Traverse City 2023

Our summer boat trip is going to be Traverse City. We will be working our way up the east coast of Michigan and then under the "Big Mac" around and down to Traverse City, MI. OK.... so it is really Elk Rapids, MI. We will update this post with stories of our progress. We hope you enjoy our travels!

It is now Wednesday BEFORE departure and we have been preparing and freezing food for the trip and today we will go remove some heavy items that do not need to go with us. We will also place the folding bikes onboard. I have reservations completed for our trip to Traverse City but still need to book reservations for our return.

I know that I am delinquent in updating the blog but it has been a busy trip and we are now in a place that we can "tidy up our space" and enjoy our location. So here goes the travelog

Day 0 - Friday July 14

We get to the marina and figure we had better head over to Shrock's to get fuel before the evening party crowd takes up space on the fuel dock. Good thing we did as boats started to show up about half way through us taking on 200 gallons of fuel.

Day 1 - Saturday July 15

We shoved off at 8:30am with the goal of making Detroit by noon or "there abouts". There was some wind out of the WNW but nothing too strong. There were some fishing boats out by South Bass Island but not much else. We made our way to the mouth of the Detroit River where the south bound current starts to show itself. There are no freighters for us to worry about but there are a couple of north bound cruising boats. They are going up the downbound channel as they can stay on plane and since there are no ships coming, no traffic to contend with. We, on the other hand, stay in the upbound channel and slow to hull speed since we are very close to the Canadian shore and our wake is too big to be running that close. So we slow and enjoy some hull speed running. We encounter the same car ferry that we encountered back in 2020 but the timing was different so we did not have to get out of his way. We passed while he was loading cars.

We rejoined the main upbound channel and were able to get on plane again. There was a very small fishing boat in the middle of the river so we slowed to pass him without causing any commotion and since it was right about lunch time we decided to stay at hull speed and eat lunch. We took notice that a new bridge is being built about 1 mile south of the Ambassador Bridge. We will have to look this up and see what is what. It is now starting to rain a bit.

We get back up on plane and run the rest of the way to downtown Detroit and turn slightly east to follow the deeper Canadian side of Belle Isle. We slowed to pass a tour boat and we were far enough along that we stayed off plane, joined the no wake zone right as you go out on Lake St. Clair. No traffic though there is a freighter behind us and a downbound freighter on Lake St. Clair. We are going to keep watch for the upbound freighter.

We run up on plane to go across Lake St. Clair and it is definitely raining. Not hard but just enough to get things wet. We are a boat so we will dry out at some point. We make our way across the lake in the marked channel. 2 downbound freighters and a few cruising boats pass us on their way south. We are getting close to the end of day 1. It has been pretty easy going until now.............

We are looking for one of the side channels to get us to Algonac Harbour Club where we will spend the night. That is the second channel, not the first that we went down. It took about 20minutes to realize my error. Once I realized what I did, I uttered a few choice words then we turned around and headed back for the St. Clair River to head north 1 more channel. As we were coming out of the Harssens Island channel, we heard a distinct metallic "clunk". We both heard it and we both looked at each other. We turned to look at our wake to see if what we hit came up and we could see it. Nothing........

we ran up on plane after a southbound Fleming55 passed us. Anyone who knows me has heard me rave about those boats and how I want one. That is for another time. As we got on plane we felt a vibration. It makes sense that we would have a vibration since we think we hit something. We slow to hull speed and make our way to Algonac. We arrive and it is raining pretty good and we are soaked. we dock in our slip and get situated. As we are tying up and getting the power cord attached we notice that the Swim Ladder is down. Earlier in the day the swim ladder slid out a bit and Rudy heard it, saw it and started barking at the swim ladder. it was kinda funny......... hmmm........ Could be the swim ladder caused the sound and the vibration we felt. Not sure. We want to "Haul and Hang" at Algonac to see for certain if we have something wrapped around our prop shaft or have damage to one or both props, but they don't do haul outs on the weekend. So we are faced with a decision matrix of what to do.

