Catching Up - A potpourri

The last few days have featured no cell phone signal or internet access.....Here's a few writings. More photos to follow.

Trivia Question
What state has the most lighthouses?

Hint: It borders 4 of the Great Lakes.

Weather Windows
The old axiom of never passing up a sailing breeze has proven itself true yet again! Laying up in Mackinaw City for rest and repairs while the breeze blue sweet from the NW, I am now holed up in Hammond Harbor, MI with no wind and rain.........So much for making mileage. This is putting me behind schedule!!!!

So GO you say. And in my heart I know I should. The diesel tank is full, the weather is settled. GO, DAMMIT!!

That said, Hammond Harbor is a beautiful spot in a North Woods kind of way. The harbormaster is a genial sort, a sailor and story teller. The fishermen are friendly. And they showers are among the cleanest and hottest anywhere.

There’s no cell phone signal or internet connectivity so nobody knows where I am. Does the world miss me? I’m afraid to know what the answer might be.

Time for another mug up! Whisper’s crew does enjoy good coffee!

Tanker Tag in the Straits of Mackinac
The straits of Mackinac are truly a crossroads of short sea shipping. Every ship passing from Superior to the western ports of Lake Michigan or the lake ports south and east passes through here. This is a place for small, underpowered sailboats to be very careful.

Motoring straight to weather between Mackinac and Round Islands, the main ship channel I found myself sandwiched between west and northbound bulk freighters. Check your angles, have an escape route, have an anchor at the ready.......STAY THE HELL OUT THEIR WAY!!!!

The Land O’ Fudge
Tourists in the Mackinaw region are known as “fudgies”. They must consume large quantities given the ubiquity of fudge shops both in the ‘city’ and on the island. Rumor has it that the Mackinaw City council is considering requiring a pound of fudge per person per vehicle as an exit tax, sort of their own, special stimulus package.

In talking to the harbormaster I learned that while Mac City boasts a year round population of 850, only about 400 stay the winter. This explains that the only grocery store is the size of a gas station with commensurate pricing. Any fresh produce residents eat is home grown. According to said harbormaster, at 6 p.m. on Labor Day you could shoot a cannon down the main street and not hit a thing.


Anchoring
I have always been a “nervous” anchorer, picking spots carefully, up during the night to check for dragging or changes in weather. I am nervous to such an extent that I invested in a heavy “spade” type anchor and 300 feet of chain as a back-up to my lightweight, aluminum Danforth type anchor. Even the light tackle has 30’ of chain (so much for lightweight) and a ¾” rode.

After a nervous night tail to the Mackinac Island breakwater and a nervous day anchored on a lee shore in a 30kt breeze I was ready for a good night’s sleep. Hammond Harbor, MI promised just such......a cozy nook behind two seawalls with a sand bottom and 10 ft. depth.

The weather forecast called for possible severe thunderstorms so I took extra care setting the lightweight gear, put out extra scope and settled in for a curry and rice. Besides, the heavy tackle was ready to go if I needed it.

Sleep soon overtook me and, although there was still daylight, I gratefully crawled into my bunk.

POW!!! With a knock of my forehead on the deck I came wide awake. Something was terribly wrong. The weather was still fine, but Whisper’s motion had brought me too all standing. As my head popper through the hatch my eyes beheld the State Pier not 20 feet away and closing fast. Whisper was dragging anchor!!!

So, in underwear, at the mercy of Upper Lower Michigan’s voracious mosquitoes I undertook to remedy the crisis. Upon hauling anchor I discovered the problem: when the wind direction changed from north to east Whisper had overriden her anchor and it had failed to reset. The highly scientific anchor test results had predicted just such a problem. Worse, the anchor’s flukes bore enough bottom weed to feed a herd of cattle, effectively preventing any change of resetting.

Out went the heavy spade with at least 7:1 scope + 20% of chain and a nylon snubber. After backing down on that hard for several minutes I was satisfied that Whisper was attached to terra firma.

Morning brought an ascerbic comment from the harbormaster: “Kind of an odd spot to anchor, don’t you think?” My reply was simply that I was grateful to be anchored at all.

Anchoring Part II: Near Disaster
That’s it: The Fortress anchor is getting stowed and the 45lb brute Manson Supreme takes over as primary anchor, although I will change it over to the nylon rode w/ chain. Here’s the story:

I’ve anchored in many places under many conditions and rarely had a problem. But to drag anchor two nights in a row? And under benign conditions? You’ve got to be kidding!

To be fair, both cases involved 180 degree wind shifts. The anchor would have flipped and should have reset. Weeds in the anchor flukes preventedthe anchor resetting allowing it to skip along the bottom.......That may be a characteristic of the Fortress design as pointed out in the Sail Magazine anchore tests. I have come to see this as downright dangerous.

With NW winds of 15kt in a clay sand bottom we dragged over 100 yards culminating in a ‘BUMP’ on a sand bottom. My inner radar set me to immediate action........geesh! Kedging off before coffee!

So with a favorable wind I am sitting dockside nursing my confidence, trying to repair a bruised ego and giving thanks for being able to get off a lee shore with no physical damage.

Insectivora
The Great Lakes are host to an incredible array of insects. Don’s taxonomy classifies them into three families: Annoying, Mightily Annoying and Messy.

In the Annoying Family is a type of swarming gnat that swarms. While not biting like Maine’s black flies, they do coat, cover, crawl and invade. They seem particularly drawn to Whisper’s yellow decks and taupe canvas.

Eating the Annoying insects are the Messy Family.......consisting of at least 600 species of spiders from minute to megascopic. You have to admire the industry of these critters. No sooner have you cleaned your boat of cobwebs filled with Annoying insects than the cobwebs have been rebuilt. If you conquer the decks, they move into the rigging. If you squish the spiders they leave permanent green stains on sails and canvas.

