My vacation adventures

I left Clemson on Wednesday at 5:40 am and drove ~11.5 hours to my grandmothers house in Port Huron. I arrived just in time to grab dinner at Duffy's in Lakeport with Grandma. We got fish and chips and then headed home to swim in the lake before the sun went down. My uncle Jim and aunt Diane showed up to swim with me. While the temperature outside was a little balmy and hot, Lake Huron was a little chilly, but felt great all the same. We spent a good 30 minutes in the water and then went in search of sea glass on the shore line. We found some great pieces, mostly white but also found a small cobalt colored piece, some green, a few brown, and a pale purple piece. We got back up to the house and added our finds to the glass display jar. Then we sat around watched the Tigers play, chatted and caught up.

The next morning I needed to go get some things from the grocery store and another battery charger for my camera as I always seem to lose them. I took Grandma along and we had a good time. When we got back I repacked my bags and was on the road by 11 am, headed to Kalkaska to drop one bag off and pick up my mom to go to the boat. Once I got home mom and I scrambled to get the bags packed and shot over to the boat. Dad motored over to the dock we loaded up and hit the bay... it was finally time to sail!

Initially the plan was to head up to Northport, MI and then on friday morning make the rest of the trip over to Charlevoix for the Red Fox Regatta, but instead gale force winds were predicted for friday so instead we just shot up the lake. We left at 4:30pm and arrived in port in Charlevoix at 11:30pm. We attempted to sail at first, but the winds were not cooperating and we motored to try and beat the incoming cold front. Here are just a few of the highlights:

- pouring down rain to start

- some wind to begin

- no wind to speak of.... sails had to come down and motor started

- removing the dingy motor to the boat while motoring

- no GPS except mine from my car (see facebook uploaded pics), Foster was not happy that we would not drive to the highlighted route

- the star gazer app from the smart phone in order to find our headings

- throwing the nautical charts in the dingy because they were rotten and smelly (not fun to sail without charts and a GPS)

- getting into port just as the skies opened up and the rain poured down soaking up through to the bone

That is only the beginning of the adventure, I will try and update more on Friday-Sunday in the morning. We are on Beaver Island and heading to the Shamrock for dinner. More gale force winds in the forecast, so we will just have to see what they bring... over and out.