Top 10 observations about full time cruising.

10. If you think you have ALL the bases covered, you haven't.
9.   Best weather forecasts are what you see off the bow of your boat.
8.   All marinas are not created equal.
7.   Lake flies are little Mother F*&^#$%ers!
6.   Notions about watching your food intake are silly.
5.   Just because NOAA says waves are 1 ft. or less, don't believe it.
4.   Radar and chart plotters are worth their weight in gold.
3.   Working Wi-Fi is a precious thing.
2.   The boat can always be washed, again.
1.   Mother Nature rules!!

Lake Michigan gets the last laugh.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Morning. Decisions.  Stay in South Haven another day or head to Chicago?  Since Chicago is such a milestone on this trip we were both anxious to be on our way.  I was thrilled when we got out of the   harbor and the lake was flat!!  The sun was shining and it was my perfect lake wish come true.  Not so fast.  An hour into the 7 hour trip a little fog rolled in.  I went up on the bow to help look out for Dave as he watched the radar.  Pretty soon it was so dense you couldn't see much past the bow of the boat.  O.K. fine.  How long can this last?  We drive in and out of fog with our cars in minutes don't we?  HA!  Lake Michigan got the last laugh.  We went through 6 hours of dense fog where maybe if you were lucky there was visibility 1/4 mile ahead.  High stress but still a flat lake so it could have been worse.  We saw a total of 4 boats all the way to East Chicago and one of them was a freighter that asked us on the radio to let him know his intentions so we could either pass in front of him or behind him.  We let him pass in front but we still never saw him!  Thank God for radar!

We arrived at the port (that we still could not see) and navigated in with the radar.  How in the heck do airline pilots do this???  We did it though and we were both happy that we accomplished this challenge incident free. 

East Chicago is actually in Indiana.  Smack in the blue collar, union card holding, rust belt.  Industrial land.  NOT a pretty little town but a very secure marina with a Raymarine tech that wee need to straighten out some issues with the auto pilot. Also about 1/4 the price of a marina in the city.  So, we are about 15 miles out of Chicago.  Just a short train ride in.  Archie, the Raymarine Tech is also commodore of the IHYC yacht club and he has graciously opened his yacht club to us which is, luckily, on the grounds.  I am using their internet right now as my Verizon Wi-Fi hot spot piece of crap device stopped working last week.  I spent about an hour on the phone trying to get it working with a tech I could hardly understand. He is convinced it is my 2 lap tops that are the problem and not Verizon.  I think not.  First stop home is to the Verizon store. 

We plan on going into Chicago tomorrow.  There is a jazz festival on the waterfront all weekend.  Love Chicago and the mid-western people.

I am a bit anxious to get home and have my little Carmen sleep over our house and also Lili and Cooper are coming to BA-TAAA-VI-A (that's how Lili said it when she was just learning how to talk).  Hey, indulge me here.  I am first and foremost a Grandma & Ganny!

These cute little Michigan seaside towns are starting to piss me off!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

We are in South Haven and yes, it is another adorable little seaside town.  All this cuteness is making me think of the Chevy Chase movie where he bought a house in a cute town in New England and comedy ensued.  What is the name of that movie???  Anyway, cute town, nice people, sweet little shops and restaurants, flowers everywhere, dynamite 3 month old municipal marina!  etc., etc.  Michigan waterways rock and again, New York State (ESPECIALLY ORLEANS COUNTY) doesn't even seen to realize what an asset it has with Lake Ontario!!  Enough NYS bashing.  I will try to stop. No promises.

Dave's Turn:

Small rollers surging their way into Grand Harbor kept Blue Moon in a constant state of motion all day and last night.  The 18-20 knot winds are predicted to calm down.  They did and we headed  for south again.  The westerly winds  turned into northwest winds and we had a following sea the four hours to South Harbor.  We passed the 1000 nautical miles mark on our voyage and, knock on wood, have avoided any major incidences or for that matter any minor ones too!  The Volvos are performing better than expected with fuel burn averaging 5.6 gallons per hour at an average 1,450 R.P.M.s and 9 knots.  This is a different style of boating than Robyn and I have done in the past and we are both enjoying the slower pace.  She keeps worrying that we need to buy more fuel when we don't!

