A Bad Decision

Screen shot of the chart for the islands of Lake Erie

Everyone has done this at least once or twice in their lives, right?!? Well, I admit that I have made a few, er, I mean many bad decisions in my time. Almost always I look back and am able to learn from my mistake which lets me give my past self a little thanks for making the wrong choice because it got me to where I am now and it has made me learn what not to do, or try to not do in the future. (I'm only human of course!) well, a couple days ago I made yet another bad decision but unfortunately I realized it was bad about 10 minutes after we left a safe harbor. I'll start from the beginning. 

We had to make a detour from our original place we wanted to stay on Lake Erie because unknown to us, it was Christmas in July. We unfortunately found this out after leaving the Detroit harbor while we were on our way to our destination. We have been very lucky with finding open slips at harbors along our trip with out too much hassle but unfortunately our luck ran out with this destination. We quickly did some research and came up with a couple of plan b's that we weighed out. One option was to head to stay on Lake Erie's coast and go somewhere around Port Clinton for the evening. The second was to see if we would be able to get a mooring ball at Put-In-Bay even though it was Christmas in July, who celebrates this and why is this not listed in any cruising guide?!? The last and most appealing option was to head to an island about 12 nautical miles away from our original destination, Pelee Island, however this meant that we would have to spend the night in Canada. No problem we thought. We brought our passports for just this just-in-case we need to spend an unforeseen night in Canada reason so no big deal. We would then hit our next stop in Ohio and bypass Put In Bay all together and continue on our merry way. 

That all sounded great until we read the fine print of how to go about going through customs when entering back into the US on a boat. A little red tape that we didn't consider. We thought that getting into another country would be the problem not coming back into our country of residence! Apparently you have to check into customs when you anchor, dock or set foot in another country. So, we don't have to do anything if we just sail through like we were doing when going down the St Clair River, the Detroit River and Lake St Claire. Brady's cell phone plan didn't get that memo and would pick up Canada's services even when we were still in US territory. (Funny how that never seemed to work the other way!) 

We learned when thankfully we read more into coming back into the states that you had to go to the nearest customs station as soon as you dock back in the US. The stop we were planning to continue to did not have a customs video phone or customs office so we would have had to rent a car and drive to the nearest customs office. I'm not exactly sure how that would have worked since you are supposed to be with the mode of transportation you arrived back in the country with. To by pass this insanity we decided to make the 12 mile journey to Put-in-Bay because they had a customs video phone right next to the dock and we would be able to check back into the US with much less hassle than we would of we want to the other town. Decision made. 

Pelee Island was very beautiful, or at least the 2 blocks we saw of it because it was hotter than all heck we couldn't walk anywhere else other than to the dock office to check in with customs and to the ice cream shop. It was so hot that we had ice cream before dinner and we ate our dinner in the dark! This heat wave is not fun without AC. 

The following morning's weather was scattered storms so we were trying to plan our departure in between the storms. Since our destination was only 12 miles away we knew we could wait for a decent break in the storms and make it to the next island without any issues. 

So, after deciding to wait until after the first line of storms passed I made us some breakfast burritos. The entire time Brady was checking the weather and following the storms. Hindsight is 20/20 and Brady was kinda kicking himself that we should have just left because he kept saying "we would be there by now". It turned out that the first wave diminished before they reached us and we kept going back and fourth if we could make it before the next wave hit. After hearing Brady flip flopping back and fourth and seeing other boats leave all morning, I got it in my head that, if they are going we should be too... Seeing what everyone else was doing and second guessing our original decision of waiting till after the first wave of storms was the start of my bad decision. We know to NEVER think like that but for some reason the peer pressure was getting to me. So I made a decision, since we were only 12 nautical miles away and the storms were a ways out, that we should go now in case it got worse later on. 

So, out we went. As soon as we got passed the breakwall, the waves and wind quickly picked up. It's funny how the water and wind can seem so calm while in a harbor but as soon as you pass the breakwall Mother Nature only then shows her true colors. That is something I quite often forget to take into account when we discuss if we stay or if we go. The minute we got around the breakwall I knew I made a bad decision. I knew we would be fine but it would be a very bad and uncomfortable 12 mile ride. After apologizing for my bad decision, I mentioned to Brady that we are close enough to turn around and head back to the harbor but since we were already out it would be too dangerous to try to head back in with the wind and the waves steadily increasing quickly.

 We immediately put up our sails (with two reefs in) to help us get more stable and get through the waves more efficiently than our motor could. We got about half way when the winds picked up and the storm hit. Thankfully before it did, we put in the third reef and brought in the jib even more. As soon as everything hit we were surprised how comfortable we could sail in 30+ winds. I should say as comfortable as one can be in 5-6 foot waves, with rain pounding down and trying to tack back and forth In between a couple of reefs and islands while sailing about 7.5 knots! But believe me, it was the most comfortable, I should say the least stressed, we have been while in a storm. And we had the most control of the boat as well, which I'm sure helped keep down the stress. The boat was barely overpowered for the two hour sail in the storm. The third reef worked like a charm! Thankfully Brady rigged it up the day before. Even Tuco gave his seal of approval by sleeping through the storm! He only moved when it started to rain and went back to sleep after we covered him with a rain jacket. 

As soon as the winds began to die down we started to head to Put-in-Bay to check back into the states and check out the so called Key West of the Great Lakes. Even though the experience wasn't as bad as it could have been and we gained some good experience with a third reef, I would not make that same decision again. Next time we will analyze all the information we have in front of us and try to make the best decision possible. Once we do make a decision we will stick with it even if it wasn't the right one (we decide to stay in port because the marine forecast and weather are predicting unfavorable conditions but it turns out being a nice day) because more times than not, it will be the right and safest decision!

