She let me back in the house.

So, we left off at the last post, with my residency in Mackinaw City while Kathy had her "girls week" at the condo.  

The party was over on Saturday and I found a window of calm in the morning to motor down the coast 15 miles back to Cheboygan.  It was a cloudy/hazy morning so the cameras never surfaced.  That run between Mackinaw City and Cheboygan isn't exactly full of photo opportunities.  

Now that I was back at the "home" port, it was time to go to work installing all the new stuff I had amassed over the year of hiding from the pandemic.  Fortunately, UPS drivers were still working.  I started with basically a stock boat as it would have come from the factory back in 1997.

Nothing on the arch.

Nothing on the dash.

The first task was running all the necessary cables and wiring from the arch and bilge to the dash area.  That was a painful experience as access is limited and every cable seems to have an end fitting the size of a grapefruit.  I had to cut the connector off one end of the radar data cable because there was no way that fitting was coming out of the hole in the arch.  Fortunately, there was a kit available to replace that fitting. It just took a $15 connector, $15 crimp tool and a week of shipping time, but in the end was successful.

Next was to install the radar dome on the arch.  This involved removing the existing masthead light, drilling a new access hole (remember the "grapefruit" sized fitting?), mounting the radar tower and new LED masthead light.

The mount is tilted slightly forward to account for the bow up cruising attitude.

The next task was to mount the displays in and on the dash.  That was a traumatic experience.  Any goofs here and it's a very expensive fix to repair fiberglass.  First, I made the plan for the cut.

I did a lot of measuring and put the pattern where I though it would be best and began the cutting process.

I drilled the corner diameters with a 1/2" brad point bit to minimize and gelcoat chipping.  After the corner diameters were drilled, I taped right next to the cut line to maintain the paper position throughout the sawing process.  I went through 3 down cut saber saw blades during the cutting.  The fiberglass is brutal on a steel blade but I got the job done.

Unfortunately, a saber saw blade isn't very accurate.  The cut was a tad undersized and anything but perpendicular to the surface...typical of a saber saw.  Well, better too small than too big.  I tried a few techniques to fix the hole and nothing was real successful until I decided to see if I could get a trim router in there.  I clamped a pattern on the hole and worked my way around the opening with a flush trim bit. 

That worked excellent and I had the hole I needed.

At that point, it was just a matter of hooking up all the cables and power connections...which took another couple days.  But it's all done and operates well.

The installation included two displays.  My thought was that the 9" screen of the dash unit wasn't going to be big enough to split a minimum of three ways (sonar, GPS, radar) and still be able to read on a rocking boat.  So I added a 7" screen gimbal mounted on the dash.  I'm not totally sure how and where I want to use that screen so its portable at this time and can be move anywhere in the future.

In addition to the functions mentioned above, I installed engine gateways that transmit engine operating data to both the Garmin displays through NMEA data lines or to my phone via an app.  It's pretty cool.  The biggest asset with that is fuel flow data so I can optimize cruise performance.  

Beyond that, we spent a few days camping with the kids on Mullet Lake at Aloha State Park.

We had a site on the boat basin there.

The basin is rather weedy and shallow but can be managed with the Crestliner.  The state could really improve that facility with a little dredging, weed harvesting, and some side tie dockage.

The basin has direct access to the lake. 

We had a few opportunities at a nice lake.

The fish fly hatch was happening so while the fishing was great, the catching was terrible.  I was only able to find three fish in total.  A small rainbow that I released, a rock bass and this nice 20" rainbow.

So it's a down week from now through the 4th of July where we'll enjoy the holiday activities here in Cheboygan before heading to Mackinac Island on the 5th...weather permitting.

Back in the saddle.

After about 20 months of sitting on a cradle in a storage building, the Sea Ray made its 2021 debut.

It was launched on June 3 after many days of polishing and waxing.

I had a lot of help from a friend to bring the shine back to this 1997 boat.  It did come out very nice after a couple weeks of work.

The marina guys had a laundry list of maintenance to take care of, including reconditioning the propellers.  

With all the work done, the boat was launched and brought to the condo.

That's pretty sweet, having the boat at out the back door.  Unfortunately, I found a slow leak through one of the mounting bolts for a grounding plate.  So, the boat had to get hauled out and those bolts re-bedded.  

The guys at CVM take care of me pretty well and got that job done the next day and I was back in business.  The last time I looked, the bilge was 100% dry.  That's a rarity in a boat.  They always leak somewhere.  At the moment, this one doesn't.

So, Kathy had a party planned and I wasn't invited.  Therefore, I packed my PJ's and headed to Mackinaw City in my freshly launched ship.  It was a foggy morning, but I found a window to make the 15 mile cruise to the city of "the bridge".

The lake doesn't get much nicer.

I found a nice cruise was at about 3200 rpm and close to 25 mph.

I did go full throttle for a brief period to see how well the reconditioned props would perform.  It looked like the top end was about 4300 rpm and 38 mph.  That's pretty quick for this size of boat.  I could likely make 40 mph with less fuel and water on board.  Those tanks were all full.  225 gallons of fuel and about 40 gallons of water.  Of course that speed comes at a cost of somewhere around a gallon/minute of fuel burn.  

