WEEK #8 - WE MAKE CHICAGO

    

APPROACHING CHICAGO

      Sitting in Waukegon, and seeing the Chicago skyline south of you has been hard. But when the winds have been like the last few days, prudence says to sit tight. Saturday morning, 17Sep finds us still in Waukegon, starting our fourth day. But it is calmer than the forecast had called for, "Somewhere in Time", and Barbara and I on SummerTime decide to head out. We go over to the pier to get our holding tanks pumped as it is free for docking. We are off to Chicago at 9:45. The conditions are not ideal, but they are favorable for traveling. The wind is out of the SW, so the shore is protected. We are dealing with a 1' chop instead of the 2-3' swells we thought we would have. Enroute we call about docking. We want to stay near the Chicago River as we want to travel down the river. Somewhere in Time is too tall to go through down town Chicago, and will need to enter the Calumet River south of town. The maximum height is 16'-6" on the Chicago River. We will have to put the mast down with our communications antennas to make that height, as they are up in the air 18'. So we call to check availability at marinas. The in between location marina as a compromise for both boats is the Burnham Marina. But they are $3/ft. We make reservations at Columbia Yacht Club, which is just south of the lock to enter the Chicago River. The rate is $2/ft for Loopers, and if you stay two nights, the third night is free. Somwhere in Time continues on to the Calumet River to tie onto the Crowley's Marina wall. As we approach Chicago, there are several sail boat races going on.

SAILBOAT RACE OUTSIDE HARBORS

One is across the path we chose to get to Chicago, so we modify our track to stay out of their course. A bunch of colorful sails are flying. We pass into the outer harbor wall, and there are boats everywhere. Every speed and type flying around or stopping, at all kinds of headings.

DINNER CRUISE SHIP AND 4MASTED SCHOONER

And we are not in the inner harbor yet. When we get there, there is a "No Wake" sign. We will learn that it means nothing. We arrive at Columbia Yacht Club at about 1:30pm. We have never had so much help docking. There are three dock hands handling our lines and tie-ing us up. We check in, after being welcomed by one of the Board Members. After getting settled in, we exchange text with "Easy Pace", and meet Mike and Kathy at Navy Pier.

NAVY PIER

It is new to them, and changed since Barbara and I were there 16yr ago with our daughters. We walked around the pier, and then had dinner at Margaritaville. Dinner was pretty good. Afterwards we went into the shops area, and I bought some Jelly Bellies to replenish my stock. And we went by Ben and Jerry's and got an ice cream, waffle cone for me. It was good, but I have had better from some of the small dairies the last few weeks.
        On Sunday, we get up and get ready for church. We are meeting Mike and Kathy to share a taxi to Moody Church. It is impressive inside, and is in the midst of being re-modeled. They have an interim pastor, his second Sunday, as their previous pastor, in his 70s, is retiring. They have a "Visitors Welcome" social afterward that we attend. We flag a taxi back to our marinas. Amazing thing, two different taxi drivers, and both have come to Chicago from Nigeria. Abby arrives from Columbus in the afternoon. Later than expected, but she is a free transport system for parts I had ordered and had sent to her apartment. We walk three blocks in the afternoon, and eat at Ming Hin. Very upscale in these tall buildings overlooking the Lake. Very good Chinese food, and we bring some back to SummerTime which we will warm and eat one day when traveling. And we played a game of Scrabble just to see who was best.

"ABEGWEIT", HOME of COLUMBIA YACHT CLUB

       On Monday, we get up and Abby drives us to West Marine on Division and N Halsted. She bought an AIS (Automatic Information System) transponder to us for mounting and using on the rivers. It lets you see commercial boats, but more importantly they can identify you. It was supposed to not only be compatible with our radio, but also a complete system. Reading the directions on Sunday evening, I realize we are going to need a splitter, or another antennae. West does not have a splitter for utilizing our existing antennaes in the system, so we buy the special AIS nntenna they have in stock. It turns out to be cheaper than the splitter. From West we head to the museum area of Chicago. We go to the Shed Aquarium. It has been over 20yrs. since our family came here on vacation. It is nice, better than I remembered it. Abby drops us at SummerTime afterwards, and returns to Ohio.

AQUARIUM FISHES

NOT a "BABY BELUGA"

Week #7 SOUTH TOWARDS CHICAGO

  


      Port Washington is a nice little village. It is geared for visitors and lake fisherman. The charter boats are out early Sunday morning. Barb and I dress and head for the Methodist Church, at .7 mile it is the closest protestant church. We get there at 9 thinking that is their church service time from what we heard on the phone recording. Wrong. They have changed service order, and Sunday School is now first, starting at 9:15. We attend the adult class, and leave afterwards. "Somewhere in Time" and SummerTime have a date to travel south to Racine while the weather is good. We get underway about 11:10. We have to travel a little faster than normal (9.8kt vs 8.3) to catch the other boat as they pulled out 10 minutes in front of us. The first part of the ride is pretty good, but as we pass Milwaukee, the wind picks up. And so does the wave size.

MILWAUKEE, THE CITY WE PASSED BY

The last hour and a half is bumpy. We get to Racine late in the afternoon, just before 4:30.

TUG PUSHING BARGE BETWEEN MILWAUKEE AND RACINE, & BUILDING WHITE CAPS

Reef Point Marina is huge by my standards, and has two entrances off of the harbor entrance channel. We fueled before going to our dock. The four of us went downtown and ate Mexican at Casablanca de Mexico. A great dinner.

