It is hard to believe we have been back at our home port for a little over a week.

Our son, Allen, spent the first weekend with us.  We did a few little projects but mostly enjoyed a little R&R.

But come Monday…We had the boat pulled out of the water to get maintenance done.  We washed the hull, then Polished and waxed the upper hull. Below waterline, we scraped and wet sanded the whole thing.  Then came the bottom paint.  The bares spots were touched up then two other coats were put on.  We did this all in 3 days by ourselves.  We were exhausted at the end of the day.  We were back at Lake Shore Yacht Harbor on Thursday and worked on a few more things.

On Friday, our good friends Steve and Teresa with Sanctuary came into port crossing their wake.  We left with them on the trip and would have liked to cross their wake with them as well, but medical appointments pushed us ahead of them.  They decked out their boat and came in with a fleet of other Looper boats.  We met them in the dinghy. There was a big party that night at the club house.  Lots of fun.

On Saturday morning we drove to our son’s home in Lake Orion three hours away.  He built a garage all by himself while we were gone.  We had to see it.  He did an amazing job for his first structure. I guess he learned a few things from his dad.

When we arrived, I came with my laundry.  Oh how the tides turns.  I said it was payback for college laundry.   I did laundry and Scott and Allen worked on the final phase of his project, installing steps on the deck.  He made us a wonderful rib dinner.  The next morning he made us chorizo breakfast burritos. He’s a good cook. He then took us to the shooting range where we did what he and Scott call recoil therapy.  It was fun shooting handguns, rifles and his AR. It was so good to spend time with him.

Just a little over a week left before we take off again for round two.

Thanks for staying tuned …

Scott and Karen

Unique Random Photo of the day:

 

LAST CALL CROSSES HER WAKE

Today, 8-16-2017, is a monumental day for us.  We completed our Great Loop trip by crossing our wake at the mouth of the Muskegon River. We were surprised by friends Bob and Vicki Rehkopf standing by the Welcome to Muskegon sign. We were honored to have them there at this special moment. We were met by our old faithful dockmaster Jerry when we arrived at the marina.  Friends Dave and Mary took time to come out and bring our car.  We went to dinner to celebrate. Feels good to be back home with friends. What a thrill this whole trip has been. We enjoyed it so much we are going to do “life” for a week and head back out to do it all over again.

The experiences on this trip were amazing. We saw many historical places, which taught us more about history than any class can ever do.  We learned so much about boating in different situations, from freshwater no tides, to saltwater 9’ tides.  We have docked at every imaginable type of dock in calm, wind and current. Captain Scott did an amazing job docking therefore we had no damage. We never dinged a prop, at least on the big boat.  The dinghy prop has a few chunks missing.  Our dinghy was our most valuable item on the trip.  It took us to far reaching little places that we never would have seen if not for our ever-faithful dinghy. We learned about many new animals and birds that we may never have seen if not for this trip. Our family has all been supportive.  No one told us we were crazy, at least to our faces. We kept up on our blog through thick and thin of spotty internet access. We had so many friends both new and old follow and support us.  We are very blessed to have been able to spend a whole year on our boat with essentially no issues.

Here are some statistics from our trip (both relevant and trivial):

We crossed our wake on National Rum Day!

Started September 3, 2016 and ended August 16, 2017 =349 days.

7000miles at approximately 8mph

2365 Gallons of diesel

$6258.68 Total cost of diesel

2.3 gallons per hour (Average)

2.9 miles per gallon (Average)

1019 Total engine hours

167 nights at anchor

1 night on the Gulf of Mexico

23 nights on a mooring ball

4 nights on paid walls

21 nights on free walls

130 nights in marinas

Totals:  192 free nights, 157 paid nights

110 Locks

3 countries:  USA, Bahamas, Canada

3 Great Lakes: Michigan, Ontario and Huron

16 Cays in the Bahamas

17 Sharks

3 Chain Restaurants. The rest were non-chains. 1 McDonalds, 1 Papa John’s Pizza and 1 PF Changs.

3 rental cars

185 Boat Cards collected

3 log books

TNTC (Too Numerous to Count) Friends and wonderful people we met along the way.

This is the final blog for this trip, but stay tuned as we start all over again.  Thank you for reading and supporting us along the way.

Scott and Karen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manitou Island is approximately 16 miles from the shore of Michigan.  It has a large circular cove which make it an excellent in all but east winds. The island is mostly uninhabited other than the park rangers and backpackers.

It has a beautiful lighthouse!

We were able to take a tour and climb to the top of yet another magnificent lighthouse.

It was 116 steps up an iron circular stairway to the top.

When you get there all you can say is WOW!  You can see forever.  The lake is a beautiful blue. You can see the shape of raised sand where there is a shipwreck that gets covered and uncovered by storms.

We were amazed at the number of lighthouse and lifesaving people worked here in it’s day.  The house attached to the lighthouse is one of the biggest we have seen.  It has approximately 9 rooms in it.  Unfortunately, due to lead paint, asbestos and poor conditions people aren’t allowed to visit.  I can only imagine the cost to restore it, but hope that happens someday, because the exterior of the building looks to be in pretty good shape.

