Weekend Recap and Sunset Cruise
Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock! That is how we awoke this morning at the marina around 8am. I hurried out of the V-berth while becoming decent and hurried to the companionway to see who was trying to get our attention.
Nothing. Not a person. I didn’t see any duck (they can sometimes take a liking to eating their breakfast off our steel haul creating a pecking sound). Huh. I turned and asked Captain if he heard it as well to make sure I hadn’t just imagined it. He did. That one remains a mystery.
Up and at ‘em I guess. Captain pulled out his longboard and headed to the gas station to get a tire repair kit. I started to strip Ciara of any laundry and start packing the car. I managed to defrost the freezer while I did the dishes. Our new refrigeration has been one of our top 3 upgrades ever. We really haven’t needed to run our ice machine this entire time because we can make better ice cubes in the freezer. We have cold water we can make in the fridge. It makes drinking water so much better. Our battery upgrades and management seem to suggest that we could go at least one and a half weeks at anchor with NO sun before we would need to turn on a generator and as long as we get normal sunny/rain day ratios we could probably stay out another week or so. Alas, our holding tanks are our limiting factor. We don’t have a water maker and we can’t dump black water in the Great Lakes so we end up charging our batteries at the dock nearly every 1.5-2 weeks regardless. Still not bad, it means we are living on 1 gallon/person/day. Think about that….
Anyhow we were on the road with a patched tire (nice beautiful screw, easy fix) around 11 and home by early afternoon. HOT shower, laundry, and all the things. Captain did give me a lesson in displacement with a lesson for how we were going to fix Carl. We left Carl floating in the sink while we made dinner. Cory had friends over and we grilled out. It was fun to see the kids’ reactions to “How long has there been a duck in your sink??!”
Saturday Captain went to work on the broken winch handle while I caught up on all things 1st mate at home. We had some amazing concerts to go see mid-day as Bert finished music camp. He played two improvised solos in his jazz band (on bassoon!) and had a lovely band concert as well. By mid afternoon we had both gotten our major projects done. Captain had successfully drilled out the old bronze pin and replaced it with a stainless steel one with lock tight and a new bolt. I was able to go buy some nylon cord and make a makeshift monkey fist around a not so round rock that we had found. Carl now has a counter weight and block. I have been MacGyvering the heck out of him to make him heavy duty and safe. We even had to run to Farm and Fleet so I picked up a collar for him that will attach directly to the block should he break free again.
My kids joined us for dinner with my parents while we were in town. It was a very good dinner out.
Sunday, we took Cory to camp right back where we were the day before. And not long after they were settled in we were home loading the car and headed back north to Ciara.
We have a “short” week to sail before we have to head home to get Cory. The weather had been forecasted to be horrible. Like thunderstorms, high winds all week horrible. I really feared we would be stuck in Cedar River with our guests for the week but as I checked the weather while driving up north, I saw that a very nice window had opened to sail tonight and let us get to Peninsula State Park for a few days and get back safely! Captain was a little bummed as he was hoping to go to the Halfway for open mic night. I think I have found maybe the one thing that will keep Captain from sailing…open mics/karaoke! Ha! We opted to go sailing.
We arrived at Ciara around 4:30 and our guests for the week, Captain’s nephew Collin and his girlfriend Sarah arrived by 5:30. We left the dock at 6pm.
We really didn’t think we would have much wind. Maybe a short bit before the winds died for the night or became right on the nose but we decided to at least try sailing right away. We were pleasantly surprised to have perfect wind all across the bay. Maybe a little slow but we got to enjoy a s full sunset cruise, coming around horseshoe island with the last light of the day to bring down the sails and anchor under a full moon. We were greeted at the anchorage with three other sailboats! Two of them were catamarans, a rather rare sight. Both of whom…we know. That was our first sunset sail of the year and it was a special treat for our new sailors as well.
I did play taps late once we were secure at anchor and we settled into the evening over some drinks finally calling it a night around 1am.
