ALMOST HOME

Today, we left Charlevoix harbor through the draw bridge at 7:30 and were able to sail for about 2 hours at 7knots.  The wind slowly declined until we started motorsailing so we could make the 67 miles home to Frankfort late this evening.  We were able to motorsail with one engine and the wind we still had at about 6 kts.  There's just a gentle roll as we move along passing "Big Bear" a giant sand dune and state park (picture attached.)  

The other is of Deb working on her computer in the cabin.

YESTERDAY September 7, 2008

As we left Mackinaw City and passed under the Michigan Straits bridge, we moved from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. It was good to return to the Mackinaw City Marina where we had stayed earlier this summer in the MacGregor. Again we found the staff to be most helpful and pleasant and it was sunny! The attractive office worker kept calling Tom "Captain" and he just beamed!

On the next leg of our journey we did not have any intermediate ports available if we wanted to stop early. We started about 7:30 to make sure we would reach Charlevoix even if we had delays along the way. We passed under the Mackinaw Bridge along with a barge being towed by a tug boat. They had right of way and not because they were so much bigger and traveled about the same speed we were going.

For three hours we motored west into the wind, then rounded the point and sailed south along the coast. It was so good to be sailing again with clouds but NO rain. We raised the Spinnacker but shortly had to drop it because we were sailing too close to the wind. The wind increased to 20 knots, the waves heightened and the wind direction swung to the south. We actually had to tack to reach the entry canal top Charlevoix Harbor and Lake.

Charlevoix Harbor is reached by crossing under a draw bridge that is opened every half hour. We planned to make the 6:00 raising but as we approached the bridge both motors stopped! We glided to the cement side wall and were able to tie up about 100 feet from the lowered bridge. Needless to say Tom was not pleased. He finally discovered that the lines that raised and lowered the motors had gotten entangled in the propellers when he put Cantrina in reverse which caused a couple fuses to blow!!!

It took a couple hours and a few phone calls before Tom fixed the problem. He had a cool swim
working under the boat times two (motors). We called the bridge lady and she personally raised
the bridge for just one boat - us! A lot of bystanders were very interested in us but no Mechanics or Marine Workers.We were so happy to be able to drop our anchor and call it a day! Ten and one half hours sailing plus one and one half hours repairs - 45 Miles Today.

lYESTERDAY September 7, 2008