The biggest news of the week was a move to a new slip.
The boat next to us in the original slip extended a good 3 or 4 feet into the fairway with its bow pulpit and anchor. Any docking trauma, and I risked dragging an anchor down the side of my boat. It is against the state regulations for a boat to extend beyond the slip boundaries, but I learned (again) that the rules are mere guidelines. The solution was that I could move if that would work better. So I did. Slip #63.
It's a wider dock by nearly a foot and the slip itself is at least a foot wider. We're a little further out on the pier which offers a better view of the lake and it's a floating dock so regardless of the water level, the dock lines will remain constant. I think the end result of the issue resolution was a big win for me. The new neighbors are much more cordial as well. The Port Huron to Mackinac sailboat race was early in the week but we don't see any of those boats from that race. They approach the island from the east. We did get to see a couple of the tall ships that are touring the lakes currently.
So we lazed around the marina for much of the week and did a few odds and ends on boat maintenance. It was a nice week, but remained quite windy until Thursday. It finally calmed down and we went out for a couple hour cruise.
We headed out to the bridge.
Then took a lap of the island, passing the Grand Hotel.
On the back (north) side of the island is a resort that is being restored called Silver Birches. When we were last there a few years ago, much of the building was just the support structure. It appears mostly complete now.
It's a terrible location on the island if you want to do anything other than relax at the resort. It's just about the direct opposite side of the island from the city. It would be a 4+ mile ride to town, bars, restaurants, etc. They shouldn't expect my call. We watched the "fudgies" come and go all week on Shepler's and the Star Line.
Those are the two ferry lines that now service the island. Arnold Transit no longer exists. Back in the 1970's, you would have never dreamed that the Arnold line would vanish. The Star Line still uses a few of the old Arnold Transit ferry boats while others were sold and shipped elsewhere in the Great Lakes. We also enjoyed some scenic sunrises.
Sunsets were probably just as nice but the sun sets over town from where we are so we don't see that unless we make the effort to do so. By that time of day, we're not too apt to move a whole lot. We're back at the ranch for a few days to do chores and take care of some appointments before heading back north. Kathy is chomping at the bit to get to the island. I'll probably have to concede and make that happen soon.
Wow! What a busy three weeks this has been. But let's get in to the "way back" machine and review where we've been. It all started with a Starcraft 14' rowboat back in about 1981. That soon gave way to something with a little more pizzazz. My 15' Sea Nymph runabout.
That was a fun little boat that I had for several years. In 1989, I decided to step up a little so I felt a bit more secure on the big lakes. My 17' Yar Craft.
That was a very seaworthy boat for its size. I didn't hesitate to run offshore when I had a good forecast. But then, the family voiced the need for a potty on board. In 1996, my first Sea Ray. A 1986 23' Weekender. "Always Sum-Thin"
That boat was a great little salmon boat. By that time we were a family of four and #4 (Kathy) decided maybe she was "missing the boat" and wanted to join the fun. At that point, we needed another berth in the cabin. So it was time to move into a Sundancer with the mid cabin berth for the kids and in 1998, I added the 1989 268 Sundancer. "Undertow"
We fished a ton with that boat and in the early 2000's discovered cruising with it. While cruising, we discovered a little more length, beam and weight would be a better distance cruiser. So in 2004, we welcomed our 1989 300 Sundancer. "Play Dough"
That was our weekend retreat and fishing machine for 13 years. After hundreds of pounds of salmon caught and hundreds of cruising miles from Ludington to Wisconsin to Canada and the North Channel, we sold her after the 2016 season to focus on land travel. Now after a two year hiatus from the cruising world, we now own a 1997 330 Sundancer. "Final Edition".
The name reflects the fact that this is the last one...I think. Six months ago, I purchased this boat on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. After a frigid winter, record flooding, and a transport that didn't pan out, my new boat was finally transported and arrived in Mackinaw City June 26th. It was launched, I ran it to the gas dock to top off the tanks and took my first Great Lakes cruise. All of maybe 1/4 mile from Straits State Harbor to Mackinaw City Marina.
We spent a couple days cleaning 700 miles of highway grime off the exterior and who knows how many years of southern "stuff" out of the interior. The southern world of boating has an endless fight with mold and mildew. It was evident in this boat so Kathy spent three days cleaning EVERY surface inside the boat while I wiped down the upholstery on deck. We were finally ready to give this machine a little test run. So off we went.
We took a little spin out around the bridge and back.
