Sail Far Live Free

Need a ride on the Great Lakes? Check Out These Crew Opportunities

2012-01-26T10:07:00.004-05:00

Wind Dancer reaching to the horizon (Photo by D. Walters)

I was recently contacted by a reader requesting recommendations for crewing opportunities on the Great Lakes for the upcoming season. Since I'm sure she isn't the only one looking to catch a ride on OPB's (other people's boats) here in the Great Lakes, I thought I'd share my recommendations in this blog post.

My first recommendation for those with a hunger for adventure is to check the crew opportunities for the Chicago to Mackinac race. You've probably heard of the race. Maybe some of you have even sailed in a Mac race. But for those who haven't, I know first hand that there are plenty of opportunities for both crew and media (writer/photographer) ride alongs. Obviously your chances of scoring a crew position on one of the boats is greatly increased if you have race experience, but some captains/boats are willing to coach newbies and provide a thrilling learning experience. Remember, this is a 333 mile open water race from Chicago's Navy Pier to Mackinac Island and will take at least 24 hours (usually much longer) and include night sailing, potential storms, very competitive sailors and some of the big time yachts from well known ocean races like the Trans Pac. Perfect for adrenaline junkies!

Other opportunities for crewing include working for a charter cruise boat such as the schooner Wind Dancer out of Grand Haven or one of the Appledore Tall Ships out of Traverse City. Again, opportunities vary with experience and need, but working on one of these classic sailing vessels would make for a memorable summer and a terrific introduciton to Great Lakes sailing. If you're sailing as part of the crew, you'll likely have tasks including passenger safety, line handling, boat cleaning, and sailing. If you're not sure you want to commit to a full season as crew, pay your fees and enjoy a sunset sail as a passenger.

You might also consider helping out on a Great Lakes school ship such as those sailed by the Inland Seas Education Association. They currently own two ships, a 77-foot schooner and a 31-foot Friendship sloop, used to provide science experiences on the Great Lakes. In addition to a wide variety of shipboard experiences, they also offer public, youth, and school programs at their shoreside Inland Seas Education Center. From a birding cruise, to maritime history lessons, or learning about local environmental issues such as invasive species, ISEA builds brainpower. Whether you're an educator, sailor or student, you might just find the perfect opportunity with ISEA.

Schooner Inland Seas and her beautiful tanbark sails
(Photo courtesy of Inland Seas Education Association)

If all of this is too organized or the boats are bigger than what you're looking for, I encourage you to just walk the docks at your local harbor and ask around. Invariably someone is always looking for able crew. The Wednesday night club races and weekend regattas both offer potentially shorter opportunities on smaller private vessels. In fact, I crewed on a 37-foot boat for a season while I was learning to sail and can honestly say that you'll learn a ton that's applicable to cruising even if you don't have any real interest in racing.

The Great Lakes are great for a reason. Even if you don't have a boat of your own, you owe it to yourself to get out there on the water and experience some of the best sweetwater sailing anywhere in the world!

The Simple Power of Water

2012-01-23T21:32:00.000-05:00

Afloat and waiting in Bonaire (Photo credit: K. Walters)

Do any of you feel a deep, tethered attachment to the water? Does your spirit fly highest when your feet are wet? I've been thinking since my last post about how to put to words what it is about water that seems to keep me driven and inspired. But the answer is either so complex or so simple that it escapes me. Suffice it to say, water has power in my life.

Consider the following quote from Isak Dinesen (one of several pen names for Karen Blixen):

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

When has life ever thrown something at us that we can't handle with a good dose of hard work (salty sweat), a hard cry (salty tears), or a trip to open water (salty sea)? Is it any coincidence that more than half our body weight is composed of water? The Earth's surface is about 70% water. We are literally surrounded by water. I, for one, intend to explore as much of it as I can.

