Sailing Vessel Far Niente, Living the Dream

Back in the U.S. of A.

2010-08-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Rochester, NY – Genesee River

43 degrees 15.125 min N

77 degrees 36.506 min W

An uneventful, relaxed 46 nm crossing of Lake Ontario today from Cobourg, ON to Rochester, NY. Wind was good (10-14 kts, SW ) for sailing for 65% of the transit, but it died 10 miles off shore of Rochester. It became what we like to call, 'water-ski water'. We powered on toward the marina.

Based on weather reports we wanted to get in the marina before 2:00 - 3:00 pm as thunderstorms were predicted for late this afternoon and they most certainly did materialize, but after we were tied up safely at Shumway Marina.

Clearing into U.S. Customs was as easy as clearing into Canadian Customs and we did it via videophone. Best part- I didn't have to fill out a form! When was the last time you did ANYTHING with or for the government that did not require you to fill out a form?

We'll update this blog entry with photos and additional information in the next few days before we head to Oswego, where we'll pull down the mast and head south on the Oswego and Erie Canals to the Hudson River.

Down the North shore of Lake Ontario

2010-08-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

08/18/2010

Cobourg, Ontario, Canada

Latitude 43.95689 degrees North, Longitude 78.16592 degrees West

We left the marina at Port Credit Tuesday morning at 6:45 am. The sail from Port Credit to Cobourg yesterday broke down like this:

Hours 0-3, motoring past Toronto as wind built.

Hours 3-6, flew just the genoa with 10-15 kts of wind (almost on the stern) and a bit of a following sea. Wind moved a bit more to the SW which was perfect for our point of sail.

Hours 6-11, we stayed with the genoa as the SW winds built to 15-22+ kts and as the day progressed following seas built significantly. Boat speed was 5-6+ kts, but SOG was 6-7.5 kts. Fortunately, the wind direction never really shifted to the West, as forecasted, so we kept the same point of sail for a very long period of time. We saw 1.0-2 kt SOG boost from the following seas for most of the afternoon.

Just as we approached the entrance to the breakwater at Cobourg the wind was 21-26 kts and large waves were rolling across the very narrow entrance (rocks on both sides of course) which made for an exciting transit. I used nearly full power on Yani to punch through and prevent from being pushed onto the rocks. Once inside, waters were quite calm and we relaxed a bit.

The Cobourg Village Marina is reasonably nice marina ($56/night for us). There are quite a few sailboats (unlike most of the marinas we have been in so far) and the downtown are is very nice town with all the amenities.

2010-08-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Far Niente is currently docked at the Port Credit Village Marina in Port Credit Ontario. We'll be here several days as we visit with friends and take in some of Toronto (15 miles east) via fast commuter train. We'll next head south back into U.S. waters and stay in Rochester, NY where my wife has family prior to our last Lake Ontario stop in Oswego, NY.

We left Port Dahlousie (south shore of Lake Ontario just west of the Welland Canal exit) about 10 am to 5 kts of wind and a flat lake. An hour out, in a mixture of fog and haze, winds picked up to 10 kts and we hoisted the sails. Thirty minutes later we had 0.00 & 0.00 on the knot meter and wind indicator. We pulled sails in and motored to Port Credit. A few miles off shore, about 90 minutes later, it was blowing 15-19 kts! Drives you crazy sometimes.

We had planned on docking at the Port Credit Harbor marina which has the most unique breakwater separating it from Lake Ontario one has ever seen; a sunken freighter of some 300'. We called them to request a slip and they said they were full and could not fit us in (about 900 boats in this marina - it is huge). So we called the little and uncharted (at least there were no descriptions in the 2 cruising guides we had on board) Port Credit Village Marina right off the Credit River and just in front of a bridge with less than 50' clearance.

The ride in was tense as the river/channel is silted up and very shallow in spots, but the attendant we spoke with on the VHF said we could make it with our 5' draft. So we followed the seawall, hugging it all the way, and I watched as the depth meter ticked down from 9' to 0.3' below our keel. Tense is the only way to describe it. Oh, and then there were the 2 outbound powerboats that only stubbornly gave way. (Biting my tongue about some of these yahoos.)

We are the only sailboat in this marina of about 40 slips. There are about a dozen other power/fishing boats and many empty slips. We understand they will fill up on the weekend. It is a basic marina: restrooms, 1 washer and 1 dryer and gated access. It is in a busy area and very urban, but not as offensive as Jefferson Beach Marina in St. Clair Shores. The marina is situated around a park-like setting with benches for landlubbers to watch the boats come and go.

There are more than a dozen bars/restaurants within a few minutes of the marina. There is a marine chanderly right around the corner, a Starbuck's across the bridge that spans the Credit River and a big grocery store 10-15 minutes away. You can catch the high-speed commuter train to Toronto across the street as well.

2010-08-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

We are staying at the Port Dalhousie Marina until Tuesday. Weather will be much better then and we had plenty of chores and odds & ends to take care of so we are not just sitting around on our hands.

We went into town yesterday afternoon and stumbled upon the famous Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. These are races of 1, 2, 4, and 8 person rowing skulls. They race on a course that used to be the old Welland Canal.

The regatta, sometimes referred to simply as "Henley," was established by RCA (then known as the Canadian Association of Amateur Oarsmen) shortly after the association's creation in 1880. The regatta was hosted by different clubs in Quebec and Ontario until it settled in St. Catharines in 1903. It is, in effect, the Canadian club championships and has grown to become the largest of its kind in the western world. The Royal Canadian Henley regatta is held each year in early August on the Henley Course on Martindale Pond in the former village of Port Dalhousie in St. Catharines. The course is recognized as a FISA category 'A' rowing venue.

We watched a variety of final heat races and it was all quite fun.

The rest of the 'downtown' area has a few tourist shops, pubs and restaurants. While sitting at an outdoor bar drinking a cold beer, we could hear a duo performing in the bar across the street. It was, without question, the absolutely worst singing performance we have ever heard. We could not stop laughing it was so bad. Look for this dude on American Idol next season!

2010-08-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

PHOTO: Marjorie tending the bow line on Far Niente after we descend some 40’ in about 6-8 minutes. The lock is now opening. Photo taken in Lock 5 at 43.15488 degrees north and 79.19345 degrees south .

Current Location: Port Dalhousie Marina, Port Dalhousie, Ontario, CN

We successfully transited the Welland Canal today and did it in less than 8 hours, which means we were really lucky. We spoke with fellow sailors who have taken upwards of 17 hours due to freighter traffic. We entered Lake Ontario around 5:30 pm EDT and headed west to Port Dalhousie to dock and rest.