Two Lakes and a River

Going under the Bluewater Bridge - it unofficially marks the separation between Lake Huron and the St Clair River

Our last 15 nautical miles on Lake Huron started off a perfect ending to the non forgiving lake we have experienced this last week and a half however that quickly changed to the normal high winds and waves that we have experienced day in and day out while sailing the entire length of this lake. We were determined to not let this get to us and sailed to the last bouys before the St Clair River entrance, which is also a very high traffic area with both large and small boats zooming by!

We are happy to get off Lake Huron!

As soon as we hit the river our motoring speed increased 1-2 knots due to the current, first time experiencing a current and fortunately for us we were going the same direction!  We averaged about 7 knots going down it, which was great since we lost some time by tacking back and fourth on the southern end of Lake Huron. This marks off two more firsts for us; going down a major river with large ships and dealing with a current! 

Sharing the road

As we entered the St Clair River we had Canada on the left, north, side and Michigan on the right. At first it was very industrial and then it was lined with houses and nature on both sides. I never knew that a river with so many big boats going through could be so beautiful! Luckily we docked just before a line of storms hit the area. (Thankfully our luck hasn't run out just yet in regards to the weather!) However, these storms did not help with the heat, things just got more steamy after they passed. The town was so cute but once again we were too exhausted to go out and explore. It ended up being to our advantage since we were able to enjoy a free live concert across the river from our dock!

Detroit Lighthouse

Going under another bascule bridge!

How do you keep a dog cool
during a heat wave?
Put him on top of the fridge!

The Detroit River

The next day we headed to Detroit. We completed the trip through the St Clair River, went through Lake St Clair and then entered into the Detroit River where once again we were very shocked to see just how beautiful this area was. This was my first time in the area and other than the insane heat, it was nothing like I expected! Both rivers were not surprising, very industrial, however what was surprising was a) how clean both rivers were (who thinks of Detroit or any major city having a clean river, much cleaner than the Chicago River) and b) how many beautiful homes were lined up on the river front and c) how the majority of both rivers were lined with nature and not industry! We were able to enjoy the sights of industry, urban landscape and nature all working together. Both Brady and I kept looking at each other and saying, I never knew Detroit had this side to it! I love being extremely surprised because my assumption of somewhere is completely different than what I experience. One of my favorite things about traveling and visiting new places! 

The Ambassador Bridge with Detroit in the background

The Route - Finally!!!

Our route through the Great Lakes

So I seriously just now realized that I should have shared this much earlier so that the handful of you amazing people who are reading this have a better idea of our route. We still are learning the geography of the northeast United States, and we didn't know much about our route until we started mapping it out. Thankfully we read about others via blogs and books who went before us so we had somewhat of an idea of how to plan it out but the route still didn't quite sink in, how exactly everything fit together until we mapped out our tentative route town by town, day by day.

Before we left we had the first leg of the route, Chicago to Detriot, mapped out. It wasn't until the other day, when we planned out the next leg of our trip that our path from Detroit to Buffalo started to become more clear. We are waiting to complete the rest of the trip when Brady's gramps joins us. So keep tracking us!  

Recovery Robert - aka Lord of the Rings

Picture of Robert's website homepage

This morning was like any other morning. We wandered up to the restrooms to freshen ourselves up for the morning and after coming back, I decided to take Tuco out for his morning stroll. After walking around Lexington's beautiful public park we headed back to the boat. The boat was a bit far from the dock and I was worried about Tuco falling in so I reached down for our spring line to pull the boat closer and picked up the dog and bloop, I hear my phone fall into the water. Awesome, just awesome. I threw on my bathing suit, grabbed our mask and psyched myself into diving in the water. It wasn't deep but there is something mentally I have to prepare for when I jump in water where you can't see the bottom. Give me a tank and I'll jump right in but I hesitate when jumping into new waters blind. I jumped in after 30 seconds of pep talk and was pleasantly surprised when I found the water warmer than the air. One bonus. After attempting to dive down twice, I'm way too buoyant without fins, a tank and a weight belt, I knew me getting down to the bottom of the harbor was a lost cause.

I forgot to mention that the visibility was zero, unlike the viz in the harbors in northern Michigan. Brady was kind enough to attempt to free dive down to try to retrieve it. His legs at least got under the water and didn't flail up on the surface like mine did. (I'm currently chuckling to myself right now because I'm envisioning what everyone else in the harbor saw when I tried to free dive and retrieve my phone compared to what I thought I looked like. The first time I tried to free dive down I thought I did a decent job. I knew I didn't get the second half of my body under the second attempt. When I asked Brady how I did, he crushed my dreams and answered, both times it looked like you were a deranged synchronized swimmer.) 

It was a lost cause. My phone was gone. Brady, being awesome kept reassuring me that it was just an expensive mistake and to not worry about it. Weirdly, I wasn't too distraught about losing it forever but I did feel bad about losing all of the pictures we took on our entire northern Michigan part of the trip. So, instead of just saying screw it and sailing on, Brady convinced me that we might be able to retrieve it. Up to the harbor office we went to see if the kids working had access to some scuba gear. At Montrose, they have a tank to help do upkeep on the harbor and sometimes they will help boaters retrieve stuff. So, worst they could say was no. Unfortunately they didn't have any scuba gear. Brady would not let me give up. We waiting around until 9am, when all the dive shops were open and then he called one of them. He was very animated and excited to the man on the other side of the phone. Immediately I had hope we might be able to get it back, in true Brady and Nadine form, we called at just the perfect moment when the owner just happened to be grabbing something in the shop and happened to pick up the phone. He gave Brady a number for a guy who "retrieves things from the lake". Now my hopes are up. I can't believe that there is a guy in the area who might be able to dive for my phone in a harbor in Lake Huron on a Wednesday. 