We saw the visitor center and learned about the history of the island.  There are many miles of trails. It is 10 miles to walk all the way around the island. There is an old growth white cedar forest that is estimated to have tree 500 years old.  There is also a bluff to walk up to view a shipwreck which is still sticking out of the water. Our original plan was to hike to both of these, however a few days earlier Scott injured his foot and wasn’t able to walk the 6+ miles required to do this. Next time.

Lori and Bill from Perfect Day anchored near us.  They came aboard for docktails. They are Gold Loopers and are heading south again. They are from  the San Diego area but call their home port Charlevoix.   He worked for the City of Temecula, CA which is where our daughter, Mallory, worked 2 summers of Internship.  What a small world. I am sure we will be running into them again. It is so much fun connecting with people.

When we left the island, we drove around the south side and found the shipwreck. The lighthouse keeper told us they believe there might be one ship on top of another that already wrecked.  Not sure, but interesting little tid bit.

On to Ludington. Becky and Mike from True North had reached out to us to meet with them when we stopped there to go over our Bahama experience as they plan to go there next year.  We shared lots of good information, marked their charts and wrote down stops and what there was to see. They were very grateful for the information. They are the harbor hosts and very gracious people.  Becky took me to the lab to get some blood drawn for my upcoming appointments and they treated us to dinner to pre-celebrate the crossing our wake completing our Great Loop Trip the next day.  Stay tuned for that big news.

Thanks for reading.

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of The Day:

 

 

It was an exciting day knowing we will be crossing under the Mackinaw Bridge. It was built in1954. It connects the Upper Peninsula with the Lower Peninsula of the State of Michigan and spans 5 miles. Although we have traveled over the bridge many times this will be my first time and Scott’s second time going under the bridge on our own boat.  It was a thrill!

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Click the image above to watch a video of us crossing under the Mackinaw Bridge.

We had a lovely travel day into Charlevoix.

Charlevoix is known for it’s “Mushroom Houses.” An architect built homes and buildings in the area that had rounded and unusual roof lines that resemble  mushrooms. They look a little like fairy houses.  There is an area with quite a few of these homes in a neighborhood.  We had visited them numerous times before so we didn’t go again, but we found two along the lakeshore visible from the boat.

We anchored out the first night then went into Irish Boat Shop Marina in anticipation of having a routine valve adjustment done. We took the dinghy to explore Lake Charlevoix.  It is a Big lake.  We found a lakeside bar and restaurant.  Scott was so happy to find a Grand Rapids brewery beer on tap. He didn’t care as much for any of the beers in Canada.  They just aren’t the same as a good IPA from a Michigan brewery.

When we got to the marina the next day, we pulled into our slip and I fell in love with the Meghan B, a tug across from us. She is a bit crusty and almost as wide as she is long.  She has character! A guy was cleaning a big old Chris Craft next to her and we said hello to each other.  I said something to the effect of how cute this tug is…….cricket…..cricket….cricket it was obvious he didn’t appreciate this old thing and said something to the effect of  “I guess you can find beauty in anything?” The next day our mechanic, Andy, DID share our appreciation and gave us a tour not only of the Meghan B, but also the Heather B another larger tug next door.

We met more new Loopers at the marina.  It has been sad to see so many of our friends cross their wakes, knowing we won’t be running into them down the road.  However, we are thrilled for them completing this amazing trip.

After we had the engine work done, Scott proceeded with more work that he could do himself like changing zincs, changing the oil, and changing the fuel filter.   He said he did “Boat Yoga” in order to get to all the zincs.  Wish I had pictures for you, but I was off doing laundry.

We had intended to leave today, but there were suppose to be five foot seas on Lake Michigan.  No thanks. We stayed an extra day which gave us more play time.  The art show was in Charlevoix.  It was huge and fantastic.  So many talented people! The quality of the items was top notch! Charlevoix is such a neat little town.

There is large neighborhood of beautiful old summer homes that was established in 1906. It is amazing that it is still intact today.

We had a lovely 3 days in Charlevoix. We are less than a week away from crossing our wake and completing the Loop at Lake Shore Yacht Harbor on the 18th.  It is unbelievable.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

So long Canada.  We will miss your splendor and your lovely people! But it sure felt good crossing back into the USA where things were familiar like gallons, not liters and miles, not kilometer, and where things cost less even taking into consideration of the favorable exchange rate.