We left at our slip at the Sugarloaf marina at 9:45 am and hit the bridge at 10:00 am. Normally we would have had to tie up at a small dock right in front of bridge 21 and await Welland traffic control’s instructions, but some knuckle head decided to tie up his 40+’ motor cruiser at the free dock for the weekend. This meant we did not have a place to tie off because of our length. So we called traffic control at the kiosk next to the public dock the night before and explained that we could not stage at the dock due to this guy tying up the only spot we could wait at. We spoke to Welland traffic control that evening and they were very cooperative and let us pay then and instructed us to early in the morning and remain at the marina. We called them at 6:30 am and they told us to we’d need to wait until about 10:00 am and travel with 3 other boats. So we relaxed and had coffee and breakfast. We traveled the 21-mile length with 2 other sailboats and a motor cruiser who had taken on a professional captain for the transit. The motor cruiser led the group and we sat at the back of pack.

We only encountered 2 freighters on the way and in both cases they were up bound (Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, which is a higher elevation) and we reached the locks they were in just before they emerged from the lock. In one case we tied of on a very industrial wall, which was an interesting experience I’ll comment more on later and in the second case we simply floated around 10-15 minutes as the ship passed out of the lock and by us in a very wide part of the channel just south of Lock 1.

The first 11-12 miles are simply canal motoring. Not much scenery and a couple of bridges that we had to wait for, but only for a few minutes. Once you hit lock 7, the locks take up the next 6-7 miles and it is one after another with about a 40+’ drop in each lock.

Our first real lock (lock 8 right after we entered the canal is called a control lock and the water level does not change) was a bit of a challenge because the canal authority asked us to try out a new mooring system. Instead of being handed 2 lines by handlers that you then use to hold you boat on the lock wall as the water level drops, they had some experimental automatic floating tie offs that would adjust with the water level. Now these are clearly prototypes and could not manage to get a bow line around a recessed bollard. So we were instructed by the handlers to skip it and just pull between the other 2 sailboats and take the conventional lines. That meant parallel parking in the narrow lock, which is not Far Niente’s strong suit. So we had a bit of difficulty and ended up backing up to back of the lock, always fun on big fat full keel boat in a tight area, and getting our lines behind the other 2 boats. Fortunately, only this lock, #7, had these prototypes and we used the conventional approach for the last 6 locks without much trouble.

One thing we were not prepared for were tying off on these commercial walls. The bollards are 60+’ apart and a good 30’ from the side. You need 60’ bow and stern lines to lie off. We managed, if rather in a clumsy manner, to tie off by doubling the lines up, but it did catch us unprepared. So if you are planning to transit the Welland, have your fenders just above the water line, on both sides of your boat, and 60-100’ lines ready on your bow and stern. That should enable you to tie off most anywhere.

We exited the canal and after we could not reach the St. Catherine’s Marina on the VHF we headed for Port Dalhousie Marina (pronounced “daloosey”). We arrived to strong winds but a dock full of sailors who eagerly assisted our docking. We enjoyed a few cocktails with them and then cooked burgers and corn on the grill on the boat and enjoyed a good nights rest. We’ll likely stay here Sunday night and head for Port Credit Monday.

Lake Erie Transit

2010-08-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

For followers of this blog, due to spotty internet coverage the last several days I did not post all our updates here but you can find them at our sailblogs site: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/farnientelog2010/

Location: Sugarloaf Marina, Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada

We completed our trip across Lake Erie last night. We left Put-in-Bay, OH around 8:30 am Wednesday and arrived in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada before 11:00 am today. Winds did not cooperate at all (on the stern at a measeley 4 kts until 3:00 am) so we invoked the "3 knot rule" and we motored all 26+ hours.

About 3:00 am thunderstorms hit as we passed by Erie, PA and we rode out 30+ knot winds and a following sea that pushed up another 2 knots. Storms blew over by dawn and we changed course and headed north to Port Colborne.

We motored into the entrance to the Welland Canal and then immediately docked at the Sugarloaf Municipal marina.

One cruising guide we have claimed Sugarloaf to have "resort style amenities." Really?

Port Colborne is a very industrial area serving as the entrance to the Welland Canal. It is an ideal place to stage for transit of the canal, which will take all of one day. The facility is fairly average. It does have a restaurant and bar above the marina office. It is more expensive than the Michigan DNR marinas by quite a bit ($1.50/ft/night). The internet service, which has been problematic in other marinas, seems to work well.

We took a walk to the city center, which has seen better days. Not a destination point whatsoever. This marina will serve our purpose; rest up from the overnight run across Erie and prep for the transit of the Welland Canal sometime this weekend.

2010-07-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

PHOTO ABOVE - Most of the the Lake Huron shore is rocky with few of the very nice beaches the west side of Michigan enjoys.

29 Hours Down Huron

Position: 42 degrees 28.132 minutes N / 82 degrees 52.781 minutes W

Jefferson Beach Marina on Lake St. Clair, MI

The weather window was there and the weather was almost perfect to make the 189 nautical mile sail from Presque Isle to Lake St. Clair north of Detroit. Wind was light and variable and we only managed an 1.5 hours worth of sailing on Sunday morning. The rest of the time there was either too little wind or the direction was problematic, so we called on "Yani" the diesel engine to propel us for more than 28 hours down the east coast of Michigan on Lake Huron.

There really is not much on this side of the state at all, unless you are into sailing or camping. We dodge and ducked freighters most of the night and this morning when we transited the St. Clair River to get to Lake St. Clair.

After 29 hours sailing/motoring we are beat and will take some naps today. Marjorie will be traveling to Rockford to see Emma Joy this week.

Jeff will be managing the heat (give me Northern Michigan weather again!) cleaning the boat, working on the boat, etc. and getting all in order for the next stage of the journey, Lake Erie.

We'll post more photos in the gallery on http://www.sailblogs.com/member/farnientelog2010/ later this week.

2010-07-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

PHOTO ABOVE - You never know what you may encounter sailing on a foggy day on the Great Lakes. As we headed SE from DeTour to Presque Isle (43 nm), we saw the image of a tall ship sail out of the fog directly in our direction. We passed her and were happy to find that this indeed was not a 'ghost ship'. There were live crew on board. For a few moments it was really spooky. We unfortunately could not get her name or hailing port.

Saturday, July 23

Events the past few weeks and weather have forced our hand and we have elected not to head to the North Channel. I know this is heresy for those Great Lakes sailors who cherish these pristine cruising grounds.

So we left DeTour at noon Friday and motor-sailed into fog out on Lake Huron. By about 2:00 pm most of the fog had burned off and as the day progressed the winds shifted from the west (10 kts), which was perfect for our point of sail to the WNW, directly on our stern (3-5 kts). So we furled in the genny and motored the rest of the way. We arrived in Presque Isle about 6:05 pm.