So, we continued on our quest. Thankfully Robert picked up his phone awaiting our call. Apparently the dive shop owner gave him a heads up that we would be calling. Robert told Brady he would be able to try to retrieve the phone the following morning. After asking Brady where in the lake I dropped it and Brady explaining that we are on a boat and will be on the boat awaiting him whenever he could come help. For some reason this led the conversation to why we were living on a boat and that we were gonna sail to our next destination after he came to get my phone. Not sure what changed his mind but Robert then informed Brady that he would be able to stop by this evening to help us out and that his charge was gas and cost to refill his tank (which cost about $6). What!?! I'm sorry, is this guy really going to come here for practically nothing? Is this really happening?!? 

So, we hung out in Lexington for the day stopping in a bar or two and the local brewery (which makes really amazing fruity beers). We happened upon his website and found that Scuba Bob, we affectionately named him, aka Lord of the Rings on his website, is kinda amazing! Best story is about a ring Robert found that was a class ring from 1954 that was used as an engagement ring and returned it back to the owner and his still wife 54 years later! We knew we were in good hands!

Recovery Robert, another name we affectionately had for Robert, showed up in full scuba gear at the Lexington Municipal Marina around 6pm and literally jumped right in! (Ok, he really walked down the ladder and swam over to where the phone made contact with the water and then descended down into the murky harbor water. After a couple of minutes and a handful of bubbles later up popped an iPhone with a hand grasped tightly around it in triumph! Robert's buddy grabbed it from him and handed the phone to me and sure enough that was my phone, recovered from the lake only 12 hours after it went for its swim. Robert gleefully climbed back up the ladder and was received by many cheers and thanks from Brady and I! 

After giving Robert his reward for his time and just for being him, we walked him back to his truck where we saw the treasures he recovered when diving for 6 hours, yes 6 hours, off Belle Isle in the Detroit River. The coolest thing we thought he found was an Ovaltine decoder ring, like the one Ralphie got in A Christmas Story! Robert walked away with another happy, smiling, satisfied costemer. Seriously, this was amazing, too unreal to make up. Robert has inspired me to go out and try to find my own gems under the water! Click here to see a local news story about the man, the myth, the legend, Recovery Robert!

Next step, put the phone in a bag of silica gel for a few days and see what happens. Keep those fingers crossed and stay tuned! 

Oh Happy, It's-just-another-birth Day!

I bet you are wondering why I never became a pastry chef!

Yesterday was Brady's birthday. It was a bit uneventful since we are trying to make up some time and well of course we ended up at a harbor of refuge on Lake Huron with no walkable nearby town for the evening. Figures. Why does this stuff always happen on Brady's big day! We did celebrate Saturday night in East Tawas so that was nice and we were able to go out to a local mom and pop diner for breakfast before leaving Port Austin, but I did feel a little bad that other than a boxed cake I managed to successfully make while underway and a multi FaceTime sing along of happy birthday, it was just another day of high winds and and waves on Lake Huron. The hard life of a cruiser! 

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts and Sometimes Hot Heads

You will read it in many places when researching about living on a sailboat or cruising with your partner that doing this can be a big stress test on your relationship. Some couples dock somewhere forever, put their boat up for sale and fly back home because they quickly realize that the stress is just too much or that this type of lifestyle isn't what they signed up for. And they are right, it (it meaning all aspects of this lifestyle) is too much at times and just like life on land, it is guaranteed that you will go through experiences that you have not signed up for. However, situations have a tendency to go from 0 to 100 in a matter of minutes, even seconds, more frequently than they typically do on land. And things get crazy very, very quickly even if you are both mentally and physically prepared as well as ready for all sorts of situations to occur. I'm talking about both problems on the boat, the weather as well as tempers; all of these can escalate in a moments notice.

Unfortunately, we are not in any way immune to these types of situations. Over the years we have gotten into arguments over something as small as misplacing something or as large as extreme weather in the middle of the lake. Both parties can get frustrated and a bit emotional. We are kind of living in a pressure cooker of sorts, very small living arrangements, with each other 24/7 and being surrounded by things that can not only harm you badly but even a little mistake can be life threatening. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I'm well aware that most things we do on land can be life threatening as well but you have the security to get help and safe surroundings rather quickly if and when you may need it. This is different when surrounded by water. There may not be another boat within miles of your location and it may take help a couple of hours to get to you depending where in the water you are. If a storm hits while out on the water, you have to wait it out until you can get to safe harbor because sometimes waiting out the weather is safer than trying to get into a harbor (I know it sounds crazy but there are less things to hit while in open waters). Add a bad wind and wave day into the mix and things in the pressure cooker may or may not go up a notch. Now add a bad wind and waves for a week to this pressure cooker and you can only imagine that things can get a bit intense. 

Our first day we were on Lake Huron wasn't that bad, granted we were ending our 39.2 nautical mile trip and technically we were only on Huron for the last 30 minutes before docking but whatever! Plus we were on our cross something off our bucket list high from going under the Mac Bridge. This high made us blind to the current high winds and choppy waters of the area in the Great Lakes where Lake Huron narrows and meets Lake Michigan, also known as The Straits. Because we were celebrating our success and trying to hail that evening's port, Straits State Harbor (try saying that three times in a row without messing up) to notice the water conditions. Unfortunately, this first day was one of the best cruising days we had this particular lake. Bottom line is that we have not been able to figure Lake Huron's weather pattern's out just yet and for some reason, we have been getting daily beatings from her. This leads to a very stressful and uncomfortable ride.