Tips for Sailboat Restoration

2012-01-21T11:50:00.006-05:00

Ever restored an old sailboat? If you have, you know how therapeutic in can be. Have plans to do so? What follows are my tips to make the project more enjoyable and successful. (This blog post is adapted from an article of mine that appeared in the January/February 2012 issue of Good Old Boat magazine.)

I first got into sailing by restoring a 1972 Helms 25 swing keel. I'm not particularly handy, nor did I have boat restoration experience at the time. In fact, restoring a sailboat wasn't "Plan A" for getting into the sailing and cruising lifestyle. However, sometimes the winds of life (and budgets!) don't blow from behind and we can't sail downwind to our future. Instead, we've got to trim the sails and figure out how to make progress towards our windward goals. And so, I picked up a $400 project boat and started to teach myself about restoration. Hopefully you'll some of the tips below useful for your own project.

Document the process
Take pictures and videos and keep a restoration logbook. A website or log is a great place to document the process. You'll track and record your own progress and help countless other sailors learn from your successes and errors. You'll be amazed at how much feedback you'll receive through the website and/or blog. You may even have blog readers offering unsolicited advice that helps you with your project. Blogspot and Sailblogs both provide free blog space on the web. My blog that you're reading right now is an example. You can dig back to my posts from 2007 in the archives to see snip-its of my restoration.

Join an online sailing forum
I am active on several online sailing message boards (Sailnet and Cruiser's Forum) and get immeasurable advice and help from other members. I'm also a member of a couple of online communities specific to my sailboat's manufacturer. Online communities of enthusiastic owners support many makes of sailboats. By joining one, you are likely to find expertise, new ideas, and hard-to-find parts from other members.

Get your hands dirty
You probably know this already if you're considering the restoration of a sailboat. I am amazed at the projects that even a novice can accomplish. All you need is the motivation to begin and the readiness to take your time. Before I began restoring my first boat, I had never done any fiberglass repair work. After doing a little research and giving it a try on my boat, I am now confident I can handle other such repairs in the future. Do your research, grow, and learn new skills.

Visit your local library
Several very good books on sailboat restoration are available and your local library probably has many of them. Start by checking out Don Casey's books. They are easy to read, easy to follow, and are generally filled with sound advice. This Old Boat is a great general reference, and many of his other books give more details. Some of Don's most relevant books include Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual, Sailboat Refinishing, Sailboat Electrics Simplified, Sailboat Hull and Deck Repari, and Canvaswork and Sail Repair.

Become familiar with sources for parts
We all know a few major stores that carry parts and materials for boating. However, the big superstores don't always have the best prices or the hard-to-find specialty items specific to your boat. Look for online and alternative sources. I've found good deals by posting want ads on Craigslist. Most ads on Craigslist are for items people are trying to sell. My approach has been to post ads for specific items I'm looking for. I'm always surprised at the responses I get from people who have just what I need or something similar. Many times they didn't think about selling or even know they could sell the item until they saw my want ad. The online auction site eBay is another great source for deals on hard-to-find parts. At the very least, try an Internet search to see if you can track down a hard-to-find part. You might also find hidden gems at boating consignment stores.

Be conservative when estimating costs
Despite readily available good deals and free stuff, sailboat restoration is an expensive endeavor. I think I am being conservative when I plan the restoration of a boat prior to starting, but once I start taking things apart, I invariably find more things that need to be fixed or upgraded. Also, the more I started to restore, the more I enjoyed the process. I kept finding more parts to upgrade and more add-ons to improve the boat's utility, comfort, and sailing characteristics. As the saying goes, "There's nothing more expensive than a cheap boat." Take your best estimate for the cost of a restoration job and double it. If you don't spend the full estimated amount, put the savings into your cruising kitty!

Walk the dock
I gleaned many great ideas by checking out other boats at nearby marinas and boatyards. If you have a problem and need a unique solution or if you want creative ways to individualize your boat, there's a good chance someone on the dock has already applied the solution or added that unique feature to his/her boat. You'll also run into a few sailors who are happy to show off their boats and share ideas that can help during your restoration.