As a very wise men once said, the great thing about cruising is that most of the planning ends up being worthless.

And with that in mind our new 'plan', knock on wood, is to leave Presque Isle Sunday morning as weather for the next 3 days looks great. We plan, there's that word again, on sailing/motoring 24 hours and make a stop very close to the entrance of the St. Clair River.

We believe that will put us in position to find a marina in the suburban Detroit area where we can dock at for up to a week as Marjorie is planning on travel to Rockford, IL (via planes, trains, and automobiles?) to visit her new granddaughter, Emma Joy Ryan. Emma was born July 18th and is home with proud parents, Mark and Megan.

Our longer term goal remains unchanged; arrive in Oswego, NY the last few days of August so that we may pull the mast and truck it down to Catskill, NY. We will proceed down the Oswego and historic Erie Canal until we arrive on the Hudson River. We then plan to take a leisurely 2-3 weeks to travel down the Hudson, through NY Harbor, along the coast of Jersey and up the Delaware River to intercept the D & C canal that will lead us to the north end of the Chesapeake in late September.

2010-07-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

PHOTO ABOVE - One of the many freighters (and pilot ships - on the right) that move through the DeTour Passage 24/7. This freighter is actually on the small side relative to some that passed through.

Thursday, July 22

DeTour sits on the "DeTour Passage" the major shipping lane from Lake Superior and just West of Drummond Island. Large freighters pass through the passage 24/7. There is also an hourly ferry from DeTour to Drummond until 11 pm. That combination can make for interesting navigation and traffic patterns sailors need to deal with. We were fortunate that when we arrived only the ferry was motoring across the passage.

Which brings me to our experience last night. At about 2:00 am terrifying screams for help woke us. Our stern faced the gas dock and when I looked out a port I could see a 35-40' sailboat (ketch) drifting away from the dock. I went outside on the dock and looked closer. The crew were screaming for someone to call 911 (which Marjorie immediately did). The crew yelled that the captain was cut and bleeding. I could also hear him and knew that he was in serious distress.

I grabbed my first aid kit and ran around to the gas dock, which was a distance of more than 50 yards. I found the captain in the water between the dingy (a 12' Zodiac with a 40 HP outboard) and the bow of the sailboat. He was clinging to a ladder attached to the dock. He was conscious but obviously severely hurt. I reached down to help him up and could see that he had been struck in his face/jaw with the propeller of the outboard. Amazingly he had enough strength and will to help me lift him out of the water and onto the dock. He was bleeding severely and I gave him gauze and large wound bandages to place on his face/jaw.

He and his family had been on their 35' sailboat motoring in the DeTour passage on the way to a destination in the North Channel when the engine failed. Obviously concerned about the safety of his family given that they were stalled in a busy shipping lane at 2:00 am, he elected to tow the sailboat with his rather substantial dinghy as there was no wind of significance to move the boat out of the shipping lane via sails.

They made it into the marina and were even at the gas dock. What apparently happened was that the sailboat trapped the dinghy between the dock and its bow which forced this lightweight craft up, almost on the dock. He was thrown from the dinghy and when the sailboat moved away the dinghy probably came back over him with the outboard running. His foul weather jacket stopped the prop and engine.

EMT arrived about in about 10 minutes, which is really amazing as DeTour is really off the beaten path. The ambulance ride to Sault St. Marie hospital was an hour. We have since learned that he was air lifted to the U of Mich hospital in Ann Arbor. We truly hope he is doing better and that he'll fully recover.

On board were his wife and 3 young boys. Marjorie graciously offered and stayed with the boys on board their boat so his wife could go to the hospital with her critically injured husband. Family members from down state arrived at 9 am to help the wife and boys. We learned on Friday AM from his wife that the gentlemen had a successful surgery to repair the severe injury to his face and jaw. We hope that he and his family will have a speedy recovery.

We had planned to leave Thursday for Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin Island (about 40 miles east) to clear into Canadian immigration and begin our travel through the North Channel. We'll leave Friday instead as we need some rest before we navigate these unfamiliar waters.

Under the BIG MACK!

2010-07-18T10:09:00.001-07:00

We had just a fabulous day of sailing from Beaver Island, through Grey's Reef, under the 5 mile long Mackinaw bridge and to the St. Ignace Municipal Marina.

The photo above shows us sailing on main alone, downwind at some 6-7 kts courtesy of a 18-24 kt wind at our stern. The bridge has a 100' clearance, but this first time you sail under it, it looks a lot lower than that. Needless to say we made it.

It was a classic northern Michigan sailing day. Note we are wearing long sleeves and a insulated vest! Winds started out with just over 10 kts of wind when we left St. James Harbor, Beaver Island which built to around 20 kts out of the WSW. We had hope for a wind shift to the WNW, but it didn't happen until late in the day.

We had the usual traffic; multiple freighters, a tow barge, and Sheppler's high speed ferry.

We docked at the St. Ignace Municipal marina which is very nice with outstanding facilities. Also very close to an Ace Hardware and a nice grocery store (Dowd's) so it makes for a boater's ideal staging port for travels into the North Channel and beyond.

Now we are really cruising.....

2010-07-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

We FINALLY have a new, installed, and operating generator. Enough of that.

Following final checks by the folks at Irish Boat Shop, we departed for Beaver Island just after the rain blew through. Seas were very rolly out of the west which made for an unsettled ride about 32 miles north of Charlevoix.

St. James bay is in the northeast corner of Beaver Island. The sail to Mackinaw is almost due east from here.

We arrived just before 7 pm and headed to the area local knowledge said was good for anchoring. We set the 60# CQR with about 100' of chain. Winds died down during the evening and we had a restful sleep at anchor.

Friday morning winds picked up to 15+ knots, but we seemed to be anchored just fine. Genset worked as advertised and following some breakfast we dinghied over to the Municipal marina, tied up to a fellow cruiser's stern (Thanks 'Andiamo'!) and headed into "town" to grab just a few groceries and a nice 6 of a Michigan microbrew ale.

When we arrived back on board Far Niente, it was immediately obvious she had dragged anchor. I kept an eye on her the whole time we walked around the bayside town but I didn't see anything that alarmed me. The depth sounder said we were in 3' of water under the keel; we had been in 16'. And it was clear that the winds had pushed us back toward the Beaver Island Marina.

Winds were now 20-27 kts.

We pulled anchor and reassessed where and how to set the anchor again. . Winds were now gusting to 30+ kts, which always makes for a challenging anchoring experience.

