Surprises at MI City September 23, 2008

St. Joseph Municipal Marina has a very unique way of waking up boaters. We finally guessed that boats were being put in winter storage. Take a look!

Debbie and Tom said goodbye to their new friends Linda and Jack aboard a lovely older troller with beautiful wood work- Cynthia Faye.

Catrina headed out and up went the sails. Where is all the wind? We added the Port Motor and moved along under sail a 7 knots.

As the day progressed, the sails no longer helped our forward movement and came down. Thank goodness for motors! In the distance we could see the coal power plant and the nuclear one at Michigan City. To our surprise as we headed for the channel this sailboat passed us. We took a second look and discovered it was a MacGregor!

It took quite a while for the clerks at Washington Park Marina to find us a wide enough slip. They picked #350. Off we went. Tom decided to back in so that his mounted Satellite Disc would point the correct direction. As we were backing up, the boat stopped functioning as expected. Tom checked first the Port motor we had been using all day. Fine. Then the Starboard one. It would only go forward even when shifted to reverse. Somehow with great skill, Tom maneuvered Catrina into the slot. It was supposed to be an 18 foot slip for a 16 foot boat but just look at the free board along our boat.

Mechanic Detective Tom discovered that one gear shifting cable broke so whenever he shifted, the port motor stayed in forward. He was able to order four new ones to replace the ones that had worked for fourteen years. I'll bet they don't last that long in salt water! So remember that schedule we made up just yesterday - we are revising it but we are not sure how yet!

After a dinner from canned food (we will find a grocery store tomorrow), a walk around the waterfront and a trip to the laundry at last, we called it a day. Just so you will know we live in the high rent district - our neighbor!