1 - stay put and wait for Monday and do the Haul and Hang

2 - Get up and get going at firsts light and see if securing the ladder with Zip Ties solves our issue. If not just head back to home port at hull speed

3 - Maybe head north to Port Huron where Desmond Marine might be able to haul us on a Sunday?

Day 2 - Sunday July 16

We chose to get going at first light since we spent the better part of three hours using a water proof camera that takes video(Thank you Novell for that sales club gift) attached to a boat hook looking for something wrapped around the prop shaft. It did not look like there was but we were not getting a very clear view of the running gear. So we shoved off and ran at hull speed back out to the main River and ran up on plane. No real vibration. so we slowed for a bit then ran back up to try again. No real vibration. So we slowed to hull speed and continued up the St. Clair River as we had originally planned. That would take about 4 hours and we would reach Port Huron around noon and then see what conditions were like. We encountered quite a few north bound and south bound cruising boats and one Maritime Academy ship on the River. When we got near Port Huron, traffic picked up big time. Now we were being rocked around by all of the crossing wakes. As we approached the bend in the River just before going out onto Lake Huron I got sick and tired of all of the rocking around and ran us up on plane when there was a break in traffic.

we motored out onto Lake Huron and you could not have asked for a nicer day. well, we could have done without the hazy smoke from the wild fires that are north of us in Canada and some of the middle counties of Michigan. We ran without incident to Lexington where we took on fuel and then docked and relaxed. Not much to report about Lexington since everything was closed at 4pm! Really???? we wanted to look around and maybe even buy something at a local shop. No such luck, just some ice cream and a brownie as dessert after we made dinner on the boat. A look at the weather indicated that we would have nice running up the coast of MI and the wind might pick up a bit when we turn and cross Saginaw Bay. Those of you astute readers might recall we had some weather back in 2020 when we crossed.

Day 3 - Monday July 17

We get up, Chris and Rudy go for a short run and I make my coffee and get things ship shape and ready to go. When they get back and get ready to shove off, Chris informs me that the master head will not flush........ hmmmm....... I check everything and sure enough, No Flushy! We had just pumped out last weekend so the tank was not full. I even got down in the engine room and used the spot light to show into the tanks and there was very little in there. So we motored over to the fuel dock and tried a pump out to see if that would free whatever is in there. No luck. I even tried opening the ball valve while the pump out was attached. We asked for use of a plunger to no avail. We were going to start our generator as there was no electric on the fuel dock that we could use and I wanted to remove the liquid from the bowl with our mini shopvac. Oh yeah........ I did not replace the gen start battery like I wanted too. Generator will not start since that battery is 7 years old and dead!

Bucket in hand we transfer the stuff to the guest head and flush it. We will run on 1 head for now until we can get the clog clear. The only thing we can think is that one of our guests did something that clogged the duck valves. Off we go headed to Tawas.

The weather was nice and we had a slight breeze on our stern. NO vibration from the day before so we are in good running order. BTW...... we have been running at 2230 - 2250RPM with a vessel speed of 22.5 - 23+ depending on conditions and a fuel burn of 28.7 - 30.3gph. EGT is on base line spec of 750p/700s. As we approach our turn around Harbor Beach and the Thumb of Michigan we take note of the dark ripples on the water. All you sailors know that means strong wind. and strong it was.....

We ended up dealing with 5footers on our port bow quartering, which makes for an exciting ride. With the occasional 6 footer rolling through we discussed options and we finally landed on turning broadside to the waves and running up on plane. Running with the waves on our beam and heading north"ish" toward Oscoda and Harrisville we were able to make better headway toward the shoreline for shelter and keep things much more stable. That was a couple of hours of some rockin' and rollin'. The srpay that kicked up and blew back onto the foredeck disclosed a slight leak in the seal around the center hatch. Add that to the list of stuff to have fixed in the off season. we make note that in the future, no matter what the forecast indicates, plan for bad sea conditions crossing Saginaw Bay and run an Arc Route up, over and down to keep things stable.