Go sailing!
Sailboat restoration takes time, dedication, and motivation. Anyone starting a restoration has a goal of one day sailing the boat that he/she has poured so much of himself/herself into. So during the restoration process, make sure you sail OPB's (other people's boats). Ride along with a dock neighbor or join a Wednesday evening race as a crewmember. There is no better motivation for a sailboat restoration project than getting a taste of the joy the finished project will bring.

Have fun!
If you learn to enjoy the journey that a restoration project inevitably becomes, you will be rewarded with a most memorable destination. There is real value to had in doing the work yourself. You will swell with pride from knowing you gave her the care your good old boat deserves - and she will sail better with that knowledge!

What's your net worth?

2012-01-19T16:20:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been told that you can accomplish anything you can dream up if you have a positive attitude? I recently read an anonymous quote that restates the concept in mathematical terms...

"Your net worth equals your dreams minus your doubts."

My simple resolution for 2012 is to keep my net worth out of the red and firmly in the black. I'm resolved to having dreams that are heavier than doubts.

Hibernating mooring balls on Muskegon Lake, MI. (photo by K. Walters)

Review: Navionics HD Chartplotter for iPad and iOS

2012-01-16T21:17:00.007-05:00

Can chart plotting and navigation on the iPad replace more traditional marine electronics? I've been using a combination of electronic devices for navigation over the last couple of seasons and thought now would be a good time to review one of my favorites, Navionics HD for iOS on the iPad 2.

I have traditionally used a Garmin GPSMap 76cs Plus handheld plotting GPS and more recently added a netbook computer running the free OpenCPN chartplotter software tethered to the Garmin. You can see this system in action here. More recently, I've put the Garmin in a back-up role and begun using the Navionics HD app for iOS on my iPad 2, along with a suite of other great navigation and sailing apps.

Chart screenshot from Navionics HD

Let's get some iPad basics out the way first. The iPad's size, touchscreen and brilliant display are excellent for looking at charts. However, the screen can be difficult to view in direct sunlight and obviously the device isn't suitable for a damp, wet environment. Having said that, you can purchase all-weather protection for your iPad such as dry bags and there are also temporary mounts available. The bottom line is that if your cockpit isn't dry and shaded, you may be better off keeping the iPad down below at the nav station.

Now on to the review of Navionics for iOS. The first thing you'll notice about Navionics is the beautiful hi-definition charts. If you're someone who prefers the look of raster charts (basically a full-color digital image of NOAA's paper charts), then you'll immediately notice the different look of Navionics' custom chart renderings. Water and hydrographic features display in bright white and several shades of blue, complete with depth contour lines. You have four choices for land display: "No overlay", "Google", "Bing", or "Terrain". The "No overlay" choice displays land in a raster-like yellow, while Google and Bing both use highly detailed aerial photography. Terrain gives a topographical look with greens, browns and yellows. The only other display choice you have is toggling the "Community Layer" on and off. The community layer allows users to edit map objects, including adding photos of particular features and waypoints right from the camera on your iOS device. This is very handy if you want to capture the look of a harbor entrance or an important landmark.

From the main charting screen you have the option of tracking your course, measuring the distance between two points, or creating a route. The tracking feature basically just lays down a yellow line where you've been and records your average speed. Distance measuring is useful for route planning. Route creation consists of marking waypoints along your route. You won't have any real route guidance once you begin cruising on a route like you would with other more traditional chart plotters. This may or may not be an issue, depending on whether you simply like to follow the route line on the chart or if you prefer directional cues and steering/heading information from your plotter. While underway, your boat speed is displayed onscreen.

The remaining onscreen functions include zoom in and out, taking a photo for the community layer, a search function, and a centering button which when touched puts your current position in the center of the screen. From the search screen you can search latitude/longitude, marinas, repair facilities, tides, currents, lakes, waterfront restaurants, boat dealers, and marine stores.