Anyway, I arrived at the marina after a 30 minute cruise and settled in.

I'm out near the fuel dock in slip #71.

The bridge was in and out of the fog all day.  I was fortunate to get here without dealing with the fog.  I can't wait to get the new instruments installed on this boat.

So, if you want to ride along, the following video is the 15 minute Reader's Digest version of the trip.

Yes, it's good to be back in the saddle.

Time to get this show on the road.

Gee...it's been what?  Something like 13 or 14 months since the "fun" stopped.  Well, that's about change.  Here in the northland, the snow is gone, the morels are popping and summer is on its way.

So to get things kicked off, I dusted off the Crestiliner yesterday and went in search of a fish on a beautiful end of April morning.

I launched at the city dock near the condo and proceeded out the river channel.  The American flag hugging the pole at Ryba Marine (yes that's the same family that sells fudge) meant I should be approaching a calm Lake Huron.

Yup...It was an inviting lake as I approached the Cheboygan Harbor Lighthouse.

I motored out to the outer channel buoys and put a few lines in the water on my way to deeper water.  The Bois Blanc Island (called Bob-lo by locals) car ferry is running a daily schedule again.

There was several commercial boats passing today.  This is the south channel of the Straits of Mackinac.  Ships traveling from lower Lake Huron and going to Lake Michigan pass through this area.

My plan was to concentrate my fishing efforts outside of the 14 Foot Shoal Lighthouse.

The lake was like a sheet of glass which is what I need to get out here in this boat.

I set my allowed three lines.  Two lines off downriggers and one half core lead off a planer board.  I was over about 60' of water.

It was my lucky day and I had four bites and landed three Lake Trout.  This one is typical of the fish I caught.

In the distance, another ship was approaching as it passed the Poe Reef Light.

The freighter passes maybe a half mile from my location.  The water in the middle of the channel isn't where I thought the fish would be this early in the year.

It was one of the nicest days I've had on the lake.  These days...calm, pleasant temperature, no bugs...are rare.

So it was a nice day off from the project of the last several days.  I've been working on getting the Sea Ray ready for the season after sitting idle all last year.

It's a big job.  First is to clean the fiberglass.  It's a wax on/wax off type of step.  Then compounding with buffing wheels to get the oxidation off.  Finally, a paste wax to protect the finish.  And that's just the exterior!

But in case you missed it, I changed the name on the boat.  Originally, I picked "Final Edition" since this is likely my last cruiser that I will ever buy.  That name has a lot of syllables to repeat on the radio and I always got confusion on whether it was "edition" or "addition".

So I changed it to something that has similar meaning but is a little more basic.  The boat is now the "Last Resort".  

There's lots of "bad luck" superstitions with name changes, but I performed a brief ceremony to keep the sea Gods satisfied...not that it will help.  It's a 23 year old boat.  Stuff is going to break now and then.

So that's it.  We have a few upcoming plans for boating and RVing before seriously diving into Caribbean cruising in 2022.

Stay tuned. 

2020 TYTW

It should be no surprise to anyone that 2020 was The Year That Wasn't...

...at least in terms of fun and recreation.  

We got home from the February Panama cruise and Florida visit and the world STOPPED.  So, instead of stopping with it, we sold our house and purchased a condo in our center of recreation...Cheboygan, MI.

AND IT'S ON THE WATER!!!!

With dockage for the boat.

We have direct access to Lake Huron to the east (one draw bridge to pass) and Michigan's Inland Waterway including Mullet and Burt Lakes to the west via the Cheboygan lock.

We're (me) excited to the access we'll have to boating and camping in northern Michigan and the UP.  It's a new chapter with lots to explore.

We've only spent a few days there so far but have been entertained by the passing boat traffic on the river.

The Cheboygan lock is just beyond the bend in the river and the boat traffic backed up a little one day.

Most would be downsizing when moving from a house to a condo.  That's not the case for us.  The condo is actually a little larger than the house.  What is missing is the storage, aka, basement/barn.  

Well, that was easy enough to get around.  There is such a thing as a "barnominium".  I'm having my storage issue solved with one of these.

It's big enough to store everything I own...even the Sea Ray if I ever decide to put it away for an extended period.  I own the building and the site is a condo type arrangement.  It eliminates the need to purchase real estate.

So we're moving lock, stock and barrel in a couple days and will begin the life after SE Michigan.  I'm hoping to still get an opportunity to sneak in a couple fishing outings between the move in activities before the fall weather closes in.

Time will tell if I get to around to actually have a little fun this year.

Stay tuned.

And then there was...

NOTHING!!!!

So many plans...so few accomplished.

We got home from the cruise and Florida trip just in time to hole up in our house for the next THREE months.

A trip to the Smoky Mountains...

a week fishing Lake Cadillac...

and another 10 days or so fishing Mullet Lake...

all vanished from the calendar.  

