Devils Lake

A high school classmate took this beautiful photo of Devils Lake from the bluff near a trail. The photographer, Morgan McArthur, wanted to get the rising red moon on this spring evening. Although I learned to run an outboard motor on this lake, motors have not been allowed for years--strictly sail and paddle.

Getting A Head (Electric Conversion)

Jabsco Electric Head Conversion in Place

Beth longed for an electric head ever since seeing Jone's (not his real name) head. So, I ordered an electric conversation from Jabsco and presented it to her all wrapped up as a present. She was overjoyed. But now Speakeasy is in the water and the conversion had to be installed. How would that go? 

Substituting the manual plunger with an electric macerating pump is very simple, but wiring the head conversation takes thought and time. I tested the device by wiring it directly to the battery, which is just a meter forward of the head. Once I verified that the stool was flushing properly, I wired the conversion to the "Macerator" breaker switch on the electric panel. Because of the distance, I used #10 wire and pulled it through flexible conduit beneath the bilge boards from starboard to port and up to the electric panel. Because I'm a novice at pulling wire, this took about 3 hours, much longer than a professional would need.

Strida Folding Bike

Mark on Strida

Strida parked in the little closet.

Boys of all ages turn their heads when I ride passed on my Strida.com folding bike. Strida makes several models based on the award-winning design from the UK. It has a belt drive, which is clean and quiet and folds and unfolds in a couple seconds--much faster than most folding bikes. I ride the bike to Monroe Harbor and take the tender to Speakeasy. The bike is light and rolls on its wheels when it is folded, which makes it very easy to move around the dock, tender, and boat. It also rests on it's luggage rack and wheels when folded so that it doesn't fall over locking it. 

Dinghy Races as Columbia Yacht Club

Dinghy Races as Columbia Yacht Club

Three days of races by the World Airlines Sailing Competition (WASC) brought sailors from around the world to Chicago and the Columbia Yacht Club. 

Racers have breakfast before the first race. 

Support boats fly team flags.  

 Sailors watch a race from Speakeasy. 

At the end of the day, the 420 dinghies were back on the dock. 

Clapperton Island to Gore Bay

Clapperton Island to Gore Bay

It was my turn to make breakfast so a fired up the oven and baked refrigerator sweet rolls. Unfortunately, I burned some of the bottoms, which was our first error in the oven.

There was almost no wind at all this morning and motoring through Clapperton Channel was easy. Along the way we saw Loons grouping for a migration. I'd never seen loons in groups before. We made Gore Bay about noon to discover that Canadian Yacht Charter was closed due to an illness. We made for the marina to fill the fuel tank and empty the holding tank. All of the gear we brought was taken from Air Play and stowed in the car for our trip home. It was sad that we couldn't say goodbye to our hosts face-to-face, but we need to get to Manistique, MI.

Bridal Veil Falls

First, we wanted to stop at Bridal Veil Falls in Kagawong. This falls had been stopped for some time to create power for Kagawong, but was freely flowing again. Not only was the falls beautiful, but we could see salmon in the pool below them. Judging from the state of one of the salmon (dead and white), the salmon had come to spawn.

Farqhar's ice cream

Next was a stop in Little Current for Farqhar's famous ice cream. I had blackberry and white chocolate and Corkey had rum raisin. Betty and Beth had chocolatey dishes of ice cream. YUM!

Manistique

 We got to Manistique at sundown and took rooms near the light, which was beautiful in the sunset. Thanks to our mobile devices, we found a summer club with a fish fry a couple miles away and felt like we were home again.

Little Current to Clapperton Island

Little Current to Clapperton Island

This morning the air was light and the water was flat. There was a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon carrying 15 kts from NNW. We wanted to get to our anchorage at Clapperton Island before the weather turned. However, we needed a slow morning because Beth'a injury was painful and we were tired. Corkey made French toast and we ate like kings.

Motoring through the buoys in Little Current was peaceful and beautiful. In a couple hours we were entering the Clapperton Channel, which is also marked with buoys because of the many submerged rocks surrounding the island's bay.

We headed north to Clappertton bay rounding Meredith rock, which has a large marker and light. We kept Betsey Island to port and Burbidge Island to starboard and followed the chart into the anchorage.

Our first anchor setting assumed we could set a second anchor to stern but I learned that the oar lock was broken and the dinghy seat was too so we hauled anchor and moved further from the shore so we could swing freely. Even further from shore, this was a picturesque spot with a head-on view of the decrepit Harbour Island Club main building that has not be occupied for decades.

At this point the wind was 5 kts but we could see weather approaching. We closed the cockpit curtains and waited for the weather to come and go, which it did in a couple of hours. We took the opportunity to rest and have another delicious dinner aboard Air Play.

Croker Island to little Current

Croker Island to Little Current 

Beautiful morning with a light breeze from the South that was forecast to pick up to 10-15 kts later in the day. I expected a pleasant trip to Little Current for a quick stop and then to a nearby anchorage.

Corkey was sent to untie the stern line from the cedar tree ashore. He couldn't depend on Beth to row this time, so he pulled himself in the dinghy by the line and was very careful getting ashore so he wouldn't slip again. Once untied, he pulled the dinghy back to Air Play and tied it close.

The anchor came up easily and we were on our way out of the bay at Croker Island, which we'd done 2 days prior to get to Benjamin Island on our first day.

I was adjusting the chart and looking for the rocks that must be rounded in order to get to deeper water. We had to pass between Croker Island and Secretary Island. I also knew that there was a shoal to the West but while I was adjusting the view on the plotter, we ran aground on a flat rock in 4 ft of water. I didn't throw us into reverse for a couple of seconds. Had I been faster we may have gotten off immediately but as it was we were fast atop a rock. No amount of backing was helping.

The crew inspected the ground around the boat. I checked the instruments, power, and bilge. We had lost no systems as were not taking in water. Whew!

We raised our charter company, Canadian Yacht Charter, on the radio but they couldn't hear us so we switched to the telephone, which worked in this area. They advised us to call back back 10 minutes while they considered our options. At the same time, Beth had the Coast Guard on the radio who took our particulars--crew, location, lat-long, and so forth.

During the 10 minutes, we prepared the second anchor to kedge us off the rock into deeper water behind us. The anchor rode was horribly tangled so it took 20 minutes to feed off the dinghy.

I called CYC who suggested dumping water, getting in the dinghy, and backing down. This did not work by itself even though the small but building waves were pushing the bow. With each blast of reverse the bow would swing and seem to move us slightly in the correct direction.

Eventually Corkey was able to drop the anchor 150 ft off the stern. After a few minutes of cranking the rode on a winch, Air Play slid off the shoal and I could pick up the crew and the anchor.

We called off the charter company and the Coat Guard and checked the chart very carefully. I was still puzzled about how I got atop a shoal that I knew was there but we got past it on the next attempt and rounded the rocks toward Secretary Island as we should.

We were exhausted and decided to sail to spend the night in Little Current, get a shower, and a restaurant meal.