It wasn't a big trip. I'm still working on learning how this boat handles. It's inboard and a lot different from the outdrives I've used since 1996. That's going to take a few trips to get used to. We've been enjoying our return to Mackinaw City. The early morning sunrise.
Watching Shepler's come to life while checking the mail.
Shopping the local crafters.
Rocking with "Toast & Jam" at the Crossing.
And watching the water level rise and fall. That was strange. While sitting on the back of the boat, I noticed the water level on the slips across the fairway seemed much higher than usual.
An hour later, it was back to this year's "normal".
I have no idea what is pushing that much water in and out of the harbor. It doesn't seem like the ferry boats coming and going would make that much difference and it didn't fluctuate with each ferry arrival. It remains a mystery. On the 4th, we had another bluebird morning so decided to venture out again for another training session and cruised over to the island.
Passing the Round Island lighthouse.
It was a perfect morning...
...except for the bugs we encountered over there. Seems to lack of wind invited a bug reunion. We closed the cabin hatch to keep the critters out of the house and got out of there. After an evening of fireworks, we left the next morning to prep for the next adventure.
We loaded up the RV and the Crestliner and left for a week at Aloha State Park on Mullet Lake.
We were set up on a lakefront site and anchored the boat off the shore in front of the site.
We were there to fish for Mullet Lake's rainbow trout. Unfortunately, this trip coincided with the mayfly hatch. That put the brakes on the fishery. We struggled to find hungry fish and only boated one keeper during the first two days. Finally on the third day, the hatch ebbed and the fish cooperated.
It was a group effort.
Shanna's behind the camera. Anyway, we ended day three with seven bites and five fish in the boat. So the trip was saved. A weather front blew through Wednesday night and Thursday was a windy day so we were done fishing. So the sun sets on week #3 of our summer kick off event.
This was a bit unique. Brian And Shanna came to the house for a couple days. They wanted to fish the St. Clair River for walleye. After a day of the usual crappy weather, we had a nice morning to hit the river.
We were spread around the boat waiting for a bite.
Three of us were fishing. Shanna was catching.
And then it happened...KATHY snagged the bottom. Or so it seemed. I took the rod to try to save 300 yards of braided line (@ $30/spool).
I finally coaxed the fish to the surface where we all got a good look at a sturgeon. I've never hooked one of those (and actually, still haven't) but was able to fight the fish.
It was pretty much like lifting an anchor with a fishing rod. Every time I got the fish anywhere near the surface, it just ran back to the bottom. We had no desire or even any way to land that fish. It was hooked in one of the swim fins on the side by a small stinger treble hook attached to the jig. That eventually broke and the fish swam off. Quite an outing. Not sure I can top that this year. Off to the north woods tomorrow with the Minnie Winnie.
I had to lift the spirits a little after the news last week of the Sea Ray transport delay. That was a tough pill to swallow but there's nothing I can do about that. Just have to roll with the punches. I woke up this morning to a bright sunny 38°. Brrrr. But the weatherman promised that is would warm up so I hitched up the Crestliner and headed to the river.
Unfortunately, I just can't seem to crack the nut on that fishery. It's so difficult for me. Kind of like chewing gum and walking at the same time...I can't do it. The whole game is to keep the boat and jig moving at the same speed as the river current. Any wind causes the boat to move at a different speed so constant adjustment is required with the electric motor. It's not really a relaxing activity.
That said, I had three bites on my first drift and landed two nice walleye. After that, nada, nothing, zilch. Not sure what happened after a stellar start. But there was plenty of river traffic to watch today and it was sunny and comfortable.
It was better than sitting home but I'm about ready to scrap this river thing and move out into the lake.
In spite of my best efforts and planning, shipment of my beloved Sundancer has been delayed. I had it removed from Lake Cumberland and it now sits atop the knoll at Hilltop Marine.
The shipper that I had originally contracted was moving a boat last week from Lake Michigan to Idaho. When he entered Montana, the Montana DNR stopped him and inspected the boat he was hauling. They found zebra mussels and quarantined his equipment. Outside of what I was told was going to be at least a 45 day delay, I don't know how the shipper gets back in business. So...back to square one with the boat transport. I spent a few days on the phone getting quotes and availability and have another mover lined up. These guys are all real busy now so to get into the schedule before the 4th of July is a good thing. The current schedule is for delivery in Mackinaw City at 11:00 am on June 26th. In the meantime, I'll just have to keep myself occupied with the Minnie Winnie, that I just went through four days of exterior polishing with, and the Crestliner. I've got a couple events planned for those toys so stay tuned.