So we picked a new area. Maybe the one we first anchored in was soft? There's the legend of "all the saw dust from the lumber days" being on the bottom of St. James bay. We dropped the CQR and this time paid out almost 200' of chain in just under 20' of water, a very conservative 10:1 scope. We dug her in and she held the rest of the afternoon and all night. Of course, as any sailor will tell you, you don't sleep quite as well after dragging anchor.

So that was our Beaver Island experience.

2010-07-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

Well for those of you following our travels, the new generator was scheduled to arrive in Charlevoix Friday afternoon. With a 3 day weather window that screamed sailing, we pulled out of Charlevoix this morning and headed 15 miles northeast to Harbor Springs. We'll head back to Charlevoix Sunday to prep for the new genset install Monday morning.

As soon as we hit the big lake we encountered fog, which was a good time for us to try out our fog horn - which you are required to sound in a specific pattern and time interval. It worked just fine.

After about an hour the summer sun burned of the fog and we had a nice sail with 5-10 kt winds up into Little Traverse Bay. Sunny with a nice breeze made for a relaxing sail. Marjorie knit for several hours, we had lunch and overall had a nice day on Lake Michigan.

We arrived at Harbor Springs about 4 pm and got a nice dock position on the end; easy in and easy out. Took a walk in this very preppy Northern Michigan town and had a cocktail before grilling and having another great meal on board. Winds calmed down and there is a very nice breeze blowing through the cabin tonight.

Harbor Springs is a town with many, many beautiful homes and a LOT of old money; think Ford, Packard, Gamble, etc. There are more Hinckley Picnic boats here than I have ever seen in one place, except for the Hinckley yard in Bar Harbor, Maine. As the picture at the top documents, not too many on the unemployment roles in this town.

Song of the day......

2010-06-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

Pictured Above Singer and songwriter Eric Stone

Far Niente's Location 6-29-2010: Still at the Ferry Docks, Irish Boat Shop, Charlevoix, MI

I made reference yesterday to the Eric Stone song It'll be ready tomorrow. If you haven't heard of Eric take a look at his website (www.boatsongs.com) and listen to some clips. Very catchy songs about sailing, island life, the Caribbean.

So today as we wait to get the generator service, I thought the entire lyrics of "It'll be ready tomorrow." were appropriate.

It'll be ready tomorrow
From the album "Trinidad To Tortola (A True Musical Journey)"
By Eric Stone

Three days into my two week vacation still sittin' in my slip
I should be out on the open seas, enjoying my sailing trip
If I can find a way, I'd leave today, beg, steal or borrow
But the mechanics keep telling me day after day, "It'll be ready tomorrow."

Chorus
But I want to leave today, let's raise the sails
I don't care what they say, its time to bail
I know we need a generator so we'll leave later but I am sick of this place where we are though
I think I loose my mind if I hear one more time, "It'll be ready tomorrow."

The mechanics arrive at 8am, and wake me up again
I was dreaming of sailing a nice beam reach, on the Caribbean
But by 11am they're nowhere to be seen, along with most of Jake's tools they borrowed
And I find a note on his toolbox they wrote, "It'll be ready tomorrow."

But I want to leave today, let's raise the sails
I don't care what they say, its time to bail
I know we need a generator so we'll leave later but I am sick of this place where we are though
I think I loose my mind if I hear one more time, "It'll be ready tomorrow."

I know they say good things come to those who wait
And I have had about all I can take
At 80 bucks an hour I thinks it's a crime
To watch these guys work on island time.

But I want to leave today, let's raise the sails
I don't care what they say, its time to bail
I know we need a generator so we'll leave later but I am sick of this place where we are though
I think I loose my mind if I hear one more time "It'll be ready tomorrow."

Yeah right..."It'll be ready tomorrow." Whatever..."It'll be ready tomorrow."
Sure dude...."It'll be ready tomorrow."
Your check is in the mail.

Charlevoix #2 – “it’ll be ready tomorrow.”

2010-06-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Irish Boat Shop – Ferry Docks (about 1 ¼ mile from downtown Charlevoix)

45 18.334’N
85 14.806’W

Not much exciting to report. We moved from the municipal marina to Irish early this morning when there was less than 6 kts of wind. We are now tied up at the end of a long dock awaiting a marine electrician to look at the genset.

Weather today leaves much to be desired; very cool, foggy and soggy, cloudy with only an occasional view of the sun.

Welcome to a northern Michigan summer.

The rest of the week looks really good weather-wise so we are hopeful we will get the Panda fixed and sail on down to Sutton’s Bay and Traverse City.

“it’ll be ready tomorrow.” refers to Eric Stone's classic song about sitting in a marina in the islands, during his 2 week vacation, waiting for the yard to repair his boat so he can go sailing. Just to close to the truth!

And as I am a bit bored I’ll report on a few more stupid boat names we spotted.

Sunday’s SBN (Stupid Boat Name), a 56’ power yacht called ‘Cinderella’? Maybe the owner is/was a fashion designer?

Here are Monday’s SBNs - ‘Boateo’ , ‘Yaba Daba Doo’ and this incredibly bad pun my former work colleagues will get right away – ‘PharmaSeeYa’ is pictured above.

Charlevoix, MI (Round Lake, Municipal Marina)

2010-06-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Far Niente docked (right hand side of the picture with the tallest mast)

45° 18.989’
85° 15.447

We had a fast and great trip up from Frankfort to Charlevoix. We covered the 60.1 nm distance in 8 hours. Now you need to know that we didn’t sail at all today. We used our faithful “Yani” to power us up to Charlevoix. ‘Yani’ is our 62 hp turbodiesel engine that is called upon when 1.) there is absolutely no wind, 2.) our destination lies directly in line with where the wind is coming from, and 3.) when we really, really need to be somewhere and the weather is not cooperating, as in today.

So we crank up Yani and he communes with “Otto” the Raymarine autopilot. I pay close attention to them because they have been known to misbehave at times.

We screamed through the Manitou Passage today with following seas and a 5-15 knot tailwind. At times the GPS indicated we were making almost 9 knots SOG (speed over ground). But a strange thing happened, as soon as we crossed the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay the wind clocked 180° and was right on our nose. This actually worked out quite well for us as the waves calmed and as we hit the opening of the channel, wind speeds were less than 5 knots; perfect for docking.

The folks here at Charlevoix sent 3 people down to assist in docking which was greatly appreciated. Docking Far Niente with only two on board can be challenging to say the least. However I must say that the addition of the bow thruster makes things extremely manageable and we had no trouble pulling deep into this marina.

