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4 Nights at Green Turtle Bay

4 Nights at Green Turtle Bay

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Stats for Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Origin:  Paducah Docks

Destination:  Green Turtle Bay Marina

Distance:  45 miles

Speed:  6.9 mph

Time on the Move:  6 hours and 31 minutes

A beautiful morning at Green Turtle Bay

We were the last of 4 boats that pulled away from the Paducah Dock this morning. We were last because we needed some extra time to figure out how we were going to get out of our tight spot at the dock. A trawler was about 8 feet in front of us and a sailboat was about 4 feet behind us so we didn’t have much wiggle room. Mike figured it out just fine, and with the help of some other boaters to give us a good push off the dock, we pulled away no problem.

The water was very calm and that seemed to hide some debris that was floating in the Ohio. We had a day off of looking for logs, so it was a rather unwelcome sight to think we might have to get back to debris watch. It didn’t last more than 10 miles or so, though, and the debris ended. We didn’t even hit anything!!

There are two ways you can get to our destination—either the longer route of going the Cumberland to the north, or remaining on the Ohio to the south. Either option ends with a lock right where you enter into Lake Barkley, so the guidebooks tell you to call the locks and see which one will be the shorter wait time. However, the word among fellow loopers is that the lockmaster at the end of the Ohio doesn’t like pleasure craft and has been known to send boats all the way back around—about an extra 8 hours. Now I don’t know if this is really true, but everyone I know that has gone thru this year went by way of the Cumberland. We heard it is a nice scenic trip, so we didn’t even bother calling the locks.

Skinny river channels with several tows to pass.
Our turn!!

We had a nice quiet ride on the twisty river. We had some sneak peeks of fall color change. A few tows kept us on our feet. A fox (or maybe it was a wolf?!) came down the the bank of the river to see us go past. That was about it for excitement, and that was just fine with us. About 10 miles from the lock we got word from one of the other loopers that there would be a 2 1/2 hour wait to get into the lock because a double tow was just starting to head up. At that point we put it just above idle and slowed down significantly, to avoid wait time at the lock when we would just have to idle and maintain position. In the end we still had to wait about an hour for our turn to go up the 57’ lock, but with some cleaning, exercising, and sing alongs, the time passed quickly.

Hayley worked on some “extra” math work I brought with us.

We also made a quick game plan about what we would do if the lock gates failed and water started rushing towards us. I’m not sure much could really be done, but it’s good to have thought about these things in case of an emergency. The lock was pretty impressive, as we haven’t seen many that big. It seemed to have a fair bit of turbulence in the middle, where we were tied up, but we handled it just fine. We did watch our fenders scraping rough concrete pretty hard and adjusted our method to help keep the boat a bit further off the wall.

Waiting to go in to the lock…  Thank goodness for Pokemon cards!!
Waiting to go into the lock, facing those HUGE lock doors. Mike had an escape plan formulated just in case…

Lots of locking pictures today–I must have thought it was quite scenic!

One of us always stays near the floating bollard just in case it doesn’t rise/fall like it is supposed to. This bollard is way higher than most of them are and that made it a bit trickier to lasso when we pulled up.
You can see the metal doors and then the concrete structure underneath them that we would rise above with out 57′ elevation gain and then drive right over when exiting the lock. Locks really are engineering marvels!

After we pulled out of the lock, we had a quick 1 mile trip to the famous Green Turtle Bay, a known looper refuge.  In this 1 mile stretch every single boat in our group called the marina in succession for slip assignments and to share intentions of filling with fuel or pumping out. We chose to fill up and pump out before heading to our slip. It takes about an hour to do both of those items and by that time I was freezing again!! The brightness of the afternoon sky was replaced by cloudy, cold dusk, and I was ready to tuck in for the night and get warmed up!!  Mike grilled us some hamburgers and hot dogs and we cranked the heat on before bed. The kids were thrilled to have internet to download some new apps on their kindles and I was just fine with that!!

Reading Halloween books that we brought with us from home.

The next day we started off with chores before we took off to explore the marina. I did 5 loads of laundry and chatted with some nice folks in the laundry room while Mike scrubbed the boat down. The kids were anxious to feed the turtles that they heard lived around the marina, so we bought some turtle food and filled up their little bellies. The turtles could hear us walk on the dock and would come swimming up, looking for food. Of course Creature Boy loved this past time and Hayley seemed to love it as well. She would ask to go feed the turtles every once in a while throughout our stay when she didn’t think they had been fed for a while.

I love the extra time for snuggles. This kid loves his skeleton Halloween jammies!!
Sunshine!! And Mike hard at work!!
The kids got new haircuts by Captain Cuts (Mike). Colin has a lightning bolt on each side.
Toby has shark fins on each side. INNTW!!
There are actually turtles at Green Turtle Bay!! Who would have thought?!

 

Next, we also took off for the indoor pool (which wasn’t exactly warm) but it was definitely swimable.  Toby practiced without his life jacket and the kids swam around with some other kids that were already in there.  It seems like it has been forever since we swam!!

That afternoon the Zeeffs from Living the Dream arrived at the marina so after our swim, we got showered up for happy hour and dinner out at the Thirsty Turtle Tavern.  The whole Green Turtle Bay complex is pretty all inclusive, so we got to ride on the courtesy stretch golf cart shuttle to the restaurant.  When we walked in I think the record skipped and all the “regulars” turned to see who in the world would bring all these kids out to eat on a Wednesday night at 7 pm.  Just us!!  Crazy loopers!!  Once again, the kids had their own table for dinner, which was amazing.  Except for the part where Toby cried for 10 minutes because I told him he couldn’t actually drink the Dr. Pepper he had somehow ordered from the waitress.  Then, Mike somehow knocked down the toilet paper dispenser in the girls’ bathroom, and we were told our children shouldn’t go to the bathroom unattended anymore.  Sheesh…don’t these people know how to have fun?!

One of the beers we had was called “Country Boy Cougar Bait.” Just can’t make that stuff up!!