Every evening when we get into port, we check the marine report (wind, waves and weather) for the area we will be sailing. This is done for us to make an initial decision if we will head out the following day or not. We do this once again before we leave in morning. Each day had almost the exact same report word for word; winds 5-10 knots in the morning and increasing to 10-15 by late afternoon with waves less than 2 feet and the chance of thunderstorms at any moment. And every day we would make the decision to leave because we seemed to have great sailing conditions only to get out on the lake and find the wind whipping at 20-25 sustained with gusts up to 30 and waves 3-4 feet with some 5-6 footers. Everyday, it was the same weather report (and in the harbors everything was very calm) but the minute we would pass the breakwall, or turn the corner to get out on the lake, everything became a bit intense. It was a bit like Groundhog Day. We began to think that this lake had it out for us. We also thought the marine reports were just being copied and pasted every day. It wasn't until yesterday that we heard the Coast Guard on the VHF stating the conditions around the lakes were "very unpredictable" currently and to be cautious when out on water. We would take daily beatings from both the winds and waves and sometimes rain , thankfully the rains seemed to let us be for the most part, but these beatings started to take a toll on us and our mental status. 

At first we were thinking 'glass half full' and were excited to better our skill. And after getting into port the first couple of nights we would sit back and think, we are getting better in how we handle these situations! We were, in the beginning, open and willing to take the push Lake Huron was giving us to better our skills and get more comfortable in these type of wind and waves in a 'safer' environment. Then as the days went on we realized that we weren't getting any relief and not enjoying it anymore. We would be exhausted when coming into port and we weren't motivated to explore any of the towns like we usually do, and would fall asleep in our dinner. Stressed sailing and sleeping became our life. 

It was about the fourth day when the wind was sustained at 25 knots with big waves, a normal thing for us to sail in for this lake, not bad we thought. We had about 3 miles left to finish crossing Saginaw Bay to get into Port Austin (the tip of the thumb in MI, for all you Michiganders) for the night, when the wind decided to not only pick up right then and become 30+ knots sustained but also shift and come at us right on the nose of the boat. It was coming at us right from the place we needed to go. UGH! Lake Huron was making us work for it and it was not a good way to end an already stressful sail. 

We tried and tried to find a good angle where we would be able to make progress toward the marina but also keep up speed but we kept being hit by wave after wave slowing down our slow speed to practically nothing. It was a between us and Mother Nature. She would not let us in the harbor without a fight and she was not letting up. (I failed to mention that we were already being short and snapping at each other for the past day or so and we really just needed a little silver lining, a good burger and a couple beers, which we planned to reward ourselves with as soon as we docked in Port Austin.) After realizing we were not making any progress toward our destination and being oh so close to the end of another mentally and physically stressful day (and my burger) I broke down. I couldn't take it anymore. I was at my wits end. Knowing that I can't totally break down and crawl into a hole and hide until things got better, I let out my frustrations by letting Mother Nature know exactly what I thought of her. It ended up being about a 30 second rant. Did she listen, no. Did it solve anything, no. But it did allow me to get out my frustrations so I could go quickly back to the task at hand and work successfully in our little team.

This life is not like the movies or pictures of sailing. Cruisers who do this for years say it's perfect about 10 percent of the time and they are right. Either something, or a couple of things are broken and need fixing, there is no wind, it's too hot, it's too cold, you can't escape the sun/wind/rain/elements (we only have a dodger so our cabin is open), you are sea sick, or any number of things that go wrong that I haven't thought of at this moment. Not only can things go wrong, but as I said before, you are surrounded by water and both water and Mother Nature are unforgiving (as many home owners know). So, we too have our breaking point. Which we both have reached. But just like any other job, tomorrow is a new day, a new sail and hopefully a less stressful one. And if not, well we will be SO glad to get off this lake in a couple of days!  

Radio King

Brady has been the VHF radio king on Further since we have been using it more and more to hail marinas for transient slips. And let me tell you he has become a real pro! I don't know why but we still think it's funny using the radio, something we have to do on a daily basis but for some reason it's always funny to us. Maybe it's because you have no idea how many people or who is listening to you and if they are anything like us, they are making fun of whoever they hear calling on the radio. We come up with whole sceneries and backgrounds of the people we hear talking on the radio. Why? I don't know. People just sound funny to us when speaking on the VHF for some reason. 

When out we always have our VHF on, I'm sure this is common practice for boaters. When it's on you keep it tuned into channel 16. This is considered the hailing channel. Everyone who has their radios on is monitoring this channel i.e. the Coast Guard, big container and shipping freighters, your average boater or sailor, harbors, a lot of people... you get the picture. So everyone is monitoring this channel and listening to see if someone is trying to call you or if someone announces information that pertains to you. 

We, like everyone else on the water, monitor channel 16. However we tend to follow conversations when they switch to another channel because, well, we don't have anything better to do. We are stuck out on the water with just ourselves and stalking conversations when you are stuck on a boat for most of the day is a form of entertainment and breaks up the day. Not only is it a form of entertainment but it's also educational. Seriously. We also listen to learn proper 'radio etiquette', dos and don'ts when using the radio, proper pronounceation of town/harbor names, hear what other boats are doing, weather updates, coast guard updates, etc. 

Because we do this, we assume that everyone else is listening to us when we use the radio. Since we are just starting to become comfortable using our VHF, we still tend to practice hailing harbors before getting on the radio. Talking clearly, concise and using proper etiquette and terms while the other person is staring at you hoping that you screw up so that its funnier is very difficult. Honestly, you would think we were a couple of 7 year olds trying to use a VHF without getting caught! It makes me giggle just sitting here thinking about talking on the radio while writing this post! Maybe because in our minds we sound like the horrible 90s cartoons Beavis and Butthead. But I also think it has something to do with the fact that you don't know how many people are listening in on your conversation and are judging us. Brady and I are perfectionists and I personally get embarrassed very, very easily and laughter, usually uncontrollable laughter, is my defense mechanism. That's my excuse. I don't have one for Brady but he has gotten better with keeping his giggling when communicating on the VHF at bay. 

