Haul-Out Day

Sailing season’s over for another year - mixed feelings of course but a satisfying effort.

So today (and well, yesterday and also another few days last week) we’ve been busy getting Cool Heads Prevail ready to be lifted out of the water.

This means: sailing her from Illinois to Michigan, unbending the sails, flaking them so they’ll fit into their big bags, stowing them in our car (for now), striking the bimini and dodger, removing their canvases, drying them (because it’s been raining for four days now!), disassembling the frameworks, removing the food from the refrigerator & cabinets, pulling off the bed linens and towels, gathering up our clothes and coats and shoes and books and games . . .

And then - with very experienced helping hands at West Basin Marina in St. Jospeh, Michigan - moving CHP to dry dock for the winter.

Sailing Up North to Mackinac Island - and back?

We've been living on this boat since June 2 & today it's June 29 - yep, that counts as a record for us!

We've sailed - and motored - and motor-sailed the Lake Michigan coast of Michigan from St. Joseph to South Haven, Saugatuck, Pentwater, Ludington, Frankfort, Leland, Charlevoix, Petosky, St. Ignace, and onto Mackinac Island - our northern-most goal. Take a look on a road map or nautical chart - that's an amazing feat for two (now weary) sailors!

And now we're happily & eagerly heading back home via Beaver Island and Frankfort. Where we seem to be stuck. 

This morning Windy (a weather app) showed winds 12-20 with gusts of 24+ coming from SE, the direction we want to go, not to mention rainstorms. Hey we've handled all that before so we got up early, untied from our safe quiet marina dock, and set out to head south to Manistee - or Arcadia or Portage Lake if things didn't go well along the way. 

And .  . . but . . . we now find ourselves back in Frankfort on the hook in Crystal Lake (or maybe it's Lake Betsie - we're just feeling lucky to be here), but for we don't know how long! You know, some things you can control and others you cannot! Stay in the moment, right? Right?

We've scored numerous pix along the way: lush scenery (sand dunes, beaches), historic lighthouses (can't sail past one w/o my camera handy), new friends (hello out there!), and new experiences (kite flying & special events on Mac Island).

An adventure vacation indeed! 

Sailing as Exercise

We’re happily back sailing again after taking the month of July off for repairs - repairs of the boat that is. Cool Heads Prevail needed her transmission rebuilt & a few other tidbits, but now she’s good to go.

Last Friday we eagerly packed up, provisioned, moved back in & got started with some exhilarating day sails on Lake Michigan. And by the end of day one I came to the conclusion that one doesn’t need a gym membership or a workout schedule if one has a sailboat! 

While enjoying every minute, after that first day my abs were so sore that I felt as if I’d been doing an unnatural number of sit ups. And then next day the legs, the arms, the back muscles started to ache. As much glorious fun as this all is, I realize (and kinda love) what’s going on. 

Sailing requires a multitude of physical motions multiple times a day, not to mention trying to maintain balance at all times! Climbing up onto & off the boat, stepping backwards down the companionway ladder & back up again, bending over to connect and disconnect various lines from their boat cleats onto their deck cleats, making one’s way forward on the foredeck to grab & use the boat hook & make sure the fenders are either in or out. At the helm trying to keep the boat on course with the power of both the wind and waves working against your arms. Not to mention pulling lines during tacks and jibes, and occasionally unrolling & pulling in the jib. And it’s not even ME who pulls up & puts down the giant mainsail while balancing himself on the deck of a quickly moving water transport! 

Another day I’ll think about the MENTAL gymnastics sailing takes! 

Another Sailing Season Begins

It takes a lot of work to have fun, right?

In April, long before actual sailing season, Kent spent days & days enjoying a myriad of jobs including cleaning & rebuilding winch gears, changing transmission oil, waxing the hull & painting the bottom. 

As a result Cool Heads Prevail was looking quite beautiful when she splashed into the water in St. Joseph, MI in late May. 

Of course then we spent several more days bending on sails, cleaning, organizing, provisioning, etc. 

The first day of June found us sailing 52 nm across Lake Michigan with friends C&C. Now we’re really having fun! Our genoa & main led the way, followed later by the always charming gennaker along with the motor when the wind went to sleep. And a mere 11.5 hours later we manuevered into our slip in Chicago’s Burnham Harbor. 

So after some hard work we're off to a satisfying start. Within the past few days we’ve enjoyed 4 sails: a sweet morning sail followed by a delightful afternoon with O on board (oops & a fishing pole that went swimming!), and a pair of exciting day sails with winds gusting into the high 20s (yikes!). Always an adventure, always a lot of fun!  

A Chicago Morning Sail.

Towards the end of a busy summer in which we spent several weeks biking on the isles of Scotland, we grabbed some beautiful early fall days to enjoy Cool Heads Prevail who was waiting patiently for us at our home port. We motor out of Burnham Harbor, hoist the main and then the genoa, turn off the motor - and we're underway!

The Chicago skyline views are stunning against a brilliant blue sky to the west, and I cana't help but snap yet another photo. We take off on a close reach, 8-10 knot winds from the northeast, boat speed 4-5 knots, nicely making way.

Soon the historic Chicago Lighthouse came into view, so we sail towards it, watching a small fishing boat trying to score some fish near the rocks. We move on out beyond the breakwall and put the Harriison Dever Crib in our sites. And we sail on and on for the entire morning. This just never gets old!

What a Crew! What a Ride!

 What a crew! What a ride! Kent & Nancy & Chuck & Carolyn.

52 nautical miles across Lake Michigan!

*Did we get soaked in a downpour just as we were leaving port in St. Joseph, MI? *Did we hoist the sails and keep sailing even though? Why yes we did!

*Did we manage to rid the precious water of pollution by using boathooks to capture not just one but two mylar balloons? Yes - and no one fell in while doing it!

*Did we eat rather delicious chicken salad sandwiches along the way? Yum!

*Did we play some silly alphabet games to pass the time? Um (see below)

*Did we swat way too many awfully annoying flies? Yep we did. And we went through an alphabet of adjectives to describe those insects: A=awful, B=beastly

*Did we view the exciting skyline of Chicago beneath our beautiful magenta gennaker? Oh, yeah!

*Did it take over ten hours? Yes it sure did.

And did we LOVE every minute? Another resounding yes!