Change... Ready or not here it comes

 So all of our big talk for the last couple of years is finally beginning to become more real. Our dream to get out of this one horse town is slowly becoming a reality. Two months ago Brady informed his job that his last day would be June 1, 2016. This is another HUGE milestone in our ultimate plan.

Our kitchen wall - before

Over our July sailing vacation we came up with a plan to turn one of our main walls in our kitchen/living room into our planning room. We took down the collage of concert posters we have had hanging for over 5 years during this long and windy road of getting to where we are now only to replace them with a blank white board and calendar. This wonderful and amazing idea we had while on vacation became a reality and well, turned out not so amazing or as great as I thought it would be. The wall which once was filled with memories of the past was now washed clean and stark white, blank with nothing on it. One can say that this blankness is the unwritten, future experiences that we will have or our next chapter if you will. This is amazing to think about but all I could see was an ugly white blank wall of the unknown and this made me a bit scared and anxious.

... and after

After we began to write out what we need to complete by the time we leave on this next adventure I became more excited but even writing this right now I'm this feeling of heaviness on my chest and a pit in my stomach is slowly returning. Change, both exillerating and terrifying at the same time. This is the feeling that holds people back and as we were re-hanging up the pictures we moved for the white board and calendar to other places in the house I wanted it all to return back to the way it was just 30 minutes ago. This feeling, the feeling of unsettling, the pit in my stomach, I secretly love that feeling just as much as I hate it. It reminds me to keep pushing myself to cross off the next thing on my bucket list, to keep reaching for my dreams and without it I wouldn't be the person I am today or have the experiences I have had in my life.

I know I'm going to love/hate this preparation process and we are excited to begin this final step but it is easy to see why people stay in their comfort zones and don't branch out. We know that we may hate our new life and I find comfort in knowing that if this happens, which I really hope it doesn't, we can always come back but we will never know what is out there unless we go out and experience it. And I don't care but I'm going to be cheesy and add the perfect quote, well what I think is a perfect quote, that sums up this post...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

-Mark Twain

Fortunately I have found a partner who believes in these words just as much as I do.

Motorin'... Not Anymore!

Every year on our trip the wind is almost always directly behind us wherever we want to sail. Well, this year has once again been the same story. During every hop we try our best to sail, sometimes for extra hours, whether it means that we have to tack back and forth, or putt along sailing directly downwind with only the jib, etc. With a sailboat, you can work with the wind being anywhere but on the nose, however directly behind you is not ideal. Since you're running with the wind, the faster you go, the less the wind pushes you along. Also, with a normal sail setup you can't catch wind directly behind you very efficiently. This year we purchased a whisker pole to hold the jib out nearly perpendicular and rigged a preventer to hold our main sail out as far as it can go. This is called running wing and wing and has been our nemesis to setup correctly. With all of our attempts we ended up motoring more than we probably should have due to frustration. Each time we weren't doing something right. However, after this year's round of multiple attempts and failures at running wing and wing yesterday we FINALLY got it right! Finally. We were able to sail downwind for two thirds of our trip yesterday. As soon as we got some wind at Little Sable Point we were able to sail ALL the way down to the mouth of the Grand Haven break wall.

It. Was. Awesome. Better yet, we were averaging 6 or more knots the entire way!

The positive was that with each failed attempt to sail on this trip we learned, we think, how to attempt the next one a little bit better. For example the first attempt we were not able to extend the whisker pole that far out or unroll the jib completely but by yesterday our pole and jib were full extended and beautifully positioned. BAM!

This was such a smooth way to sail! It's no wonder people sail like this around the world. Our winds went from 8 to 18 knots and our wave height increased as well but we would have never noticed the change if it wasn't for the rudder getting a bit light while we were riding the highest waves.

Enjoy the pics and video of our wonderful sail! 

Hopefully we get a couple more of these on our last few days of vacation!