We are docked at the newly renovate Charlevoix Municipal Marina on Round Lake. Round Lake connects Lake Michigan to Lake Charlevoix. This is a very special and beautiful area of northern Michigan. For example, today, for the first time sice we splashed the boat into Lake Macatawa, I can look over her stern and see her rudder; the water here is that clear. Amazing.

The renovate Charlevoix Municipal Marina sits right across the main drag of Charlevoix and immediately next to the city band shell and park. Tomorrow is some sort of an ‘art’ (I use the term loosely, it is mostly crafts, or as I like to say CRAP) that traveling gypsies peddle across the parks and malls of America. But hey, it is a free country and if that is what makes you happy, so be it. Frankly I am glad we now live on a boat; there is simply no room for anything more.

We are hanging out here until Monday early afternoon when we’ll scoot out of Round Lake and into Lake Charlevoix where Irish Boat shop is located. We plan on pulling into their docks in the afternoon so we are in place for their Fischer Panda generator expert to look at out problem first thing Tuesday morning.

I said it previously, I am much happier waiting for repairs in Charlevoix than in Muskegon.

Frankfort, MI (Municipal Marina)

2010-06-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

44° 37.900’
86° 14.088’

We had a reasonably easy ‘sail’ up to Frankfort from Pentwater, with the exception of the infamous Lake Michigan rolling waves early in the morning. I saw peak-to-trough distances of 4-8’ and that was certainly what the bow on the boat was showing. Marjorie, being the experienced Lake Michigan sailor from her numerous Chicago to Mackinaw races claimed they were only 2-4’. Men claiming bigger sizes than women experience; now there is something new.

So we pulled into Frankfort Municipal Marina, run by the city of Frankfort not the Michigan DNR. Nice slip, plenty of room (length, width, depth) utilities and a reasonable bath and rest room facility. Might be the least expensive on the lake at just under $50 bucks for our 45’er for the night.

Frankfort is a real sleepy town with only one main street. It has the usual collection of northern Michigan shops including the obligatory Kilwin’s Mackinac Island Fudge shop, several ‘art’ galleries, t-shirt shops, and the ‘bars’ with loads of deep fried food (these were packed). We did find a TrueValu Hardware (closed after 5pm) and few other interesting places. I was really intrigued by the ‘fusion’ restaurant that featured sushi, sashimi, and a variety of standard Chinese dishes. Imagine, pacific tuna (sashimi) in northern Meesh-eee-gun. I wonder what the turnover on that is?

We docked between 2 sail boats with great names. Before I comment on why we thought the names on these boats were great, I have to rant a bit boat names.

The waters are stock full of boats (mostly power, 15:1 I have heard) with really, really d*** a** names. Here are a few we have seen that get massive eye rolls as far as I am concerned: ‘Yes Dear’, ‘Xanax’, ‘FedUp (in a FedEx logo style), ‘Jus Ducky’……the list is long and most are very bad puns and most are power boats.

Back to the main point here; the two boats on either side of us were ‘Bustopher Jones’ and ‘Le Trou’ (see picture above). Why did we like these? Bustopher Jones was a Nonsuch 34 catboat, which is great boat bust just very, very beamy for a 34’er and as you may or may not recall Bustopher Jones was the ‘fat cat’ in T.S. Elliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”, or you may more likely remember it from Andrew Loyd Weber’s stage interpretation known as “Cats”. Fat cat, beamy boat…we thought it was great.

Then there was ‘Le Trou’, which is French for ‘the hole’, with accompanying graphic of dollars bills going down a hole in the water! If you have not heard it you may not be familiar with boating lingo, but boats are known as holes in the water you throw money into.

And now here I have to comment on the name of our boat, ‘Far Niente’. Far Niente is loosely translated from Italian to as “life is sweet doing nothing”. Anyway we liked the idea though it is a complete oxymoron for the cruising life as this blog well documents. I am as busy now as I ever was. But aside from this catchy phrase many readers will also recognize that ‘Far Niente’ is also a very, very nice California Wine maker with an awesome Cabernet and a great Chardonay. As a result, I am extremely grateful that many of my friends and colleagues at work gave us bottles form Far Niente as gifts when I retired and we moved from St. Louis to our life aboard. Thank God we did not name our boat ‘Gallo’!

Off to Charlevoix early tomorrow morning. We’ll have a great leg traveling through the Manitou Passage, around the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, across the opening of Grand Traverse Bay and into Round Lake which connects Lake Michigan to Lake Charlevoix. The fun here is the drawbridge which only lifts on the hour and half hour.

2010-06-23T07:37:00.001-07:00

Michigan has several historic lighthouses. The two pictured above are "Big Red" (left) at the mouth of the channel leading into Lake Macatawa and Holland, MI, our homeport for the last 2 years. The lighthouse on the right is Little Sable Point, south of our current location on Pentwater Lake. Thanks to Don Van Zile for these 2 great pcitures.

We now plan t head north Thursday, via Frankfort, MI and spending a few days in Charlevoix, MI where we hope the fine folks at Irish Boat Shop can fix our generator. If we have to stay there and wait for parts, we'd much rather be in Charlevoix than Muskegon!

History

2010-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

We saw a bit of history Monday morning when the schooner "Friends Good Will" arrived at the shipyard and was hauled out for some quick service. After a little investigating we learned that this schooner was built in 1811, captured by British and recaptured by the U.S.. It is the schooner referred to by Commodore Perry (War of 1812, Battle of Lake Erie) in his now famous dispatch, "We have met the enemy and they are ours: Two Ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop." That sloop was Friends Good Will. Read more about her at: http://www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org/friendsgoodwill/. Very cool.

Departure prep is slowly progressing. We placed our order for all the additional safety gear we are required to carry to participate in the Caribbean 1500. We will get most items Friday but we have to wait 10-14 days to get the Revere Offshore Elite 6-person life raft.

We now have almost all charts (paper and electronic) on board for all aspects of the entire trip including charts if we possible need to deviate from the planned route for some emergency or other compelling reason.

Dodger windshield had blown out zippers and those are being repaired as I write this. Hope to pick up and get it back on today or tomorrow - before it starts raining again.

Far Niente's galley continues to set a gold standard for meals aboard. Hats of to my wife the sailing gourmet!

First few days aboard

2010-05-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

You cannot believe the racket these little guys make, beginning at 4:25 AM. It's just as if someone sets an alarm and they all go tweeting together to make the loudest alarm you can imagine. Only there's no off button, no snooze button. They quiet down just before 7AM.

For more pics that I took this AM see the flickr set May Morning at the Marina

Another fact of living on or near the water are spiders. What's interesting right now is that there is so much pollen in the air that the spider webs are fuzzing up.

It's incredibly hard to get photos of spider webs, but these should give you an idea.

We're still unpacking and moving stuff onto the boat.