Robyn:
Tonight we went to a movie in the cute little town to see "The Butler".  Excellent.  Academy Awards for everyone.  Powerful movie.  Tomorrow we might shoot across the lake to Chicago but only if Lake Michigan is in a good mood.  It's about an 8 hour trip.  I will personally be glad to have Lake Michigan behind us.  I am more of a calm river enthusiast and hopefully the Mississippi and Tom-Bigbee Rivers will be a whole lot more placid than the big lake. 

Mother Nature is still in charge.

Sat-Sun-Monday-Tuesday August 24-27, 2013

We left our anchorage in nothing-town-Arcadia and landed in Pentwater, Michigan for what we thought was to be just for the night.  Mother Nature had other ideas.

Pentwater is another adorable Michigan seaside town and the pride of the residents shines.  The local yacht club was having a wooden boat show.  We got there late so this was the only picture I could get.

 

They were nice enough to let us have dinner at their beautiful facility even though we are waaay out of reciprocal range.  It looks like a very active yacht club and there were children there!  They have a great location right inside the channel with a large deck overlooking the water.  Very nice.

 

After checking the weather report we decided, along with our neighboring boaters, to spend another night and wait for Lake Michigan to calm down.  This is our first time being "weathered-in"  since we left Point Breeze on July 18th.  Not bad.  Probably won't be the last !  Pentwater is such a nice place we really didn't mind.

 

Monday morning came and the winds were still howling and there was a storm approaching so we waited for all that to pass and left around 1:30 p.m. for Grand Haven.  We arrived in Grand Haven at 7:00p.m. and saw a nice little regatta on our way in the channel.  Lake Michigan was still pretty lumpy so it was not a great ride there. 

 

We got a slip at the municipal marina.  It's a so-so marina but Grand Haven is another cute seaside town.  I'm starting to see a real pattern here.  As long as we stay out of Detroit, Michigan will leave us with positive memories!

 

We were rocking and rolling at the dock all night because the winds just won't seem to calm down and the marina neglected to install a break-wall to help the situation!

 

Tuesday

 

Our boating buddies left for Point Breeze in the morning  This Friday is a huge day in their life as they pack their oldest son, Robbie, off to college.  There will be tears!  We will miss having Rob around too.

 

Can't say enough about the Browns.  Our life has been so enhanced by having them in it.  We have so much fun with them and we all have each other's backs.  Good stuff!  Will miss them terribly!

 

 

Dave spent the morning talking to marinas in Chicago.  We need to leave the boat there for nearly two weeks when we go home next week.  We also have a happy and huge milestone coming up in our family.  More on that later :)

 

We are spending another night in our rocking and rolling slip in Grand Haven before we set off for South Haven tomorrow and then hopefully Chicago on Friday.  Things are moving right along and Chicago seemed so far away when we started this; now it's just a few hours away.  Was hoping Buddy Guy would be playing at his club Legends while we are there but he's not. That's were my honey proposed to me so long ago.   

 

 

STOWAWAY!!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Captain and I rode our bikes around Charlevoix this morning and continued to drool over the exquisite houses and landscaping.  Another word about Michigan.  We had some silly preconceived notion that Michigan was all Detroit like or worse yet, New Jersey. From what we have seen so far we were so wrong.  The water color is Caribbean blue  here in the north and super clear.  We are totally impressed.  We have seen t-shirts that say "4 out of 5 Great Lakes prefer Michigan". Yep.

Lake Michigan was in a better mood on or way to our anchorage.  Nice gentle ride. We arrived  at a pretty little cove with a sandy beach.  First sandy beach of the trip.  There were a few boats anchored there and we found a nice spot in the deep water and let out 180 feet of anchor rode.  That is alot!  It held nicely in the sand bottom.  We cruised around on Little Moon for awhile and then came back to the boat and we had a cleaning spurt.  While vacumning I moved the curtains aside in the salon and this little furry stowaway was looking at me!

 



So I did the mature thing and started shrieking.  John & Brandon came to the rescue and wrestled the little flying vampire outside. But he wanted to come back in!

 

No way!  He finally flew to the upper helm and later when it was almost dark out he flew away.