The next day we did a fair amount of bike riding and playground exploring in the morning, so we decided to push our luck and head back to the Thirsty Turtle in the afternoon for some outside bean bags, steel tipped darts (not always child friendly, but we made it work!), and life-sized chess.  We started off all playing games, but eventually the kids were running rampant through the woods and the adults were standing around a bon fire, finishing our beers.  We were chatting with a new boat we met, Cloud 9, which is from MacRays, our home marina back in Harrison Township, Michigan. What a small world!!  One difference is that these loopers left home on 10/1 and were already at GTB.  We left mid-July and were just now at GTB.  They obviously burn some wicked amounts of fuel and are on a much faster time schedule than we are!  Regardless, it was nice to meet them and see a familiar marina name on their boat.

Soaking in that sunshine at breakfast!!
A little schoolwork…
Check out Toby’s new wheels!! Mike worked in picking him up a new bike to our suuuuper busy last day in Grafton. This was Toby’s first ride and he was so proud of himself!!
Posing in front of another Halloween display!

The beach at GTB would be amazing if it were 20 degrees hotter!! Those big brown things in the water are mooring cells where tows pushing barges can tie up to wait for the lock. These bad boys line the river in many locations near locks.
We saw deer several times.

Adults relaxing and staying dry under the tent.
Kids playing in the woods…

The INNTW and Living the Dream crews ended up back at the Zeeffs’ boat for the rest of the evening, hiding from rainstorms.  Hayley and Allison serenaded us with a concert.  Colin and Matthew talked about Pokemon and a new game they are creating called “Monsters and Magic.”  Toby pretty much ran between the 2 bedrooms terrorizing kids, with a bit of terrorizing adults with very loud keyboard playing.  The adults made plans to take over the Bahamas this winter and then the rest of the world later.  And we drank all of the Zeeffs’ wine and ate their dinner.  It was a good night.

We listened to a great concert, mostly about Egypt.

 

Somehow we snuck in family grocery shopping complete with pizza dinner out afterwards.
Seriously, who doesn’t get pizza on the way home from grocery shopping?!
At the ship’s store (that has EVERYTHING!!) Toby comes up to me with this visor and says, “Take a picture! I’m a grandma!!”

 

Soon it was time for INNTW to head out for our big Nashville trip we’ve been planning with the Herbon family.  We are thrilled to be on schedule and chose to leave Green Turtle Bay a day earlier than necessary to make shorter days and give us another night in an anchorage on the way.  We had a great time at GTB, but we were excited about the next adventure!  Thanks for reading!

Tying up loose ends

Tying up loose ends

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So you read about all of our fun in the 11 days before we left, but we had lots of work to do, too!!  Here’s a recap:

 

We had access to our house for a few extra weeks, so that meant we could take occasional baths and showers there and do TONS of laundry.

 

 

Of course our stuff is all put away, so these were Colin’s reading accommodations.

 

 

The boys had one last game of ping pong in the basement.  Toby and I played air hockey.  We are going to miss all the fun we have down there!!

 

 

Here is a final glimpse at what our storage room ended up looking like.  This room is 14×14 and packed to the ceiling.  Thank goodness our renters agreed to let us keep a room FULL of our stuff!!  They even brought us cute INNTW beach towels!!  Thanks, Sean and Stephanie!!  🙂

 

 

Oh yeah…and the garage space.  We filled a wall of shelves with our outside stuff, and it takes up about 1/2 of our third bay in the garage.  Mike hung up this huge tarp to cover our things and keep them tidy so the renters could still use some of that extra space.  He stacked all this stuff and hung that tarp in some HOT and HUMID weather!  I was amazed at his tenacity getting it all up there and put away neatly (especially in that heat!).

 

 

We made ourselves at home at West Marine several times, buying all the things.  This one is probably the most exciting for MOST of us, but other things are important, too, like portable VHF radios, a radio antennae, and a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) that will be used in case of an emergency.

 

 

 

 

We also ordered about a million things from Amazon (and we’re working on ordering more still!!)  By the way…if you ever shop Amazon, access their site through our link and we’ll make a few cents off every dollar you spend.  It doesn’t cost you anything, but we appreciate it!! 🙂

SHOP Amazon NOW

 

 

Hayley and I bought a few of everything at the grocery store and I totally worried that it wasn’t going to all fit on the boat.  But guess what?!  IT DID!!  I feel pretty stocked and ready to head out on the water (at least for a week or so!!).

 

 

This is what our apartment sized fridge and storage shower look like after the provisioning trip.  Full, but functional!!

 

 

 

 

On our last day before departure we dropped Mike’s truck off at his Grandpa’s house to store for the next year (Thanks, Grandpa!!), we also sold my car right out of the marina parking lot, and had a vessel safety check from the Coast Guard Auxiliary to make sure we are set and prepared to be safe.  BUSY BUSY!!

 

 

 

 

We were busy running and moving and crossing things off the never-ending list all day.  It made me wonder if we should stay just one more day to make sure everything was done and possibly give us a chance to relax.  Mike reminded me that at some point we have to leave and that there will always be more to do.  We also will have lots of time while traveling to take care of chores, too.  So, that being said, we planned to push off from the dock on July 19th–Happy Birthday to me!!  Bat girl (and the whole family, really) is ready to go!!

 

 

 

So many visitors, it was hard to find the time to leave!

So many visitors, it was hard to find the time to leave!

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Thank you Thank you Thank you for all of your interest in our journey, the good wishes, and the love and support we’ve been feeling!  We had 11 nights after our journey to Hubbard Lake before we took off and you all made us feel like ROCKSTARS!!  Here is a brief overview of the visitors and parties we crammed into those 11 days (this is already a whirlwind, so stick with me!!)

 

We held our renaming ceremony for the boat with Mike’s brother Brian, his girlfriend Kayleigh, and our friend Courtney (along with our lovely children).  Now some people have never heard of such a thing and let me tell you that it is all very formal and specific.  I once referred to it as “witchcraft” and I have yet to live that down, though it seems pretty accurate.  I will post screenshots of the script we used to give you an idea.

First you start with a name purging ceremony:

You can see these ceremonies require drinking champagne (as well as sacrificing!!), so of course we needed friends and family to help us celebrate such a big step!!  We didn’t have a metal tag, but improvised that part just fine with a champagne cork.

Next comes the renaming ceremony.  Colin read this part and did a pretty good job, considering how obscure it is.

 

Mike lead the appeasing of the gods and it was quite a show.  I hope the gods will be good to us and enjoy all that champagne we shared!!