It's a challenge. I think I'll take pics and describe the process once it's done. Right now, in process, it's just too challenging to try to photojournal it.

If Jeff tells me one more time "it's not all going to fit" I think I'll scream.

2010-05-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

By Marjorie

Springtime in Michigan.

Until just yesterday it's been dang cold, as evidenced by the way I'm dressed for our after dinner beach walks

Yesterday was glorious, and it was fitting for our launch day

First thing was to install the line cutter at the base of the prop. See that disk with the scallops between the boat hull

the propeller blades?

That is Wicked Sharp, and is designed to cut any lines from lobster pots or fishing nets that might stray into our prop and wind up in our propeller while we're underway, bringing us to a screeching halt. Under normal circumstances that situation would require a dive overboard with knife in hand to try to free the prop and assess the damage. The installation wasn't easy - what is? - and it did not go off without hitches. But, it's there now and I'm sure at some point we'll be grateful for it.

Loading the boat to the lift

Splash Down!

Jeff took the helm and drove the boat over to the mast stepping dock. The Bow Thruster is Fabulous! Wonderful! already we love it.

This boat is heavy and with the full keel is not the most maneuverable in tight spaces. The bow thruster greatly aids the ability to turn around in tight spaces.

Stepping the mast.

We also had the crew from the yard help us get the main on. It's a heavy big main and I'm very glad we did.

Then it was over to our slip - same as last year - and time to scrub the deck - it was FILTHY, and to start to unpack all the gear that we're bringing on board.

Now we've got to put the head sails on, but not today. Today it's raining.

Good thing our first house guests don't arrive for two more weeks. There is a lot of "getting in order" that we need to do.

Today, I head to Detroit to attend the baby shower for my first Grandchild tomorrow! woohoo!

Nine Days Until Launch

2010-05-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Our launch date is now set for May 20, which gives us just enough time to finish our before launch 'to do' list and load more stuff on board. The yard is pulling the mast out for me so that I can access the 3 winches and service them before it goes upright.

While it would be great to be aboard right now, today's weather leaves much to be desired; 45 degrees, rain, and a cold 20-25 kt easterly wind. Once launched, we have an enormous amount to accomplish before we depart in early June. While we have loaded many things aboard while she is on the hard, we really have not organized anything yet.

We are still attempting to nail down crew for the Caribbean 1500, offshore insurance and additional safety equipment to comply with rally rules.

Blogging about prep work is not very exciting, so I'll cut it short here.

Mail

2010-04-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

April 2, 2010
The Mail Box
By Marjorie

The most common question we’re getting right now is “What will you do about the mail?”
What indeed?
There are mailing services just for people who are living an RV or cruising lifestyle.
We’ve signed on with one in Michigan, but the truth is I’m not sure it matters where the service is.
So all of our mail goes to a box in Grandville Michigan. They have instructions based on what type of mail it is.
• If it’s obviously junk mail – that is ALL marketing mail – It is immediately tossed out.
• All business correspondence and bills will get opened, then scanned, then sent to us in an email form.
• Personal mail is a little different. They either can open it and scan it, OR put it into a packet and hold until we give them a physical address that they can forward mail to. And we have to pay re-shipping for each piece sent. We will have opportunities to receive mail at various marina’s or as general delivery to a post office, (say in St John’s Island, USVI), when we make arrangements to be somewhere for a week or two.

Right now, I’m staying at my dad’s lake house. Last year when my dad left to go to Florida he filled out mail forwarding cards at the post office. Because all of our official documentation information for the boat came to this address, he filled out a forwarding card to have our mail sent to our St Louis Address. So here’s what the situation is right now: Any mail addressed to me at the lake house will be forwarded to St Louis. The St Louis post office will forward the mail to our service in Grandville MI. If I give instructions to Grandville to send the mail to me here at the lake, it’ll get fwd’d back to St Louis!, then back to Grandville. LOL, May 1st will come, and the mail forward will expire, and then I can get mail here! By then though, we’ll be able to get mail at the marina too. Meanwhile, Thank heavens for g3 connections and email!
You can email me anytime at mlweaving at yahoo dot com. But don’t try to send anything via snail mail. ;) (This’ll cut down on my internet shopping, ya think?)

PS, love hearing from those of you who’re looking at doing this too. Send me an email so that we can keep in touch, or leave a link in your comment to your own blog, k?

Hair! Another consideration to be dealt with

2010-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I can just see Jeff rolling his eyes right now.

However, think about it, maintaining a somewhat decent head of hair while living on a boat presents challenges not encountered when living in a house with a real bathroom, hair dryers, no wind, etc. Jeff solved his problem by shaving his head over the Christmas holidays. That is not an option for me!

Criteria –

It must be easy to maintain
It must stay out of my face, my eyes and my mouth, even in the wind
It must not require the services of one certain skilled stylist on a 6 week basis
It must be somehow attractive.

It’s important to me not to just let go and look like something the water rats wouldn’t bother dragging in.

I took this picture of me this morning

My hair grows fast, and it’s fine and Straight with a capital S. You can see that even in the little bit of breeze that’s on the deck today my hair is blowing all over the place.

I’ve long maintained that any woman over the age of 40 (and certainly over the age of 50) looks much better with shorter, styled hair. I tend to think that older women with long hair look like aging hippies – in my book not something to aspire to.

I like to wear my hair somewhere around chin length

But, it grows way too fast to maintain and it takes too much effort. Not boat practical.

The way I see it, I can cut it all off – go short. Or, I can get it trimmed up a bit, and go long and pull it up and back 98% of the time. I can French braid it in about a minute, and it’ll hold that braid for several hours. It’s what I used to do when I was racing sailboats and my hair was long enough, (back in the 80’s). I don’t think it’s my best look….but it’s an option.

The scary thing about going short is, it takes a skilled stylist to make short look good. My hair grows so fast, and I’m going to be constantly on the move. So short of having Jeff learn to cut hair, (um, no) I think I’ll adopt the aging hippy look for now.

Sigh, that’s almost an ugh. At least I’ll cover the grey. Long and grey is more than I can deal with right now.

The Adventure Continues

2010-03-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

First off, this is the view from the lake house, my dad’s lake house, where I’m currently perched.
There are worse places to be homeless. ;)

The closing on the house came off without a hitch and the rest of the frenetic move to storage went fine. My youngest son Daniel came down from Iowa to help move boxes and stuff into our 7’ x 10’ storage unit, and he left with a trailer full of stuff – mostly patio and garage stuff except the sofa he took – that helped lighten our load. Then Allied Van Lines came to cart off the furniture we’re keeping to their storage facility. I’m certain that by the time we retrieve it we won’t know what we kept and what we let go of. And, Still we managed to fill up a 16’ Budget Rental truck with the remains.
So after closing on Wednesday AM last week I drove up to Rockford IL to start unloading the rental truck. First stop on the route was my son and daughter-in-laws. On the way there I came to realize that the pain I’d been experiencing in my left shoulder/back/neck area was more than just a passing soreness.
Before taking off for stop #2 with the truck on Thursday, going to my brother-in-laws house in northern IL, I managed an appt with a chiropractor in my son’s town.