 

We recovered with our brush with the little devil and made a nice dinner and enjoyed the Big Moon rise over the Blue Moon before we settled in for the evening.

 

 





Michigan is a boater's playground.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Charlevoix is a wonderful surprise.  We left Mackinac Island for a pretty long run down to Charlevoix the Straits of Mackinac.  Lake Michigan was a bitch.  6-10 footers for almost 6 hours.  Again Blue Moon showed her strongest attribute by taming those waves and giving us as smooth a ride as possible.  Our former boat, the Sea Ray DCONBLZ would not have handled the conditions so well.  Besides the bumpy ride there was a drama at sea ahead of us.

John just happened to be taking a picture of a lighthouse out in the big waves when  he spotted something in the water.  It looked like a small craft upside down!  Oh no!  Are their people in the water looking for rescue?  Could we even help them in the rough water without endangering ourselves?  John kept watch and determined that it was an inflatable dingy upside down.  We HOPED that it fell off of a boat and people were not actually crazy enough to be way out there in those dangerous seas.

Dave hailed the Coast Guard on the radio.  They took the lat and long location and told us that a vessel had reported that their dinghy fell off their boat but it was too dangerous to try and retrieve.  Whew! No people aboard!  The boat that lost it was a large Viking, Lady KK.  They had been docked right next to us the night before in Mackinac Island.  We found out later that a bolt broke off their davit and the dinghy broke free.

So, we were happy that all that was lost was a replacable dingy and not  and irreplacable life.

The bumpy trip finally ended.  Those were the roughest seas that Blue Moon has been in so far.  We pulled into Charlevoix Harbor and were pleasantly surprised.  it is a gorgeous little town and the state run marina is dead center in town where there are shops-restaurants-shops!  It is meticiously maintained and Hal the dockmaster greeted us.  After securing the all important Wi-Fi codes we had some lunch and walked around a bit.

We met five other looper couples and they invited us for docktails at 5 o/clock.  We met them and we exchanged boating stories.  They were from Seattle, Kentucky and Ohio.  Some are near the end of the loop and some are mid-loop.  Apparently I am flying the incorrect AGLCA burgee.  Mine states that we have completed multi loops and not in process loopers.  Have to order the correct one.

We took the dinghy for a spin around the lovely harbor.

 

We were dazzled by the houses and boathouses.

 

 

 

 

 

Later I found a cute little children's boutique and Lili, Carmen and Cooper all scored of course.  We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and that was a nice change.

 

Tomorrow we hope the lake has calmed down on route to our anchorage near Leland, Michigan in a cove off of Manitou Island.

 

We can't say enough about how Michigan has its act together for the boating community.  A few years back they formed a Master Plan to create safe, well maintained, reasonably priced marinas every 30 miles or so down the lake.  They have done an excellent job.  Are you listening New York State???

 

 



 

 

Mackinac Island. Lost in Time

Tuesday, August 20,  2013

Blue Moon docked at the Michigan State Marina Docks in the center of all the quaintness that is Mackinac Island.  Like Toronto Island, there are no motorized vehicles of any sort allowed but unlike Toronto Island, there are horse drawn carriages everywhere!

After lunch Dave and I took the 2 hour carriage ride.  I'm glad we did because the driver was a pretty good tour director in spite of his often repeated jokes.  We saw the famous arch.

700+ workers built the original Grand Hotel in the early 1800's in just 93 days!

 

 

The new stables for the Grand Hotel horses.

 

 

The rules for the fancy hotel....

 

Benji was upset that he left his coat and tie at home.

The yards are so beautifully landscaped (they use the excess horse manure compost and it sure does the job!).

 

 

We had a nice dinner in town and went back to the boat to watch the weather reports online. High winds expected.  On the technical side, Dave says Blue Moon has travelled 500 nautical miles and has averaged under 6 gallons per hour fuel burn traveling at 8-9 knots per hour; oh so necessary while traversing the rocky and sometimes shallow small craft routes of Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Slow cruising allows Blue Moon to get better than expected performance and the crew to get a good view of the spectacular sights.



 

 



Back in the USA!

