Day 30 - Memories
It appears that the storms finally cleared the air for a while. Maybe sleeping with the hatches closed was insurance for no rain. It also meant that morning sun had me out of bed at 7am with the heat and bright light coming in. I enjoyed my morning logging time and Captain woke up just as I was finishing up. He suggested coffee on shore and we were about to make our escape with Kona when both kids woke. I mentioned we were headed to shore for coffee and they both got up really fast. I forgot they both like coffee more then me now.
We enjoyed our morning stroll. I ended up not having coffee as I was more in the mood for a bloody by then and with the kid’s ordering coffee, I figured I’d save an additional six dollars.
Back at Ciara, Cory got some breakfast burritos going for all of us. I put up our shade right away as the heat was already becoming too much. I glanced around the anchorage and saw boats were coming in for the day at a good pace and told Captain that as much as I wanted to take a hike, between the heat and all these boats dropping anchor nearby, we ought to stay on board for a while.
We hung our hammock chair, played ball with Kona, read books and people watched all day. Cory gave Captain and I matching henna manta ray tattoos. I jumped in the lake to cool off and remain the only crew that has done so this year. I counted well over 40 boats here at some point. It was a good choice to stay behind. A powerboat came up right next to us (30 feet?) and dropped his anchor with 2:1 scope (by the books, no less then 5:1 really, 7:1 ideally, and we usually go 10:1). Captain had to do his casual “I have 100 feet of rode out and if I swing I will hit you. Oh, and my hull is steel” line. They quickly moved to a different spot. Captain felt like an ass but I reminded him of anchorage right aways (which of course he knows).
I was restless. The heat and not doing much all day made me a little groggy. After leftover curry for dinner (Taco Tuesday will be moved to Wednesday) Captain and I went to shore. There is a catamaran sailboat here we have seen for many years but never really met so we stopped by there to say hi on our way. Nice couple. They store in winter in Sturgeon Bay but the reason we never really see them is they spend their summers in the North Channel! The only summer they didn’t go was last year which is why we never saw them last year. He asked for our boat card and we look forward to seeing them a lot this summer. Danny likes rum and Captain has an open invite for them to join us later this summer.
Somewhere in our conversation they remembered they had seen us before. Here at Nicolet, and for one of our not-so-great pirate stories. They were here with us on another busy day like today (Labor Day weekend). That weekend there was a particular large flotilla of large power boats that had set up near us. 5 boats all tied together enjoying a long day in the sun and over drinking. It was actually this day in our mind to why we stayed on the boat today. That day we had left with the kids to go on the same hike. We stopped along the way and took lots of photos from shore of Ciara because she is so pretty. We had documented the bay pretty well because of that little detail. When we arrived back at Ciara later that afternoon we stopped, yet again, to chat with another sailboat. While chatting we heard the familiar sound of anchors being weighed and saw that the flotilla was breaking up to head back to the marina for the night. However, one boat, and I will use their name, Wishing Well, had too much to drink and didn’t have a clue how to use his multimillion-dollar boat that had “joy stick controls for easy docking and extreme situations.” We watched in horror as he was anchored to our starboard side and he maneuvered himself around our stern to our portside, putting us very much on a collision course. We took our electric motor at full speed (not fast) back to Ciara all while yelling at them that they are going to hit our boat. At this point the entire drunk flotilla starts to heckle us and tell us he knows what he is doing and to leave them alone. We watched in horror as he slammed into our bow taking down our life lines and toe rail. We scampered aboard. I started to film and got them yelling at us to turn on our engine (um, no) and heckling us for being upset. Eventually he got his anchor up and when he did, he took off!!!! This is where the story is good. Earlier that day we had chatted with the DNR officer. He knows us. He had come by to check the boats earlier in the day. He had seen the setup of all the boats. All the other boats in the anchorage saw the fiasco and came up to us and said they would be willing to make a statement. The kids learned that day why we make friends out here. The DNR showed up a little later and by that time there was only one boat remaining from the flotilla. We didn’t know the offenders boat name as it was covered by his jet ski. DNR went over to get information from Wishing Wells buddy but he refused(!) to comply. No worries. DNR said “I have all day, and while I’m at it, I’ll board your boat and inspect it.” That was enough and he quickly put his friend under the bus. Many aggressive phone calls later Wishing Well connected us to their insurance and in 5 minutes we had a check in the mail. Our documentation from the day was 15 pages long, there was no fight. However now, whenever Wishing Well shows up at an anchorage we are at, they deliberately drop near us and spend the entire day heckling us. They are truly horrid seamen. More money than sense. But when they find themselves on a rock, in a storm, drunk out of their minds, we will still come save their asses.
Once the sun went down it was very comfortable. The kids spent the late evening hanging out at the bow and chatting. Captain and I hung out in the cockpit. Just happy to be out of the heat for the day. The last two nights now I have played Last Post and then Taps as my chops are ready for it and I am ready to get to Canada. Captain and I went for one last land walk with Kona in the dark and enjoyed star gazing until around midnight. It was a quiet day. I’m happy to share some of our older stories when we are reminded of them ourselves!