Here are pictures from the occasion:

 

We had lots of fun with the whole thing.  I think my favorite part was at the beginning when Courtney told Mike he should go get his captain hat, and of course he already had it tucked away in his back pocket.  Afterwards we went to North 42 at MacRays Marina to celebrate some more because…INNTW!!

 

 

The next night we had a pool party for the kids and their friends at MacRays.  The kids are definitely going to miss (already missing) their friends, so we wanted to make sure they got one more chance to see everyone who could make it (and everyone we had contact info for!).  It was a blast for kids and adults!!  I think we would do it weekly if we were going to be home all summer!!  Thank you to everyone who joined us!!

 

 

Ohmygoodness, Toby and his bestie girls are just so cute!  He remembers so many stories the kids tell at daycare, it just shows us how much he loves his friends (and teachers!!) from The Learning Nook.  And watching all those South River kids play together was great!  Our kiddos sure did get lucky in the friend department!!  Email us often, friends, and I’ll have the kids email you back!!  <3

 

The next night my Aunt Sherry took us out for dinner and celebrated Hayley’s birthday early!  It was great to visit with her and my cousins Kim and Scott at the restaurant and back at the boat.  Aunt Sherry said she feels a lot better about our adventure after seeing the boat, and she has a better understanding of what our quarters will be like.  Lots of you have said that after seeing the boat so maybe one day I’ll get around to taking a video…  😉  Thanks for dinner, Aunt Sherry!  Thanks for the snacks and wine and toys Kim and Scott!!   Hope to see you all along The Loop!

 

Who knows why Toby didn’t want to smile for the picture…?!  I mean what is he?!  4??!  🙂

 

 

We made a connection on Facebook a while back with a family that finished The Loop just over a year ago with their 4 daughters.  They are a wealth of information and have been so generous to message with us and answer all kinds of questions about their experience.  Lucky for us they set out on their 2nd loop just a week ago and even LUCKIER for us is that they decided to come and stay near us at Markley for a couple of days!  It was so great to get to know them and ask a million more questions.  It was also super great for our kids to play with their kids and make some connections and hear about life on The Loop from other kids who have experienced it.  We are hoping to catch up with The Wilsons again soon!!  If you haven’t heard of them, they are amazing, so you should check them out (if you like reading about great family adventures, of course!!)  Wilsons on the Water on Facebook and www.wilsonsonthewater.blogspot.com.  Here are our 6 adventurous kiddos playing at the pool (they are looping with 3 of their kids currently).

 

 

We appreciated that Aaron and Janelle Beck drove all the way across metro Detroit on a Friday night to bring us pizza, see the boat, and let the kids play together.  It is so great to visit with old friends that we just don’t usually get to see as much as we would like to.  We really loved your visit, guys, and we’re so glad you made the trip over to see us!!  It was great to see the kids play together so easily!  (The kids are cute and all, but that’s our boat in the background with the black top–super convenient pool access!!)

 

Thank goodness for those Goldfish Swim School Lessons!!  Thanks, Miss Chrissy and Miss Ariyah!!

 

 

Saturday July 14th we held a Bon Voyage Boat Open House so anyone who was interested and available could come out and see the boat.  It just so happened to coincide with a concert at MacRays that made for a fun night!!  We appreciate everyone who came out and visited with us!  We had a blast!  Also, I took exactly 0 pictures until my dear friend Tammy started snapping away for me, so thanks, Tammy!!

We are super crazy for leaving the best neighbors ever, but we’ll be back in a year!  Thanks for the great basket of goodies, Contesti’s and Shewell’s, but mostly for celebrating with us and supporting us like you do.  You are a special group of people!!  <3

 

Proof that Toby DOES smile!!  🙂

 

Thanks to Hayley’s 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Elliott, for coming out!  It made Hayley feel so special that you came to see her boat!  Thank you for everything you do!  (Teachers are awesome, aren’t they?)

 

Hayley decided to get the dancing started a little early with the worm.  😉

Thanks to Greg and Marie, Tammy and John, Noel, Linda, Amanda, Nora, Alexa, Larry and Cheryl, Nick and Laurel, Phil and Family, Beef and Megan and their girlies, John and Bette, Curt and Sheri, Mrs. Elliott, Jeff and Chelsey and sweet Sloan, Max, Miss Ashlie, and Adam and Melissa for coming out and checking out the boat!!  We appreciate your time and interest in our adventure!!  We also appreciate all the kids’ crafts, beer, wine, and champagne you brought…you sure didn’t have to do that, but THANK YOU!!  Thank you also for dancing the night away with us!!

 

 

ONE MORE PARTY…..and then a few smaller ones.  See why we couldn’t get anything done?!  😉

 

Sunday we met up with friends out in Munchies Bay for one more play day on Lake St. Clair.  I’m interested to see how people socialize and enjoy their boats in other parts of the country, but I sure do love rafting off and letting everyone play the way we do here at home!!

We had 14 adults and 12 kids between these 4 boats (I think?!) and ALL the toys!!  The kids had a blast!  And of course so did the adults!!

 

 

 

We even had a visit from the ice cream boat later in the afternoon when all the kids were downstairs in the boat playing.  All the adults got ice cream and the kids still have NO IDEA there is such a thing as an ice cream boat!  HAHAHA!!  😉  We felt so sneaky, but we also asked the ice cream boat not to play his music again until he got further away from our boats!!

 

 

 

By the time we got all the toys put away and headed in we had this beautiful sky and smooth water.  We used our autopilot for the first time and Mike is absolutely convinced it was a great purchase for our trip!  The end of a great day!  Thanks for all the fun Lipskis, Schusters, Czerwinskis, Larry (and especially for washing the boat down!!), Courtney, Golas, and Karen and Ernie!!

 

 

Thank you Roncelli for the awesome care package of goodies!  The kids love the flashcards, Mike (obviously) wears the captain hat regularly, and we sure get a lot of use out of the Captain and First Mate coozies!!  Thank you so much!

 

 

Thank you to Jordan and Tati and girls for coming by the boat to check it out.  Thank you Gino Roncelli for stopping by and sharing our excitement.  Thank you Carla and Don Kling for your enthusiastic support and goodies for everyone.  Thank you Darryl Amoe for coming to see the boat and sharing tips from your adventures (as well as that delicious champagne we enjoyed tonight!).  Thanks to Tom Fisher from US Coast Guard Auxiliary for doing a vessel safety check and giving us some helpful pointers.  Thanks to Courtney, Adam, and Melissa for the plentiful amounts of pizza–you guys are awesome!!  If I missed you, I apologize.  We had fun with you, too, I promise!!