RACINE LIGHTHOUSE

     On Monday morning, Barb and I get up and make plans to get the Lenovo to Best Buy. We walk back downtown to a bus stop, and catch the bus on route #7 out to the Target/Mall area where Best Buy is. We give them the Lenovo, tell them we are traveling, and ask for a quick turn around. There is a grocery, "Pick-n-Save" two stores from Best Buy down at the bus stop. We go back there and buy staples. It is the largest and nicest grocery store we have been in since the Kroger in Port Huron. We catch the bus back to the marina with our groceries. These are the first city bus rides I have had since commuting to our Cleveland Office back in the late 90s. We get a call around 6 that the Lenovo is ready. We head back to Best Buy on the bus. All four trips have cost us $12., which is less than one Uber ride. Racine has no taxi fleet. The Geeks at Best Buy have overcome the W10 issues (except for 1 in sleep mode), and we are ready to publish again. Some of the things we had downloaded programs for: printer/scanner, cameras, ? are gone, but not too hard to get back on to the laptop.
      On Tuesday, we start getting ready to leave to go farther south. It is 10:50 when we leave the dock headed to Waukegan, 31 miles away. We get to Waukegan a little before 1:30. Another big marina, and nice. Lots of sailboats here. The ride down was quite pleasant. Much better than the last stretch into Racine this past Sunday. Chuck picks up the parts waiting for him here. After dinner, we all walk up to the ice cream parlor at the edge of the marina. They are making their own waffle cones, and the smell is inviting. I get a new to me chocolate malt flavor on one of those good smelling waffle cones.
       On Wednesday we are awoke by a horn. I think that this is a ship's horn. I look out the port side window, and the freighter "Sam Laud" is backing down the channel towards the silos. I hustle to the flybridge with the camera. The ship backs to the side of the channel, and is unloading in less than an hour. Later we walk to Larsen's Marine to buy some supplies. I get a new horn button for the upper helm, along with the one fuel filter I did not have for the genset. The Sam Laud is sitting at American Gypsum right by our walking route. When we come back from Larsen, about noon, the ship appears to have stopped unloading.

SAM LAUD BACKING IN TO UNLOAD

We have lunches from the deli and Dockside Dogs just outside the marina gate. Great food and view. The horn button does not totally clear the horn blowing problem. But moving the ground wire termination did. On my way through the salon, I decide to hit the horn button on the lower station. Only a squeak. This seems not right, as it sends its current to the downstream side of the upper helm button. I pull the instrument panel face off, and notice that there are several wires not quite like the diagram from Mainship. The power feed has been connected to spade connectors for sharing, and some of the branch wires are way too small for what they are feeding. I re-wire the three items, with the appropriate size wires. The horn now works. We go to dinner at Rosati's pizza in town. The Chicago style pizza is great. We walked here, and had to cross the Metra tracks on the way in. Going back we find a better route over a bridge.
     On Thursday, the wind is blowing pretty good, and the lake is covered with whitecaps. Avocet arrives, and talking to them we find out it is pretty bumpy out there. We scrub the plans to leave for the day. In the afternoon I mount a grab rail on each side of the salon roof just outside the forward glass. It gives a safe place to hang on to when going forward. The reach from the factory rail on the flybridge side to the handrail on the coach roof was longer than could be reached. This grab rail hopefully makes a forward walk in stormy seas a lot safer.
     On Friday, we wake and the wind is even stronger. We pay for another day at the dock. I do a couple of small items on SummerTime that have been things Barbara wanted for a while. One is to hang a gear hammock. We have a hard time to figure out where to put it. We finally settle on the anchor locker bulkhead over our heads on the berth. It is only good for small light things, but it gets them off of a shelf as loose items. There is a Latino Festival advertised for the block by the ice cream parlor. We go there thinking we will score on some nice Mexican food. Did not see any food vendors, so we head up the hill again to Rosati's for pizza or pasta. We are not disappointed in our plates. On the way back to the boats, we stop at  the Festival to listen to some music.
     

WEEK #6, ACROSS THE LAKE

      The long day crossing Lake Michigan has us both tired. Not so much from the physical exercise, but from being in the bright sun on the water. The two hands at the Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor are quite concientious in tying up SummerTime. And the owner of the marina, Dan, comes by to greet and welcome us. And tell us of some of the sites and restaurants in the area. We eventually get the power cord out, and the boat connected to shore power. And we settle in for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
        Saturday brings a new day. We kind of lounge after breakfast before heading to the bath house for showers. This marina has a laundry room with commercial size washers and dryers. After getting cleaned up, we walk out to Scaturo's, one of the places Dan mentioned. I get a "Door County" burger, the first burger I have had in weeks. Barbara gets a chicken salad wrap. Our sandwiches are great, and service is excellent also. The real reason for coming to this place though, is its bakery on the other side of the building. After our lunch, we go to the bakery. There is no choice as the cash register for the restaurant is on the bakery counter. We buy goods to take with us for later, and Monday breakfast. We walk down the hill through town to the Door County Maritime museum, stopping at some shops along the way. It is a wonderful little museum about the contributions that Sturgeon Bay has made to Commercial Shipping and the military. Ships of various kinds were built here during the second world war. And the two ship building companies still in town continue to build and repair ships. When we leave the museum, we go back up  the street into the town shops district. In the Glass Artisans shop, Barbara saw a lighthouse made from different wood pieces that she wants. They are still open, so we buy it, and the shop owner wraps it for our walk back to SummerTime. He tells us that the light at the end of the breakwater has been bought by an individual to be converted into a cottage. After more talk on light houses, we leave G&G glass and head to SummerTime. Barbara reads while I work on downloading photos and our blog.