It’s a week later, and the pain level is still around an 8. Not good. I’m fairly certain that there is a nerve pinched in there. The pain goes all the way down my left arm, rendering that arm fairly useless. So tomorrow I’m scheduled in with yet another Chiropractor, this time in Western Michigan. Hopefully I can get this FIXED!!

And, as a result of this ridiculous pain, I stayed at the lake house rather than continuing with my travel plans.
So, revised schedule for those who want to know what part of the country I’m in –
• Now until April 18 +/- a day or two, stay at Lake house
• April 18-21 to St Louis; for hubby’s retirement parties
• April 21-May 1 to Atlanta GA, Columbia SC and Beaufort SC
• May 1 – back to Lake House, which is roughly an hour and a half north of where the boat is. Jeff will join me here and we’ll work on getting the boat ready to launch sometime at the end of May.

Meanwhile, Jeff hasn’t retired yet, so he’s living out of a hotel room in St Louis and still going to work every day.

A note about the address thing:
If you have my old mailing address in Missouri, delete it now.
A number of people have asked what we’ll be doing about mail, so I’ll address that in my next blog post. Meanwhile, know that I am not going to get any mail forwarded from Missouri, so PLEASE don’t mail anything to me there.

Thanks, Marji

Timetable for the next 8 days

2010-03-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

Lorraine wrote me a congratulations note on closing on the house. Following is what I wrote back. I think it's more interesting than listening to me whine about packing. ;)

Thanks! Not closed - but we have a purchase agreement and all the contingencies have been released. We just had the fire dept inspection and the gas co inspection this AM. I have to install two carbon monoxide detectors. Sale closes next week.
Daniel is due here today to help move boxes to our storage unit.
Moving co due here a week from today to pick up furniture going into their storage.
Carpet cleaners due here a week from tomorrow to clean carpets.
A week from tomorrow we pre-sign all the papers having to do with the closing of the sale, then a week from Thursday the sale closes and the mortgage is paid off and we are Homeless!
We laughed this AM about being homeless.
We haven’t set up a mailing address yet…so what do we write when we register at the hotel next Wed where it says address? I suggested we write Homeless.

Think the hotel will take our registration if we write "Homeless"?

packing angst

2010-03-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

I've hit the wall. Jeff hit it Sunday and did the "We don't have enough room / we aren't going to make it / There is too much STUFF" wall.
At the time I got really put out with him for being negative.

Today, I'm there. There is just too much STUFF. I'm standing in place and turning in circles.
I know that I've been divesting ourselves of too much stuff for several years, and have been actively packing in the last three months. So WHY does it feel like we have so much stuff?

Right now it's terribly difficult to imagine sitting in the cockpit of the boat with knitting on my lap.

2010-03-06T06:34:00.000-08:00

I'm exhausted, and at the end of every day my body aches. Especially my legs, for reasons I'm not quite certain of.
But, great progress is being made on the packing front.
I'm finding that with a seriously short time limit it's much easier to let go of things.
The first time I tried to thin the bookcases I managed to get rid of one shelfs-worth of books.
See it now.

Well over 500 books have been donated to the Public Library here for their semi-annual book sale. And boxes and boxes of cooking and sailing magazines from the basement.

Upstairs rooms are empty, as are the closets upstairs - major accomplishments.
The furniture's been sold on Craigs List, the clothing and other closet items have mainly been donated to Goodwill.

The buyer wants the bedding from both upstairs bedrooms as the comforter and duvet covers match the window treatments, so they're stacked in the closets.

Kitchen is mostly done. Bar cabinets - meaning all that crystal, is packed. Some is going into storage, some is being distributed to kids.

10 days...
I love Craigs List. Goodwill loves us.

Timetable moving Up

2010-03-02T12:32:00.001-08:00

New schedule. We need to be out of here in 2 weeks and a day. So today I've been packing, and making calls and knocking things off a list:

called movers and scheduled pick up of furniture for storage March 16
call carpet cleaners to clean carpets March 17
Extra storage unit rented to store minimum household articles (my pots and pans, china, crystal, a few boxes of books, family photo albums...unit is 7' x 10'. If it doesn't fit, we don't keep it.
called Daniel, he's due here to pick up sofa and help move boxes into storage unit March 9
insurance...just had conversation with insurance agent. This is complicated

How do you insure your household items when you don't have an address? Homeowners insurance requires a home. Turns out renters insurance requires a residential rental unit. In two weeks we'll have neither. I've used up my phone battery trying to get all this figured out.

Tonight is the last night I'm teaching my sewing classes.
My sewing room here looks like a bomb went off. I'm packing up what will go to my moms, and what I still need to let go of. My students will be the beneficiaries of my need to divest myself of too much stuff fast.

I have to keep reminding myself to breathe. Last night all I could say to Jeff was "oh, honey..." with a sigh. Nervous sigh, as we were still waiting on the contingency to be released on the sales contract.
A couple of people have offered help. I sincerely wish I could accept it. But right now I really have to do all the sorting. Until I sort what gets kept, what goes and where it goes to, it's all on me.

How much "stuff" can you fit on 45' boat?

2010-02-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

We are busy today consolidating our personal belongings and figuring out what goes in storage, what family will kindly keep for us and what goes on the boat.

Don't get me wrong, the IP 45 has a lot of locker and storage space and there is a ton of room in the aft stateroom, affectionately known aboard as "the basement". Problem is the basement doubles as the "guest room" so if you load it up you have to have a place for all the stuff when our friends and family visit.

I won't be surprised if once we start loading we will reach the point where we have to ask ourselves again "What do we really need?" I know all new live-aboards go through this. I am sure we will figure it all out.

Packing and Sorting

2010-02-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

ok, Jeff is all about where we're going and when we'll get there.
Right now, I'm all about trying to consolidate a lifetimes worth of collecting "stuff". Deciding what to keep, what to distribute to the kids, what to store and what to let go of.

Part of the reason I started this blog this early is that I know I'll forget this part. This is the labor part of childbirth that you just forget after the baby comes. This is the really challenging part.

My friend Jae and her husband Gary came down over the weekend. Jae went home to Michigan with my loom and a trunk full of yarn.