We checked into Drummond Island.  It was raining when we came into our slip.  The dockhand helped us tie up and explained the captain may get off the boat only to adjust lines and I was not allowed to get off until Customs  checked us in. She said she would tell them we were here and they would be right over.  After two hours of waiting I finally called because it was just about time for docktails with the many loopers in the marina.  Oops they forgot us.  I told them we had been there two hours and the gal on the phone just about flipped.  Someone will be there immediately.  I don’t think they usually let people linger that long. I suspect it will not look good on the paperwork that we had been hanging out unsupervised for two hours.  The customs agent was there in minutes and he barely asked us anything.  I think they knew they screwed up and just wanted our paperwork done.  We then could get off the boat, check in at the marina. On our way back Tranquility  and Lower Place were setting up docktails.  We got drinks and a snack and had about 8 of us on the back of Tranquility’s boat.   Robin McVey was wondering what took so long for us to get through customs.  She asked if it took them that long to calculate the blueberry tariff for all the blueberries in our freezer. Funny gal. We also heard the true story from another couple who happened to be in the customs office when they found out we had pulled into port …. the head customs agent told her worker not to go out in the rain, because he could slip and get hurt.  She instructed him to wait a while.  That is how we got forgotten. We met new loopers and enjoyed the company of those we already knew.

The next morning many of the Loopers left early, of which most were heading for Mackinaw Island.  We have been to Mackinaw several times so we elected to skip this stop.  We got a later start because we needed fuel first.  We then proceeded on and anchored at St. Ignace.  The next morning we were up early and decided to poke our nose into the waters exposed to the west wind to see if it was going to be bad.  We got around the corner and saw the Mighty Mac (Nickname for the Mackinaw Bridge) but she eluded us that day because it was already blowing pretty hard.

We went back to another anchorage closer than the previous one only to be rocked constantly by the Ferry boats, so we pulled up anchor again and anchored back where we were. That turned out okay because it was calm and quiet with the Hiawatha National Forest just off our bow. Of  course, we went exploring. We got some exercise and enjoyed the wilderness. We worked on some minor cleaning of the boat later. We went to bed early in anticipation for an early start in the morning.

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

Unique Random Photo of the Day:

7-30, 8-5-17 North Channel with Guests on board.

We are now in the North Channel.  We like it equally as well as the Georgian Bay maybe better, because the anchorages aren’t as populated and there are more protected hidey holes especially around the Benjamin Islands. We went straight to Spanish Municipal Marina in order to re-provision and pick up my nephew, Donald, and his girlfriend, Amanda.  They left their car at the marina and hopped on board for 5 days. We had a blast.

They didn’t get in until 7:30pm, so we had to go to an anchorage close by. The first thing we saw was a beaver swimming along.  He slapped his tail a good one at us to let us know he was not happy with our presence. On August first, we took the boat to Kagawong where the Bridal Veil Falls are.  We tied up to the municipal dock, packed a lunch and hiked to the falls.  The trail was beautiful, nicely shaded and snaked along the river.  We found large boulders that someone sandblasted art into them.  One was in the middle of the river and others on the trail. Nice way to do art! It was a warm sunny day so the falls were busy.   There are two spots where we could go behind the falls, the small one and the big one.  Below the big falls, there is a nice size pool to swim in.  We swam up to the falls.  There is a lot of power behind falling water.  We didn’t want to stand under it for any length of time or we would be beat up.  The water was warm, and although there were many people there, everyone was on their best behavior which made it enjoyable and not annoying. We wondered what made the unique rock formation creating the falls.  It is a semi-circle of rock. We hiked up to the top and found some picnic tables to have lunch, to dry off and warm-up in the sun. When we got back to the boat we headed for an anchorage with some potential fishing spots.

We anchored at a couple spots with our guests.  We all went fishing in the dinghy.  It was a little tight but better than we thought.  Donald is an ace fisherman. He and Amanda went out a few times on their own. We had plenty of fish to eat. We caught Smallmouth Bass and Northern. Both are very tasty fish.  We had fish tacos one night and a wonderful fish fry another night.  It was delicious.  Donald was cleaning them while I heated the oil.  Can’t get any fresher than that.

We introduced them to rock hopping, which is just our word for getting off the boat climbing the rocks and exploring.  One area off Hotham Island, where it wasn’t hard rocks, it was solid blueberry bushes and they were loaded! We picked our small bags full in no time.  Blueberry pies for dessert and Blueberry pancakes in the morning.  We enjoyed them so much so that we went picking again this time with bigger bags.  Wow we had a lot of berries.  We all took turns cleaning and sorting them while we traveled to the next anchorage. We ended up with nine quarts of berries.

On their last day, Donald and Amanda went fishing one last time and caught a few more Northern and Bass, they threw them back as we had to get underway to take them back to their car.

You never know how things will go with guests on board especially since we had never met Amanda before. I must say they were the perfect guests.  Helpful, willing, adventurous and fun.  We played cards at night instead of watching movies and genuinely enjoyed their company. Thanks Donald and Amanda for sharing our adventure with us.

We took them back to the marina where they left their car, said hi to some Looper friends in the marina and headed back out to anchor and hunker down for a few days in anticipation for some windy weather. When we got anchored we went fishing and Scott caught 2 nice northern and 2 medium bass.  We threw them back seeing we have some fish in the freezer already.

We sat that night looking at weather predictions and the charts in anticipation to the last leg of our Loop.  It is hard to believe it has been almost a year.  We are loving the cruiser lifestyle!

Thanks for reading,

Karen and Scott

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