We made Tawas, took on fuel and got situated. We walked into town and everything was closed. We went back to the boat and made dinner. We talked with some boating neighbors that stopped by to say hello and then off to bed.

Day 4- Tuesday July 18

Today is our long day. We will run from Tawas to Rogers City. We will take on fuel and let Rudy off for a break from the running. As it turns out we had weather headed our way and we would encounter it at Rogers City. We ran in smooth conditions, unlike the day before and listened as Sarnia Coast Guard dealt with a boat fire over on Georgian Bay. They have a strong transmitter so we could hear only the Coast Guard side of the conversation but you knew exactly what was going on since CCG was repeating a lot of things to get confirmation and clarification of who was coming to the aid of the burning boat etc......... Made our uneventful run seem fortunate! Good planning and proper maintenance. We notice the wind picking up and the clouds getting dark as we approach Rogers City. We get in and fueled before the rain arrives. We ask permission to stay on the fuel dock until the weather passes. They say yes but there is an inbound 61footer that is going to stop for fuel and you will need to move. So we moved the boat down the fuel dock and get tied up before the rain arrives and the 61 arrives. Good plan as it rained on and off for about 1.5 hours and the Sea Ray 61 SunDancer did come in and get fuel. It was fun to watch a boat 10 feet longer than us do their maneuvers for docking. They had a system very similar to ours.

Once the rain was done around 3:45 or so we shoved off and headed for Mackinaw City, our destination for the day. We ran the upbound recommended route on the chart and stayed just ahead of the rain as it came out from the shoreline. It got windy as we got into the Straits of Mackinaw and we docked without incident at Straits State Marina. Rudy did go for an unintended swim at the dock since he missed the jump. we had to pull him out by his collar. He was not happy about that and neither were we.

We had called ahead and gotten our slip assignment as we were going to be late because of the rain. No worries. we looked at the weather for the next 2 days as we were planning on staying put in Mack City for 2 nights but the weather looked good on Wednesday for our run to Elk Rapids. we were scheduled to arrive on Thursday but weather is predicted.(I am writing this on Thursday morning and it is most definitely thundering and raining). so we planned to get up early, check weather and make our choice.

Day 5 - Wednesday July 19

We get up early and look at weather. we decide to leave Mack City and get going. We technically have enough fuel plus a reserve but I want a larger reserve. the fuel dock at Straits State does not open until 9am so I call next door to Mack City marina and they are open. We get set, shove off and go get fuel at Mack City Marina. We time it perfectly to get in just before the Shepler ferry blows its horn signaling that they are leaving. We take on fuel and get shoved off and out of the marina basin before the inbound ferry arrives. Good Timing! We get running and we cross under the "Big Mack" bridge signaling our transition from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan. We have a slight breeze on our stern and 3 sailboats ahead of us. we run our course out to the White Shoal Light approach markers and turn our track south into the Greys Reef channel. we pass through with no traffic and make our way south. Perfect Day! we have about 1 foot base swell and just a couple of vessels on our radar. NO expected weather.

We continue our navigation track and as we get close to Charlevoix the traffic does pick up but everyone is staying out of each others way. We enter Grand Traverse Bay and head south down the eastern arm as that is where Elk Rapids is. We slow by the shoal marker and have lunch. we decide to take advantage of the nice weather and run at hull speed for the rest of the way.

Finding the entrance to the Elk Rapids Marina was fun. I had it marked but I could not see it until we were about 1/4 mile from it. Then I could see what I needed. We hailed the marina on VHF73 and got our slip assignment. We got situated and then let Rudy off the boat.

Elk Rapids is a very nice Marina and little city. The neighbor to our left came over to say hello as their last boat was the same as ours. A 460 Sundancer. We talked for a bit and turns out his name is Steve as well. Steve recommended that we check out the Wednesday night festivities. The city blocks the main street and they have a little party with food and such vendors. We walked the 2 blocks and found a few neat little shops. We did find an art gallery and sure enough we ended up buying a rather nice piece of copper art that was heated in different ways to get the color lines. It is kind of big so we think we have a way of getting it into a safe place on the boat for the ride back. If not I am sure either Colleen/John or Dave/Judy will take it back with them for us.....