The loom she'll use and care for, the yarn she'll store and send to me by the bagfull as I request it.
The loft, where my loom lived, looks so empty now. The first time I looked up there Saturday night after it was removed made me catch my breath.

Storage
When we married each other 9 years ago we each had a household full of possessions. Much of what we each owned we moved into this house. A good part of our furniture though, we negotiated each other out of. Each piece of furniture we've acquired since we were married has been acquired with an eye towards either storing it or letting go of it.
There is an argument to be made for just letting go of everything since storage is so expensive. But, when we get off the boat, at some future unspecified date, I don't want to start all over. I want the experience of rediscovering some of our favorite pieces.
But we must be particular, because storage IS expensive.

PODS - I contacted PODS about storing the furniture we are going to keep. Wow, way too expensive for the little space we'd get. So we're signing the contract with the local Allied Movers franchise for the climate controlled indoor storage. They'll be here the first week in May to load up the truck and take the furniture away.

This is hard. The logistics are making my head hurt.
Lists, I've got lists in my head, lists on the computer, lists on almost every pad in the house.
What goes to Mark and Megan, what to Daniel and Ashlee, what to Katie, and what to Lauren.
What goes to friends. What to store, and where.

And the things I need to still see to:
Insurance - we are keeping a car, in a barn. We want to be able to drive a car when we're in the US. We're keeping our artwork at a relatives house. We'll be storing china, silver, jewelry...all in various places. I've got to call the insurance agent and go over how to insure stuff that is all over the place.
Medical issues. We need final doctors appts, dentist appts, eye doc, and age appropriate screening tests. I talked with my doctors office, and she's willing to write me prescriptions for meds we'll need to carry with us. We'll need to fill and be carrying 6 mos worth of prescriptions. Plus we'll need some things like antibiotics.
Clothes. This is the thing that logisticly, right now, is making my head hurt. I can't even think about it. We'll be sailing over to Tortola in November, then flying back to the midwest for Christmas next December. Maybe to S Carolina too for graduation if Lauren decides to graduate in December. So I'll need a suitcase of "city clothes" somewhere. But, what to pack? And Where to plant it?

Sigh.
Lists, next time I post it may be nothing more than lists of lists.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting a bit and watching the Olympics.

100 Days Until Launch

2010-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

We are in the thick of winter here in the Midwest. Far Niente sits in heated storage at the Eldean Shipyard, Macatawa, MI

Far Niente had some major surgery in the last month; she got a BOW THRUSTER! I have not yet seen the installation. I did not dare watch the procedure as the professionals drilled a 9" hole through her perfectly good hull. Friends who visit their new Catalina tell us the installation looks fabulous. We will venture up North in a few weeks to inspect said installation. We also need to take a load of "boat stuff" up and charge the batteries.

I have a whole list of items we need to acquire before we set sail in June. The list is long and keeps growing!

Here's the game plan at this stage:

1. Depart Holland/Macatawa in early June.

2. Up the West coast of Michigan stopping at key spots along the way, e.g. Pentwater to see Don (Marjorie's Dad) and Joan.

3. Around the Lelanau Peninsula to Grand Traverse Bay. We'll spend several days in and around Traverse City catching up with Marjorie's friends. We plan to be there for Cherry Festival (oh joy) and then head up to Mackinaw for the Great Lakes Cruising Club rendezvous.

4. For most of July and some of August we plan on cruising the North Channel. Look for many photos of some of the top anchorages in the world.

5. Early August we need to begin our trek down Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario where we will enter the Oswego Rvier and then Erie Canal. The trip down the Erie to the Hudson will require our mast down. I am already working on locating the riggers at both ends of the trip to unstep and restep the mast. I also strongly prefer to truck the mast down to the Hudson rather than carry it on a cradle on the deck. Lots of sailors do it, but having it waiting for us when we arrive sounds much safer and very appealing. If anyone can recommend marinas/riggers at either end or a mast transport service send me an email. Thanks.

6. Once we are in the Hudson, we'll make our way to NY Harbor. I really want to anchor out in front of the Statue of Liberty and take a few photos of Far Niente with Lady Liberty in the background.

7. Down the coast of Jersey to the Delaware River and then through the C&D canal to the Chesapeake.

8. We'll stop in the north Chesapeake and have a water maker installed. Then down the bay to Hampton, VA.

9. Once in Hampton we'll begin preparation for the November 2010 Caribbean 1500. By mid-November we should be in the BVI.

That's the plan for now. Stay tuned.

The Adventure Begins

2010-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

by Marjorie

I’ve been hinting at it for awhile and we’ve been preparing for it for years, but it’s coming down to the wire and now we can go public with it.

We’re officially going sailing.

Jeff’s retirement has been announced and his company is conducting a search to replace him. His last day at work will be April 30
The house is on the market. I’m getting estimates from moving/storage companies to put the furniture we’re keeping into long term storage.
I quit my “fun job” in December so that I could take care of all on the home front, getting ready to go.
Kids #1 and #2 are married and off living their own lives. Kid #1 and his wife are going to make me a grandma in August!
Kid #3 graduated from UGA in December and started a job in Atlanta GA last week. So we only have kid#4 left that we are still supporting. She’s a junior this year at Univ South Carolina.
We put a bow thruster in the boat to hopefully prevent future docking disasters.

I vacillate between thinking I’m organized and everything is proceeding as planned, and pure outright panic. I look around this house and wonder what I’m going to do with everything.

So next year, at this time, we will be sitting in an anchorage in the Carribean somewhere.
In May I’m attending the Hands On Retreat in Chicago - the knitting mittens/gloves retreat that Terri Shea is teaching at. Then I’ll be heading right for the boat which is currently on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Holland Michigan.

I'm starting this blog to document the process of getting ready to go, then we'll continue to blog here about our life aboard - both the grand adventure and the nitty gritty about real life in a small floating confined space.

Short Term plans

We’re taking our boat slip from last year at Eldean for the month of May and June so that we can move onto the boat and get everything done we need to, then we’ll be heading up the Lake. We plan to attend the Great Lakes Cruisers Association get-together in Mackinaw City in early July then we’re heading to the North Channel. Pictured in deep blue in the diagram below, the North Channel has been named by all sorts of entities as one of the top 10 places to go cruising in the world.

Middle to the end of August we plan to head east. We’re not going to dawdle going through the Great Lake system as we have to be in Annapolis to have a water maker and SSB installed in September.
And right now the plan is to join the Carribean 1500 leaving Norfolk VA ~Nov 1.

So, if anyone knows of someone looking to buy a “villa home” (read condo) in Chesterfield MO send them our way.
We’re downsizing. ;)