Among the Mightily Annoying are several species of biting flies The bite inflicted is not as flesh tearing as deer flies, but what they lack in ferocity they make up for in numbers and aggressiveness. Further, they show no respect for insecticides or repellants and are particularly fond of exposed legs in cockpits, making the helmsman do an athletic jig reminiscent of the old-time sailors’ hornpipes.

Seasoned Lake sailors accept these as part of the charm. although members of the Racine Yacht Club involved in SC Johnson’s entomology program have taken up the challenge to make Lake sailing more bearable.

A few photos

Whisper in Mackinaw City, a lay day for rest, repairs, resupply

Round Island Light, opposite Mackinac Island

The gourmet gally under

construction

And nearly done

On an old boat there is always so much work to do, and Whisper does show her age a bit.

But she's a tough old girl, a dowager of sorts.

Inner Ear Equilibrium

My great grandfather, the schooner captain, had a prescription for seasickness: hard tack biscuits and raspberry jam.......They taste the same coming up as they did going down.

I am peculiarly blessed of a cast iron stomach. Seasickness rarely visits me and usually only the result of too much alcohol and/or fried foods. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but I'm too tired to look for it.

My inner ear equilibrium, or the disequilibrium caused by bashing about in confused seas, does manifest itself in one peculiar way: the shower stall will just NOT hold still while I wash away the gaminess that accrues to a man abandoning personal hygiene in his descent into the cruising life.

Turning Corners

Anyone familiar with the Maine humorist Marshall Dodge and his "Bert and I" recordings will remember the lobstermen whose chart had blown overboard. Not knowing where they were the response was "Hurry up and get us onto the next page!" Such was the case as the Lake Michigan chart book gave way to the Lake Huron chart book.

Finding no room at the Mackinac Island dock Whisper spent a nervous night at anchor with her tail to a seawall. Winds building to 25 - 30 kt in the morning dictated a motor upwind to Mackinaw City where shower, groceries, laundry and a good night's sleep awaited.

Being an impecunious cruising sailor I object to paying dockage fees. But as Whisper's crew desperately needs a lay day to fix what's not working right, rest and recover, so be it.

Turning the corner has been as much a mental exercise as physical. What has been a pretty happy home for the past 3 years is now a lake and a landmass away.

So will somebody please explain to me why it's so damned hard to live with a decision once it's made?

Crossings & Space Encounters

It appears the decision to wait before crossing Lake Michigan was wise as Whisper's exit from Kewaunee was meet with 4 foot, slab sided seas but a diminishing wind backing from SE to SW. As the day and my head cleared we set sail on a starboard tack broad reach which carried us all day and all night, average speed 5.5 kts.

As the night wore on I alternately reefeed sails (reduced sail area) and shook out reefs. Safety harness was de rigeur for staying aboard. But the windvane steered flawlessly through it all, enabling a few catnaps. For hours on end, the only sign of human activity was a sighting of the International Space Station. (I presume it was the Space Station as it was large, rectangular, consisting of two brightly lit modules and travelling at enormous speed). With a nearly full moon as her only companion Whisper rolled through the night. All in, a spectacular night to sail.

Whipser passed through the Manitou Channel, between the Manitou Islands and the Michigan shore well before dawn, the only evidence of the islands being a solitary, constant white light emanating from an abandoned lighthouse on S. Manitou Island (if the chart is to be believed, as I almost always do).

Landfall was made exactly 24h post departure, a distance of 129 miles which isn't bad for a heavy, old boat.

I've had to remind myself several times that I'm not sailing a Star, that sail trim is for comfort and longevity of gear and the needs of the windvane for keeping proper course. It's a little like raising kids: You make a series of compromises between unobtainable optima trying to find the happy medium.

Today Whisper turns the corner to Mackinac and northern Lake Huron beyond.

I have solved the technical issues with posting photos but now lack the AC connection required for the camera's docking station. SOON I promise.

Coasting

For now the better part of valor has dictated daysails up the Wisconsin coast, the last stop being Kewaunee, a port town that has lost its reason for being. The crumbling waterfront has been given over to marinas catering to fishermen and restaurants whose version of seafood is fried. The quaint downtown features a mix of small business hanging on my the merest of threads and a few hopeful art galleries. Artists seem to find niches of existence in the midst of decay.

Lacking appropriate dockage, Whisper spent a night rolling in the outer harbor, the mouth open to a swell making in from the SE. Lightning, big winds and torrential rain made for a restless night. But the forecast is for a strong SW wind, 4 -6 ft seas subsiding late......The time has come to put Wisconsin in our wake. All of the good-byes, farewells, best wishes have been said. Sadness will give way to exhilartion when Whisper takes the bone in her teeth.

With Iron Mike (the windvane) steering I will happily scatter tools about the cabin as I tick off projects from the list, making Whisper ready for sea (or lake, as the case may be). Day by day the dust and detritus, mental and physical, of a landlocked existence give way to the cleansing breath of possibilities.

Chicken of the Sea

Day 2 was a glorious sail in 15 - 25 kt breezes........a great shakedown, destination Sheboygan to wait for a weather window across the lake. I am mildly disturbed by a forecast of 30 kt winds with waves building to 5 - 8 ft.

Let me explain: Lake Michigan waves are not these lovely big ocean waves. Instead of rolling nicely they rear up like walls of water, more of a square waveform. And this is a CRUISE after all, not a race. That said, I am also concerned about being in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence in September so time is of the essence.

Whisper is still shaking off the cobwebs and so is her skipper.......literally and figuratively.

So the journey continues up the west shore of Lake Michigan, in the lee of the land, until the weather moderates for the dash across. Call me chicken.......See if I care!