September 10, 2008 and a While Thereafter

Wednesday is our day to go through everything on the boat and make sure it is ready to begin our trip south. Then we are going to take 5 or 6 days away from sailing so that we can move our other vehicles south to the Louisville Area. We call this Leap Frogging Toys. We also look forward to seeing some of our offspring along the way.

It is never too windy for a laugh! Be back soon.

Housekeeping September 9, 2008

Tom as up early and took Catrina off the hook (for land lovers, he pulled the anchor), and moved her to a dock slip in Frankfort Harbor. We have a small hard bottom dingy on divits at the stern which makes it very easy to anchor Catrina away from docks. We just pull the starter line on the motor and putt around the Harbor or to shore!

Today Tom completed lots of projects. He designed and built bow and stern mast holders to be used when we drop the mast to go under low bridges beginning at the Chicago Canal. Our mast is almost 50 feet high. Next he replaced the bow running light that shines red on one side and green on the other. Finally, he had Debbie hoist him up the mast to work on the Anchor Light. Now you might think something is a little "fishy" when you remember how small Debbie appears and how big Tom is. She had the help of an electric wench. Tom sat is a nylon type seat that was attached to a halyard (the line that raises the sail). At the foot of the mast the halyard was then run through two pulleys and around a self-tailing wench. When Tom was ready to ascend, Debbie put the electric wench into the self-tailing wench and pulled the trigger. Tom slowly went up which surprised both of us. When he got to the top, I am sure the view was beautiful and he was able to get the Anchor Light working by replacing the light bulb. When we are ready to take down the mast in Chicago, Tom gets to go up again and remove the radar and wind sensors. The real trick was for Tom to take the correct tools up with him so he could fix the problem. He had a purse like bag slung over his shoulder containing everything he might need.

I am sorry we don't have a picture of this. We were so busy we forgot the camera!

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

Hopefully Last Update September 5, 2008

After an up and down night with rain pelting our roof, we slept in to 10 a.m. We were the only transient boat in residence at Rogers City Marina so it was very quiet! During the wee-hours Tom used a less busy computer time to work on the Blog.

When morning arrived, it had stopped raining but it was "grey" out. We left about 10:30 motoring north in 2-3 foot waves in 15 mph winds. Sounds a lot like the past few days but today we will turn NW. With all the humidity generated by the 15 hours of rain, Debbie became a human defroster frequently wiping the windshield. The humidity was so thick you could practically cut your way through it! That was inside the cockpit. . . .

At 2:00 as we continued in a NW fashion around the east top edge of Michigan, the sun broke through the clouds and everything was beautiful again. We decided to continue on passed Hammond Bay Harbor Marina ending out the day about 7:30 at Cheybogan. Nine hours and 35 miles.

Although we had called ahead to see if space was available at Cheyboygan County Marina, we decided to drop anchor in a boat turnaround area on the other side of the entry canal behind a Coast Guard working ferry. The CG boat did not move and did not ask us to leave. We had a very pleasant dinner and night aboard.

Another Update September 4, 2008

A good night's sleep works wonders. Today we can sail, not motor. But, of course, we had to cover the rest of the route out of Thunder Bay directly north into the wind by motor at 3-4 mph before we could raise both sails and head northwest on a broad reach. Although it was cloudy, we felt so fortunate to find such a wonderful boat that even the rain that arrived halfway through the afternoon did not dampen our spirits.

As the afternoon wore on, the waves increased, some as high as our boat (5 to 6 feet)! Catrina reached right along. Debbie felt nautically competent with the help of her two assistants, GPS and Autopilot! Tom frequently praised the PDQ over his previous Gemini.

Nine hours and 44 miles later we sailed into Rogers City Marina, ate dinner at the Lighthouse

Restaurant, finished stowing our gear, check the forward storage areas and found them dry and caught up on our computer correspondence while listening to the outside wind roar and the raindrops fall on the bimini. Tom is a quick learner and after having to pump water out of the storage areas yesterday, we definitely closed them securely today. We also coiled and tied down our shore electric line. Yesterday as the waves increased, it appeared in front of our cabin windows like a long yellow snake!