LIGHT AND CATWALK TO IT

      We awake on Sunday morning, and Barb does the usual Sunday morning chore of making homemade biscuits. We get dressed and walk to church back in town. The two Lutheran churches are the closest Protestant ones to us at 7/10 of a mile. We choose the ECLA one whose service is later. For once, we are there on time though our walk was 25min.
       The forecast is true. After church the wind is picking up. We relax for the rest of the day. On Monday the winds are definitely too high. They are out of the south, steady near 20, with higher gusts. It is sunny. I borrow one of the complimentary bikes from the marina and take a ride to Target and then to West Marine. I pick up a few grocery staples at Target, and continue on to West Marine. I got some wiring terminals and 3/8" braided rope. I put them in the basket of the bike and return to the boat. I do some small chores for the balance of the day. On Tuesday we get up, and the wind is less. We watch a downeast style boat leave the Yacht Club next door, and after listening to the weather, decide we will leave also. We fill the water tank, fuel the boat (67.9gals), and take advantage of a free holding tank pump out as we stayed at the marina. We leave the dock about 9:55, and as we get near the breakwaters, I see the rollers coming in through the opening. We go through the sea wall opening, and immediately the bow drops in almost up to the rubrail. And the next wave is about the same. The weather report says seas of 2-4', and these are all 4' plus. We turn around as soon as there is room, and return to Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor. There is no need to beat ourselves up for 26miles. We tie the boat back up, and pay for another night's dockage. After lunch, Barbara and I walk back to Marchant's Meat Market. We go with the intent of buying meat (which we did), but they also had some fresh local produce. We bought a cabbage and a large, field ripe tomato. Scaturo's is only two doors down, and we go back into their bakery and buy some cookies and sweet rolls. We walk back to the boat, with our groceries in a backpack on my back. The marina has a picnic area with gas grills for the boaters there. And we grill the two nice steaks we bought at the meat market. They are wonderful. On Wednesday, some more boats with AGLCA flags show up. They are coming out of Green Bay which has sort of been protected from the high winds. "Easy Pace" with Mike and Kathy ties up next to us. And Chuck and Sue from "Somewhere in Time" walk over from the next marina. Two other boats with AGLCA burgees tie to the wall at the yacht club behind us. And we find out there are other "Loopers" in the area. We all chat, and I go back to doing minor chores on SummerTime. I change the two fuel filters actually on the Perkins engine. They are dated from when I changed them back in Buffalo in June, 2013. So now SummerTime is ready to go with a full fuel tank, full water tank, and an empty holding tank.

BARGE I THINK WE SAW ON THE CUYAHOGA RIVER IN JUNE.

In the evening I sit down to work on the blog. As there are problems (ongoing) with the computer allowing internal connections to the aircard (cellular in W10 parlance) I decide to do an update to Windows 10. I have beat AT&T up several times, changed some settings in AV, and fingers for the internal connection issues are pointing to Bill Gates and company. So I sign in to get a W10 update. The blue box which shows up says the install of the updates may require the computer to stop and start several times. After the second stop, the screen turns black. I can only get the screen to go between black, and black with Lenovo on it. I call the GeekSquad help desk. I have Laura, and she and I go through several things, but we can not get rid of the black screen. She tells me it is covered by my warranty, to carry the laptop to a store as there is nothing that can be done over the phone. So blogging is slowed. The ACER we have been keeping as backup has its problems also. As it is a W-Vista machine, and is not powerful enough for W10, Gates and company are no longer supporting it. It runs slow.
          Thursday dawns sunny, and Somewhere in Time leaves out as we are headed to Manitowoc together; buddy boating as "Loopers" call it. The "less than 2' seas" are not as bad as last Tuesday, or what Michigan was calling less than 2'. The ride is almost comfortable.

NICE PUBLIC BEACH at TWO RIVERS, JUST BEFORE MANITOWOC

We get to Manitowoc after about 7 hr of running time. We are met by the USCG doing inspections on boats entering the harbor. They have us stop, and they lash their boat to ours, and hold both boats in position. Barbara gives them the requested tour. She bonded with the one, as he had a southern accent. Talking to him, she finds our he is from Pinehurst, NC, and did his first duty at Southport, NC, which is just across the Cape Fear River from Carolina Beach, Barb's home waters. We get a passing inspection. Barbara is getting better at knowing where things are to show the "coasties" when requested. They inspected four of the 6 "Loopers" that arrived that evening. It is an attractive little city. There are other loopers there. While checking in at the ships store, I see that they have some sailing equipment. I manage to purchase the two double blocks (Harkens) that I thought I was going to have to order (Ronstan). Back at SummerTime, I rig them up, and I now can get the dinghy on board by myself. We go to the Harbor View with other Loopers for dinner. I get up on Friday morning, and ask the marina if they will take my used fuel filters. They do, they have a special place to stage them to drain, along with other waste materials. This is the nicest marina with amenities I can remember seeing since we brought the boat up. We get ready, and at a little after 9am, we shove off towards our next stop, Port Washington, buddy boating with Somewhere in Time again.
      Port Washington turns out to be a nice little city. It is also a fishing port. There are a lot of charter boats in the harbor waiting to take people out for a big salmon or trout. About dinner time, a large cloud passes over and dumps rain on us. We walk up to the ice cream parlor on the water we saw as we docked. It is closed, not even 7pm. They are part of the deli, and only open till 3 each day. I take out my smart phone, and use "Google Maps" to find an ice cream parlor. We walk to The Chocolate Chisel and get our cone fix. They also have custom chocolates in a display case. Their shapes and flavors make us think. Barbara and I spend Saturday shopping in the downtown area. We buy meats at Bernie's Meats". There is a good selection, including a dried sausage which we buy some pieces of for snacking on later. The afternoon is spent walking around town in assorted shops. It rains again late in the evening, and we get photos of a beautiful rainbow that arches over the harbor. A nice finish to a wonderful week, where we traveled two days, met new friends, and saw new sites.

BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW OVER PORT WASHINGTON

        
       

WEEK 5 HEADING SOUTH

      When we docked in Petoskey, we were officially heading south as far as I was concerned. It was nice when we made the left turn at the Straits of Mackinaw going down the east shore of Lake Michigan. But when we got to Petoskey, we were farther south than that morning when we started. It felt like we were starting to get back on schedule from our late departure and alternator failure.
      Petoskey turns out to be a nice little town. In the morning drizzle, we walk the 1/2mi to West Marine to buy charts for Lake Michigan and blocks to help bring the dinghy on board. We try the dinghy with the new block, and it is now easier with two pulleys. I think that we are going to order a couple of double blocks to manage pulling the dinghy aboard without hurting one of us. Barbara does laundry after lunch, and  I do some minor chores on SummerTime. I attach some of the wires on the starboard stringer at the midships that were taken off during some maintenance a few years ago. And I replace the hose from the hot water heater to the tee splitting hot water to the galley and head. It was leaking at the heater fitting, and is an original hose and kind of soft from years of hot water. The water in the heater probably gets to 170F or more when the engine is running as the engine provides water from the cooling system to heat the domestic water via an heat exchanger.

MURAL PAINTED ON BUILDING IN PETOSKEY

VIEW OF HARBOR AND LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY FROM TOWN,
OUR RESTAURANT VIEW WAS BETTER

      In the evening we walk up the hill to find dinner. We were going to eat at the City Cafe where Hemingway hung out, but the wait is 45minutes. We go back a couple of blocks to Palette Bistro. We are lucky in that they have an opening. They appear to be reservations only  as the couple that walked in behind us have to sit at the bar even though there appear to be empty tables. Service is superb, what you expect in a restaurant of this caliber. And we have a table by the window overlooking the bay. The food is excellent. Small portions, but not expensive as we had been lead to believe. We had some good deserts also. And walked back to SummerTime. We got up Sunday morning and dressed for church. We walked back up the hill to Parr Memorial (First)  Baptist Church. It is a large brick building outside, and a grand old building inside. Big stained glass windows let light  inside, and a shallow dome with bright guilding is centered over the sanctuary, with pipes from an organ in the loft behind the pulpit. We go back to the boat, have lunch, and prepare to depart. As I am taking up power cords, a young couple asks a couple of "newbie" boating questions. I offer them a tour of SummerTime. This is the second tour in two days. We have to be away before the check-out time of 1pm, so we kind of hustle them off to get underway. As we leave the protection of the harbor breakwater, we can see that our ride is going to be lumpy. Oh well, we are only going a short distance to Charlevoix. We are hoping we can find an anchorage there and avoid another night of dockage fees.

PETOSKEY BAPTIST CHURCH

CEMENT PLANT AT CHARLEVOIX

      We can see a large group of structures before we ever get to Charlevoix. We later discover this industrial complex with one ship at its dock, and another ship waiting to dock is a cement plant. We are about 2 hours getting to the harbor entrance to Charlevoix from Petoskey. It is listed as a destination resort, for winter as well as summer activities, in the guide book. As you enter the harbor, there are lots of boat houses. The harbor is called "Round Lake", and is supposed to have anchorages. It looks too busy for us so we continue on through the short channel to Lake Charlevoix. Impressive, a large body of water with wooded hills on each side. We motor slowly along the south shore, and turn into the south arm, where there are supposed to be 2 anchorages. There is a small cable ferry we have to slow to let cross.

CABLE FERRY AT ENTRY TO SOUTH ARM, LAKE CHARLEVOIX

The couple of hundred yards on this ferry probably saves about a 26 mile drive for someone. There are more homes along the shore. And more boat houses. We pass one that looks like a modern interpretation of some of the grand old boat houses from the roaring 20s you see in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

BOAT HOUSE WITH HOUSE ATTACHED

One anchorage turns out to be inhabited, with lots of docks. The second is smaller, and is already filled with other boats. Barbara checks the guide book again. We have turned around as we had seen potential in one of the bays off of the main body of the Lake. I decide to push across the lake to Oyster Bay listed in the guide book. It is bigger, has room for us and a few more. and is not densely populated. We drop the hook, and encounter a problem. After the 30ft of chain is out, the rope quits paying out. The winch can not move the rode up or down. The anchor has hit bottom and is holding as the water is only 10ft deep. We can not stay the night like this. Barbara takes the helm, and I go crawl up on the berth to access the anchor locker. I look up in it, and can see that there are several loops of nylon rope caught in the hole below the winch. I tug to not much avail, so I crawl out and retrieve a pry bar. A little picking, and I am soon able to get the rope freed. We complete our anchoring task. We are ready for the night. It is a peaceful night, and the wind shifts so that we swing in the night and wake up facing a different direction. And there is fog outside. There will be no early departure this morning for us, though we do see two other boats depart with the fog still hanging around. We finally get underway, and join up to two others in Round Lake and make the bridge opening at 10.

LEAVING CHARLEVOIX

We have a long ways to our next stop, Frankfort, MI. We are now passing large sand dunes on our port side. The guide book says that some of them are 400ft high. I can believe it. We also pass to the east of the Manitou Islands, part of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Park. Both islands are run by the park service, and facilities on them are non existent. They are wilderness hiking and camping areas apparently. A ferry, which we cross behind, does take people to N Manitou Island. The large dunes on the mainland are impressive, covered with trees in some areas, and bare in others. It will be like this for another 2 hours. But the ride today is not bad.

BETSIE POINT LIGHT, USCG COMPLEX

CHECK OUT THE BEACH ACCESS FROM THE DUNES

        Frankfort has beaches outside the harbor at the breakwater, and inside the breakwater. Kids are jumping in off the breakwater and swimming to a ladder to do it all over again. There are some people lying in the sun on the beach, but not too many swimming. We pass through the narrow channel to what is called Betsie Lake.

