Unexpected fun in Northport
Today is day 6 of moving the boat every day. We only had a 6-hour run and the weather looked good all day so I let everyone sleep in a bit. When I got them up around 8:30 we headed to shore for that special shore treat…. coffee! There was a lady outside her store taking photos of stuffed dogs for the towns upcoming “Dog days” and she asked if Kona wanted to pose for her. Kona did a lovely job. I went and followed the Facebook page and we will see if Kona makes an appearance in her advertisement. We walked back to the water and Captain got me to play a little piano that is in the tunnel under the road. This poor piano is missing keys and half don’t work so you can only imagine how great Clementi sounded with every other note missing. We walked over to Christy J on the dock. We brought him some stickers and the intention of asking their names again so we could write them down. Doug and Sandra. Now I have that forever. I didn’t feel bad, he needed to actually be reminded of ours as well. Phew. We sat with him for a while on the pier and he showed us his awesome speakers and played some music for us while we chatted. We eventually headed back to Ciara about a quarter after 10am and set on our way.
We had pretty calm seas, but not the glass of yesterday. We had considerably more boat traffic and there for wakes to toss us around. Still no sailing. We passed Charlevoix and the huge cement mine on the shore and preceded down to Grand Traverse Bay. I finished “Honey, Let’s get a boat” and I have to admit I didn’t like it much at all even though it is highly recommended. I felt it did nothing to make me want to do the Great Loop (the Women Board book that Roy gave me last year did a much better job) and that the author was chauvinistic, pessimistic, outdated and probably someone I would rather not spend time with. Oh well. I asked the internet for help on my next book. I think I will try All the Light we cannot see.
I had been looking at alternative/new anchorages for us in the past few days. There was an anchorage marked just around the corner of Northport. From the satellite it appeared to have a dead-end road and a nice beach which usually indicates shore access and we thought we would check it out. If it was good, it would save us half an hour coming and going. We pulled in and decided to drop anchor. The water was so clear and Caribbean blue. There were a few moored sailboats and people at the beach with a lifeguard. While we waited for our anchor to settle a fellow came out to his sailboat on a mooring ball. I had a bad feeling this area was all private and we may get yelled at if we went to the beach so we dinghied over to the man on the sailboat first. We greeted him nicely and asked and his response was “It is all private, we pay a lot for that privilege and no, you can’t come to shore (unless you know someone).” In all legalities, he is wrong. We have every right to go to shore up to the high-water line and just a little beyond, no matter how private. And honestly, at what point do you become so snooty where you don’t say “I know you now, you can take your dingy to shore and tell them you know Bob (or whatever his name is), just be respectful, get on the road and pick up after your dog?” Urk. I was more peeved than I should have been but we headed back to Ciara rather than defy the neighborhood. We pulled anchor and went around the corner to Northport. Poor Kona didn’t understand why we loaded HER boat to take HER to shore and didn’t follow through. Cory made dinner in the half hour it took us to get to our new anchorage. It was getting towards 6pm and I knew, from experience, that once we took Kona to shore in town it would be a while before we made it back to Ciara, so we needed to eat before Kona’s shore leave.
We dropped anchor and ate dinner. Captain received a text from our friend Marty who we know from the Menominee marina. Their kids actually saw our boat come in from the marina here and called out to dad “Hey Dad! Your friend Richard is here!” I guess we have friends wherever we go now, which is great! We went to shore and Kona wasted no time doing her business and we headed over to see Marty and the family. Others were walking the pier and we had a lovely social hour talking to many folks, all who had seen our boat come in and were talking about it. Then off in the distance I saw a large three masted sailboat coming in!! Holy moly that boat is huge (100 feet)! They dropped anchor behind us and they started shuttling groups of people to shore. I was chatting with a local and she said they sell a t-shirt in town with the code regulation about walking on shore. Sad we won’t be here for business hours as I would very much buy that shirt and gladly wear it while I land and walk my dog in accordance to the law. I’m not kidding but all the homes on the coast around here are well over million-dollar homes. 1 million being the poor people.
Cory and I wanted to go on an Ice Cream quest so we said our good-byes to everyone on the pier and walked up the street to the ice cream place where we found the “hordes” of folks from Alliance, the large sailboat. Of course, I started chatting with them. They are based in Sutton’s Bay, right around the corner from here. Not quite the teaching ship like Playfair but a commercial ship that takes short and longer trips. They were coming back from a five-night adventure and had mostly youth aboard. We enjoyed our ice cream.
We played at the park a little before we headed back for the night. The trees here have branches that extend horizontally and make for great climbing and fun. We have pictures of our kids here from many years ago.
We did a hot lap of Alliance on our dinghy on the way back to Ciara to take some pictures. The captain came out and invited us on board! How could we turn that down? We climbed a rope later onto the ship and felt that we were getting used to boarding large ships as this was now the second time this summer. The ship was built in 1994 and is in immaculate condition. We were so very impressed. The galley made Cory drool. They gave us a catalog and hinted to Cory they had internship programs available. I am starting to understand that Cory is honestly loving the sailing life and highly considering more sea time especially as the cook. The captain was impressed to hear that Cory was going to spend time on Playfair next year, he is aware of the program.
Back at Ciara I had all the dishes to do and we cleaned up the boat and got ready for tomorrow. One more long pull. About 9.5 hours. We should actually have wind and it should be downwind. I’m a little nervous as I have grown fond of our motor days and the big water is never something I take lightly. The winds should be growing as the day goes on and it should be a comfortable ride with following seas, however I will be so happy to set anchor and enjoy many days walking the beaches and taking Cory on scooter/skateboard adventures. We are getting up at dawn to get going, so we went to bed before 11.
