Day 58 - A crossing, a rescue and a mistake
We had another big sail today. It was really nice to spend a day at Beaver Island in between big pulls. I’m still missing the North Channel where our next safe anchorages was only a few beautiful hours away. Today, Captain and I completed our 17th crossing of Lake Michigan! I guess it isn’t as big of a deal as it used to be, but we still find ourselves nervous to what the seas will bring over the 11 hour journey. I talked with me dad early in the morning before we left as I had a text when I woke up that mom went the hospital overnight with high blood pressure. Never something I want to wake up to, but there was nothing I could do but stay informed. At that point we didn’t know much but it wasn’t life threating and the only thing I could do was continue to head home as planned.
We were on our way shortly after 7am after we walked Kona and emptied our diesel Gerry jugs into the main tank to make sure we had enough to get home. It was an overcast and cool morning and Captain and I really enjoyed motoring away from Beaver Island for the fourth time this year.
While underway the kids made breakfast and Cory and I also went through our stock list to start making a list of what needs to go home, what needs cleaning and what needs re-stocking. The kids are anxious (!) to do chores as they know we aren’t driving home until Ciara is in ship shape. I like this crossing because we hardly ever lose sight of the upper peninsula of Michigan and only in SOS for short periods of time. We listened to music, chatted and I am almost done with my book.
At some point, with no land in sight I noticed Captain all the sudden really focusing on the horizon and I got up to see what he was looking at. Off in the distance there was something in the water. We couldn’t quite make out what it was with the looking glass so we decided to go investigate. I called up Cory to help me with the boat hook as we may have to collect whatever it was out of the water. Both Captain and myself had the thought “I hope this isn’t a body” as the size and oddness from the looking glass was about that size. Thankfully it was only a set of deflated mylar ballons. Cory was able to snag them out of the water on the first go and then proudly took pictures of them like he caught a fish before he deflated them and threw them in our trash. I think that is the second set of balloons we have picked out of the water this year.
Captain got one hour of really good sailing in and we enjoyed the quietness as we sailed along at 6 knots again. So perfect, so short lived!
As we came around the Garden peninsula we all came out to sit on the deck. The shade from the main sail was also very welcoming as the cool morning had given way to a hot unforgiving afternoon. Captain sailed us within 200 feet of shore so we could marvel at the escarpment and the caves that time had eroded away. I got little butterflies in my tummy as we approached Fayette remembering the last time we came here and the heroic efforts of our crew to safely drop the sails and come in under much worse conditions.
Coming into Fayette we saw that most of the dock was full (we had reservations, no worries) of sailboats! Just one powerboat. We had Bert on the bow to toss bow lines and I could see he was practicing his toss and taking his job very seriously. I readied the mid-ship line to snag the cleat as always. My job is most critical. If I grab the cleat we will for sure successfully dock and while I have never missed, it always makes me nervous. Sure enough, Captain glided Ciara in perfectly and I had no issue grabbing the cleat with the boathook and line but I made a major error. I had fed the line over our life lines rather then through the opened gate. When captain did his maneuver to slow the boat and pull her into the dock the link bared down on the life lines with great force and nearly ripped out the station from the deck. Thankfully Captain released the tension as fast as he could but not before the damage was done. I bent the life line. Captain is afraid of bending it back as it may as well snap and then be completely broken for the entire port side. I made this mistake earlier this season here in Fayette as well but we caught it before I did damage. Needless to say I won’t be making the mistake again. I felt so bad. I was in the dog house. It isn’t a costly repair, just another repair to add to the list. Captain was rightfully upset but mostly he was upset that we didn’t look like a fine polished crew and was embarrassed just as much as I was. We remarked how little we have come into marinas this year and it showed!
We have a tradition that as soon as we are secure at anchor or at a marina I go down below and get an ice cold beer and bring it up to Captain. I open it, give him a kiss and say “Thank you for safe passage.” I made my peace offering and apologized profusely. All was forgiven, even if our egos were a little bent, like the life line.
Cory really wanted my cheese potato soup so we opted to move Taco Tuesday to Wednesday and they got making dinner while we went and chatted with the many sailors here at the park.
The wind picked up right after we docked and we were thankful we beat it as well as the cool air it brought with it.
My brother was able to get in contact with the nurse station and get an update for my dad and the rest of the family. Mom is very stable and responding well to the blook pressure meds but they are unsure what is causing it and how she will respond when they take her off. So she is resting as comfortably as she can and hopefully we will know more soon and she will be home about the same time we roll in in a few days.
Grateful for that news I played Last Post and Taps much to the delight of all the sailors.
The kids are itching to explore Fayette tomorrow and that promise of ice cream. I hope we play ghosts in the graveyard tomorrow night and enjoy what is officially our last day with them before our last leg home to our marina.