Dumb and Dumber

Here we are 'stuck' in Pentwater for a couple of day because of the wind and weather. We really do LOVE Pentwater so this was an actual treat for us and gave us more time to explore this amazing little harbor town. Per Brady's request, we checked out every little shop the town had to offer, we took a beautiful stroll to the light house and beach with Tuco (yes they have a dog beach!) and we were able to play around with our water toys! My idea was to kayak to a dune and take a little hike and have a little picnic with the pup. So, out came the kayak and we once again, reminded ourselves just how easy and effortless it is to pump up it up. It took less than 10 minutes before we were able to get it in the water. Honestly, the worst part of setting up the kayak is getting it out of our garage (aka the quarter berth).

So we loaded up and the three of us set paddling, or at least attempted to paddle, down the Pentwater Lake in search of a dune. It was a sunny but very windy day, around 25 knots out on Lake Michigan, but it seemed as though we were protected from the wind inland. Not even 10 feet from Further we began to have trouble, odd trouble with our kayaking skills. We couldn't keep the nose of the kayak straight no matter how hard we tried. We attempted to paddle every way we could think of; paddling opposite of each other, together with each other, Brady paddled without my help, I paddled without Brady's help, etc., etc. Nothing we did made us go straight. I imagine in my head that we were basically doing donuts in our kayak the entire time we were out on the lake. We started to notice that anytime the wind blew we would turn, and it was very hard to keep the nose of the boat straight. It was SO frustrating but we couldn't stop laughing at ourselves because we knew just how ridiculous we looked! While heading out we were passed by a couple of kayakers and I encouraged them to laugh at us too because we couldn't stop laughing at ourselves! Somehow we eventually made it across (we are talking about 100 yards) the smallest part of the lake before we decided to throw in the towel. Then we had the great thought of how were we going to get back if it took us over 30 minutes to get back this far!?! I already knew that Brady was having thoughts of throwing away the kayak the minute we got back to Chicago. 

Somehow we made it back to the dock. As we started to put away our disappointing toy I came to a realization that maybe, just maybe we got in the kayak the wrong way. So I asked Brady, "which way was the front when we were paddling?" he pointed to the end where we could now see the small fin keels underneath. I shared with him my thoughts and I was right, we were idiots. We were riding in the kayak backwards the entire time! The kayak looks the same front and back, and the seats just blow up and slip in either direction.  We had put the seats in facing backwards.  No wonder we couldn't go anywhere it in!!! Both fortunately and unfortunately, we realized it was user error and not a dysfunctional kayak so Brady agreed to keep it around for a little bit longer! That's 1 point for the kayak and 0 points for Nadine and Brady. 

Such Great Heights

The tricolor and running
light at the top of our mast

One of the many but little mini upgrades we made to Further this season was changing our tricolor and running light bulbs to LED bulbs. Our normal lights use about 2.5 amps and the LED bulbs use only 0.03 amps. That's a HUGE savings when it comes to self sustaining ourselves! The less power we use, the more we can recharge ourselves with only solar power, one of the ultimate goals we are working towards when we install new/updated instruments/gadgets on the boat.

Unfortunately the bulbs we bought created too much RF interference when on and disrupted our VHF radio and AIS to the point they no longer were sending or receiving signals while we were crossing the lake at the start of our trip. At the time we noticed that something wasn't right but didn't put two and two together until the next day when we were safely in harbor and in our right minds (aka no longer seasick). After some research we also learned this is a common issue. 

Bottom line, we cannot safely sail at night without these lights nor can we be out on the water safely without our VHF and ideally our AIS working! So, in true Hunger Game fashion, I volunteered as tribute to go up the mast to retrieve and then reattach the light at the top. Thankfully this was not my first time in our bosun chair, however, the prior two times I was in the car was to only go up 10 feet so it was never a big deal. But this time would be a bit, no, a lot different. Our mast is 43 feet tall so I'd be dangling about 48 feet over the water level and if something goes wrong there are a lot of things I could hit on my way down. 

