Same day second post.  Don't expect that to happen too often but it's early in the season and the sky finally dried out enough to have a little fun.

After early morning fog, a bit of drizzle and chilly temperatures the clouds parted here in Mackinaw City.

I puttered all day and finished setting up the boat.  It's all ready to go.

The pleasant weather was apparently the ticket to set off the midge fly hatch.

That's not smoke over that ferry boat.

It's a zillion midge flies.

 

This is the critter.

It resembles a mosquito but is harmless other than getting on everything.  Fortunately, the hatch occurred over water for the most part and didn't affect me here in the marina very much.  The story from the locals here is that the hatch won't be as severe as it was last year.  Hope they're right.  For all the bugs that appeared this afternoon, they've disappeared just as quickly.

With the boat ready, the temperature rising and the wind calm, I decided to go take a lap around the bridge this evening.

There's something about being under the bridge that is just cool.

It's a view a lot of people never see.

I was dragging a few lines while on the tour and actually caught a lake trout.  The first fish of the year.

I released it.  It was crazy fat.  I'm guessing full of eggs maybe?  Anyway, it was a nice bonus to a pleasant 90 minute outing.

The lake was just so perfect.

It's not that calm too often.  

Not sure how this stacks up to other locations around the lake, but I took a walk out to the gas dock this afternoon and noticed the price of fuel here this year.

That's 89 octane pure gas.  A much better price than the $5.00 per gallon that it was when I put the boat away last fall.  

So that's it.  The fun begins.

News Flash!!!

Boating season is on!!!

After a day and a half delay, I found my boat and moved it to the summer slip in Mackinaw City.   The delay was due to a lost tooth crown first thing Thursday morning (original launch schedule day) and thus a wait to see the dentist to get patched up.  Unfortunately, the solution to that issue seems to be a tooth implant.  Can't wait for that fun to begin.

Anyway, back to the boating.  I arrived in Cheboygan, loaded the necessary equipment into the boat for the 15 mile cruise to Mackinaw City, then had the marina staff help me spot my land vehicle at Mackinaw City and returned to Cheboygan to run the boat north.

To say it wasn't a scenic cruise on the lake is a bit of an understatement.

But I found my way to Mackinaw City without running into anything and pulled into a foggy marina.

Here is a 12 minute, moderately boring snip of the 1:15 minute excursion.  It's actually a real nice cruise when you can see beyond the bow of the boat.

Everything on the boat appears to be in good working order...knock on teak...and I'm in the summer slip.

Now back to "work".

South of the 45th parallel, it's downright balmy and the yard is filled with the scent of lilac.

The lilac hedges hum with the sound of the bees.  I actually caught a couple in flight in the top photo.

North of the 45th parallel, it doesn't look quite so inviting.

The lake is rolling and half the bridge towers are in the fog.  But fear not...I'm launching this Thursday!  Cool but calm is the forecast so I'm taking the plunge (not literally, I hope).

Plan is to drop the required gear off at the boat on the way north through Cheboygan, then spot the car in Mackinaw City, return to Cheboygan, hop in the boat and fish/cruise my way back to Mackinaw City.

Stay tune for that exciting report!

Only 10 short days to launch...

...but this is almost too hard to take.

Saturday, the Straits looked like this.

And just to rub it in, Mother Nature dished up a repeat performance for this morning.

I figure in 10 days the temperature will drop several degrees, the wind will kick up and the April showers will commence that have been missing.

On the plus side, the lake level is up 15" over this time last year.

The countdown continues.

Spring is springing here in the Wolverine state.

Although the hydrangea bloom looks a bit "used".

So with the promise of warmer days ahead, I started the 2015 boating season...sort of.
I took a drive with friend and polishing expert Jim to the Cheboygan Village Marina to visit my boat and spruce up the hull sides before spring launch.

This was the first I'd actually seen the boat in the storage area and was quite pleased with the handling and care they use in storage.  The boat is stored on a cradle and covered to prevent anything from dripping on the boat from another boat above.

In my case, there were no boats above it anyway.  So Jim and I spend the next few hours cleaning and waxing the hull.  Unlike most of my former storage facilities, there was plenty of space between boats to be able to work on it.

We gave it a good shine.

After finishing up that task, we drove up to the Mackinaw City marina to check out the summer slip and conditions there.

Yup, lots of water, one boat, and...

Yes, that's ice clogging the harbor entrance.  It's not quite so "Springy" in the Straits area.  We noticed a little ice here and there along the drive north between Cheboygan and Mackinaw City.  It's going to be a couple weeks before that place is going to be very inviting to boaters.

I learned there is an all new management and staff at the marina this year.  That's a little disappointing because the former staff was so competent.  I met the new dockmaster at the marina and he seemed enthusiastic so we'll see how it all develops with the new crowd.  The bar was set high by the previous management.

Anyway, at this moment, the scheduled 2015 launch day is May 13th.  Weather might alter that a bit, but I picked a day to at least get on the schedule.  Because of the timing of the Memorial Day, that's only one week ahead of the holiday.

I'll be hoping for a warm-up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been tackling a task that's been waiting about 20 years to be completed.  The wiring in the basement was a mess.  A previous owner's attempt at a basement rec room and wiring was something to behold.  I've got it mostly cleaned up now with just a couple minor issues to fix.  It looks much better now.

Need to get all those little jobs finished up by the 13th of May when the real fun begins.

The Straits has gone from frozen to slush...

 so it's about time to point the minivan north and let the natives enjoy this 90° Florida heat.

The pool is even approaching the "too warm" state.

We decided to go "celebrate" our imminent departure with a casino cruise out of Port Canaveral.

We caught a shuttle van near our place early this morning and traveled to board the Victory 1.

According to articles I dug up, it's a 300' ship with 4 passenger decks and 600+ slot machines and a couple dozen gaming tables.  I thought the ocean would be a nice place to enjoy a 90° day.

We boarded as a couple tugs left the harbor to tend to barges offshore.

Then had to wait until a cruise ship passed.

Lines were cast and we were on our way out of the harbor.  The beach was busy.

The boat motored the required 3 miles offshore and motored at a slow pace in a couple mile lap just north of the port.  We spent the first hour dining at the buffet lunch on board, played for a couple hours, then enjoyed the slow cruise for the end of the trip.

It was a nice trip.

About the time we docked, we were treated to a launch from the Kennedy Space Center.  That was cool but not nearly as impressive as I thought it might be.  This was an unmanned payload headed to the space station.

So that's it for the winter.  Friday the trek north to the land of leafless trees begins.

Can't say I'm not looking forward to going north.

Need to get the Sea Ray ready for launch next month.  

It's the last day of March.  Seems to be a rhythm developing with the frequency of my posting to the blog.

We ventured out of "the park" today for a bit of a road trip.

We were here.

And could be here.

Our neighbor snapped a shot of the northern estate after this morning's 4" snow fall.

I think I like it here at the beach just a little bit more at the moment.

Anyway, we went over to Clearwater Beach west of Tampa on the gulf and walked a couple miles of the beach.

It has to be the most powdery sand I've ever been on.  It's like drywall dust and about that white as well.

We ambled down the beach wading along the way.

I'll wager no one is cooling their feet off in the surf on the Great Lakes right now.

The water temperature was probably around 75°.   A little refreshing at first, but very comfortable after a couple minutes.

We went to a local eatery "Cooters" for their Tuesday all you can eat crab.  Then shopped our way back to the car.

I ran across this little plaque in one of the shops.  Seems like the way to do it...at least around these parts.

It was a fun day...certainly better than shoveling snow.