You'll need to download charts for the areas you plan to visit, but downloaded data stays local on your device memory so you do not need a connection to view charts you've previously downloaded. Keep in mind that while Navionics is compatible with many iOS devices (iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4G, 4GS, iPad, iPad 2), performance varies. For example, iPads with WiFi only will require a WiFi signal/hotspot to determine your location. iPads with WiFi + 3G have a built-in GPS receiver which Navionics uses in addition to cellular towers and WiFi signals, if available. If you don't have an iPad with 3G and the internal GPS, Navionics may only be practical for planning while in port when you have a WiFi signal.

Depending on which area of chart coverage you need, the Navionics apps start at about $34.95 and go up from there. iPhone versions are considerably cheaper, but you lose a lot of screen real estate for plotting. While these are expensive prices for apps, they are still a bargain compared to the cost of traditional plotters and electronic charts.

Pros:

Relatively affordable
Beautiful hi-definition charts
Easy to use

Cons:

Requires 3G model iPad for best performance
Limited route guidance features
Still can't fully replace traditional plotter in the cockpit

Bottom line: Navionics HD makes a very nice second chart plotter for your boat if you already have an iPad or iPhone. You'll need to weatherproof your iPad and come up with a secure mounting solution if this will be your primary navigation tool. Keeping a handheld GPS or other back-up and paper charts is always a good idea.

Trying to Reason with Blizzard Season

2012-01-14T13:20:00.004-05:00

Snow blob

We finally got some accumulating snow here in the Great Lakes, which has got me looking at pictures and videos from sailing seasons gone by. Multimedia has a remarkable way of changing my mental climate like a fast approaching low pressure system out on the water. So to contrast the first picture and give myself and excuse to try out iMovie for iOS on the iPad, I whipped up the following video. Take a quick one minute sail aboard Island Bound...

Grounded! 5 Tips to Help When You Run Aground

2012-01-12T11:10:00.002-05:00

I was once told by an old salt that you can't really claim to have any gunkhole experience until you've run your sailboat aground. I'm not sure I agree with his statement, but it did force me to think about my course of action if I ever do run aground.

Photo Credit: Jeff Chew / AP

Depending on where you sail, running aground can be the result of several mostly avoidable circumstances. First and foremost, it is imperative to know the accurate draft of your vessel, even under different crew and cargo situations. Secondly, you need to know as much as you can about the water you're sailing in. That means having some combination of a reliable depth sounder, quality charts, local knowledge (tides, currents, etc.), and experience. However, even the best and most prepared captains can make mistakes. Running aground can be embarrassing at the least and downright dangerous to boat and crew at the worst. If you do run aground, remain calm. Your first priority is to ensure that the crew and vessel are unharmed. After you’re sure the crew is safe, check the bilge to make sure the grounding didn’t cause a leak or other damage that may make ungrounding become unsafe. What follows are 5 methods you can try if you ever find yourself stuck.

1) Halyard Heeling: If your keel is stuck in the mud and you need to lessen your draft to get free, using a halyard to heel the boat may help. You’ll need to have the assistance of a second boat for this method. Have the assisting boat take the shackle end of the halyard and slowly run it out abeam of the stuck sailboat, causing the sailboat to heel over. Don’t forget to cleat off the bitter end of the halyard so it doesn’t get run up the mast. With the sailboat heeled, you then may be able to carefully motor out of trouble. Be careful to heel the boat slowly, as you’ll be pulling on the halyard from the top of the mast. I assisted freeing a boat with this method this past summer and was surprised at how much leverage is gained by pulling with the halyard from the top of the mast.

2) Motoring Off: Using the iron sail seems almost instinctive when running aground. However, it’s not necessarily always the most effective. Maybe this is obvious, but try reversing out first before attempting to power through. But be careful if you’ve got a wing keel as motoring may actually get you more stuck because the wings act like flukes on an anchor. You’ll also need to be mindful of what you’re stuck in or on. Powering out of sand or mud is one thing, but rocks and reefs can cause serious damage.