That catches you up with our adventures so far. We will spend a few days here in Elk Rapids and then keep an eye on the forecast to see if we shove off on Sunday or Monday.

Days 6 - 9 Thursday thru Sunday

We met John, Colleen, Dave and Judy for Lunch at the Foundry restaurant in Elk Rapids. Thursday is the agreed upon arrival day so we all converge and enjoy lunch. The night before we stopped at a small store that had some interesting food options. One being a local Whiskey/Bourbon that we decided to try. So we tasted that Bourbon with family and neighbors after lunch and then parted ways with John and colleen because they needed to go let their dog out. Dave, Judy, Chris and I went to a local brewery for a taste and some food. We made plans for the next day which is touring wineries on the Mission Peninsula. The "Must Stop" winery is Mari Vineyards which is owned by the Louganis family of "Curse of Oak Island" fame. Dave loves the show so we had this on the list to tour.

It was a very nice day of wine tasting. We did learn that Michigan wine is kinda like Ohio wine. Most are just not good compared to Finger Lakes NY and Russian River area of California. We find a couple that we like and buy a bottle or two. A very nice day had by all.

We spend Saturday walking around Traverse City. Front Street is their "Main Drag" with shops and such. We eat at Sparks BBQ. Long wait for the food but it was worth the wait. We continue our walk around TC and we stop at a few shops including the tasting room for Grand Traverse Distillery and Traverse City Distillery. We also stop at the obligatory Cherry Republic store with all things Michigan Cherry. All in All a very nice day of enjoying the downtown of TC. We say good bye to Dave and Judy as they are leaving the next day to go back home. John and Colleen drop us off at the Marina in Elk Rapids and we have dinner and relax.

We are looking at the weather and there is an option to leave on Sunday or Monday. We check again Sunday morning. As it turns out Monday is the better day so we make plans with John and Colleen and they drive us to Sleeping Bear Dunes scenic drive and we see the dunes from a different perspective than we did 2 years ago. Instead of doing the Dune Climb, we see things from the overlooks. I took a ton of pictures. We all agree that it was Glen Arbor where we had lunch and ice cream the last time we visited so we headed there, had some ice cream and looked around again. Things have grown a bit but it is still a small tourist town that is quite nice. We do some shopping at Anderson's Market and we head back to the camp site where we drop off Colleen to let out Zoe, their dog, and John drives us to the marina to let out Rudy, our dog. We grab a few things and get Rudy in the truck and head back to the campsite for a cook out on the final night. Brats and sides....... A great ending to this phase of the trip.

Day 10 Monday July 24

We prepare to shove off and we make our way over to the fuel dock. Fuel prices are reasonable and I would like a little extra cushion from a reserve perspective. We also pump out the holding tanks as maybe this time it will clear the clog in the master head system. Nope! We notice the port engine is a bit hard to start but we are able to get going. We push out, spin around and head out the inlet onto the East Arm of Traverse Bay. It is early and there are 2 fishing boats that are small so we are nice and go hull speed until the engines are warm and ready to run up on plane. The lake is flat as a plane of glass but there is haze so we fire up our radar to see into the haze at a distance. Nothing, so we get running. Once we are clear of GT Bay and out on Lake Michigan we take note of the sailboats that are taking part in the Chicago to Mackinac Island race. It is a popular race. All told we encountered 70+ sailboats on our way to Mack City. We were able to navigate our route yet still stay out of the way of the racing sailboats. It helped that the wind was keeping them on a different course than the one we were following.

We arrive at Mack City and must loiter outside of the marina inlet as we were notified that the marina is short handed and there is a trawler taking on 800 gallons so we need to wait a bit. So we waited a bit and then headed in. We got docked and took on 200 gallons of fuel. Since they were short handed I pumped the fuel and to keep track of things I figured out the their pumps will dispense 10gallons a minute. So 20minutes later we had our tanks set for a rather long run to Tawas the next day.

