Brilliant "Sound and Light" Finale to Speakeasy's Adventure

Jim Haring, good friend and master sailor, drove up to Port Washington Sunday. Mark drove Jim's car back and Jim and I spent two days sailing to Chicago.

Yesterday we started from Racine at 8:30 and decided to sail all the way back to Chicago. First the lake was like glass. No sun. Just muted shades of gray from above the horizon to the boat. Then the lake started undulating. Wide broad ups and downs. Then choppy. One patch with strong wind and white caps. Then calmer. Then waves began to build. By now we have been sailing - sometimes with engine on - for 12 hours. Chicago is visible from miles away. As we get within 6 miles, we see lightning. Jim says, "That's just heat lightning." I haven't heard that term in years. As the city gets closer and the city lights begin to sparkle, the lightning increases. Behind Chicago the sky explodes in bright voluminous bursts. We hear the huge thunder strikes. I do not want to be caught in lightning. Thoughts of Sarah recently having been hit by lightning flash through my brain. I throttle up. Can we beat the storm?

The winds pick up. We furl the jib and head in through the outer breakwater wall called the 'Gap' with the Chicago Light to our right. Red right return. I remember that we sailed through here at the start of the trip one month ago. My eye catches the instrument panel above the wheel for one split second. Gust of 50 miles per hour. I do not allow myself to think about the speed but try to keep a course. We manage to take down the main sail but the Dutchman system intended to neatly fold the sail up along the boom doesn't work in such high winds. The sail flies out almost over the side of the boat. Jim gets two sail ties wrapped around. I have enormous difficulty finding the next opening. I know I'm looking for a red light atop a tower--some 30 feet or more above the lake. However all the city lights flashing red and white make it almost impossible for me to find. In addition there's a blinking red light on some building behind the red light that I'm trying to keep my eye on. Usually when you come through these breakwater walls, the sea gets calmer. Not tonight. I turn over the helm to Jim who steers us to Speakeasy's mooring ball North Juliet 23 as if he's been going there on a regular basis. We're almost at the mooring ball. The skies open. The rain comes down so hard it hurts. Precariously poised on the bow, I reach as far as I can to grab the mast buoy that is attached to the mooring bridle. I pull up the lines and hold on for dear life. Finally I'm able to attach the two ends through the bow cleats. We are safe and sound and I am soaking wet.

Jim and I huddle below in the cabin until the lightning subsides. A Monroe Harbor tender boat comes to fetch us. We get to the Columbia dock. Mark meets us with Bob Bradley's car. He drives Jim home. He drives us home. I don't even go to my apartment. Right to 1001. Mark draws us a hot bath. He pours two glasses of wine. I stumble out of the bath, dry off and fall into bed. So happy and relieved to be back in Mark's arms.

I sleep. What a grandious finale to Speakeasy's Adventure. Yes, I'm capitalizing Adventure--from Harbor to Harbor.

Home

It seems strange not to be on Speakeasy, not sleeping, eating, and sailing on her. I'm not testing lines or swabbing the deck. I'm not checking her oil or raising her "Don't Give Up The Ship" flag. I'm not on water and I don't see a different lighthouse every day. I'm home, although Speakeasy seems more like home than my historic condo building in Chicago.

Recovery

Beth's iPhone and laptop got soaked along with the nav station contents due to a hatch being partially open (deceptively unclosed). The phone may be unrecoverable, but the laptop came back to life after the keyboard dried.

A day later, the laptop 'O' key went bad, but the iPhone came back to life. The iPhone didn't last long. It began overheating. After cooling it in the icebox, it took a charge and came back to almost normal, but not normal enough to be useful. Half of the screen no longer responds to presses so only half of the programs can be accessed, half of the keyboard, half of the voice mail messages, etc.

Harbor

A harbor is a place of safe haven or refuge. This morning while on our way to White Lake from Ludington we chose to enter a closer harbor rather than suffer 7 more hours of head wind and 4-foot waves. A thunderstorm was in the forecast and we didn't want to run into it. Pentwater beckoned and we aimed Speakeasy for its light. 

Pentwater is a very special place on the Friday following the Race to Mackinac (The Mac). Many of the participants raft their boats at the Yacht Club and throw themselves a big party. We are docked at Snug harbor, just past the Yacht Club and have a grand view of the festivities. 

We were happy to get a slip because of all of the activity. Beth called on the VHF radio and was welcomed to slip 6. Something was not usual about the radio message if I heard correctly. I thought I heard "stern-first." Speakeasy has never gone into a slip stern first. We approach slip 6 and immediately see why we must dock stern first--there is already a boat in the slip, which is bow first. I hastily review in my mind and with Beth the Maryland way to dock stern first--approach the slip from the channel (preferably into the wind), turn the bow away from the slip entrance, apply reverse to draw the stern into the slip, apply lines as necessary. Okay. Got it. BUT, there was a 10--15 knot cross wind and I had never actually done this!

The first attempt was pretty good, but Speakeasy came up short and we tried again. The next attempt was even worse--too close to neighboring boats. Nonetheless, dock hands had our lines and after some fending we were docked. Safe harbor! 

Wind

Wind is the reason to sail and the reason a sail turns into a foil to propel a boat. Wind can also turn on you. We've avoid high winds on our trip, but be didn't avoid a day with no wind at all.

Up with the sun, we motored out of Frankfort. The glassy Lake was just as flat as the harbor we had just left. Knowing that the weather report called for no wind, we didn't even take the sail cover off. A course was set for Big Sable Point and the autohelm did the rest. While the boat sailed itself, Speakeasy's passengers read and told stories. We even lit the stove for a warm lunch.

Leisurely en route to Ludington

We are seated in the cockpit. Mark's reading John Barth's The Last
Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, and I've started Robert Stepto's Blue
as the Lake. The autopilot is keeping a true course of 205 degrees
towards Big Sable Lighthouse after which we'll cruise into the marina.
This is very much a day of leisure.

I've just had a cell phone call from brother Bob. Sixty miles south of
us, he's also on the big lake and he already has landed one fish in
his little boat. He will drive up and join us for dinner providing
the main course which we'll cook on our little grill on the stern.

My mother grew up in Ludington. She spent her summers diving off the
lighthouse wall. Two years ago as the sun set, Bob, Thomas, Sarah,
Felicia and I walked to the lighthouse and just as the sun's evening
glow filled the sky, I slipped her ashes out of my backpack into the
water. This afternoon as Speakeasy enters the harbor, I'll wave in her
direction. "Mother! Look at what your little girl is doing now!"

Docks

Today we sailed at sunrise because of a long distance to go and fair winds. It's a very pleasant sail from Grand Traverse through the Manatou Channel when the the wether is good. It is often foggy or windy. The waves can build quickly between the islands and the shore as wind forces down the channel. Today, however, conditions were ideal--NW wind at 10-15 knots and blue sky.

Frankfort, south of the Manatous, is a lovely village--actually part of twin villages, Frankfort and Elberta--with a clean and handsome marina. Marinas are all different, most Michigan harbors have a municipal marina with some State aid and consistancy. Most of these compete with private marinas and yacht clubs for docking business.

Docks, or slips, are far from uniform in each marina. The traditional slip consists of pilings that one loops lines over at the four corners of a boat. Most marinas have some variation of this, usually offering cleats or loops in addition to pilings for tying dock lines. Some marinas have floating docks, which are lower than the normal docks fixed to posts. We've also docked on walls and ends of docks when slip spaces are filled.