I on the other hand have not. The other day when we were having a really tough, stressful and very, VERY long sailing day, we tried to hail our target harbor when we were still a couple hours out just in case they were closed before we got into port. For some reason the harbor could hear us but when they responded all we heard was static. So we figured that we would try to hail them again when we were closer. Toward the end of our sail Brady was taking care of an issue below deck, we had an exhaust leak inside the boat, this unfortunately made the motor look like it was overheating (which it wasn't and everything turned out to be fine). So, while Brady was investigating the smoke coming from below deck the harbor happened to hail us. I took it upon myself while driving the boat to respond since Brady was a bit busy. 

Usually the first thing one party says is to move the conversation to another channel to get off of 16, but for some reason that wasn't suggested just yet. After a successful first non-giggly response, I was unable to keep the laughter at bay and when answering the next question of "how are you doing" Due to the current circumstances I let out a roar of laughter mid word over channel 16 for all the traffic on Lake Huron to hear. If you ask any of my friends, family or co-workers, they will tell you that my laugh is not the cute quiet type. So imagine a hearty, uncontrolled laugh going out to an open mic. Once I realized what was happening I took my finger off the transmit button to stop broadcasting my inappropriate laughter, quickly regrouped and answered the next few questions with minimal giggle interruptions. 

After my little outburst, the person at the harbor also requested for us to move our conversation to a different channel, something I wish was done before my laugh attack. Thankfully the Coast Guard didn't come on to reprimand me, they frequently have to do this to people having inappropriate conversations on channel 16. We have heard the USCG give out people's coordinates to let them know if they didn't cease the inappropriate action they would have to charge them with one federal violation or another. I was hoping that no one ever heard my laugh because maybe my finger wasn't pressed down on the button hard enough. But no such luck, since the person who checked us in for the night asked me what was so funny when we were talking on the radio. Well, hopefully I made one or two strangers smile and if I'm lucky I became a great character in someone else's made up story of all the people on the radio!

A Tale of Two Lighthouses

We're on top of the world!
At the top of Presque Isle's new lighthouse

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a time with unpredictable weather, wind and waves, it was a time with biting flies, it was a time when storms could appear without warning - in short, I guess the summer was just like any other summer when sailing on a Great Lake. We decided to have a short sail since the two prior days Lake Huron kicked our butts and tested our sailing skills the whole day during both sails. We were thankful for the short trip (only 4 hours) since our nerves were starting to get shot and tempers short from the constant lake beating. 

USCG, U.S. Aids to Navigation System 

When coming into the harbor, we experienced yet another first, using range markers as navigation devices. They are different than bouys since they are markers on land, where one is placed higher and farther back than the other. As explained by the US Coast guard, "Range Markers are found in pairs with one higher than the other. Range markers indicate the center line of a channel by having them lined up as you pass through the channel. They will have vertical colored panels to assist you in lining them up." In this circumstance these particular range markers helped navigate us through shallow waters of the bay into Presque Isle harbor.

After docking once again with some crazy gusts we decided to take a break from the boat for a couple of hours and take a nice hike to the town's old and then new lighthouse. The old lighthouse was at the end of the bay the marina was in, so about a quick seven minute walk. What started as a beautiful shady, tree lined path turned into a blood bath, of our blood, because we walked into a swarm of mosquitos and biting flies! Ugh! It's bad enough dealing with them while sailing but on land, land was supposed to be our safe zone. Seriously we were swarmed by them. Not exaggerating, we each had at least 10 of them on us at a time with more swarming around. I'm sure we looked like Pigpen from Peanuts instead of dust following us around it was biting flies and mosquitos. How can something SO small hurt SO bad?!? I luckily found one last deep woods off wipe in my camera bag that we quickly lathered all over ourselves. Once we arrived to the museum we hurried off inside where we thought we would get a little relief. Not so much. We were creating some weird ritual dance, trying to keep the ones that followed us in from biting us, as the lighthouse museum employee was telling us all about the history of the lighthouse keeper, the lighthouse itself and trying to sell us a discounted tickets if we want to climb to the top of both lighthouses. It was very interesting but it was so hard to concentrate because of the flies!!! The only place we found relief was at the top of the lighthouse. It was really neat since you could go out on the catwalk and take in the beautiful sights of Presque Isle and enjoy the breeze.

The lens at the old lighthouse

Contemplating life

Beautiful!

The old lighthouse

When we came down we weren't attacked right away by biting bugs, thinking that they had hopefully attached themselves to one of the visitors who had the luxury of driving up in their air conditioned car. Soon after we started walking down the driveway to the main road, we were once again surrounded. When we got to the openness of the main road, we lost most of them so decided to head the one mile walk to the new lighthouse in the blistering sun, hopefully the sun was what was keeping them at bay. Nope! About half way the battle began once again and we realized at we were being used as a transport service for the local flies. I counted over 15 on Brady's shirt and shorts just hanging out and he would not tell me how many stowaways I had. Taking pictures was not a priority and I tried to snap a couple while power walking/lightly jogging to the entrance of the new lighthouse museum. 

the new lighthouse

Dripping with sweat from the sun and trying to keep flies off of our exposed skin, shorts and shirts were not proper attire in this environment, we slammed the doors behind us trying to keep our friends out and entering a room filed with glorious AC!!! In another room we kept hearing the familiar whacking sound of a fly swatter busy at work. After wandering around the new lighthouse museum, checking out our war wounds and stopping in front of the air conditioner to try to cool ourselves down we started the 130 step climb to the top of the new lighthouse that is still in use. 

