Virgin Territory

Our last night in Mac City was a tough one. At 1:03 AM Linda was all over me but not in a good way. Without warning a bolt of lightning and a very loud crack of thunder scared the bejeezus (?sp) out of her then me. We got up to see if there was any damage or fire nearby, it was that close. Seeing none and comforted somewhat by the fact that there was a sailboat with a high mast a couple of slips over, we fell back to sleep. More thunder and lightning but no big deal for the next couple of hours, then….hail. Poor Q getting pelted by hail for a good 5 minutes and there was nothing we could do but watch… and so we did til 3:15 AM. There does not appear to be any damage, thank heavens.

The wind was still pretty strong when we got up but it was supposed to ease up some and change direction from west to north to northeast throughout the day. That was good news for a bunch of us who have been waiting to leave since Monday. We all decided to leave late that morning encountering 3 footers for about an hour then as we made the turn to head south down Lake Michigan they were down to about 2 feet and behind us so it was quite smooth and enjoyable, sort of. As an experiment Linda and I decided to travel with a couple of other boats at about 10 mph. Now usually we cruise at 20-22 mph which meant that we could have made the 60 mile trip in 3 hours. Both of us were getting antsy as we still had not reached our destination by cocktail hour (that is 4 PM for those not boating out of Westport Marina). The other captains convinced me that the difference in fuel usage would be dramatic especially over the length of a 6,000 mile trip. I guess 5 years retired is not enough to feel comfortable at that slow pace. But I may still try this for a number of stops because they are rather close together and I did not see the needle on the fuel gauge move. The theory for those not familiar with gas guzzlers: To travel 60 mi at 20 mph it takes 3 hrs and since I burn 26 gal/hr I would have used 78 gal of fuel. Now if I only burn 6 gal/hr (I have yet to confirm this but this is what others have determined) at 10 mph, I used 36 gal (6 hrs at 6 gph) for that same trip. Less than half. We may want to use our heads a little since we have more time than money.

Harbor Springs, MI

On rounding the point to Harbor Springs I was totally blown away by the scene in the huge bay. It looked like a vacation paradise. People were swimming in water that was a beautiful turquoise color, the beach were a nice white sand, people were sail boarding, all kinds of boats were anchored in a mooring ball field and boats, lots of boats, big and small were motoring every which way. I will look for a postcard with that view because it was that awesome I am sure they must have some. The dock hands were very knowledge. When Linda handed them a dock line they asked if it was a spring line or a bow line. The admiral?, after checking with the captain, properly informed them that it was a spring. We came in like professionals. The docks here are the composite (fake) wood and well maintained. A first class marina. And there is a patio bar just at the end of our dock. How great is that?

Another thunderstorm is ripping by as I write this update this Friday morning. I see that Windsor and Detroit got hit again last night. There seems to be a lot of storms, serious storms this summer. I hope that is not an indication for hurricanes. As for now, I am anxious to get out and do some more exploring but until then I will run up to the office to send out this update.

We are now in virgin territory, everything from this point forward is new territory for us.  It is getting more exciting.

Have a great day.