Sailboats should not have motors

Tuesday, June 8

48.6 miles

South Manitou island to Northport

8:am We woke up to a beautiful view of the pristine beaches on South Manitou Island and nothing on the other side of us but fog. We were actually able to see the lighthouse.

Then the wind kicked up and brought the fog to us. We had a slow morning waiting to let the fog finally burn off.  Our neighbors took their dinghy onto shore and probably went for a hike. After breakfast, we saw the Manitou Island ferry come over and then leave. I couldn’t tell if anybody was actually on it. It certainly did not drop off a crowd this early in the season.

Feather’s tail seems to be much better.

Hauling up the anchor was an experience. Now I know why Popeye the sailor man is drawn the way he is with the huge forearms. We set our biggest anchor out last night in the wind with all of our anchor line. We set an anchor alarm and it went off a couple of times in the middle of the night but when Chuck got up to check there was nothing actually wrong. The wind did calm down in the middle of the night and we woke up to fairly calm waters in the bay.  

What I don’t know is why sailors in cartoons and TV were always pictured wearing pristine white clothes.  This is the result of pulling up the anchor from the muddy bottom. I just washed these!

Once the sun came up, the winds picked up a little bit, and we were actually hoping to sail, but the fog meant we were  motoring again.

9:45 am-ish departure: On our way out we were able to see most of the Manitou lighthouse; just the top was cut off by the fog. Our plan was to make Beaver Island today, setting us to cross the Mackinaw Straits tomorrow. It was a great plan; the execution however was flawed.|

130pm-3pm Mechanical issue

Chuck decided the Manitou Passage was as good a place as any to do some engine repair. What really happened is that Chuck noted an issue and went down to look at the motor.  We had a motor mount shaking loose.  We shut her down and Chuck fixed her, but this changed the plans and we were making for Charlevoix when at 3:30, Chuck, down in the engine room to check on previous repair, noted that the engine brackets were loose. This time we were moving again by 350pm.

Watching the North Manitou Shoal light appear from and then disappear back into the fog,putting North Manitou Island behind us.

 

Several freighters passed by us (at a safe distance) in the Manitou Passage, including a “barge”and Tug headed for Calcite on the East Coast.  I put barge in parentheses, because the barge looked to be a freighter that had been decommissioned and turned into a barge. We only saw one of them, and that one only for a few minutes when it was 4 miles away. Radar is good.

At this point we decided we’d lost the opportunity to cross the straits tomorrow, so we changed course once again to Northport.  Good choice.  I did a little laundry in my Scrubba bag and hung it up to dry.

At 520pm, we took the laundry in, closed the hatch and put the Genny up for the first time all day and sailed for an hour, before the wind began to die. We sailed around the top of the Leelanau peninsula.  We we looked back we could see thunderheads behind us but they never came our way.

We passed a bell buoy at the entrance to Northport Bay.  The sonorous clang of the bell would be a welcome sound for sailors coming in from the fog.

We made Northport at about 8:30 (we had dinner underway). We docked between a 27 Tartan named Valhalla and a Wooden two masted Schooner named the Perception.  Patrick of the Valhalla welcomed us (and shared the facility codes) and I took Feather ashore to run the pumps and offload some ballast.  She has been so good.  

Oh! I almost forgot! Yesterday she finally peed on the boat!  That is a big deal. We were anchored out the night before and she held it for over 24 hours.  We don’t want that.  So she finally went out on deck and peed! Yay!