Lens of the new lighthouse

Climbing up these lighthouses are a bit unnerving since they have a very narrow and spiral staircase going straight up to the top so you do have to stop every now and again so you don't become too dizzy. I too had to stop because my nerves started to get to me, not sure it was the height or what but, I was never before nervous let alone afraid of heights. I'm thinking the old age is starting to creep up on me or maybe it was just exhaustion from the heat and the bug fight. Once again we were able to go out on the catwalk of the lighthouse. The views at the top were breathtaking! Not to mention it had a great breeze and no flies! After taking tons of pictures and enjoying the view, we locked up the catwalk behind us and made the trek down to the lobby. 

What a view!

We had to mentally prepare ourselves for the mile and a half journey back to the marina and tried to start our passage back like cool and collected people. Unfortunately that didn't last too long. Our frantic waves of our arms and legs started seconds after stepping outside of the new lighthouse. I began hoping out loud that a kind stranger would drive past us and offer us a ride in their air conditioned car but no such luck. Fortunately the walk home was not as bad as the walk there. Maybe our enemies found new targets or maybe they felt some compassion towards us or maybe we just too the fun out of the game since they could tell we were too exhausted to fire back, whichever it was, we thankfully had an enjoyable walk back to the harbor. After chatting with some locals we learned that they get worse after rains and in certain wind.  Since there were quite a few storms that blew through the day before along with the wind direction being from the forest it was making for peak biter level.  For years sailing in Chicago and southwest Michigan, we thought we were safe from flies on land but it turns out, no, depending on where you are and weather conditions, you may not get any rest from our nemesis the biting fly.

Isn't Technology Grand!

Us sailing while video chatting with my ladies at Rush via Snapchat

FaceTiming while
anchoring

The other day, or maybe it was a few weeks ago, I don't know. It seems as though time is moving at a snails pace out here. Maybe because I'm just more relaxed and don't have much else to think about other than my own thoughts, which have thankfully moved from the autobahn lane into the medium-slow lane or things that are right in front of us. Either way, thankfully time seems to be moving more slow than it did on land. Because of this I feel that we are enjoying more moments, epically the little simple ones, with this slow pace.

Anyway, I digress. So, the other day or week, or whenever it was, Brady and I were able to live video with some of my favorite coworkers while we were sailing and they were at work!!! It was the coolest and just SO awesome to see their faces! It just made our day!! We also FaceTimed my brother and sister-in-law and one of our nieces and Brady's family right before her birthday party while out! 

Group FaceTime Shots

It's just so amazing how fast technology developed in the last 10 years! Last time I was on my travels, 10 years ago, cell phones were just becoming popular and I don't believe video chat was a thing yet. I remember having to send mass emails of my experiences to friends and family. Uploading pictures to send via email took at least 30 minutes on a good day to do! I still had a film camera so maybe that's why I wasn't uploading pictures! Haha. And the only people that I knew who had Facebook were friends I met when living abroad and you needed someone who had a profile to invite to join! It's amazing this time leaving home to be able to not think about the distance between us and our friends and family because of the wonderful technology we now have in our daily lives! Heck, I'm even writing this post, and getting cell service, while sailing in the middle of Lake Huron offshore to towns with populations of less than a thousand people. Hopefully, because of all this fancy technology that has become apart of our daily lives, when we finally reach our new home across  the country we don't feel all of the miles in between us and our amazing family and friends. That's definitely making this move a little bit easier and hopefully will keep the homesickness episodes a little less frequent.

Bridge Crossing

The Mackinac Bridge - Lake Michigan side

Lake Huron side!!!

We have finally reached as far as our dreams took us when we first bought Further five years ago. Yesterday was a monumental moment in our sailing lives, we crossed under the Mackinac Bridge and officially left the safe and familiar shores and harbors of Lake Michigan and entered into unknown waters (at least for us) of Lake Huron! It was amazing to finally get to cross that off the list while adding sailing to Maine onto our new 'to do' dream list! I'm excited for all the unknown to-dos we will continue to add to the list in the days, weeks, months and years to come. My heart is full and eyes are a bit misty and I'm just trying to take this feeling in so I don't forget it. I'm in awe of all Brady and I have accomplished together and looking forward to our vast and unknown future adventures. I felt that this moment was very Thelma and Louise like for me, however, thankfully there was no cliff on the other side of the bridge!

Leave it to Beaver... Island

At the harbor lighthouse

We. Finally. Made It!!! This was THE place on Lake Michigan that I was most excited to see and explore. Let me take a couple steps back and start from the beginning...

After each days sail we sit down and take a look at the upcoming weather and lake forecasts for the next two days. We were currently docked in Petoskey, having just arrived from a relaxing and short day sail, when we started to discuss where to 'park' for the weekend while doing some laundry. NOAA was predicting high winds and possible severe storms on Friday and Saturday, so we knew we were going to be stuck wherever we ended up on Thursday. So we had a big decision to make. We wanted to spend one full day in Petoskey, lots to do, cute town and AMAZING brewery (I love that availability of good beer has become a big factor in planning our layovers at this point in our trip!) however if we stayed here for another day it would push our trip back another couple of days. This wasn't sitting well with us because we were already a few days behind our semi schedule since we parked it a bit longer than we expected to in Sutton's Bay for Fourth of July weekend. NO regrets though. We still think that was a great decision! 