FRANKFORT HARBOR LIGHT AND DUNES IN DISTANCE

SWIMMING HOLE FOR LOCAL YOUTH

There are towns on both sides of Betsie Lake, but a huge hill hides Elberta on the south side. There are two resort marinas and a municipal marina on the Frankfort side as you enter, but we motor on by to find an anchorage. We anchor just east of the public boat ramps, and before a privately run marina. We know the weather is going to be bad for sure on Tuesday and Wednesday, so this is going to be where we wait to cross Lake Michigan. As darkness nears, all kinds of small boats return to the ramps and the two marinas east of us on both shores of Betsie Lake. Tuesday morning, before it is ever light, I hear boats going by our anchorage headed to the main Lake. Fisherman I am sure. When I get up there is a little fog again. I see a couple of  "non-fishing" boats leave the Municipal marina to travel another day. I am thinking the wind is more than we want to deal with, and there are thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. Barbara reads, and I work on trying to find a grounding problem in the upper helm instrument panel. I clean terminals, wires, and get the horn to blow a few times. We crank the genset to cook for the evening and charge our house batteries. It runs all of two minutes and slowly dies. I have to change the fuel filter in the primary filter off of the tank. It does not look plugged, but afterwards the genset purrs contentedly and we get dinner cooked, albeit late.  The thunderstorm comes after dark. The wind shifted to the north, and picked up speed. and all of sudden there were lots of rain drops hitting the windshield. We both scurry to close hatches and the side windows. We get up on Wednesday morning and move to the municipal marina. One of the new hose fittings had started to leak under the heat and we lost some water before I re-tightened the clamp on Tuesday. Our water tank gauge is reading empty. We also wish to fuel before we cross. We have an indicated half tank, and while we should be able to cross on less than an eighth of a tank, I think the better part is to cross with full tanks. We take on 58 gallons. I let the dock person put the fuel in, and after it burped twice out the fill nozzle he thinks has it full. When we get to our assigned dock, and the gauge settles down, we are only a little over 3/4 full. I resolve to top the tanks myself for the rest of our journey. This is twice the dock person has not filled the tank to capacity. The hose from the nozzle to the tank requires patience as it will not take fuel fast. Barb and I secure our lines and string out the power cord before we decide to go check out the local grocery store and pick up a few basic items we are out of: mainly bread and milk. We meet another "Looper" on the sidewalk who is returning from "Family Fare". We talk a few minutes, and she tells us it is a nice, well stocked grocery store. We get the two blocks to it, and are impressed when we walk inside. This little private chain is much better stocked than the "Sav-a-Lot" was in Alpena. We buy more than we thought going over. We have four bags each when we leave. I am thinking we should have bought the wagon along with the canvas bags. Another thunderstorm tonight, and the wind does get up out of the north as predicted. it is good we took the dock slip. On Thursday, we go into Frankfort. We have lunch at "Dinghy's" Grill. Barb has their recipe of pulled pork BBQ sandwich. It is good, and it is hard to please an old tar heel like Barbara when it comes to BBQ. I have a chicken wrap with dried cherries and their custom garlic mayo.  And we had an appetizer of bacon wrapped andouille sausage that is flash fried. Dipped in that custom garlic mayo, it is superb. Our lunches are too much, we leave stuffed. We walk west down Main Street to the beaches. They are much nicer up close than when viewed from a boat a half mile away. There are swings, volley ball nets, sidewalks, and benches for the visitor to these nice sandy beaches. We wander back through town and are amazed at what a gem this town is. As there is a nice public laundry across the street from the marina, Barb goes over to do laundry. I work on wiring the engine shutdown to the automatic fire extinguisher until interrupted by another "Looper". There are apparently 5 "Looper" boats at the harbor. And a 6th couple paddle up on their kayaks. This is the first time we have had contact with other "Looper" boats since meeting the couple just completing their loop in Port Huron. in the evening we walk back into town to "SCOOPS" ice cream parlor and on to the beach for the sunset.

SUNSET AT FRANKFORT'S BEACH

FRANKFORT HARBOR FROM CITY HALL PATIO ON MAIN ST.

        Friday morning the weather is as predicted. Winds light from the east, and sunny. I am a little cautious, and decide I want to change out the primary fuel filter on the Perkins main engine before we cross. Tanks not full can stir up trash on the bottom if fuel gets to sloshing in seas. We are under way by 9:25, the last "Looper" boat out of the harbor. We are the only boat crossing west to Sturgeon Bay. One other is crossing to Kewaunee, Wi. The other three are headed south on the east shore of the lake. I see one boat in the distance heading southwest on the lake at a fast rate of speed. Probably trying to make Chicago before the end of the day. We see a tug and seagoing barge also headed south in the distance. I am trying to calculate if we are going to cross paths at the same time. He is moving much faster than I think, and as we get close, I change course to pass astern of him.

His prop wash moves us around even though we are several hundred feet behind him. We do not see another boat in the 51 miles to cross to the Sturgeon Bay light. There are a few fishing boats around when we get to Sturgeon Bay, and that is it.

CANAL ENTRANCE TO STURGEON BAY

On the way in, I see this huge white bird in the distance that I think is a swan. As I pass, I get a glimpse of its beak, and realize it is not a swan. It has a beak like a pelican, but I have never seen a white one before.

WHITE PELICAN and LARGE GULL

I will check the Audubon Field Guide on Saturday, and find out that there are white pelicans. Bigger than brown pelicans, and living in the Midwest to Pacific, migrating to the Gulf Coast in winter. We get to the Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor marina about 3:30. We are thinking that we barely made their 4pm arrival time. We forget that coming across the lake we have crossed time zones. It is only 2:30 pm CDST, or local time. Our plans are to rest and tour here in Sturgeon Bay through the weekend, and leave out on Labor Day.



