Memorial Day Weekend

Quick site update. The picture of Just Us II is finally updated with a pic of us with our name. This picture was taken at MBIYC and we are in slip 51 with our bow pointed west as that is the predominant wind direction for the weekend.

Back from a long weekend on the boat it is time to go back to the weekly grind.......

We did have a very nice weekend out at Middle Bass Island Yacht Club. As we did last time, we got going quickly after Chris got home from work. I had loaded the truck which left us with making sandwiches for the drive to the marina. We got to the marina without delay and loaded our stuff from the truck to the boat. We took note of a "new" boat that was in Club Dock 1. A Cruisers Yachts 45 Cantius. The owner was busy washing so we just went about our task of loading and shoving off. I did take note of the MBIYC sticker on their transom. I was going to ask but he was busy at work.

We shoved off, remembered to lift the ball fenders that are attached to the dock out and on to the dock before we left, and headed out. I had been watching the weather and we had a WNW wind that was pretty fresh. Small Craft Advisory actually...... I knew that it was going to be lumpy on the way over so we had the fin stabilizers operating before we left the inlet. True to our name, we were pretty much the only boat heading out. There were a few brave souls out on the lake but mostly headed to a destination. Conditions varied but the stretch between Catawba Island and South Bass, known as the South Passage, was where we encountered the 3-4 foot swell on our beam. The fins did their jobs and we bobbed up and down like a cork with no side to side motion which is what bothers my back and neck. We ran our route exactly as it is set in the GPS and arrived to find that it was only us and 1 other boat. So I was a bit sloppy on the docking because I could be. We got our lines and ball fenders set and then Chris took Rudy for a quick walk.

We arrived between 7:30 and 7:45pm so we had plenty of light. We had our arrival beverage and then pretty much went to bed.

Saturday we woke up to nice conditions. Clear sky which was going to mean Blue Sky as the forecast predicted. Chris went for a run and I fussed with adjusting lines and adding a ball fender amidships to help keep the squeezing to a minimum. One ball was not enough as it took the full weight of the boat and rolled slightly so it made noise. That made sleeping a little tough on Friday night. Adding a big one fixed that.

We watched a steady stream of boats arrive all day. A few were headed to MBIYC and the rest headed to the State Marina. We did notice another Kadey Krogen come in. Day Dreams is the name of the boat. A little later another KK39 came in and docked a few slips down from us. Catch 22 is the b0at name for Mike and Anne Mulligan. We helped them dock and I asked about their Starlink and how they routed the cable. They both chuckled and indicated that they bought the boat with it there already.

We noticed as we were getting things ship shape that I had forgotten a few things. Mainly the Green Onion Brats, riced cauliflower and frozen veggies. In my haste to get things packed I forgot quite a bit of the food we needed for dinners. Luckily Chris took one of the bicycles that are their for general use and she went to the General Store and found frozen pork loin, veggies and baked beans. Yes that does sound like a goofy combo but I was able to dress things up a bit with the stuff in our fridge and we ended up making a good dinner on Sunday night. Saturday night we made the kabobs that I did remember and we were lucky that there was a bag of Riced Cauli in the freezer left over from last week.

We decided to cook Saturday's dinner at the Club House grills out back and play with Rudy while we cooked and ate. We noticed the lattice work was broken and needed to have the screws holding it on the pavilion frame reset. So we put in an hour of work time to remove the fasteners, drill pilot holes then reset the holding screws. There were 3 panels that needed help so we felt good that we put some effort into ongoing maint at the club house.

The forecast for the whole weekend was spot on and we enjoyed clear skies but cool temps. The sun helped keep things comfy though.

It is Memorial Day Weekend which means the Monaco GP as well as the Indy500. I was watching qualifying for Monaco on Saturday when a small fishing boat came into the slip directly behind us and asked if we had a shop vac. I could not remember if we had loaded ours on the boat or if it was still in the basement. Chris was able to find it in the lazarette and we borrowed the neighbors extension cord. The need for the shopvac was their middle pane of windshield glass had shattered. They were able to clean it up and get on their way. They were from Wisconsin and they trailered their boat over to Ohio. We told them that we bought our boat in Kenosha and they said "Oh hey we are from Sheboygan". So we were able to help some other boaters in need. We have benefitted from others helping us so we were paying it forward.