Mackinac Island was a possible destination we considered however it was a bit too far of a daysail than we wanted to do. Beaver Island ended up being the perfect place to tie our lines up for the weekend because 1) going there would still allow us to be able to move forward but on a day sail that wasn't too long for us (estimated 33 nautical miles) 2) it is a great halfway point to get to Mackinac Island and 3) Beaver Island was on the top of my must sail to/visit list since we purchased Further. Win, win for all! (Ok, not for Beards Brewing, the amazing brewery in Petoskey that we only had time for one pint because we were doing our laundry. We have been buying their beers all along our trip and they are all AMAZING! We suggest anyone else reading this should do the same!) 

Anyway back to the Beaver. I was SO excited to be 'stuck' exploring in my #1 place to visit! We set sail from Petoskey Thursday morning and got to the municipal harbor around 4:30. We learned that this harbor doesn't take reservations, it operates on a first come first serve basis. Fortunately for us there were plenty of slips available! We were warmly greeted at the dock by about 6 other cruisers, all helping us to bring the boat in and all wanting to know "where did you come from" "where's your home port" and "where are you going next". It was so nice and welcoming! After getting settled and walking Tuco, we headed to the store to stock up on provisions, wandered around town, ate dinner, relaxed, and decided to turn in early after a long day. (Sailing takes it out of you, we will discuss this more in an upcoming post).

Beaver Island Community Center

The next morning we walked to the local bakery after the first storm rolled in and got back to the boat just before the second one hit. After a wonderful homemade brunch of biscuits and gravy, over easy eggs and hash browns (we are becoming quite creative with our oven and stove) we rented some bikes and headed off to find a place to fill our propane tank for our oven and stove. Fortunately, that didn't take as long as we thought it would so we then decided to take a leisurely bike ride to the harbor lighthouse. This island is amazing because there are SO many antique boat parts that are now being used as lawn and house decorations. It was really neat riding around the streets looking at the old boilers and propellers salvaged from old and outdated boats. That evening we went to the community center to watch Central Michigan University's theatre group put on a play, Marriage is Murder, which was really neat for a local community center to house. 

Big Rock

Most roads on the island are dirt roads

Beaver Island Lighthouse

Saturday we decided to rent a car for a half day and drive around the island. Best. Decision. Ever. After a very detailed must see map tour from the woman working at the car rental place we hopped into our black Geo Tracker (yep they still exist) with no radio and headed off for our own self-guided driving tour of the island. We started off by visiting Protar's tomb and house then headed to big rock and big birch. These were not to be missed one local explained to us as they are "freaks of nature". Then we headed to Miller's Marsh to try to get a glimpse of a beaver in the wild on Beaver Island. I'm sad to report we didn't see any and we couldn't finish the walk because the path became very overgrown and there was poison ivy everywhere, shorts were not quite proper attire to trek through. We continued to head south on the island to Beaver Island Lighthouse. It isn't in use anymore but we were able to climb to the top of it which was really neat! Last we stopped by the local's favorite beach that you have to hike to across a footbridge. That was beautiful and I wish we had a little more time to relax on the beach.

That evening we made the trek up to The Lodge were we indulged in amazing cocktails and food while watching the beautiful sunset. While on our last drinks we all of a sudden found ourselves in a family reunion/40th anniversary party with a bunch of fun and amazing locals! How does this stuff happen, I don't know, but I was sad we didn't stay for another couple of drinks. We started chatting with a couple of members in the family and when they heard about our trip and Brady's career change, they were more excited than we were! They tried to buy us some drinks to stay out but we had to be responsible and go to bed at a reasonable time to get an early start on our long sail the next day. We wish we could have stayed and partied with them, it would have been memorable! Darn our semi-schedule we are on.

On a side note, if you wanna learn a bit about Beaver Island's history listen to this episode of The Dollop, where two comedians talk about crazy events in American history. (We listed to it on our way to the island. Hilarious and crazy.)  

Another First!

Traffic comes out to Lake Michigan before incoming traffic can go under the bridge.

We are now crossing firsts off our list left and right! See our first island, check! Anchor out, check. Become dingy masters, check, check, check! We have another first to check off the list... successfully going under a bascule bridge (aka a drawbridge)! This one was a bit more exciting than nerve wracking, compared to anchoring out. We arrived at Charlevoix's harbor entrance about 20 minutes before the bridge was scheduled to open. In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you aren't, the bridge opens at the top and middle of the hour, every hour, from 6 am to 10 pm. 

The channel to the bridge itself was pretty short and narrow, so we decided to bide our time and hangout near the entrance of the harbor on the lake so we wouldn't get into any sticky situations. Our motor and handling capabilities aren't like other boats. We don't have as much power and control as other boats do when it comes to turning around in one spot or reversing, so we like to be extremely cautious and stay away from any possible foreseen issues. 

Five minutes before the bridge was scheduled to open us and two other sailboats, who were also waiting to enter the channel just before the bridge raised up, formed into a nice line and slowly motored towards the bridge. It seemed as though the traffic coming out to Lake Michigan went through first and after all boats were through the traffic coming into Round Lake. Like a well oiled machine, the bridge started to close as the last sailboat was going through and traffic soon started.

We didn’t have a chance to get into the town of Charlevoix since the municipal marina was booked for the evening and we weren’t sure where exactly on Round Lake we could anchor out so we continued into Lake Charlevoix to a marina on the outskirts of the city. The next day we got to go through the bridge once again to back to Lake Michigan. We have plenty more firsts to cross off the list, and they seem to all be happening all at once! 

Dean Gets Clean

We ended up anchoring out for the Fourth of July weekend so we didn't have the luxury of having showers awaiting us like we do when we stay in a marina. Unfortunately, Further does not have a good shower setup in the head (aka bathroom). The head is made up of all wood, very pretty but not really functional. There is also no shower sump which leaves all of the dirty water to sit in our bilge, the area under the floor of the boat to be pumped out. You know, the area where you don't necessarily really want water to be. 