Well our boat had other ideas. The port engine will not even turn over. Thumb the starter button and NOTHING happens. I know the battery is good....... hmmmmmm. We decide to start the strbd engine and dock with one engine and 2 very strong thrusters. Those are a godsend in these situations. We get settled at our dock and figure that there is noting we can do at the moment because it is hot down in the engine compartment. So we call our mechanic and he graciously answers and I explain the situation and he thinks of 3 things we should try

1. Let things cool and try again

2. If that does not work then "Whack the starter with a hammer" as your wife thumbs the starter button.........

3. Short the solenoid terminals and see if that starts the engine

Day 11 Tuesday July 25

We get up and immediately try to start the port engine as things have cooled down. No dice. So I get the hammer out of the tool kit and contort my old arthritic body around and bang on the starter as Chris thumbs the starter. Nothing........ So we call Shepler's Marine and see if they have a mechanic on duty and if they have a starter for a Cummins 6CTA diesel. Yes to the mechanic, no to the part. Long story short, pun intended, the mechanic was able to start the engine by, you guessed it, shorting the solenoid terminals with a screw driver. He showed us how to do it and we both practiced it. In the end it was easier for Chris to do it since she is more flexible. We settle up with Sheplers and get on our way. It is noon and the conditions are perfect for a 7 hour run to Tawas without stopping in Rogers City. WE do not want to shut down the engine until we are securely tied at our slip. Everything was going well until we approached Alpena. Thunder Bay. Apt name. The wind picked up and so did the waves. The wind and waves kept building so we eventually called UNCLE about half way between Alpena and Harrisville and turned north and headed to Alpena. WE have been there before so we know the inlet and the city. We arrive and get situated in our slip. Fun Fact........ Viking Cruises has a Great Lakes cruise ship and a rather long itinerary around the lakes. The cruise ship was anchored to the south of the Alpena Inlet. Kinda fun to see the Viking ship as we had just returned from a Viking River Cruise in Europe. The Rhine River Cruise. We settle up with the marina and make dinner. We look at the weather and we see that we might need to stay put for another day and let the weather blow through.

Day 12 Wednesday July 26

Sure enough we need to stay another day. Infact three other boats do the same thing. We go into Alpena and visit the food trucks, Poke Bowl for lunch , and then we go to a brewery across the parking lot. We enjoy a flight of beers and have a conversation with the guy that is sitting 2 seats down. A retired fireman. We are sharing stories and the whole engine thing comes up. He says "Go to the auto parts store and buy a push button switch and some wire and fashion yourself a cheater ignition switch". It appears that mechanics do that all of the time. The mechanic from Sheplers was going to do that but his manager said NO WAY. Liability reasons. I am an Electrical Engineer so it all made sense to me and I knew exactly what to buy. we bought the items and then headed to the Thunder Bay Winery tasting room on 2nd Ave. We revisit the winery that we found the last time we were in Alpena and have a flight each of their wine. Not the best but we find one we like and buy a bottle as we are rushing to leave and get back to the boat ahead of the rain that is coming. We get back to the boat, Rudy out for a walk and get the canvas up just as the rain starts to fall. Glad we stayed put as it rained hard for quite a while. The boat needed a rinse. So while that was happening we decided to take the items we bought at the auto parts store and make our cheater...........

So we fashioned ourselves a cheater switch out of 12AWG wire, a 20AMP dc push button switch and some crimp on ends that will make life easy. I put it all together and went "Down below" to install it and after about an hour or swearing and sweating I got it all attached and tested. The hard part was getting my body in a position that I could reach the Solenoid, loosen the nuts that hold all of the wire connections and attach the "Fork Ends" of the cheater switch we just built. Getting the ratchet in my hand so that I could reach the nuts and manipulate everything took some time and patience that I appeared to be very short on at the time. So until Tom Hill of T-Diesel can get to our boat and fix things for real, that is what we have. We will keep that rig for the future should we need it.

