Costal Cruising and a Deck Monkey

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I was down at the marina the other day and a guy I know comes over and says when was the last time you had to put $365 in you sail boat.  I figured he had just put some cash down on an engine repair.  I was racking my brain $365  ???   He stopped my train of thought as I must have been drifting off. Then he told me that is what he spent at the gas dock this morning.  I laughed, we use a gallon a gas per season, maybe a gallon.  We got to talking and we realized we had not been out on Lake Michigan since the first season we owned her.

 So we set up this weekend to head out. Lake Michigan is about 40 minutes from our dock.  This is the number one reason we sail in Lake Kalamazoo. The cannal is easy to navigate and we only had to slow down slightly for the chain ferry that crosses the river. We made it out to to a flat and smooth lake.  Here is a photo of another Cape Dory that slid out of the harbor just ahead of us.


We rigged for light wind and set off.  The plan was to go to the beach and swim ashore.  A few toe dips in the chilly lake and we decided to just sail. 





Myles had lunch on the fore deck.  Until he realized we had all the potato chips.  He came back and joined us in the cockpit for a few minutes.



Then our little deck monkey went back and played some more. Here he is about to drop the spinnaker on us. Can you say freeze.



Outward bound we sailed with the main sail and spinnaker.  On the way back the main was just in the way with the light winds we dropped it and glided in nicely.



As we headed back up the channel a nice ketch came out to see us.  He decided there was not enough wind and came right back in.  












Comments

  1. Bill le SkeepJuly 13, 2015 at 8:55 AM

    Oh wow, that is well worth the time to putz out to Lake Michigan! You certainly have to watch the weather on that body of water!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bill le SkeepJuly 13, 2015 at 8:56 AM

    PS: Expert sail flaking of the main!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chris July 14, 2015 at 4:48 PM

    For sure worth the trip just wish the water was a bit warmer. We are having a chilly wet summer here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bill le SkeepJuly 17, 2015 at 6:35 AM

    Hmmm, and in South Carolina, the temps have been touching the 100s with slack wind on the lake. I managed to get some GoPro video of sailing this week which I'm going to toss on the site. Rather than attaching the little jigger, I held it in one hand while sailing thus providing some angles that are never apparent to viewers. BaggyWrinkles is heeled over in gusts of 10kts having fun. Entertaining videos without much more value than that!

    ReplyDelete

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