We decided to scale the mast on one of our days while in port at Luddington, MI this past weekend and I'm sure we gave the marina and surrounding park quite a show! In total I went up the mast 3 times. The first was to practice how to tie myself off correctly with my primary line that had a block at the top every 5-10 feet to gain confidence. While I did this Brady also got comfortable with the secondary line that was on our mast wench. I was about 12-18 inches from the top, which was as far as I could go with the rigging we set up so I had to try to figure out how to remove the light over my head and without seeing what I was doing. After about 15 minutes of attempting to do this I decided to take some pictures so we could a) figure out how to remove the damn light and b) how to figure out how to get me higher so I could see what I was doing the next time. 

Further looks great from up here!

The second time going up thankfully was smoother than the first. This time we changed the rigging up and switched the halyards I was attached to so I could easily see the top of the mast and what I was doing. This made the job so much easier and I was able to successfully remove the darn light after giving it a couple wacks (funny how sometimes that's the best way to get a job done). Brady then swapped the light bulbs back to our original ones and back up the mast I went for the final time. Thankfully the last time was smoother than the first two times since the wind was starting to pick up and there was a crowd gathering across from us for a wedding and we didn't want our squeaky winch to be a distraction when the love birds said I do. Thankfully I was down and had cracked open a celebratory beer for the soon-to-be newlyweds before the bride or her bridesmaids made their grand entrance. 

Unfortunately this little hiccup now takes us back to the drawing board. The next step is to either figure out a way to stop the interference with the LED bulbs in our light or we have to find and purchase an entire new light. Changing these bulbs or light completely may cost more now but will help us put in the long run. We will keep you updated with our progress to come up with a solution!

Life Right now is Perfect

As I'm sitting here, watching the sun set on the beautiful White Lake, sitting in the cabin of Further with Brady and Tuco listening to families at the White Lake Yacht Club laughing, playing in the water, giving each other a hard time while Tom Petty and Dave Matthews is on in the background for all of the boaters on their boats to enjoy, I can only do one thing but try to burn this feeling of a perfect summer day in my mind. Right now, I am feeling so content with life. There is nowhere I'd rather be then sitting here with my two boys not having to think about anything other than what is going on around me right now. This is such a quaint little port, perfect doesn't begin to describe how amazing it is. When we docked here a couple of hours ago, at least three different members came up to us to welcome us, learn about us and to give their information on the harbor and must hit places. It's a place where everyone knows your name.  Everyone we talked to there was so relaxed and loved life. If we were planning to move to Michigan, I would move here in a heartbeat. But for now, as I sit here bundled in my sweatshirt watching the sun set on this magical place with my belly full of great food and ice cream, I don't want to think about the future because I don't want to miss this moment of contentment and togetherness I have in my soul. This is exactly where I'm supposed to be in life and that is such an amazing feeling. I want to spend every moment of my time studying my surroundings so I can remember this feeling and experience for many, many years.

Spotting Further

One of Brady's co-workers has been frequently following our progress up the Michigan coast. He saw us passing the entrance to Muskegon as we were sailing up to White Lake. Thankfully when he saw us he grabbed a screenshot of the boat. (Yes, that is us motor sailing since we once again were unsuccessful with figuring out how to sail downwind.) Just neat and wanted to share!

Docking - X Games Style

It seems as though we always like to come into port hot, right before or exactly as the weather is changing for the worst. It's not an exact science but we try to time our arrival to the next town at least 1-2 hours before the bad weather/winds/waves are scheduled to hit.

Well, we left Saugatuck for Grand Haven right after a lovely homemade breakfast giving us enough time to get to Grand Haven's Municipal Marina.  While we were out on the water, we decided to sail as much as we could, having to tack a handful of times, so this lengthened our trip. We easily out ran the rain (it wasn't supposed to hit for at least 3 hours after we docked) but the wind had already picked up and was gusting pretty strong when we were making our way up the Grand River.