 

Obviously we had a blast during those 11 days, but they were also filled with work and coordinating and errands and pressure to get stuff done.  We finally pulled it all together and pushed away from the dock on July 19th.  I will be updating about our first 3 days on The Loop tomorrow during our travels.

 

Thanks for reading (and for all the fun!!).

Thank goodness for Amazon!!

Thank goodness for Amazon!!

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If you follow the blog, you’ve read about my love of online shopping before.  These last few weeks we have been relying heavily on Amazon Prime and their amazing 2 day shipping for tons of last minute stuff we decided we need.  Just a few things we’ve ordered recently:  long sleeve sun shirts for Kelly, a wide-brimmed hat for Mike, a solar shower, selfie stick, carabiners, a huge bike lock, flip flops, a shower caddy, floaties for kids and adults, a bike cover, swim goggles, waterproof phone case, tie down straps, bungee cords, and even a thermostat for our hot water heater on the boat…just to name a few!!  WHEW!!  Thank goodness for that 2 day shipping!

Click HERE to shop PRIME DAY now and support our ADVENTURE

I hear Amazon’s annual “Prime Day” started yesterday.  If you rely on Amazon like we do, it would be amazing if you shop through this link to help support our journey.  It won’t cost you anything extra to shop, but we will get a few cents off every dollar you purchase for referring you to Amazon.  You can also sign up to become a Prime member through this link.  They have some great deals through tonight on ELECTRONICS (we just bought the Fire Cube for streaming tv and movies on the boat) and the Echo Dot (except we can’t buy that because our kids just ask to hear songs about poop and burps again and again!) 😉  CLOTHES, TOYS (our kids love their Magic Tracks and are currently playing Monopoly Jr.), and ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF!!

Click HERE to shop ANYTIME and support our ADVENTURES

More to come in the near future about all the WORK we’ve been doing to get ready and all the FUN we’ve been having seeing everyone before we go.  Our new departure date is Thursday, so lots of tying up loose ends and checking delivery dates to make sure everything arrives from Amazon in time!!

Happy Shopping!!  🙂

What in the WORLD are we doing?!

What in the WORLD are we doing?!

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So lately I’ve gotten several questions from people who just don’t seem to have any idea what in the world we are doing.  They got the boat part figured out but they didn’t quite catch the “Great Loop” part of the plan…or maybe they did, but they didn’t know what the heck it is, so it didn’t register as an important piece of information.  I’m here to clear up the plan for what we’re undertaking.  I’m also going to include some elementary-style illustrations because that’s what I’m good at.  😉

 

The Great Loop is basically a circle route around the Eastern half of the United States (some people are pretty adamant about the fact that this part of the US is actually an island…interesting!!).  The map above outlines the various Great Loop route options.  We have some decisions pretty much settled and honestly, there are some that I haven’t even thought about yet.

 

This is our BIG PICTURE plan for the next 13 months.  We will be leaving the metro Detroit area and starting the green portion as early as Monday!  YIKES–so much to do!!  We will head north along the Lake Huron/Canadian shoreline until we reach Tobermory (been there, but sure didn’t get to see it with all that fog!!  See earlier posts from late May for that adventure!).  We will head north from there and follow clockwise along the Northern Georgian Bay until around Britt (I think?) where we will turn around and backtrack, heading for Killarney.  There we will enter the North Channel and work our way west until we are scheduled to meet with Kelly’s brother’s family in Mackinac Island in mid-August for summer cousin camp.  We will then work our way south along the western Michigan shoreline until we get to Chicago in late September.  Now that green section is creeping up on us quickly, so I have focused most of my planning on this portion so far.  Other than rough dates, I really have no idea of specifics for the rest of the trip.  It’s all about the journey, right?

We plan to start the blue line along the rivers sometime in late September, arriving in the Gulf of Mexico in mid-November (after hurricane season!).  I’m hoping we’ll make a side trip to Nashville along the way.  We will only be taking the northern half of the Mississippi River and then switch over to the eastern route using the Ohio/Cumberland/Tennessee/Tenn-Tom Rivers.  Many people avoid the lower Mississippi because there are just 2 stops along this almost 900 mile stretch where you can refuel and provision.  The route we’re taking isn’t quite so desolate and offers many more resources along the way.

Once we hit the Gulf of Mexico, we’ll start preparing for our first big water crossing, cutting the corner of Florida and heading towards Tarpon Springs (the other two big crossings being to and from the Bahamas).  We’ll head down the west coast of Florida through late November and December, spending considerable time in the Keys (I think?).  This portion is shown in purple.

Come early January we’ll start watching for a weather window where we can cross the Gulf Stream (current that can make the ocean nasty to cross) over to the Bahamas.  Right now we’re planning on exploring the Bahamas (yellow line) from mid-January through early April.  Our goal here is to find quiet anchorages and deserted islands where we can explore on our own (I think?).  (A little side story:  In April 2017, we took a cruise to the Bahamas.  I (Kelly) very clearly remember the ship passing one quiet little sleepy island, watching a small boat out on the ocean, and wondering where in the world those people were headed.  I remember wishing I could stay behind when everyone else had to leave so we could spend a little longer in paradise.  Funny how sometimes, looking back, you realize you’re getting just what you asked for!)

After coming back from the Bahamas in early April, we’ll follow the light blue line up the east coast of the US through June or so (I think?).  Much of this part will be done on the intercoastal waterway, and we’re hoping to spend some extra time in Washington DC and New York City.

We will travel the Trent Severn Waterway through Canada (the pink portion) throughout July and end up back in the Georgian Bay (where we’ll be for the 3rd time at that point!).  We will explore a little more of the Georgian Bay and arrive back in metro Detroit in mid August (I think?).

The fancy orange arrow reminds you that we will be navigating the Loop in a counter clockwise fashion.  This is the typical direction “Loopers” travel in order to take advantage of the current on the Mississippi River, so that’s the way we’ll go, too.