      

WEEK 4: CRUISING MORE DAYS

     We spent this past Sunday, 21August, holed up in East Tawas, Mi. The weather on Sunday morning, and the forecast were only slightly better than Saturday. The rain did stop in the morning. And we walked to church, East Tawas Church of The Nazarene. They were a short walk, seven blocks from the Marina, and overlooking the bay. We came out and the wind blew mightily until mid afternoon. By then we had paid the State of Michigan for another night's dockage. This is the 4th different Michigan run harbor we have stayed in. They have all provided excellent service. We went to lunch in town, and ate at the White Tail Café. A reuben for Barb and coneys (Michigan parlance for hot dogs) for me. And we walked around town and bought a few things. And looked at a lot more. Newman St is nice, and geared to the summer tourist. In the afternoon, we went to Marian's Ice Cream Shop and got a cone. They tout having been in business "since 1945" with hand made waffle cones. I will say it was the best waffle cone I have ever eaten.

At DOCK in EAST TAWAS STATE DOCK

      We got up and got started early Monday morning. And it was cool, 50F. I started out in jeans and a windbreaker. And then we had to wait for the fuel dock, as there was only one employee until 9. There were two boats there, and a third one pulled in before we could get there. So we got fuel, took on some water in the tank, and were off towards Alpena. It was a good trip until the last hour. We got to Alpena, about 60 miles, a little after 3. The wind was kicking up pretty good (20kt?) as we entered the harbor. The "Sav-A-Lot" grocery store was across the road from the marina, and a 1/2 block walk. We re-stocked on the items depleted: sandwich meat, milk, cereal, meat, bread, vegetables, and some chips. We went back to the boat, cooked dinner, and then pulled our wagon of dirty clothes to the laundromat, which was across the parking lot from the grocery store. I did not walk the two blocks to check out the ice cream shop, hard as that sounds to believe. Though this was a regular, and large laundromat, and we used multiple machines, it was still late when we got back to SummerTime. Alpena is the home of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. There are a lot of wrecks out in the bay, and along the isthmus going to Presque Isle. We did not visit the facility, but saw the buoys for the divers to moor to. They have a special symbol on the chart for the dive buoys, which was new to me.
      We got up early on Tuesday, and got moving before the dock boy arrived. This is a joint run marina. The state has it in their "Harbors" program, it is owned by the city/village, and they contract a marine service company to run it. The facilities were average, and much better than Grand Bends, On. Barb stated only one bulb was working in the women's rest/shower room. The winds were reported at 10mph from the South and SW, depending on the station/buoy. They helped to push us along towards Presque Isle, where we planned to anchor for the night. We got to Presque Isle a little before 1, and decided to continue on.

PRESQUE ISLE LIGHT, ONE of MANY WE SEE

      We moved the last turn in the GPS towards Calcite, just before Rogers City, where there was a bay that looked good for anchoring. We got there a little after 2, and dropped the hook. We drifted the first time, so we pulled the anchor, moved, and put the hook out again. This time it set, as we changed the procedure slightly to set it. The water was extremely clear. You could see the bottom in 18' deep water. There was white sand, and dark spots that came up as clay on the anchor. The winds shifted, and I was beginning to question the decision to anchor in a 3 sided bay with Rogers City so close. But tieing up to a dock every night gets to be expensive. The ratio for anchoring/ tieing is  as we have been doing is the reverse of what I budgeted when I planned the trip. About an hour before sunset, the winds died and everything became peaceful, and less nerve racking. Barbara sat on the flybridge and watched the sunset. It was a nice peaceful night at anchor, what you anchor out for.
       I woke early and started to look at my phone for the weather. I got Barbara up, and told her if we got going, we might make Cheboyagan by mid day. Which would put us less than half a day from Mackinaw. The winds had shifted to the south again, and picked up speed before we could weigh anchor. They pushed us mightily, and sometimes we hit over ten knots of speed as we surfed don the face of waves w. That was good as the engine speed was set to where we normally would be getting 8.8 kt. But getting to Cheboygan was not to be. The clouds started to form, and 2/3 the way through our long leg, we got sprinkles. and it was cool. I started to look at the alternate harbor of "Hammond Bay, a Harbor of Refuge". And that is what it became this day. We both saw the same lightning flash over the land, and we immediately re-plotted our course towards Hammond Bay. Today we were going to use Michigan's Harbor of Refuge. We got into the harbor a little after 10:30. It is raining pretty good as we tie up. The harbor master came out to help us dock, even though it was raining mightily at times. I think that he was bored. There is only a sailboat in the harbor besides us. We check in, and decide to stay here, as the weather does not look good for the rest of the day. But we have traveled 3 days straight now.

HAMMOND BAY, a MICHIGAN HARBOR of REFUGE

It was a good decision to stay in Hammond Bay. It rained more on Wednesday, sometimes the showers were hard. And as we found out when we started moving on Thursday, Cheboygan, where we were headed on Wednesday, was two more hours up the lake. It was still cool and cloudy when we left Hammond Bay Thursday morning headed to Mackinaw City. We have a reservation for the night at the Straits State Marina. As we leave the harbor, I realize we have a stowaway. There is a large green insect of some type on the Burgee mast. I think it may be a large green grass hopper, or a praying mantis, but from my position on the fly bridge, can not confirm that. We motor along at about 1900rpm, or 8kt, as there is no hurry to get there, check in is after 1pm. We passed Cheboygan Harbor on the way north. Just past Cheboygan we start to see the two primary structures for the Mackinac Bridge. A distance of about 12 miles, so you can get an idea of the size of this bridge spanning 5miles across the strait. And we meet a tug pulling a barge, the first commercial boat we have been near in 3 days.

MACKINAC BRIDGE in BACKGROUND at 12 MILES OUT

As we get closer, the bridge starts to dominate the horizon. And as we pass Mackinac Island, you can see the famous hotel up against the side of the hill. It dominates the island view. And there are ferry boats constantly crossing both ways between Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. We will have to be careful when we get into the traffic area. We contact the Straits State Marina about 12:45 and ask to go to the fuel dock. We have been 4 days without fueling, and our water tank is getting low also. We take on 114 gallons of fuel, the most I have ever put in the 190gal tank. And our friend is still on the burgee mast. He is a praying mantis, and moves off as we pull around to our slip.

