Day 10 - Mayflies and Weed Balls
This morning, I was awakened before light by a sound I didn’t know. Captain had gotten up in the middle of the night to refill his water and the sound was the sound of an empty water tank. One week since we filled it, we are out. No worries. We have an additional ten gallons aboard in jury jugs, and Beaver Island is only ten miles away.
When I did get up later that morning, I let Captain sleep in while I had my “me time”. Our small cabin windows were blackened out by mayflies, large and small. We had to take Kona to shore and the ick factor was way up. I donned a leftover N95 mask left on board from COVID days so that I could breathe without inhaling these things and went up deck to clear a way to the dinghy. In the lee parts of the boat there were piles over an inch thick of dead mayflies. The entire deck and boom were covered black. I spent about ½ hour hauling buckets of water on deck amongst the swarming flies around my head. We got Kona to shore but we just stood there while she did her business. We looked at the snakes in the water and listened to the swarms of mayflies on shore and decided we would make the run to Beaver Island. The weather was good, we could have spent another few days at High Island or make a run to Garden Island, but Beaver is a favorite spot of ours, so we weren’t upset.
After we weighed anchor, we were on our way. A very calm morning again and the May flies came along for the ride. Poor captain had tried a N95 mask, a face net and a fan but he was just swarmed the whole time. I came out of hiding once we had some speed and just took a broom to all the bugs and now that we had speed they got caught by the wind and left behind. By the time we rounded up into St. James Harbor on the north end of Beaver Island the Mayflies had lessened considerably.
We hailed the marina for a pump out and water. Turns out they aren’t officially even open yet! There are maybe 2 boats in the two marinas here. They didn’t mind anyhow and told us we could pull right up and “take care of business” ourselves. No issues docking on such a calm day, but Captain and I chastised ourselves pretty good at our sloppy seamanship. We forgot to put out fenders, lines not properly ready, and so on. Not in the routine of all of it, even after a week.
After the pump out was done, I filled our water tanks and took advantage of the free dock time and water hose and gave the deck a really good wash down. The staff came out to watch and talk. While I was in the middle of washing the deck, I hear from the dock “hey, what model boat is this?” Matt (We are working on names!) had seen Ciara from the one road in town and stopped right away. He and his father have a Tartan 4300 down in Chicago and his family has spent many years up here. They love Alden boats, and we gave him and his dad (after he called him and told him to come to the docks) a tour.
After we were all set, we pulled away and went further into the anchorages to drop the hook. The first drop didn’t take, and we could feel the anchor slipping. So, I had to haul all 150 feet back up. I make it about 130 feet….to where we had to actually pull the anchor off the floor. I couldn’t budge it. Captain came up and the two of us couldn’t lift it. We were just about to hook the main halyard up for assist. Eventually, without assist, one chain link pull at a time, we got the anchor to the water level to revel a weed ball more than two feet in diameter! I was put in the dingy to go pull that off, one muddy, smelly, and weedy handful at a time. Yuck!
The next time we dropped the anchor we looked for light spot on the sea floor that would indicate sand and not a forest of weeds. The second time she grabbed and now we are holding very well for a few days.
Finally settled into the day I asked Captain if he would like those Bloody Mary’s with bacon and all the fixings for breakfast and he said yes. But it was 2pm!!!! How on earth did the day get away so fast??? Oh well, we are on boat time, so Bloodys it was! I have 3-4 bars service while here so I took the time to upload photos. Captain has a bad habit of not sending me his photos in a timely manner. I have a mental note to get some from him as he has some that I don’t. Like a picture of that weed ball….
We read a little and Captain finished his book. I think we are going to book club it this summer and exchange our current reads, so I need to finish mine up soon. I am close.
Around 6pm I felt maybe I should break from reading, and we should take Kona girl to shore. We could come back and make a late dinner of Caper Chicken which we had decided earlier.
Coming to shore there was one boat in the marina that had some folks enjoying their back deck. They hollered over to us “don’t come here without bringing that beautiful dog over first.” So of course, we went and said hi. Greg and Laura on their honeymoon! We secured the dinghy, and they welcomed us aboard for a few drinks. I don’t know what I had but it was from a Michigan brewery. It was a Gin and Tonic mixer like thing in a can, so I was in heaven. Really neat couple. They have dreams of visiting Door County next year and for sure getting to the North Channel. We spun yarn with them for a few hours, and before we knew it was now 8:30! Holy moly! Slow down!
They needed to get to some dinner onshore, and we needed to walk Kona, so we said our goodbyes and headed to the lighthouse with Kona. Things are very quiet yet here on Beaver, but we waved to every car and said hi to everyone. The lighthouse has a new fake anchor monument by it now and someone/some group had placed a lot of painted rocks to be found, recorded found on Facebook and replaced. I picked the cute “Sometimes I’m a little crab” rock and a cute sheep rock to bring back to our new honeymooners to relocate.
We walked back to Ciara, meeting Denise along the way, who is the owner of the grocery store in town. Her family name is all over, so we knew right away this was a true local.
I played Taps late when we got to the boat. No one knows it is late but us, so it isn’t a big deal. This was the first time I was heard though. Perfectly calm night and a beautiful echo. Applause and cheers from shore confirmed it didn’t go unnoticed.
Captain went down to make dinner and found that we never pulled the frozen chicken (one of the few non-freeze-dried meats we have). I suggested Shepards pie! We had taken left over leg of lamb, ground it and freeze dried that! We grabbed a package of store-bought freeze-dried mashed potatoes, shredded some cheese, and had an amazing meal! Way too much food though, so we have leftovers! First time having that meal aboard. We are very happy with the freeze drying.
By the time dinner was over, and dishes done it was nearly midnight. Days are moving super-fast. There is so much to do here and so much we want to do just enjoying anchor life. We are really trying out the live aboard lifestyle. The goal isn’t so much to make distance, the goal is to enjoy life on the water. I believe we are succeeding.