I guess the good news is that the Smoky Mountain trip is all planned now so whenever the skies clear, we can do that trip on pretty short notice.

So the only thing left is local trips with the Crestliner and marina life in Mackinaw City if that actually all develops.  The latest word is the marina will open this Saturday (May 16).  Unfortunately, nothing else in the city is open so it doesn't matter at this point and the Sea Ray is still deep in storage in Cheboygan.  

As things stand right now, I'm shooting for about July 1st to break away from the southern ranch and spend a little time up north.  

And so it goes.

Let the fun begin

We left a snowy Michigan on February 2nd toward a warmer climate.  After two days of travel, we found ourselves on the sandy beaches of Daytona Beach Florida.

The sand and surf were welcome sights compared to the snow and slush we leff behind.  

After another overnight in Ft. Lauderdale, we were shuttled to the cruise port there and boarded the Holland America Oosterdam for a 17 day Panama Canal cruise.

The Oosterdam was much less ornate than all the Royal Caribbean ships we've sailed on but served our needs.  The main focus of this trip was to transit the Panama Canal and there were very few choices of ships that made the full ocean to ocean voyage.  

Our first stop was Holland America's private island "Half Moon Cay"

We walked the beach there and waded in the water.  The water was a bit cool so we didn't end up swimming.  It wasn't that cold but did take some getting used to.  Truth be told, the water temperature was probably as warm as the Great Lakes ever get in the summer.  Yes...we're whimps.

The next day was at sea and we had a nice crossing of the Caribbean to Aruba.

We had nothing planned for Aruba other than a stroll into town so enjoyed the port scene from the Observation deck.

We spent quite a bit of time up there.  It was a great place to enjoy the ride.  Top deck at the front of the ship with a 270° view.

The next day was our final day in the Caribbean Sea.  The conditions became a bit "sporty".

Those conditions rocked the ship a bunch although the stabilizers do an amazing job at keeping the ship steady.  The problem is the stabilizers cause a shuttering of the hull as they fight to counteract the movement.  No question that we had a vibrating mattress all night.

The next morning we entered the Panama Canal.  It was still dark as we passed under the Atlantic Bridge and near dawn when we approached the first set of locks.

This photo shows the first set of locks with the Atlantic Bridge in the background.  There are three locks here then a transit through Gatun Lake before entering another single lock followed by a set of two locks where we then entered the Pacific Ocean.

Interestingly enough, there is still some low-tech solutions being used here.

These guys deliver the lines from the trains (called "mules") that pull the ship through the lock systems.  They said they used outboards for a while, but they weren't as reliable as a set of oars so reverted back to the manual mode of propulsion.

It was an interesting day and we learned a lot of the history of the canal.

Another day at sea and we were in Costa Rica.  We took an excursion here to an animal sanctuary.  The main purpose here was to see the sloths.

This is the three toed sloth.  They're the cute ones that the cartoon characters are modeled after. Below is the two-toed sloth.  They're not quite as cute.

These animals sleep something like 20 hours per day.  Most of the sloths in the sanctuary were just balls of fur hanging in a tree.  

We then toured a botanical garden and then arrived at an ox cart factory.  These ox carts were used to transport the bags of coffee beans from the mountains to the ports.

They are all painted and the wheel construction is very specialized.  The wheels are assembled from a series of pie shaped pieces and then banded with metal.  They have a process that's been used for hundreds of years.  

The artwork on these things were amazing and all hand painted by the artists at the factory.

The ship then made several stops along the Pacific coast in Nicaragua, Guatamala, and Mexico.  It's definitely third world and very poor.  We got off the ship a couple times and didn't spend much time ashore.  Nicaragua was the worst with hoard of panhandlers looking to make a dollar.

We did enjoy Puerto Vallarta.

 

It's a touristy town with a vibrant waterfront.

We took a bus to the "old town" section and browsed the shops and walked the beach.  As the heat rose, we returned to the ship and enjoyed the harbor sights.

Speaking of heat...that was a major issue in Central America for us.  From Panama to Mexico, every day was full sunshine and mid to upper 90° heat.  Add oppressive humidity to that, and touring in anything but an air conditioned bus was miserable.  

At the end of the cruise, we arranged a trip to the San Diego Zoo because our return flight to Florida wasn't until evening.

That zoo is quite nice.  I'd recommend it to anyone visiting that area.  I was most entertained in the bird aviary.  You enter it and walk in the midst of the birds...which are everywhere. 

I don't know what it is about the birds but looking at the lions, tigers, hippos, giraffes, etc.  didn't catch my attention as the birds.  And to watch the flamingos for a while was mesmerizing.  

So that finished off the 17 days of cruise activity.  After an overnight flight back to Ft. Lauderdale, we drove down to the Keys and spent a couple nights in Key Colony Beach near Marathon and visited Key West.

Then a drive up the Florida gulf coast gave us our final day on the sea shore at Treasure Island before heading inland.

Two more days visiting friends in central Florida and we ventured north to Virginia to visit family and then return home after 30 days out and about.

Next on the agenda is to fire up the RV and/or maybe get a little work done on the Sea Ray.