Monday, August 19, 2013

We left Blind River Marina to head back to the USA for the first time in over a month.  Drummond Island, Michigan is the US Customs check in port so that was our plan.  We were not sure what to expect from Customs?  Would they board our boat and look for illegal stuff ( like more than one liter of alcohol per person) or just ask the questions they as at the Peace Bridge?

When we go to Canada and back from Pt. Breeze, hardly any one checks in at the well hidden video phone in the middle of the river that only has a small dock for small boats and a small sign!  But here I guess you don't mess around so we will do it right.

The weather and sea conditions were holding nicely but that night at the marina two small dingys jockeyed a disabled boat in from the bouncy bay.  Dark, no power and kids on board.  Scaaarrrry stuff!  Again, boaters come to risk of other boaters risking their own safety.  Cool.

I had a chance to catch up on my blog and Brandon took my picture.

 





Later we arrived at Drummond Island and waited for the Customs Officer to board the boat.  He was young and friendly and we breezed through the procedure.  The marina had a car we could use to go into the so called town for tacos at a little roadhouse.

 

We fueled up and it was nice to pay US fuel prices after all the expensive Canadian fuel costs and sales taxes! (I see now why Canadians come to the USA to shop)

 

We left there and found a nice secure place to anchor for the night.  I think we were all a little let down by the "normal" scenery.  We have gotten so used to being dazzled every day by Georgian Bay

mind blowing landscapes.

 

Tomorrow Mackinac Island is the goal and hopefully a nice carriage ride around the motor vehicle free island.

 

Benji misses Georgian Bay  :(

 

 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Blue Moon weighed anchor (it had a small tree wrapped around it this time!) and left the Pool and the beautiful reflections of the mountains on the water behind us this morning and we steamed our way to the Benjamin Islands anchorage.  On the way there we had to wait for a swing bridge that opens on the hour.  We got there just a few minutes before noon and passed through a town called Little Current then out into the open bay for awhile.  It was very flat with no wind and a very nice ride to the Islands.  Following the route that we charted out the night before we made it there in about 3 1/2 hours.  The anchorage we picked out, according to the cruising book, sometimes has as many as 100 boats there in high season.  Lucky this is not high season and there were about 20 boats there and when we arrived we saw why people flock there!

 

 

It looks like we are out west!

 

 

 

 

We took the dinghy for a little ride and climbed on some rocks to take this picture.

 

 

 



 

Later a guy came over on his kayak and we talking about anchorages and he mentioned the Pool.  He asked us if the turtle came to visit us while we were there!  Apparently the little guy is   a legend and has been around for years.

 

Reminds me of the dolphin in the ICW near Venice, Florida.  He would beg food from boaters for many years and just died recently.  Animals adapting to their shrinking places on the planet I guess. Sad.

 

The same guy also gave us a book on Lake Michigan ports.  It won't be too long before Blue Moon leaves the north channel and heads for Mackinak Island and Lake Michigan.  The rest of this trip has a long way to go to compete with our amazing time in Georgian Bay.

 

Tomorrow is a travel day and a marina stop in Blind River in Lake Huron.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Baie Fine is SO Fine!

Friday, August 16, 2013

We awoke Friday morning to the best weather we've had in a week or so.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the annoying wind was gone.

Karen and I walked to the only store in Killarney to buy provisions while the guys had the boat pumped out and the freshwater holding tank filled.  After the chores were done we set course for Baie Fine (pronounced Bay Fin) and the famous "Pool" anchorage.  We were a bit anxious to get there because we assumed hordes of boats were on their way to get our once-in-a-lifetime-perfect-spot!

It was pretty easy navigating through the open bay compared to the intense routes we have become accustomed to (and I might brag a little, quite adept at getting through with propeller intact!).  We reached Baie Fine and it transformed into a Scandanavian like fiord.  Huge granite walls dramatically entering the crystal clear water.  We made our way through the very very narrow passage into the Pool.  Once we rounded the point our jaws dropped.  It was a phenomenal place to anchor and  we were 5 very happy people.

 

Our concern about there being no room for us was in vain as there was only one other boat at anchor.  We picked a premo spot and dropped the anchor, tied the stern to a tree and got on our hiking clothes.  We took the dinghy over to a trail that takes you up a mountain to Lake Topaz; a glacier lake with more dramatic walls and topaz colored water, hence the name.  On the way up Benji was a little tired so we stopped to rest.