If you have questions, thoughts, recommendations, or you know of friends/family who would love to let us tie up to their dock somewhere along this route for a few days, please share!!  I have spent hours and hours researching, but I usually do that for a regular week-long trip, so planning the full scope of this trip is completely overwhelming.  I have read many blogs about others who have traveled the Loop (as well as waterway guides, websites, etc…) and taken careful notes about specific areas/museums/marinas/etc where we should visit or avoid, so I’d love to hear thoughts from all of our own friends and family, too.  One thing that comes up again and again is how cruisers love the Bahama portion and the Canadian portion of the trip more than the rest.  Our itinerary reflects that, spending significantly more time in those areas.  The truth is, there is just so much to see out there that I could never give it all the planning time it deserves.  And the planning isn’t the fun of it, so I figure with a fair amount of research, we’ll just get out there and figure it out along the way.

Please do share your thoughts and experiences through commenting, email, or other means of getting in touch with us.  I sure appreciate all of you that already have!!  And I’m totally serious about free docking opportunities, too!  😉  Thank you!!

For now, we’ll sit back and enjoy this beautiful view from our sundeck for the next week or so and enjoy the comfort of being HOME.

 

 

 

Bring on the ADVENTURES!!

Bring on the ADVENTURES!!

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We raced around Saturday June 30th and got 99.9% of our stuff out of the house (boy, you can sure fit a lot of stuff in a house).  We quickly realized how many hiding spots we hadn’t thoroughly emptied yet, and we were so thankful that Tobin was with Grandma Herbon so we had one less kid to keep track of.  We were also thankful Grandma Hays was visiting and willing to do lots of dirty work and cleaning to help us get out of the house.  Eventually, we piled all of the “boat boxes” on to the boat in big stacks and instantly felt overwhelmed (again!) by all that needs to be done before we leave.  It was about 100* and we were anxious to close one chapter and start another one, so after an hour or so of *attempting* to unpack boxes on the boat, we went for a quick swim, ate a last dinner at the house (with washcloths as plates/napkins because everything was all packed), and hit the road for the 4 hour drive up north to one of our favorite spots, Hubbard Lake.

 

Here we are at Mike’s parents’ house in Hubbard Lake, enjoying our usual 4th of July festivities.  Mike’s great-grandma Herbon helped her kids build this place in 1967, and it has been in the family ever since.  This trip is a little different, though, because until now it has always been called “The Cottage,” but as of Memorial Day, this is Mike’s parents’, Larry and Cheryl Herbon’s, full-time, regular ol’ HOUSE!!  They are so lucky to have such a beautiful spot on the lake to look at every day…there is just something so relaxing about looking out at the water!

 

For quite some time, our family tradition has been to come to Hubbard Lake for the 4th of July holiday with the whole family, and this year is no different.  The gang is all here, and we’re having fun with all the toys, beautiful weather, just enough relaxing, and lots of laughs being together.  There are plenty of outdoor activities to keep the kids occupied (these kids are bug and frog OBSESSED!!) and tire them out by the end of the day.

 

I had to bring this guy home from my morning run for the boys to examine!

 

Aside from torturing playing with bugs and small creatures, we have been swimming almost constantly because it is HOT here!  This is the hottest week up here I can remember in a long time–hot, humid, and little breeze.  Luckily, the lake feels just about perfect and after 2 days of whining, Tobin finally figured out that “swimming is actually kind of fun.”  (As long as he is still in his life jacket!) Thank goodness!!

Now he tells me he wishes he was a fish and could live in the ocean.
Show off!! Colin loves tubing behind Grandpa’s new pontoon boat!!
If you could see her better, you’d see that Hayley is half thrilled and half terrified.

 

We had a great 4th of July complete with a boat parade, lots of swimming and floating to stay cool, and group pictures!  We even had cupcakes, made by Grandma and Hayley, to celebrate all the July birthdays in our family.  Unfortunately a thunderstorm moved in right before the bonfire was lit, so there weren’t many fireworks to see, but we had fun playing cards and watching movies anyway!  Maybe the fireworks will be carried over to tonight….??

 

We’ve had such a fun few days with a few still to go, but I keep having the nagging feeling that we have SO MUCH to do before we cast off.  I wonder if we will get it all done in the 11 days before we’re set to leave.  I guess that’s one of the good things about our plan, is that it is more like a framework and the dates are all flexible depending on what comes our way.  If we’re not ready, we won’t leave.  Mike figures he has about 425 days left before he’s due back to work, so I guess we have plenty of time to relax and enjoy what each day brings…

 

A few more pictures of our fun:

Hayley isn’t quite the fan of frogs that the boys are!!
Frog huntin!
A moment of peace on the island!

Watching our frog, Hop Hop, swim in the bottom of our island.
Sweet T
Hangin on the island!
Practicing his driving on Grandpa’s new golf cart.
The kids all helped give Mike a haircut!! It is a “I don’t have to go to work for over 420 days” haircut!!
C is an awesome paddle boarder!!
T practicing his kayak skills on a calm Hubbard Lake.
Our First Night on the Hook!

Our First Night on the Hook!

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Finally a success story!!  We spent last Saturday night at anchor (on the hook in fancy boat language) in Lake St Clair and it was AMAZING…with only a few minor issues to report.  😉

 

On our way out to the Bay we were nervous about depths because we’re just not used to navigating this new boat in our favorite boating locations.  We love shallow water for it’s warmth this time of year and because the kids love splashing around and being able to touch bottom while they’re playing.  However, we don’t love shallow water because we have a big boat now and props that we can’t raise in shallow water.  We were hoping to meet up with some friends who were already out in a certain spot, so we were motivated to get out there, but also a little nervous since our depth finder isn’t yet working while we wait for the electronics install to be finalized.  On the way out, we had plenty of discussion about the depths and what our navigation apps were telling us–should we keep going and hope for the best??  Or play it safe and go somewhere else??  Mike’s solution (always so practical!) was to stop every once in a while and stick a pole down in the water to see how deep it really was under the boat.  Our navigation apps told us we were in about 4 feet of water, yet his experiment showed us that we were actually in at least 8 feet of water.  It just didn’t make sense.  So…what to do, what to do?  We just kept on motoring easy and stopped a few more times to try the ole “pole in the water” depth-checking trick, and sure enough, we made it to our destination just fine.   Whew!

