Work Island is beginning to shape up.  It's been a busy month of rehab at the southern estate.

I finished up the bath rebuild and all is back to normal there.  The new cabinetry turned out real nice considering it was built 1200 miles from here.

Then it was on to the rest of the trailer to replace the flooring.  After replacing some more sub-flooring and spending a couple days scraping up 30 year old vinyl, I put down a new luan surface and installed the same vinyl that I used in the bathroom for the kitchen area.

The project stalled at that point while we waited for a carpet order to arrive so what should we do?

Well, how about a little boating?

We led a cruise group from our park aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas.  It was a real nice week and with the weather so-so in Florida, a nice escape to summer weather.

The first stop was RCCL's private beach at Coco Cay, Bahamas.

It was still a little cool there but we weren't going to let a little chill keep us out of the water.  So we donned our snorkel gear and swam for a couple hours over some structure they have placed off the beach.

We also made landfall at St. Thomas.

There were a few nice yachts there.  Not too many of this class running around the Great Lakes.

Then it was on to St. Maarten,

We did a little browsing at both ports but spent most of our time aboard the ship on this trip.  The weather was perfect and the week went by in a flash.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the carpeting came in and we prepared for installation.  We moved everything into the Florida room or the porch.

I looked forward to having something other than plywood under my feet.  In a couple hours, the carpeting was installed.

We moved the furniture back in and can finally call this project over.

With the construction zone over, Kathy even got out the good bedding and a quilt she made for here.

She's been waiting awhile to get that on the bed.

So it's finished and just in the nick of time.  Brian and Shanna arrive a week from today for the family cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.

Time for the fun to begin.

How time flies when you're having fun.

After a enduring a mid November 12" snowstorm in beautiful metropolitan Oxford, MI, I packed up the minivan...

...and headed to the southern estate for the month of December.  I quickly discovered travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving wasn't the best idea.

Pouring rain through three states didn't help the matter either.  But after a day and a half of driving, I arrived to find our trailer surrounded by the summer overgrowth.

Amazing how much stuff grows over a few months.  That "tree" half way down the side of the trailer wasn't there the 1st of April.  So I spent a couple days and got the grounds cleaned up a little.

The cable TV service in the park was removed so I was forced into satellite service if we were going to watch anything beyond a couple local stations.  It has worked out well.

Since I was there in December, I decided to put up the Christmas tree that was left here.

There was even a Christmas parade through the park.

The real reason for the December trip south was a rehab of the bathroom.  There was a little water damage to the floor so I had to put in a new subfloor.

Cleaned up the wall with a little paint.

and put down new flooring.

That's as far as I got in December because while traveling south through Kentucky, I discovered I left the bath cabinet and countertop that I made at the house in Michigan.  So with the bath project on hold, I kept busy with other activities.

I wandered through a park sale one morning, went to the driving range, and took care of some cruise business.

Although the bath cabinetry didn't make the trip south, I did get Kathy's new (used) sewing cabinet hauled down.

So after a trip back north via Virginia and a visit with Mom, Kathy and I returned to Florida and enjoyed our traditional "welcome to Florida" meal at Sonny's.

After settling in for the season, I got back at the bathroom project and tore out the sink and countertop.

Today I got the new countertop installed with china bowl sink and dry fitted the cabinet framing.

Another couple days of staining, finishing and installation and this project will be history.  Then it will be on to new flooring in the rest of the place.

It's called "Work Island".

So it's already been two months since I pulled out of the Mackinaw City Marina for the last time this season...

...and left the boat at Cheboygan Village Marina.

After a trip out east for a week, I got busy in the woodshop and threw together a chimney cupboard to entertain myself for a couple weeks.

I used an antique glaze over an enamel finish.  It really turned out well.  It was a tedious process that included 6 coats in the finishing process.

I treated myself to a few new tools.  First, is a sharpening system.  I've always struggled with sharpening tools.  The machine I got seems to get the job done.  I started with a 20 year old abused set of chisels that all look something like this...

...and end up with a razor sharp edge.

Pretty sweet.

The big purchase is a drum sander.

This will allow me to sand out panels and frames up to 38" wide.  It's a big machine.  Unfortunately, my workshop runneth over so I'm in the construction phase of a workshop expansion.

I'm adding about 300 sq. ft. of shop space to handle the new machinery.  There's a new router/shaper too.  I haven't had a chance to get that out of the boxes yet.  Too many days of collecting leaves.

Florida is on the horizon with two trips in the Caribbean on the schedule.  It's going to be a busy winter.

Stay tuned.

So this is going to be the final entry in the 2015 boating season...and not a minute too soon.  It is very autumnal in the north, to say the least.

Last week we returned to Mackinac Island so Kathy could get her fix of island life.

We loaded up the bikes and headed out on a calm, hazy lake toward the island.

We were assigned to an east shore slip in front of the Island House Hotel.

It's not quite as nice as being over on the west shore but isn't terrible.  It's been a few years since I've had to complain about a low dock, but this one was a bit of a step off the boat.  It's the only dock in the marina that low.

The next morning a cruise ship arrived at the island.  The "Pearl Mist".

The Great Lakes cruises are very expensive compared to what we've experienced on the Caribbean.  It does appear to have a nice itinerary.  Starts in Chicago and winds up in Montreal or vise versa.  Unfortunately for these cruisers, they arrived on a foggy, drizzly day.

We went for a morning ride at sunrise before the weather moved in.

Over on the north side of the island, it became a little less scenic as the fog rolled in.

Once we got back to town, the place was socked in.

Not the best weather for the tourists to capture the beauty of the island.

It cleared out on our last day on the island for a stroll up to the west bluff.

The gardens of the cottages were much more developed than when we viewed them in early June.

So the sidewalk of the west bluff road conveniently...

...becomes the porch of the Grand Hotel.

We made ourselves at home.

The Grand is a beautiful place.  There probably aren't too many places in the world that can match it's charm.

On the other side of the island, an old resort called Silver Birches is being restored.

That restoration has been in process for a couple years now.  Apparently the condition of the building was so bad that all that was saved from the original was the first floor.  It's a huge project that is 4 miles out of town.  They'll need to run a shuttle to be able to compete with the downtown hotels.

We returned to Mackinaw City the following day and returned home to catch up on chores there.

Today is September 12th and I've got everything packed away and loaded up to take home.

Tomorrow morning I'll make the 15 mile cruise to Cheboygan for winter storage.

So this 2 year experiment in Mackinaw City is coming to an end.  Next year is completely open at this point.  I don't think we're going to commit to a seasonal location.  The North Channel is back in the plan and I'm really considering a better fishing port to end the season.  Time will tell.

It's getting nippy here.  Florida is calling.