Grand Haven's Municipal Marina is right on the river and not protected at all so when docking we not only had the strong gusts of wind to deal with but also the current of the river. We have learned that the best way for us to dock is into the wind. Why fight against mother nature when you can use her to your advantage! To do this, we had to pass our slip while heading east turn 180 degrees and come into the slip heading west (into the wind). The thought is that the wind will push your boat to where it needs to go and you can balance it with the motor. Unfortunately as we turned to prepare to dock, the wind picked up, of course, why make it easy. Brady was going almost full throttle into the wind, aiming the nose of Further directly into the piling splitting the two joining slips hoping to clear it (think, we were basically at a 45 degree angle to the dock) and as soon as we did, he cut back on the throttle so I could hook the spring line on the nearest cleat and try to ease the boat to the dock before mother nature slammed us right up against it. The slam wasn't too bad since we had control of the whole thing but once we rehashed it over again, it could have only taken a half a second slip-up to either run aground on the rocks not even 5 feet in front of us or hit the boat to our starboard.


Needless to say we once again pulled an amazing docking job out of our butts, without much talking, because we just intuitively knew what we both had to do. When we were all tied off, one of the girls who worked at the marina who came out to help us commented on how easy we made it look! (We have learned the hard way to ask the dock hands not to grab our spring line and to let me place it on the cleat by their feet then I'll had them our bow and stern lines. These kids are really nice and mean well but we know we can dock better on our own.) Yet another experience we wish we had the go pro set up to show how crazy of a moment this was!

Les Miserables

We ended up leaving for our 3 week sailing vacation 6 days late. Not ideal, but also not the end of the world. The stupid propane project took WAY longer than expected to complete. But we were finally able to get everything together and leave Thursday afternoon. Needless to say, we were both very excited to finally be shoving off!

The smiles faded very soon after this picture was taken.

The weather report stated that the wind and waves would be a bit strong when leaving the city, 15-20 knot winds with 2-4 foot waves, but both would die down the more northeast we traveled and as the day went on. I am sad to say that the waves ended up being larger than the report. 2-4 foot waves, we can handle, but 4-6 foot waves with occasional waves up to 8 feet was not comfortable at all.  At first we were dealing with the situation but about an hour or two into the sail we both became very sea sick. We came up with a new game, who could throw up over the rail first. Sad to say I won that game but Brady came in a close second. 

It was a horrible and not very comfortable 10.5 hour trip. I could not do anything other than lay in a fetal position on the downwind side of the cockpit with Tuco. I don't think Tuco was too happy about the ride either. Brady was on the ground right next to me and we both were trying to stay out of the way of the frequent rogue waves that would come crashing over the dodger. And I haven't even brought up the weather, when we left it was about 70 degrees on land, so obviously it was cooler on the water. We shoved off just after 2pm so it quickly became a lot colder on the lake. We were very prepared and packed multiple layers and had our foul weather gear aboard, however, we were both feeling too miserable to stay down in the boat for longer than a couple minutes. With the frequent waves we were crashing into, it was hard to stay on your feet when we went below. Imagine being in a bouncy house as a 1st grader surrounded by middle school kids but instead of being surrounded by air filled plastic everything around you was made of wood and fiberglass. Going to the bathroom was a challenge in itself. Thankfully I could sit down but Brady had to do lunges to keep his balance. (He was kind enough to wipe down the head the next morning.)

There were a few bonuses to our trip... 1) even though we were being pounded and beat up by the waves, we flew over to St. Joseph, MI. 2) we were able to sail on a reach the entire way with a double reef in our main sail 3) we weren't heeled over too badly, it was the waves that were trying to knock us down. 4) the last 2 hours of our sail became more manageable but unlike our previous crossing from Saugatuck, we were not able to get that euphoric feeling of loving sailing. Nope, we only felt slightly better. Which was a HUGE improvement. 5) in the middle of all this Brady came up with this amazing blog post title.

We called the marina we booked a slip with before leaving so we could get our slip assignment, which we thought was a good idea until we pulled into the harbor and realized at the last minute that a 20 foot speed boat took our spot and we almost parked over them. Thankfully I saw them at the last minute and we were able to pull off an emergency dock job at the marina's fuel station. It was an exciting ending to a memorable crossing.