We got out our DVD collection and chose a movie and went to bed when it was done. We planned on getting up and looking at the lake conditions first thing and make plans for our destination.

Day 13 Thursday July 27

I take Rudy out for his morning walk and the wind is as predicted coming out of the west and not really strong. So that bodes well since the shoreline will shelter us from the west wind a bit and we should be able to make good time. Our plan is Alpena to Lexington. Navigation says 5.5 hours..........

We prepare and shove off. We have reservations at Lexington so we are in good shape from that perspective. We nose out and conditions are decent. There are some 1-2 foot swells coming in off the lake from and odd direction but those must be left over from the day before. We also notice swells coming out from land......... That ends up being what is called a confused state of wave action but our boat is large and heavy and is able to handle those conditions with very little motion.

As the day goes on and we approach good ole Saginaw Bay we are noticing that the waves are swinging around behind us, which is very good, and building in size. We are now running in 4 foot swells on our stern which is still comfortable since we are able to overtake the waves instead of having them roll under us. As we round the "Thumb" of Michigan we notice that the waves are now mostly 4 feet with the occasional 5 - 6 footer in there for good measure. Sidebar - Each day I do an engine check. Oil levels in the mains and transmissions. I noticed that the strbd engine was a little low but nothing to worry about. Well since we were running in some nasty stuff on our stern we would occasionally climb up the back side of a 6 footer and that would slow us down and lift our bow to the point where the oil would would not pick up properly and pressure would drop. This is on the starboard engine. That worried me so our discussions about where we would go for the night changed from "Let's push all the way home" to "Let's just stop in Lexington for the night and hope the weather cooperates for Friday"

we pull into Lexington and pay for 2 nights to lock in our slip incase the weather makes us stay an extra day. We end up having dinner at the Wind Jammer next to the marina and then head back to the boat. The engines had time to cool so I filled what oil we had into the starbd engine and wished we had more. So we went out for Rudy's evening walk and stopped at every store and 2 gas stations. NO ONE CARRIES Shell Rotella T4 15W-40 oil....... Seriously??????? Note to self...... Carry more oil than you think you need and top off the oil when you are in a city that has places to buy more oil.........

Day 14 Friday July 28

We wake up early and I take Rudy out for his walk. The wind is light and from the south. This we can handle. We took on 200 gallons of fuel the day before so that we could leave should we choose to leave early. We shoved off at 7am and had to wait for another boater to go by as they had the same idea. Get going early.

we nose out the entrance and the conditions could only have been better if the haze was not there. Fire up the radar, run hull speed until the engines are warm and then get running. It is a 1 hour run to the mouth of the St. Clair river and we encounter some small fishing boats at the bridge that connects Port Huron, MI with Sarnia Canada, so we slow as not to cause any issues with our wake and the small boats. We get on the river and find a few more small boats. Once we clear them we run the river down to the north end of Lake St. Clair. Fun Fact, since the river current is south bound we enjoyed an increase in Speed Over Ground as the boat was doing its normal 22.5 - 23mph PLUS the 3 mph current had us going 26mph at some points. We find some small fishing boats as the channel dumps us into Lake St. Clair and slow until we pass them and get into the main channel that will take us across the lake to Detroit.

We run all the way across Lake St. Clair and as we get to the point where we must slow for the NO WAKE zone in downtown Detroit we notice the increase in air temps. It is getting hot. It is a south wind so atleast we are headed into it. I ask Chris to remove the center piece of forward arcylic panel to let more air through the cockpit. We run the NO WAKE zone and notice some changes to that area from what we remember three years ago when we passed through on our 40 SunDancer. We pass under the McArthur bridge at span 8 and then decide it is time to get going. There is rain in the forecast and we can see it on the XMSirius weather data on our GPS. It is off to the west and coming our way. So we attempt to get the center piece of paneling back up and in place but the wind is strong enough that we are not able to snap the bottom row of snaps that hold things in place. We can get the 3 zippers closed but the snaps are impossible. So we just go and run down the Detroit river and head for Lake Erie. Same thing as the St. Clair river. We are running with the current so we enjoy added speed over ground and cover the distance quickly. We did stop in a place that was very close to shore and take the opportunity to turn around and go with the wind and get that center piece up and in place. Amazing how things work when you are NOT fighting the wind.