Because of this we invested in an 'outside shower' of sorts to use at our anchorages. We always have a plan B. It's made up of an industrial sprayer (like the ones you use to spray oil and pesticides) and we added a hand held shower head on it to make it more shower like. On our sail into Sutton's Bay we did fill up our sprayer with clean lake water we bucketed in the middle of the lake. 

We have heard that we can ask nearby marinas to use their showers for a couple dollars if needed too. So for the first couple days anchored out at Sutton's Bay we were able to use the city marina's showers. However they did politely ask us to not use them over the holiday weekend since they would be full of boaters. This is what lead us to find a YMCA after our 17 mile bike ride that Saturday however we still needed to get clean the rest of the weekend. 

Since we weren't alone at our anchorage we didn't feel comfortable using our outside shower so we thought we can go swimming and bathe in the lake! Brilliant, or so we thought. After talking ourselves into jumping in, the water was a bit chilly at first, we went to work cleaning ourselves. Easier said than done. We didn't think of the fact that we would be using our arms soaping ourselves up instead of using them to stay afloat. So we grabbed our dinghy floats to help us keep our heads above water. Brady was able to successfully get cleaned off this way however I was not as graceful. I thought that I could sit on the floaty to help the situation but it ended up looking like one of those gladiators trying to balance on a small pedestal while the other tries to knock them off with a pugil stick. The only difference between me and gladiators was that I was competing with no one and still had problems with balancing on my foam pad. 

As I was almost successfully attempting to drown myself, Brady came up with another concoction to help me bathe without drowning... Using our fenders! He tied them to a line that was coming from the boat, shockingly there was a slight current that kept pushing me away from the boat while I was trying to bathe. Our fenders turned out to be another thing that I used to try and drown myself. I could just see this picture I was giving everyone; limbs flailing everywhere, me laughing uncontrollably and almost drowning and Brady on deck dying with laughter. We must have been a site to see. After my workout, and barely getting a handful of soap on one of my arms, I climbed back on the boat and finished off my bath with our pesticide container shower. 

So, I have to say that our first attempt to cleanse ourselves while on the boat/in the lake wasn't a complete failure. I do wish we had recorded our struggles. While toweling off we came up with the brilliant idea of first jumping in the lake to get wet, climbing back on the boat to get all soaped up then hopping back in the lake to rinse off with a final rinse of warm water from our on deck, homemade shower. This lifestyle has a steep learning curve! At least for us!! 

Simple Life

Our dinghy with Further anchored in the distance - Sutton's Bay, MI

We are loving this anchoring lifestyle. Really, we just love the slower paced, more relaxed and less complicated lifestyle Further brings us overall. We do things when we want to and more importantly at our own pace. Life happens at the Dean and Brady pace. If I can estimate, it's slower than Michigan time but a bit faster than island time. Either way it's a perfect pace for us and we appreciate things more when life moves at a slower pace!

We loved living in Chicago, we were there for the last 10 years. As our time there progressed we were starting to get over living in such a big city. It's hard to believe but it took SO much effort to do normal day-to-day tasks like driving to work or going to the store. We tried to walk to most places but we did have to drive a lot and let me tell you, driving was one of the worst things about living in the city. This is coming from someone who really likes to drive. On a no traffic day it would take me about 30 minutes to drive to work,  9 miles, that was also at 6 AM. On the way home from work at 7:30/8PM it would take me longer to get home. Once at your location, finding a spot sometimes was just as hard to do as getting there. We kinda started to dread doing anything.

Every summer, after bringing the boat down to Montrose, we would do everything we could to live on the boat all summer long. During this time we would also take 2-3 weeks off of work to go sail the southwest coast of Michigan. We started to notice that our lives on the boat were easier, less complicated, we were closer to nature and we were just overall happier. This was a huge factor in our decision to move out of the big, big city.

Our slower lifestyle may not be for everyone. It takes longer to do your normal everyday chores like cooking, food shopping, cleaning, walking the dog, getting to the bathroom and laundry but when you are crossing these chores off your list you do it in a way that you appreciate the chore more. You also learn to live with less stuff and comforts. Because of this we have come to realize that we don't need or really desire lots of the things that we have had before. When out anchoring or sailing, I don't mind using our little head (bathroom) on the boat. I also really enjoy walking to the bathrooms and shower when we are in a harbor. I feel that living this way we appreciating everything about our lives a bit more as well as not having to worry about the hustle and bustle.

To some people this lifestyle may be harder, more difficult or annoying that things take so long to do but not to us. We view it as though we get to enjoy the tasks we need to complete and not try to rush though them. If it takes us a day to complete something then so be it and we will get to everything else tomorrow. We have just changed our view on life just a bit now that we have left the city. It continues to change the more we are on the boat.

A trip to the store means that we have to make sure we have reusable bags, our wallets, and list before heading out since we often step off the boat without anything but the clothes we are wearing, even often forgetting our shoes. We then pile into the dinghy and take turns rowing into shore (at this anchorage it takes about 7 minutes). The walk to the store is about 10 minutes. We aren't able to hunger shop since we can only carry a certain amount of stuff from the store back to the boat comfortably, plus we have no jobs so we are on a budget. Usually a trip to the store takes us a couple hours overall to complete a round trip, something that would have taken us 30 min tops on land.

Life is a lot simpler on the boat so we don't mind when these tasks that may us longer than before. We aren't doing them because we want something, we are doing them for a purpose and it isn't a chore anymore, it becomes a part of our lifestyle. We feel that our errands and chores are more relaxing to complete this way, not sure why but maybe because life is a little less complicated. But let me tell you, I personally will take less complicated over complicated anytime!