 

I didn’t take any pictures when we first got out to the Bay because I was too busy socializing, but it sure was nice to have all the kids in the water, going between boats, and splashing around playing.  It wasn’t long before our friends started packing up to head home and we were left on our own for the evening.  The Bay was so quiet and calm with only a few other boats left.  I wondered if we would be the only ones there for the night or if other boats would also stay over.  Mike used the grill for the first time, and we had a great dinner of grilled chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, and watermelon–a perfect summer meal.  The water was calm, the Bay was peaceful, the boat was content, and it was just about perfect.

 

Hayley and Tobin played quietly with cars and dinosaurs after dinner.  This kind of quiet cooperation doesn’t always happen with these kiddos, so I thoroughly enjoyed the peace.

The flybridge was a perfect place to enjoy my wine and do some research in preparation to head back to the Georgian Bay.  I have to admit, it was hard to focus on the book being surrounded by such beauty.  I didn’t get much planning done after all, but I sure enjoyed the sunset.

Colin kept me company up there, as well.  He is thrilled that it is “Summer Reading Program” season, and he is currently working on reading for 3 different contests.  This boy loves to read!!

Grandma Hays also enjoyed the peace and quiet.  It reminded her of many years spent at the family cottage not too far from here.

Two of these boats ended up staying the night, also.

We turned a movie on for the kids as they started getting sleepy and the adults enjoyed the view from the sundeck.  Gorgeous sunset.

Apparently, a beautiful, quiet sunset was too peaceful for Mike, however.  That guy is always up for an adventure, so around dusk he decided to put the dinghy in the water and take it for a spin.  I figured the quiet caused by the movie wouldn’t last too long, so I stayed behind to put kiddos to bed.  In hindsight, I’m glad I did because the fuel line on the dinghy came disconnected once it was good and dark out there, and Mike ended up rowing the whole way home, surrounded by gnats.  He was just thankful they weren’t mosquitoes, but it still looked pretty miserable to me, and he jumped in the lake as soon as the dinghy was secure.

 

The overnight was beautiful and peaceful (except for all that rowing and Colin falling out of bed, but better him than grandma…).  All the bugs that helped Mike row home should have been our first sign that bugs were going to be a problem on such a calm, humid night.  We woke up in the morning to find that thousands? millions? of gnats decided to join our boat overnight, mostly on the outside of the windows and screens but plenty found their way inside as well.  Mike soon realized that the bugs were going to be quite bothersome outside all day because they covered him every time he went out to take care of something, and of course the forecast called for 90* temps that day, so outside was going to be necessary.  I tried vacuuming them up, but it was clear they were not leaving.  We decided to ignore the bug problem because we felt pretty helpless on how to get rid of them.

I enjoyed watching some jet skis zoom around in the bay as I drank my coffee and tried to ignore the bugs getting squished into the carpet.  The kids had cereal and fruit at the kitchen table.  Grandma and I did some interior decorating.  And we were HOT.  It was 80* something by 10am or so with not much breeze at all and a forecasted high in the upper 90*s.  Mike attempted to clean bugs off the outside of the boat, and Hayley joined him on the lily pad when we were greeted by some excitement.

A sea plane flew over the bay, which is not unheard of, but still very exciting to see.  However, we were so surprised when the sea plane landed and cruised right over to our boat.  It pretty much drove right up to Hayley and gave us quite a show–made us wonder if they were coming to give us a secret message, but texting would be just so much easier.  I wondered if maybe he was trying to blow our bugs away??  Then, just as fast as it came, the sea plane cruised right by us and took off again, just behind the boat.  Everyone on our boat was thrilled with the show!  What a surprise!

 

 

Soon the Bay began to fill with boats and a typical summertime Sunday on Lake St Clair ensued…the only difference was this one was filled with tons of gnats.  Lots of boats, but more bugs.  So many bugs that they scared away two boats of friends from joining up with us throughout the day.  The bugs were a bummer.  And the heat was oppressive.  But it was still a fun day on the water.  We are looking forward to lots of days like this on the water, but hopefully way less bugs!!

 

 

A few updates:

We have HOT water!!  Yay Mike for troubleshooting that problem and fixing it with one new thermostat and just one flood during the process.

The invertor is working properly!!  Yay Mike for figuring that out, too.  However, now there is a problem with our electrical panel, but it should get looked at next week by an ELECTRICIAN.

We are anxious to get the renaming ceremony done (this is a thing–a post on this soon) and get the new name on the boat.  Hopefully soon.

Hopefully electronic upgrade/install will be complete early next week.  We need to learn how to use these new gadgets stat!!

Our house is in shambles.  Now that school is out, boxing up is in full swing.  9 days til we have to be on the boat full-time.  OhmygoodnessI’mfreakingoutaboutthiswehavealotofstuff…

Hopefully a post on this soon.

School’s out for summer!!  Woo Hoo!  #teacherlife

 

1 Down!!

1 Down!!

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Engine Shutdown System, huh?!

 

We found it!!  1 problem solved and the morale in this house is much better today!!  The engines are back up and running–whew!!

The electronics installer was talking the situation over with another resource Mike contacted about the whole “engines not starting” thing, and they realized the problem is this switch labelled Engine Shutdown System.  Sounds perfectly logical, right?  Well the two settings are “normal” and “override.”  Who would have thought the switch needs to be on override all the time?

The culprit…

 

As soon as Mike got the call that they solved the problem, he had to drive down to the boat and fire them up himself.  Success!!  We are sleeping much better in this house tonight!

Now, just waiting on that inverter to fix the shore power issue!!  😉

What’s next?!

What’s next?!

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Ha!

We brought our boat home exactly 8 days ago and since then we have developed at least 4 problems (at last count).  Maybe that picture is not quite so funny.

My initial goal for the first week or two of having the boat was to clean out all the cupboards, assess the storage areas, and start to plan how we are going to fit everything we need for 13 months onto this boat.  Mike’s plan was to learn to drive it, learn to navigate it, and learn to park it.  At this point, however, very little of his plan is working out, so it’s a good thing we’ve got my plan to fall back on.  Let’s call it a lesson in teamwork.

1)  We have had what we’re referring to as a “shore power issue” at every.single.marina.  I mean EVERY SINGLE MARINA can’t have the same problem, right?  So it’s got to be us who has the problem…

AC/DC/WHAT?!

