night and we got a tour.

From Meldrum we motored 45 nmiles to Gore Bay, once again arriving during a thunderstorm. We were held in Gore Bay a couple of days due to bad weather, and due to the fact that we were waiting for a package to arrive. We all loved Gore Bay, it would be a great place to spend the summer. The dock girl was a year-around resident. We asked her what she did during the winter and she said that the North Channel is of course frozen solid so they snowmobile. The have races from Gore Bay to Killarney or Little Current.

Next we went on to the Benjamins, anchoring for several days at Croaker Island. This was the most beautiful spot we have seen and we all loved it. We could dinghy the kids over to a little island and just them them play and climb and explore it for days. At Gore Bay and all around there we were always in 400 million year old limestone, full of seashell fossils. The Benjamin's are 2.5 billion year old granite, covered with mosses, bluberries, and some trees.

After several days at anchor we went to Little Current for laundry, shopping, post office, and our once per week meal in a restaurant. Little Current is not a resort town, it is a business center. We took care of our business and went on to Killarney for lunch and to buy beer and then we started Collins Inlet. We anchored in Collins Inlet and made the fantastic run through this beautiful spot the next morning. At places it is only 100 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with 100 foot high cliffs around you. After 6 miles we were out of the inlet and we headed for the Bustard Islands for our next anchorage.

Leaving the Bustards this morning, Amy's Birthday, we saw a bald eagle! We have now started the Small Craft Route running 175 miles from Killarney to Port Severn. As I write this we are in Bayfield Sound, at a small dock. There are no facilities here, but we are at least plugged into electric power and have decent cell phone connection. Bayfield is a cottage center, there are lots of people around. Many of the cottages have access only by boat so this area is full of small outboard runabouts.

This Small Craft Route is quite roundabout, shallow, and you can't take your eyes off the charts and buoys for a second or you will lose the boat on a rock. Piloting the areas like Cunningham Cut and Roger's Gut was an adventure I'm not sure that we want to have again! We are talking hundreds of hairpin turns through buoy marked channels in a sea of rocks. Water depths from 4 to 12 feet. Channel width as narrow as 40 feet (maybe less). Dead slow operating speeds!

The weather forecast is good tomorrow so we are planning to head out to the main Georgian Bay and run a straight line to Parry Sound. Since we have a nice high pressure forecast for the next few days we will try to jump from Parry Sound to Honey Harbor and then into Port Severn by mid week. Driftwood Cove Marina in Port Severn is our next planned mailstop! If we can pull this off we will be only 2 weeks behind schedule! If the weather turns on us we can always head back into the small craft route.