Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Tower Marine pulled Kraken for me mid-September this year and it has been raining ever since.  Sunday after it stopped raining I got down and pulled all the sails and cushions for the winter.   I have to get down and do a little more cleaning and pull the motor this weekend.  I'm hoping to get the cabin squeaky clean so when spring rolls around I'm ready for a early launch again this year.  This year I'm planning on leaving the mast up and tarping off over the boom and spinnaker pole hopefully giving my self a bit more pitch so the snow slides off as they are predicting a rough winter for us. It all fits in the back of a Ford focus. Sun setting on the end of a great season. Drying stuff out in the garage. A quick end of season cleaning before stashing the cushions under the guest bead for the winter helps.  It is amazing the condition of these cushions after 38 years they still look new with a little Armor All.

Finally some wind to sail with! We got out and clipped right along. These are truly the conditions the Typhoon thrives in.  The new Genoa may have had us over canvases at times but it was a lot of fun.  You can hear Myles in one of the videos asking if we are going to flip over.   As you watch the video you will notice the tree cover and shore line structures blocks and create wind patterns and it was quite gusty across the lake making the sailing more challenging at times.  Over all we sailed for about an hour and a half.  Not bad considering the constant changing conditions across Lake Kalamazoo.  I am hoping to get out to Lake Michigan again this weekend but when these videos were made the lake big lake was churning up 4-6 footers. 

Venetian Festival festival is a big fundraiser for local charities put on by the Cow Hill Yacht Club .  It starts out Friday evening with a kid's tent down town.  (Later the tent becomes a beer tent.) BB took Myles to that while I messed around in my garage. (see side note at bottom) Saturday was rather gloomy all day and we had friends over.  Then cleared up in the evening just in time for the boat parade.  We had planned to watch the parade from the marina with our friends but they ended up heading home early. All that swimming I think tired them out.  So we headed out for a little motor ride and anchored in the moring area with the other boats.  This was a super choice the boat parade circuled us.  The theme this year was Vikings and the boat decorating competion was fierce. A crowded anchorage area. At the start of the parade our local fire boat spraying fountains of water. Soon the Vkings arive. Morgan Out Island with glowing dragon head.  This thin

Kiddo manning the helm after a sail.

This year we visited Bay City Michigan for the Tall ship gathereing.  It was not truly intentional we just happened to be in the area camping and saw all the billboards along the highway.  So we figured, what an opportunity!   We started the morning by heading to the beach at Saginaw Bay State Park where we were camping.  From here you can see the ships under sail in the bay.  They were pretty far out in the distance and only one had its sails up. (See previous post regarding lake wind conditions).  After lunch at the camp site, we headed into Bay City for the grand show.   The ships were suppose to come in between 1-4pm The Denis Sullivan was the first to arrive just before 2:00.  We watched from the break wall as the crew masterfully brought the ship past us and along side the wall.  This is one crew that has communication down to a science.  Behind the Denis Sullivan came another blue hulled ship and docked on the other side of the river.  The event organizers

This summer is shaping up to be be a bit of a bust.  Day after day we have been plagued by a lack of wind.  Forth of July was no exception.  As a matter of fact it was one of the calmest days I've ever seen.  We headed out to Lake Michigan hopping to find a little breeze on the big lake.  Instead we found water so flat and calm if it weren't for the boat wakes we would have a huge mirror streatching all the way to Chicago.  After a few minutes with the main up we simple gave it up.  This is really the first time since owning the Typhoon we really couldn't make it move under sail.  Regardless, it was a good trip up the river and a nice work out for the motor.  Glad I cleaned the carborator as everything is running nicely now.

Out for a sail.  Lake Michigan was our first plan but it turns out the forecast had a small craft advisory with waves running at 5ft today. So we just stayed in Lake Kalamazoo.  We sailed back and forth in the lake dragging behind us a fishing line.  It was 2 in the afternoon high sun so we were not really expecting to catch anything especially as out bait skipped across the surface of the water but it kept the kiddo distracted.  After a while we anchored out for a snack. Then we rigged and pulled up the spinnaker.  When I went to pull it down the sock dousing line jammed so I had to release the halyard to get it down.  The spinnaker and its sheet lines ended up getting a bit wet. I brought it home to dry out and straighten out the lines in the bag.  It looks like I need to replace the bags lines as they are fraying and are likely the culprits for the jammed bag.  Boats, no matter the size, there is always the next project.  😀