Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Some people were surprised that I sold our Typhoon. Truth is, the Typhoon is a great boat but it was time to move on.  We simply want to be able to make some slightly longer passages have a bit more room for overnight camping and the Typhoon just was too small to do those things with.  For some time, I have been looking over the horizon and creating a list of cool boats.  Here it is.  Note: you will not find a boat over 25 feet on my list.  The annual dock costs double for any boat here over 25 ft.  So, while there are a lot of great boats over 25 ft long, financial costs have to be considered. The Classics:   Albergs, and Hershoff's Herrshoff Eagle  22  is one of my favorite boats.  A great classic look, that topsail in just too cool.  The killers here are the cabin size is to small for our family weekending purposes and the desire to stay away from any mechanical swing keel boat as we plan on doing mo...

Waking up early to look at boats. Mackinaw City is four and a half hours from my house.    6 AM roll time. January heading up north for most means Snowmobiles or skiing. I feel a bit out of place wearing my deck shoes and getting ready to walk on a boat.  The marina storage has a giant windmill. Keel smile, that's not a good sign on this model boat. Boat out the water for several years and a bilge full of water and rusty keel bolts. I think we have found the cause of the keel smile. Sure the outboard can be pulled up, that's why you modified the rudder. Well with the soft deck and other issues this boat turned out being a bust.  At least lunch at Audie's was great. Also, fit in a trip to Big Mac before heading home.

This weekend we really started the hunt for a new boat.  Well I've been hunting a while but we took to the road to look at two boats. Neither ended up being the one but oh the cool treasures you find along the way....See photos below and sarcasm. Sea cocks you can remove by hand. I mean remove from the hull. Storage plans for not the boat you are on. A Loran, so we will never get lost. I think I can relaminate that tiller, Its probably fine. Climb under the shrink wrap the tiller is delaminated the decks probably fine right. Mythical Creatures Count the plugs, yeah that is the Atomic 2. Good luck finding parts for a tune up, hope nothing major goes. This compass works well with the Loran. More boats to look at soon.