OUR STOWAWAY FOR 40 MILES

Barbara helped him over to the dock so he could get to the land. I gave a tour of the boat to a dock neighbor who wanted to look at a trawler style boat. We secure the boat and head into Mackinaw City to find lunch/dinner, or "linner" as Barb and Ab refer to it. We have a nice dinner, ribs for me and skewered shrimp for Barb, at the "Keyhole Bar and Grill." There are keys and key chains of all kinds serving as décor in this place. I think that it has been here a while, as some of the keys are the old fashioned hotel ones on the hard plastic fobs shaped as an elongated diamond. The food is as good as we were told it would be. We spend the rest of the afternoon walking around town and shopping. We had to buy some Mackinac Island Fudge. And we did, along with a few other souvenirs.There are reportedly 35 stores selling candy out of 60(?) stores in the downtown areas. We got back to the boat a little after 7, we had been gone 4-1/2hrs. The afternoon turned out sunny, a cap to a nice day.
        We woke up Friday morning, listened to the weather while eating cereal for breakfast (Barb would pay for this later), and decided it was the best window we were going to have for several days to head to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. We were underway the earliest yet at about 8:10am. We are getting better at this. The weather report was for winds out of the west at 8-10mph with waves "less than 2ft." By the time we had gone the two miles to pass under the bridge, we were seeing seas of 3ft. Not too much for us or SummerTime, so we kept moving. Another trawler passed under the bridge right in front of us.

MACKINAC BRIDGE ABOUT a MILE OUT

We have a long haul, about 20mi to get to the point where we can turn south along Lake Michigan's eastern shore to see the other coast of Michigan. About half way to our turning point, the winds pick up and the seas increase. They are now running 3-5'. NOAA has not changed their weather report, nor has the data from the buoys changed. I think that they need to re-calibrate the telemetry on their buoys. We get to the point where Lake Michigan is running north-south, and make our turn to follow the coast. We glide by an abandoned light house on a shoal of about 20' depth. There are several light houses out here in N Lake Michigan marking shoals.

ABANDONED LIGHT HOUSE

I do not think that having to man one of these many years ago would have been a pleasant job. Nor bringing supplies to one like this before helicopters. We have a long run down the west shore of Michigan. It seems to get a little calmer, and as Barbara goes to make sandwiches for lunch, the winds and waves increase. She says the milk she had with her cereal has been churned into butter. She only brings one sandwich up to the flybridge. But we are headed south, which is the next milestone for us. We will get to Petoskey, Mi. on Little Traverse Bay about 2:30. We are also crossing some deep water. At over 270ft, it is deeper than any I have operated a boat in, including out in the Atlantic growing up.

272ft and WE ARE ONLY ABOUT a MILE OFFSHORE

The depth is not as impressive as the drop off. And then, Michigan is quiet hilly along in here. We are passing by sandy beaches with really nice houses above them.

It gets rougher as we get near Petoskey, and make the turn down Little Traverse Bay. It is a lovely little town at the end of the bay, with a beautiful clock down by the water. We are going to take a day of rest here as the rains are forecast again for Saturday.

APPROACHING PETOSKEY TOWN DOCK

WEEK 3 IMPROVING, & MAJOR MILESTONE

We arrived in Port Huron at the River Street Marina late Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning we got up and went to church. The First United Methodist Church steeple was visible from our dock space, and only about 200yd away. But first we had to walk to the Seventh St. bridge before we could cross the Black River, and walk NW again to the church. This is one of the nicest marinas we have visited as far as facilities and staff treatment of guests. Only Delaware City in Delaware had a more accommodating staff. We did not use their shower facilities, so we can not speak to them.  Barbara used the free washer and dryer in the back of the Marina office. I walked the 5 blocks to the  main business district and got us subs for lunch. Downtown is kind of dead this day, as there is a major power boat race taking place on the St Clair River.  I worked on updates, mostly AT&T as the air card was denied access again. We were originally going to leave on Monday morning, but the weather forecast for Monday night and Tuesday is not good. We elect to stay two more days.  Heavy rains and thunderstorms are forecast. On Monday morning, Barbara got the marina staff to drive her to the grocery store so she could re-stock. A regular Kroger's only about 1.5 miles from the marina. They returned and picked her up when she called. And drove her with bags to the boat on one of their carts. I worked on trying to tie the upper GPS/chartplotter to the radio for emergency location. It did not work. Both items are supposed to be NEMA 0183 ready/compatible, but they do not speak the same 183. The GPS puts out voltage on its wires, but the radio does not see/understand them. We also experimented with getting the dinghy on and off of the davits. We learned some things, but still can not do it with the motor on the dinghy. The rain started late Monday as forecast. And got heavy during the night. It was nice to wake without having puddles inside like when we first took delivery  of the boat. Brands put new windshield gaskets in over the winter, and that appears to have been the last leak source fixed. Tuesday morning was still raining, and I worked to get the Sterling Alternator to Battery monitor working. I had success in this operation. And Bruce who lives on a boat at the marina, and works there part time, loaned me his digital tachometer. I was able to calibrate the lower tach, which was off since installing the new alternator. And I got a 12v receptacle installed next to the helm. Above the fan I mounted a small fan on the chase for wires and controls to the upper helm. We will have a defroster the next time we have to operate the lower helm in a storm. Wednesday was nice. The weather forecast looked good. We walked the few blocks to downtown to get some hardware items, and look for a full, or Canadian chart of Lake Huron. We got back to the boat, had lunch, and motored to the fuel dock in preparation for departing. Barbara had called Grand Bend, Ontario, and made a docking reservation for 6:30 pm arrival. We got fuel, 87 gal, the first since leaving Port Clinton. And they provided a free pump-out of the holding tank. And we had to wait to depart, as we were  past the bridge opening time. We went out the seventh street bridge at 3pm, headed for Grand Bend, Ontario. We passed under the Bluewater bridge, and headed NE up Lake Huron towards Kettle Point. And listened intently to weather radio as there was a squall line headed across Lake St. Clair to the south of us. And there were dark cloud to the west of us. About 1-1/2hr out, the sprinkles started. We could see breaks in the clouds, and stayed on the flybridge. Too long, as we got soaked before we finally gave up and went below to run the boat. The mounted defroster fan came in good. Barbara did not have to hold it in her hand like on the St Clair River just 5 days earlier. The third time in 11 days we have had to move to the lower helm to navigate due to rain. We are not good at picking the weather.  At one point, I turned Sometime 180deg, and faced the heaviest part of the storm. That was only for about 5 minutes, then the rain started to clear. We turned around, and headed onwards to Grand Bend. Off Kettle Point, where we had to clear outside a reef, before making a heading change, God put a rainbow beyond the Kettle Point Reef for us to steer to while the rain continued lightly. It was a good thing, as either my water bottle falling off the window ledge, or me leaning down to pick it up, it the battery switch and turned off the GPS. The lower compass is not trustworthy. I raced to the flybridge to navigate, as the rain had stopped. The GPS up there was not working either, nor the radio. But the compass is good on the flybridge, and I use it and the rainbow while I try to analyze what caused both GPS to go black at once. Then I remembered a trip we made with Friends on a Saturday in June. Sue, sitting in the lower helm seat, swinging her feet, got the battery switch. I hustle back down the ladder, and sure enough, the one battery switch is off. I flip it to on, and instantly GPS and radios.  Barbara called Grand Bend Municipal Marina to tell them we would be about an hour late arriving. They told her they would be gone, to tie to the N wall after checking in with Customs at the fuel dock phone. We arrived about 7:30, cleared in with Canadian Customs via the fuel dock phone, and found our dock. We settled in for the evening.