 

 

Then Dave had to carry him!

 

 

The lake was stunning.

 

 

Brandon jumped right in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking back down the trail we found this.....

 

 

I guess that clears up the age old question about what bears might or might not do in the woods.

 

 

The hike was exhilarating and we were on sensory overload with the amazing scenery all around us.  We put together a yummy steak dinner and while we were cooking a little visitor must have smelled it...

 

 

 

Turtleman would have loved this guy.

 

This was the first time we had absolutely no cell service so I got out the satellite phone and used it for the first time to call Kristy and give her our status.  It worked!  Go Verizon!

 

Next morning we hated to leave this behind but onto our next adventure.

 

 

 



 



 

 





 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Killarney!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

We pulled up anchor and this time it was full of seaweed and clay.  Headed out for the Killarney route.  We had to go through 15 miles of open bay and it was pretty rough but again Blue Moon handled it very well and gave us a nice ride in 7 footers at times.. There were 6 wave runners buzzing around us out there.  It looked like a Mountain Dew commercial.  Could not believe they were going long distance in such rough stuff.  Ahh, youth! We approached Collins Inlet and held our breath a few times through some very shallow water and one particularly tight, shallow turn.  One the way we saw:

 

 

 

Once we arrived this scenery was SO worth the trip!

 

The Admiral & The Captain

 

Brandon, Karen & John

 

 

 

 

 

 

Killarney is basically a rugged little outpost.  No frills kinda town.  The Sportsmen's Inn is iconic and has recently had a huge facelift.  Nice job.  We ran into the waverunner guys and they were not 20 somethings more like late late 40 or 50 somethings!  Older guys.  Who woulda thought?  

 

We rode our bikes around town which only took about 1/2 hour because it is very small.   Caught up on laundry, ate lunch at the fish and chips wagon.  (Our fresh caught pickerel was better!)  I was happy to have internet again!

 

Later we ate at the Sportsmen's Inn restaurant for dinner.  Nice little pub.  Good live music.

 

18 years ago when Dave and I bought our old funky houseboat (the original DCONBLZ) we first heard of Georgian Bay and decided that someday we would love to make the trip.  It took us a while but we got here.  Tomorrow we are having the Georgian Bay Grand Finale in a place called Baie Fine and the Pool.  Everyone has told us not to miss it so that's the plan. 

 

 

 

 

 

Decisions...decisions.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Morning came and the skies were clear and blue so we had to decide whether to tackle rough seas or stay put.  The weather forecast was for 15-20 mph winds, much like the day before.  The gypsy in our souls ruled.  We raised the anchor and it was so caked with mud I had to raise and lower it quite a few times to get it clean.  But mud equals good holding, remember?

Out in Georgian Bay it had calmed down a bit since yesterday so we were all glad we decided to head for our next anchorage the "Flower Pot".  The turns to the northeast off the marked channel had  no aids to navigation so we had to really watch our depths. There are huge rocks everywhere.  It is an absolutely gorgeous spot though and we got there just fine.

Dave tied the stern to a big rock on shore.

 

Here's me on the boat.

 

 

The guys and Karen had a monument building contest.  You see these little rock creations all over the 30,000 islands here.  Benji had to help of course.

 

 

 

 

Once we got settled we all agreed that about 4 hours of travel a day with such intense navigation and chart watching is enough.  There is a bit of anxiety going through the shallow, narrow passages

where you can practically reach out and touch the rocks on either side of the boat.

 

John and Benji caught the first pickerel (walleye) and we made it for dinner.  Delicious!

 

 

Later we had a fire on shore.  There are bears in the area.  We saw huge piles of bear skat.  John saw a giant beaver too.  We've seen bald eagles and loons.  Still no Missauaga rattlesnakes and that's just fine with all of us.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow is kind of a big day.  The last of the 30,000 islands and onto the North Channel.  We are heading for Killarney and the Sportsmen's marina.  To get there we have to pass through Collins Inlet.  It is notoriously shallow in some spots so we called ahead to see if our boat could make it.  They said that sailboats make it through so we should be just fine.  There is a 15 mile of open stretch in the big bay again.  Hope it has calmed down!!!