The 45 Cantius showed up on later Saturday and ended up docking behind us and up 1 slip. So we said hello and it turns out that they have a house very close to Skipperbuds and they dock their boat next door at the new marina/condo place. Not really sure what the name of the place is but they shared that they are interested in moving to Skipperbuds since marina where they are tends not to dredge their entrance which means they churn mud coming in. Skipperbuds is a much larger company and tends to operate the marina in a more professional corporate manner. Anyhow....... Charley and Cassidy are the owners of the boat.

On Sunday we were invited over to Catch22 for some evening cocktails. I said that would be very nice. As we were eating dinner we had a knock on our hull and it was Anne inviting us down. We said that we would finish dinner, get ship shape and then come over. We took a bottle of wine with us and we enjoyed some conversation, we got a tour of their 39 and then we walked over to our 44WB and gave them a tour. Turns out they are familiar with our boat as we explained that it was Sojourn previously owned by Bob and Lyla Hermans. Mike and Anne had spent time at an anchorage with Sojourn as we told them the story of our acquisition.

After we were done with the tours we all headed over to the Speak Easy next to Island Grind. Nice place. We had a couple of drinks then it was time to go back and retire for the evening.

We woke up Monday morning to a beautiful day and the prospect of a nice easy cruise back to home port. We saw Anne and Mike as we were headed up to the club house for one last use of the facilities and Chris wanted to look at the furniture layout in the club house as we were thinking that we would just place the Nautical Lamp that is in the salon of our boat in the main gathering room in the club house. Turns out there are no side tables that would make a good home for the lamp. So we will place it next to the dumpster at Skipperbuds with a FREE sign on it.

There was a sign in the clubhouse indicating there would be a fly over of a KC-130 at 9am. In true military precision, at exactly 9am we had our flyover. WE were just getting ready to disconnect water and power so we stood and watched as the plane made 2 passes and then went on to where ever it was headed next.

We got ship shape and then shoved off about 30minutes after Catch22 left. We nosed out onto the lake and it is a gorgeous but chilly day. We left the tops of our 2 dutch side doors open as it was a bit stuffy without airflow. The air flow was cold so I had to go get my jacket. It was a very smooth ride so we did not need the stabilizers and visibility was excellent so I left he radar off. Rudy was curled up on the carpet under the captain's chair and in a nice patch of sun coming in the port side door. We saw a north bound trawler on the AIS and saw a Nordic Tug on its way somewhere........ Bon Voyage!

We had some small boat traffic to watch and keep track of as we approached the mouth of the East Harbor Inlet. Everyone behaved and we got in line and made our way in. At the 4 way intersection we encountered a bass boat that was crossing the channel from east to west. We were far enough away and we saw him coming so we slowed a bit to let them go around our bow at a safe distance but we did note that the operator of the boat never looked at the inbound traffic. His guest on board did look...... Anyhow we had turned off the GPS screens because I forgot, yet again, to turn off the depth alarms. They are set accurately so they squawk a lot in the marked channel of East Harbor. We arrived at Skipperbuds to see that there were 3 other families at the Club Dock and 2 of the men came over to help us get in the slip. Much appreciated as I tried a different method of docking and we needed some help with lines. We are still trying to perfect our docking approach. We are a very tight fit and we have a bow thruster only. We did better than the last time but still have room to improve.

We thanked both of them and then got Rudy out for his docking restroom break and then got hooked up to power and started packing and cleaning for our departure. We were done by lunch time so we ate and then had a final weekend beverage. Time to drive home and get unpacked.

Another very nice weekend on the boat. We are looking forward to stretching our legs a bit once Chris is done with the school year. We were able to test fit the Starlink at MBIYC and it works as intended. Now we just need to install it and run the cable. Incidentally, the service options have changed for the better and now we have the Local Priority service which is half the cost and 3 times that amount of data. 150GB for $115 instead of 50GB for $250. The one wrinkle in the Local Priority service is that it is limited to your home country. So as long as we are in the United States, we will be within the contracted service zone. No Problem!

Stay tunes for more adventures........ Out and back to 16.