We navigate to the downbound cut and encounter 3 boats that are upbound in the downbound cut. One is on the wrong side of the channel and force us out and into the center of the channel. Rule #9 of the Navigation Rules for inland lakes and Rivers including the Great Lake states that you stay as far to your right as possible so that you pass any on coming vessels Port to Port. The whole idea of these rules is so that you can predict behavior when you come into close contact with others. Some people just do what ever they want and make you get out of the way.

Anyhow........ We complete the run down the River and dump out into Lake Erie. We run the channel out into the lake and drive a slalom course to miss all of the junk in the water. we do not want any junk in the main engine water intakes. we clear the channel and I hear engines that are not ours. Sure enough, some dude in a "Go Fast" boat was running "Hair on fire" and pass us like we are standing still. We make our turn and aim for the southern side of Rattlesnake Island which is a mile or so west of South Bass Island. that is Put-In-Bay for those of you who do not know that. The wind is freshening but only to the point of generating waves that are 1 foot or less and a chop. Makes the ride a little bumpy but we still maintain our full cruise speed. The air is hot and humid so our engine temps are up a little but still well within spec. As we get near PIB, I send a text to our neighbor to see if he and his wife are still on the island. we share some pleasantries and some pics and continue on. As we round the south end of South Bass we encounter the usual compliment of fishing boats sitting between South Bass and Catawba. We just cruise on through a gap in the fishing boats and let them deal with our wake as we are pretty much done and want to get back to the dock. We run our course to miss the shoal between west and east harbor inlets and make our way to the mouth of East HArbor inlet. There are two boats that are pulling tubes and they are running right infront of the inlet. People can be very stupid. Don't do water sports right infront of an active inlet!!!!!!

We enter the inlet and make our way to Skipperbud's, our home port, and dock the boat and get the lines set and the power hooked up. Chirs takes Rudy for a walk as I get things plugged in and the AirCon running. It is hot and it is time for our arrival drink! We enjoy our beverages in the comfort of the AC and then go say hello to some of our dock neighbors. They welcome us back and then it is time to go take a shower because we are going to JJ's for Bacon Jam Burgers for our dinner.

We get back from dinner and the day starts to catch up to me. I am exhausted, we put Tommy Boy into the DVD player and once the movie is done we crawl into bed just after 9pm. Chris watches TV and I eye close my eyes. At 3am the storms blow through and I wake up and remember that we did not close the center window vent on the windshield. This is the motorized piece that opens and closes as opposed to the aforementioned acrylic piece we have to do by hand. I go out into the cockpit and turn on the starbd battery so that I can close the vent. Only 1 of the two motors that operate that vent works. It's always something. So I open and close it a few times and finally the second motor comes to life and the vent fully closes . We place a few towels to catch the water that leaks in various places in the canvas and then go back to bed. Rudy does not like thunder so he is in our bed when we get back from the cockpit. We let him stay as we crawl back into bed and try to get back to sleep.

Day 15 Saturday July 29

Time to pack up, unload the boat into the truck and drive home. WE get home, unload the truck and then get busy doing laundry and getting things generally put away.

This was not a relaxing trip but a great one none-the-less. We got home safe and had some fun experiences. We have a few things to fix but that is always the case with a boat. Speaking of boats....... we are going to need a different boat. Not a bigger boat but one that has a more comfortable layout and sleeping accommodations. I really need a residential Queen sized bed to get good sleep. I hang off the end of the bed on our boat so I do not sleep well. Such is the life of a tall guy that is taller than the specification of most manufacturers. There are a few out there that have residential sized queen berths. Stay tuned for our search for the right cruising trawler.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed our account of our trip.

Just Us over and out. Back to monitoring 16.