If nothing further, BRAZO clear of channel 16, back to the “real world”

Sunday – After reviewing the Lake Michigan open waters forecast below:

.MONDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 20 TO 30 KNOTS. CHANCE OFSHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. WAVES 5 TO 7 FEET
TUESDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. WAVES 2 TO 4 FEET..
WEDNESDAY...SOUTH WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS DECREASING TO 5 TO 10KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS.WAVES 2 TO 4 FEET SUBSIDING TO 1 TO 3 FEET IN THE AFTERNOON..
THURSDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. WAVES 1 TO 3 FEET..
FRIDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS BECOMING NORTH WINDS 10TO 20 KNOTS IN THE AFTERNOON. WAVES 1 TO 3 FEET BUILDING TO 2 TO 4FEET.

We decided it would be best to make the direct crossing from Charlevoix, MI to Washington Island, WI today. The Lake Michigan open waters forecast for today calls for 1-2ft waves from the North turning to the South by late afternoon. We left our anchorage in Lake Charlevoix at 4:00AM. The nice part of leaving early is we didn’t have to wait for the draw-bridge to open – just a long horn blow followed by a short horn blow and up the bridge went – no more waiting for the ½ hour opening.

We spent about 6 hours with rollers out of the North right on our beam – which caused a bit of a roll here and there. The good news is that our boat does not roll much so it was a comfortable ride – I believe it is because of our hulls “hard chimes” – kind of a flat bottom. As we approached Washington Island – still off-shore about 20 miles, we decided to turn South and have the waves push us all the way to Sturgeon Bay. That meant another 4 hours onto the trip for the day, but that would allow us a nice week at the Cottage before heading back to Madison (for a couple of days and then back to the Cottage).

We arrived in Sturgeon Bay around 6:00PM and found that our new slips in the Purves Lagoon Marina were all done with water and electricity at the slip. Very nice feeling pulling into a slip that we actually own – plus having the Purves Lagoon Marina being completely brand new makes it even better. Purves Lagoon has about 30 slips with over half the slips being empty because the lot/slip owners do not own boats. This makes it very nice seeing that we like the quiet empty Marina’s.

We had a great trip and enjoyed every place that we visited. We asked the question to ourselves, what are we missing on the boat that would have made the trip better – the only thing that we could come up with is a larger horse power dinghy motor, but even that would just be a “nicety” not required. Other than that, the boat was perfect – that big old diesel just purred along without any problems. All other systems onboard worked without problems and in fact along the way I actually fixed the hours meter on the tach and set the hours correctly.

Also, part of boating is dealing with the unexpected weather, mistake made, problems with the boat, bad docking experience, etc – but I will say that this trip had very little of that. Outside of the generator shutting down and the “hitting” of the rock, we had no other issues. You just don’t want to hit a point that the unexpected greatly effects your trip. We continued to increase our boating knowledge/learning and took advantage of the relaxation that came with the learning that we had done in the other 3 summers of boating (much more stressful the first few years – yet enjoyable to learn so much during that time).

The boys are already “Salty” and hopefully take our boating adventures to another level when they are older (of course, with Dad aboard). I will have to also mention that Gaye has become very “Salty” with this boating stuff – I now find her talking “boating” all over the marina’s with the other Trawlers and Sailboats.

So, until next year’s summer boat trip (haven’t told the rest of the family yet) – enjoy the rest of your summer. As they say on the boat VHF radios, if nothing further, BRAZO clear of channel 16, back to the “real world”.

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Robert, Gaye, Alex, and Aaron Meyer (sundowner@tmg-mad.com)

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Here are the final numbers:

Miles traveled à 907 miles

Cummins engine hours à 144 hours

Northern Lights generator hours à 51 hours

Fuel used per hour à 1.78

Fuel used total (both Cummins and Northern Lights) à 283 gallons

Days on the water à 47 days (June 8th thru July 23rd)

Days spent in Marina’s à 16 days (Mackinac Island, Meldrum Bay, Gore Bay, Little Current, Blind River, St Ignace, Mackinaw City, Beaver Island)

Number of different anchorages/docks à 31

Number of memories made à infinite

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