SummerTime at dock in Grand Bend

GRAND BEND, ONTARIO

Thursday morning, we made the decision not to continue to Kincardine, Ontario as we had planned. I wanted to go, but it was two days up and back for a visit. We might miss the weather window to cross Lake Huron to Michigan's East Shore. So Thursday, we toured on foot the main reason most people come to Grand Bend: the beach. A large, sandy beach with beautiful public access.

Access to Beach on Lake Huron

MAIN ST to Grand Bend Beach

We enjoyed out day of touring this resort town on Lake Huron. In the evening, we returned to the Sweet Shoppe on Main Street for an ice cream. We sat outside on the street and ate them.
       Friday morning, we got up, and got going by 8:15, early for us. We passed by the fuel docks, and handed them the key to the shower rooms. Some of the least impressive shower rooms we have seen. No place to hang towels, or sit and dress in them. We were off to cross Lake Huron. We headed south the 15mi to Kettle Point to cross. Barbara has told me she did not want to be out of site of land. Crossing from Kettle Point to Port Sanilac, Mi was going to be 26 miles. I was pretty confident we could keep land in site on a crossing of this length. I was not so confident if we had crossed from Grand Bend directly to Port Sanilac. That was a mid 40s mileage, and seeing more than 20 miles even on a clear day is a challenge. We got to Port Sanilac a little before 1pm, and turned north towards Harbor Beach. There was a weather forecast for TS in the evening. I was praying we could get to Harbor Beach, MI before them. We got to Harbor Beach about 4, and the wind was starting to pick up out of the south. And the sky was getting dark. We anchored inside the harbor to spend the night. I slept good, but Barbara was not so comfortable. We never got the rain, but it did get very dark, north and south of us, and the wind gust were very noticeable. We had finally chose correctly in a weather window.

HARBOR BEACH LIGHT, EAST ENTRY

OPENING IN HARBOR BEACH SEA WALL TO SOUTH

We awoke Saturday morning to calm, and a partially cloudy sky. We were on our way by 8:25, as we knew weather was coming. We wanted to get across Saginaw Bay before the weather arrived. We got stonewalled here in August of 2015 by mother nature. Saginaw Bay has a reputation for being rough when other areas are not. We only had a 5 hr run planned, and crossing Saginaw was in those plans. We got to Austin Point Reef light, a little over half way in the total distance. We had 22 miles to go to get to Tawas bay, our goal. As we turned past the reef light to start the final leg, the winds picked up. And the weather forecast were going downhill.

AUSTIN POINT REEF LIGHT

At the 11mi mark of the 22 to get across the bay, I told Barbara we were at the point where we almost had to continue to Tawas Bay. And today, in the growing haze from atmospheric moisture, I could not see that 11miles. At about 10 miles, I started to see the shore outline. We called and made a request for a slip at the Tawas State Dock. The forecast for wind gusts in excess of 30kt made us decide it was best not to anchor for this night. We arrived at the State Dock at 2pm, a 5-1/2 hr run to cover the 53 nautical mi. The regulars near our dock were friendly, and helped the dock boy to get us tied. We got checked in with customs, went to the fuel dock to register, and at 4pm the sprinkles started. And the rains got heavier, and the winds got to howling. During one of the breaks in the rain, I went  out and repositioned a fender as SummerTime was bumping the dock occasionally.

MAJOR MILESTONE: TAWAS BAY ACROSS the SAGINAW

It was our good weather decision for the week to take a dock instead of anchoring. And we made a major milestone, as we had crossed Saginaw Bay. We were now as far north as we had been in the boat. And we are only about 190mi. from the Straits of Mackinaw, where we will travel west for about 20 miles before heading south.