The issue is that these green lights on the right don’t ALL or ALWAYS turn on when we plug a big cord into the outlet at the boat slip.  We “should” be running off shore power, but all the breakers don’t show that they are actually getting power.  Also, notice how that white gauge on the left shows power coming in, but that gauge on the right shows that we aren’t really using any power??  That’s apparently not how it is supposed to look.  We used to refer to this problem as “troubleshooting AC.”  We’ve tried new splitters, new power cords, new outlets, and flipping every switch on the boat.

Today, Mike sent me this shocking picture

 

This does not look good…

and tells me that he has talked to someone who works on inverters (fancy boat word for things that help store power on boats) and they are both convinced that all we need to do is pull the inverter from the basement (is there a fancy boat word for this?  I will find out, I’m sure…) and mail it to them in Ohio where they will “fix” it and mail it back.  That easy.  WHAT?!  That does not sound logical to me at all,  but it was obvious at this point that this was already happening, so I’m holding my tongue for now.  We’ll see how this goes.  $190 later the 87-pound inverter has been mailed to Columbus and should be back in 3 days or so.  We just want the lights to turn green, people!!

This is apparently what an inverter looks like.

 

2)  The upgraded electronics were supposed to go in last Thursday “in one day.”  However, in order for the installers to get the AIS (automatic identification system) set up correctly, we have to have MC numbers for our boat.  The MC numbers are being held up by the Secretary of State because they need an original copy of the boat’s license/title and apparently we only have a copy.  The original owners now need to order a new original copy which takes about 5 days or so.  Follow that trail back to the original goal, and hopefully our AIS will be functional and electronics upgrades will be complete in a few weeks.  No biggie, really, and certainly no fault of the installers, but just some loose ends and holes in the dash to consider for a bit longer.

 

3)  In an attempt to correct the “shore power issue” we wanted to move to a different slip at the marina that had a different power set up.  We decided to move the boat about 4 slips down over the weekend only to realize that our engines were not working properly.  Hmmm…  Strangest thing because every time we’ve been on the boat so far, they start right up and sound great (apparently–though I’m not really sure what they should or should not sound like at this point).  They would both start right up when the key was turned, but then would immediately turn off when the key turned back.  We tried again and again and Mike attempted every fix he could think of, but those babies would only turn on for about 2 seconds before going quiet.  Even the electronics installer came out in the middle of his Saturday to help us trouble shoot and see if it could be related to his work, but NO LUCK.  Definitely a problem….

So now we are stranded at the dock and even our poor dingy was stuck for a few hours because the big floating condo with wonky power was blocking it in to the seawall.  We finally finagled the dingy out with the help of a neighbor, lots of muscle, and some very long ropes.  However, riding around all weekend in the dingy (because it is our only boat that starts) did not make Mike a very happy camper…

 

4)  Our water heater no longer creates hot water.  Just a minor detail at this point that we haven’t really even considered yet.

 

So, in  the meantime, since we couldn’t work much on Mike’s plan of driving, navigating, and parking the boat, we’ve been working on my plan of cleaning, organizing, and decorating the boat.

The galley faucet and backsplash have gotten some upgrades and look amazing!!

before

 

during

 

after-ooh la la!

 

The aft head (back/master bath) is getting the same faucet/backsplash treatment, though the backsplash isn’t quite done yet.

during

 

with a new faucet

 

Mike decided to crawl down into the creepy hole under our bed to see what is down there.  We played around with the aft shower and realized the sump pump for the shower water is down there along with lots of empty space (kind of like the basement, but this part of the basement *could* have water in it, so it is called the bilge).  It looks kinda icky down there, but the good news is that there were no spiders!

Thank goodness he’s brave!

 

Not as creepy as it could be, just some cleaning needed.

 

I have been moving pillows and rugs around on breaks from cleaning and parenting.  It is feeling cozier and more like home every day we’re there.

Touches from home and some new goodies, too!

 

I’m super excited to add this fun bit of flare to the wall!  I waited and thought about it and let it sit in my online cart for-ev-er but finally decided this guy is essential to the trip!  I know you all agree!

 

We have spent many hours measuring and imagining patio furniture for our sundeck and we MAY have decided on this set….hoping to get it to the boat this weekend and I CAN’T WAIT!!

 

So, despite some setbacks in Mike’s plan, my plan is coming together nicely.  Aside from the fact that our power is weird and the boat can’t move (minor details), things are going great.  We know that the best way to learn about the boat and the systems is to dig right in, so we’re looking at these waves as learning experiences.  I’m thankful that we’re still in our home and in familiar territory as we figure this all out.  I’m sure a large part of our year will be spent troubleshooting issues, so we better get used to it.

By the way, if you happen to be a marine electrician or Cummins engine expert, please get in touch ASAP!

 

Home sweet home!! We made it!!

Home sweet home!! We made it!!

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Don’t worry…we’re smiling here, so there must be a happy ending to this story….  But first–

 

We woke up in Lion’s Head and were amazed that we could actually SEE!  There were houses on a hill and a playground and fish in the water and the sun was shining.  It was beautiful and refreshing after seeing nothing but fog the day before.  We checked the VISIBILITY and realized that fog would cover much of our day again, and so we had a little discussion about what to do….sit and wait?  for how long?  just go and cross our fingers?  hmmm….it looked like this fog was going to be a problem for several more days, so we decided that if we could make it through one day with fog, why not two?!  We finally got started north along the eastern shore of the Bruce Peninsula around 10am.  We were rewarded with a clear view for about half an hour –got to see the lion’s head!!  And just when we were thinking this wasn’t too bad, then came the fog.

There is a lion’s head here somewhere!
There are hopeful, happy smiles here somewhere!
There is more fog here somewhere!

Dense fog for about an hour+ made us remember the torture isolation fun of the day before.  Mike looked on the bright side when he said he would be happy to come back this way again later on this summer because really we didn’t get to see much of it, anyway.  True, true.  Just when we were getting to the tip of the peninsula, the skies cleared and we were treated to a very clear view all the way from Cabot Head to Tobemory.  What a welcome surprise!!

What a treat to see land this clearly.

