Best laid plans

Friday, June 11, Beaver Island

 And so...we got another beautiful day on Beaver Island.  

In spite of what he says, Chuck didn’t really play tourist.  He washed and waxed the boat (parts of it; it still needs lots of love). He worked some more on the motor mounts and electrical issues. We used a ketchup bottle (never used for ketchup) to put distilled water (which we carry on board for my cpap) to the battery.  But mostly he rested (much needed) and he ate (I love feeding him), and he talked to all the other sailors/boatsmen.

 

Every time a new boat arrives in the harbor, especially a new sailboat, everyone around gathers at the dock to help get the boat settled and to get her tied up. Then,  there is a gathering of captains and crew comparing notes on the crossing, the conditions, the waves,  and the boats.  Sometimes there’s a little private snark about who did what poorly.

And then a new boat comes in and the cycle repeats.  

I imagine that this is a tradition as old as ships themselves. There’s only a very little bit of comparing sizes (it’s a guy thing), but that is there as well.  If you’re lucky, some captains are willing to give you a tour of their boat.  So far I haven’t seen any of these boats captained by a woman, but there seem to be female crew on board almost all of them, contrary to tradition.

We definitely watched several boats dock who wished they had made the same decision we did to take a weather day.  The captains and crew were pretty worn as they made the harbor. Some obviously hadn’t even intended to stop at Beaver Island, but any port in a storm...

Harbors, by their very nature, are welcoming places.  In the harbor, most folks are transient, so there isn’t as much territorialism as in other places.  In the past, locals relied on harbor traffic for supplies, news from the mainland, trade, etc.   Today, the locals still rely on visitors for money and trade, even today. As we rely on them for the same.

We had dinner in a local pub with Mark, the harbor buddy that Chuck mentioned in the video. I can tell you about his boat, his career, his family,etc.  It feels like we’ve made friends in every harbor we’ve visited, even those we stayed at for only 12 hours or so.  It feels good, especially coming out the other side of a pandemic.

Now, while Chuck did his thing, Feather and I did gad about a bit.

We took a walk...

 and a swim...

and another walk... 

 

and a bike ride back to the lighthouse and around town.  The marina had a couple of cruiser bikes for borrowing, and I just held Feather’s leash in my hand.  It probably wouldn’t have worked if she wasn’t used to running with the bike at home, but she loved it.  Judging by the smiles passersby gave us, they loved it too.

We found another historical site maintained by the historical society. 

    

All except for being put in jail...who loves that?

In the morning, we watched Mark sail away just before we left the harbor. I think we’d spotted him on the water a few times as well, but he was headed for Wisconsin.