Spring has sprung...a leak. It's about time for the monthly off-season update to the blog. The risk of freezing in the mid south has passed so I took a field trip to Lake Cumberland to visit my boat. I left Oxford early Tuesday morning (4/9) and drove south finding spring blooms in Kentucky and 70° temperatures.
I arrived at Conley Bottom Resort in the middle of the afternoon, loaded up a dock cart, and headed to the boat.
It's a bit of a hike to the boat from the car and my boat was actually about as close as you could get. The first bow sticking out of the covered slip at the right edge of the picture is me.
I was told there are about 1200 slips at this marina and by Michigan marina standards, this place really isn't the greatest. In this part of the marina, there's nothing more than the boat slips. I had to travel to the campground maybe a half mile away for a restroom/shower building. That said, they are awesome dock systems. Every year I see people swimming off boats in marinas and sometimes caution them about the hazards. Comments are usually of indifference or ignorance. This place has their liability covered. People are killed every year from electrical shock in these places.
So the mission was to clean the winter grime off the boat and de-winterize all the systems to see if there were any problems to address before I send the boat north. I didn't get actual ownership of the boat until after it was winterized in November so had to trust that the seller had taken proper steps to prevent winter damage. Step 1 was to purge the antifreeze from the fresh water system and check for leaks. There are five faucets, an ice maker and a water heater that the system feeds and amazingly enough, no leaks! I'm really beginning to like this boat. Step 2 was to start the A/C and heat system. It's a heat pump kind of device that uses lake water to feed it. Again, no leaks and everything functioned normally...miracles still happen!
So that was Tuesday and time to kick back and enjoy the evening. On Wednesday I got the bucket and "Boat Zoap" out (yes it's called Zoap). Time to scrub the grime and mildew off the exterior. The fight with mildew is a big minus for me with everything in the southern climate. That's not much of a problem in Michigan. A couple hours of scrubbing, and mission accomplished.
With the exterior all cleaned up, it was time to make this thing MINE. First to add the Michigan registration numbers.
Most of these boats are documented. A guy near me said he didn't like the look of numbers on his boat. In reality, they're using the system to avoid some tax expense and it has nothing to do with appearance if they're being honest. The other item was to remove the old port city from the transom.
Oddly enough, the seller was from Oxford as well. The only problem is it was Oxford, Ohio. I would have just removed the "Ohio" but that left the city off-center so I got rid of it all. I was real tempted to remove the name as well, but left it for now. That's a decision that's still an indecision.
The end of another day and time to enjoy the evening.
Thursday was a big day. I brought the big 7.4L V-8's to life. Once more...no problem. They fired right up, pumped water, and ran smooth. I love the fuel injection. Just like the car, turn the key and go. If repairs are required someday, that might be a bit more expensive. The last item to check was the generator. So I got down in the bilge to start that from the switch on the generator and zip, nada, nothing. Dead battery??? I know nothing about how this is all wired so finally decide maybe the main engine ignition circuits need to be turned on. I flip those breakers, press the start switch and presto...the generator comes to life. IT ALL WORKS!!! Every last thing I touched works...except the horn that I know needs replacing or repair. That was a big relief after a winter of unknown. I've driven this boat for maybe two minutes during the sea trail and definitely nowhere near the dock so I was a little apprehensive to take the boat out alone. Friday, I just couldn't wait any longer and I untied the lines and off I went.
You'll notice the hatches on the bow open. That was because the CO detector was blaring in the cabin and I needed to air that out. Idling at the slip and the slow ride out of the marina apparently sent some CO into the cabin. There's warning signs on the cabin hatch to close it, but who would ever read a warning sign? The detector quit once I was moving a little and all was well.
I ran a couple miles up the lake (river) at various speeds. There was too much debris in the water for me to be very comfortable with running on plane too far so it was mostly a slow ride. The great news is the vibration I experienced at the sea trial wasn't noticeable during this run. Whatever was out of balance in November, has improved. That was a surprise. The boat ran and handled perfect. I've heard all along that the control of inboards are amazing and that was my experience. I backed this 12' wide boat into the 14' wide slip and never touched the dock. Beginner's luck I suppose. So I'm done with the prep and ready to have the boat shipped to Michigan... Unfortunately, as of this morning, Michigan isn't quite ready for the boat.