 

As we turned west and headed toward Lake Huron, we crossed the wake of a giant sight seeing boat and took some waves over the bow.  That was exciting!!  and also showed us that our flybridge windows leak a bit….  I was definitely glad I could see where that giant wave came from–it wasn’t scary because I could see, but I really didn’t want to experience waves like that in the fog.  We cruised by some islands, played tag with another big pleasure cruiser (we really aren’t used to seeing boats or anything really at this point, so this provided some excitement), and then realized that we were headed into more fog.  I thought about calling it a day, but Mike decided he likes driving in fog.  No, really, he knew we needed to take advantage of the smooth waters and that we were safe as long as we kept our eyes glued on the radar screen.  We entered a thick blanket of fog just after clearing the narrow channels around Tobemory (good timing) and pretty much hung out in the clouds for the rest of a very… long… day.

 

 

 

 

About 5 hours later, the skies suddenly cleared!  We could see windmills used to generate power (Oh, Canada!) and shoreline and beautiful calm waters all around us.  It is amazing what being able to see can do for your soul after hours and hours of living in the clouds.  I was just getting done with my research about where we were going to stop for the night (planned on Grand Bend) when I decided to check a different weather app to see what the forecast was.  Hmmm…  interesting…  since I had been looking at VISIBILITY all day I failed to notice that there was a squall warning for our area and that squalls were coming across the lake.  WHAT!?  Not good!!

 

Calm Kelly planning and C reading…

 

Reason to panic and stop the calm planning…

 

Of course since we were on the water, my app wouldn’t load and I was starting to panic, so some quick texts to friends and family to check the forecast soon led us to throttle down and get outta there!  We did some quick calculations (like 20 times), comparing the radar forecast with our expected area of travel and saw that we should be able to stay just about half an hour ahead of the storms if we kept her at top speed for a while.  This is good for me.  I like this plan.  I do not like storms on the water on my new boat in Lake Huron–no way.  Mike goes along with this plan and floors it.  He puts up with my anxious pacing and constant checking of the radar vs our progress on the water.  Soon, though, he realizes that we are burning fuel at a much faster rate than anticipated on this marathon day since we are unexpectedly going at top speed.  Being one to think things all the way through (thank goodness), he did some calculations (again–like 20 times) and decided that he didn’t think we would have much extra fuel to get us to our planned stop for the night.  He proposed that we stop– immediately.  And so we did.

This is what storms look like out the window of the sundeck…

 

A  really long day…

 

We made it 140+ nautical miles in about 10 hours, mostly through blinding fog, partly running from a thunderstorm, and docked her in a semi-panic thinking we were about to run out of diesel.  And there were rain drops…not many…and the sun was shining, but the storm just had to let us know it was right on our tail as we pulled in to Bayfield, Canada.  But the strangest thing happened as we CALMLY docked the boat and all got along VERY NICELY while doing it–the skies cleared and we were treated to the most beautiful sunset.  After that long day in eerie isolation, that gorgeous sunset was an amazing view!

 

Bayfield was a welcome calm, safe harbor after a long day of adventuring.  Unfortunately, all of the pizza places were closed, so we were forced to eat boat food and drink our last two beers before heading right to bed.

Monday we woke up to a clear, sunny day with fish jumping behind the boat, geese honking everywhere (not Candadian Geese when you’re in Canada, FYI–just “geese,” we’re told), and sailboats being put in the water for the season.  We took the courtesy car to get breakfast and decided that if we could make it through the two previous days, we could do anything.  So we went back to the marina, spent $923598750982 on diesel, and headed out for the final leg of our journey.  And you guessed it–the forecast called for FOG!!

Grey is GOOD. Colors are BAD.  We had to go fro the blue dot at 2:00 to Sarnia at 7:00….very colorful trip…

 

Couldn’t scare us, though!!  We are pros at fog (as long as there are calm waters to go with it– and we’re almost home!!).  So we played war and practiced tying knots.  We saw a weird boat and some strange floating things.  We were amazed at how flat the water was…maybe even glassy!  I’ll take it!

I didn’t think Lake Huron EVER looked like this!!  So flat!

 

After a while, the fog burned off and we could see!  We could see a freighter!  Again–I’m glad it was clear enough to see it with my own eyes, and it gave us a little more confidence in our radar to see what it looked like there, too.

Freighter way out there–5 miles away

 

Freighter on radar

 

Before long we could see the Blue Water Bridge in the distance and it felt like we were home.  Of course, we had quite a way to go still, but we were back in familiar territory.  A very welcome sight!  But being close to Michigan (and out of the fog) brought new challenges–1) it was HOT!  2) it was BUSY!  3)we had to clear CUSTOMS!

Blue Water Bridge

 

Passing our first freighter on the St Clair River

 

Passed by Deckers–a favorite spot along the North Channel

 

My childhood cottage–a favorite spot for me

 

The customs part was really no big deal except that they called Mike right at a really busy spot on the river and he just got up and walked away from the wheel.  I was like, “What?!  I’m driving now?!”  I drove plenty through the 3 day trip home, but this was one of the busiest spots in Lake St Clair AND I had to go from cruising speed to no wake…all by myself…  It was a little hairy, but I probably got an A-.  All that driving and not waking and not getting in the way of other boats really hindered my picture taking skills, but I did the best I could.

After Mike got off the phone, he got to deal with the rest of the drive through Memorial Day traffic on Lake St Clair in 90* heat.  It was busy.  It was choppy.  It was hot.  It was NOTHING like the whole rest of our trip.  It actually felt like the dangerous part, with all these boats coming from every which way, instead of being alone way out there and blinded by fog.  But it is HOME and that felt good and familiar, too.  Our plans are taking shape and this was a big trip down the river for us to complete the trip home and get the boat parked in her new spot.

 

Just a little bit of traffic on the river…

 

Welcome to Boat Town, USA!

 

We got her parked (again–very CALMLY with all that traffic and current and customs officers waiting for us on the dock).  We got cleared in.  We got all sweaty tying her up in her slip and realizing the power to our slip wasn’t turned on ( so no AC).  We got to eat pizza.  We were glad to be home, but anxious for the next adventure.  We are so excited for every step of this journey and so thankful for your outpouring of support and love!!  Thank you for reading all of this (if you made it this far!!)  We can’t wait to fill you in on the next adventure!!  INNTW!!

Sunset on the river on the first night back in Michigan.