3) Sailing Off: If you sailed aground, sailing off may not be an option. However, if you motored aground, consider raising the sails as you may get the boat to heel and reduce draft or free the keel from the bottom. Be patient with this technique! You may not get freed as soon as the sails are up, but the variable heeling and small movements from the wind may loosen things over a period time.

4) Towing Assistance: Here’s another obvious potential solution, but don’t try it without forethought. Both the towboat and the stuck sailboat will need very strong attachment points for towlines. You’ll also need to determine the direction in which to try towing. Don’t forget that if you decide to tow from the stern of the stuck sailboat the rudder may be exposed to damage if there’s more shallow water behind the boat. I highly recommend Boat U.S. towing insurance. Not only will they assist with “soft ungroundings”, but they’ll also provide jump starts and fuel delivery. The cost for the service is very minimal but delivers great peace of mind.

5) Kedging Off: This method will likely require the use of a dinghy or assist boat. The principle is very simple: take an anchor out from the stuck vessel, set it, and attempt to pull the stuck vessel towards the anchor. Remember good anchoring techniques such as deploying plenty of scope (>5:1 if you have room) and using the best anchor type for the situation (e.g., spade for mud, fluke for sand, etc.). Even if you can’t free the grounded vessel by kedging, you may be able to turn or rotate it to a more favorable heading to try another method.

Lastly, if you want to avoid groundings remember what the old salt told me, “If you see gulls standing on the water, don’t sail there!”

Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors

2012-01-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

I originally planned to make a blog post about the “10 Best Sailors”, but I quickly realized I’m in no way qualified to assemble such a list. However, I can confidently say which famous sailors have most influenced and inspired my own life. My list focuses on famous sailors known to many. Truth be told, there are many more ordinary “everyday Joe/Jane” type sailors who have inspired me every bit as much as those in my list below, but they’ll be the topic of a future blog post. And so, I present to you my personal list of the World’s Top Ten Most Inspirational Sailors.

10) Francis Chichester: The favored route around the world by cruisers today is by far the east-to-west "milk run" that roughly follows the trade winds near the equator. Chichester instead sailed solo around the world from west-to-east in 1967, rounding all of the great capes (Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn) via the "clipper ship route". Not only does this route pit sailors against some of the worst potential weather in the world, it is also counter to the trade winds. As if that weren't enough, Chichester set the speed record around the world at just 226 days.

Watson's very pink boat.

9) Jessica Watson: Have you heard of Jessica Watson? She's been in the news a lot the last couple of years. She now holds the record for being the youngest person to ever sail solo unassisted and non-stop around the world. She earned the record in May of 2010 when she returned to port in Sydney, Australia. Here's the astonishing part: Jessica was just 16 years old! I'm not a fan of all the publicity that these sorts of stunts purposefully attract, but I have to say that this is still a VERY impressive accomplishment. Abby Sunderland is another name you may know if you're aware of Jessica Watson. Abby also attempted to set the same record in 2010, but was dismasted in the Indian Ocean and had to be rescued at sea, thus ending her attempt. Her brother Zac Sunderland also held the record for a brief period. A third young female sailor, Laura Dekker from Netherlands, had plans to break the record at the age of only 14, but a Dutch court stepped in and delayed the record-breaking attempt. She was eventually able to begin her attempt in 2010 and is currently in the Atlantic ocean close to completing her voyage after over 500 days at sea. I have two daughters of my own and love to see them learning to sail and chasing dreams of their own. However, I most definitely would not allow an attempt at these kinds of records. Of course, if they wanted to leisurely sail around the world, I'd happily serve as crew. I was initially hesitant to include Jessica in this list, but even my own parental trepidation can't deny her inspiration. Stay tuned for a future blog post expressing my thoughts on these young record seeking sailors.

8) Peter Blake: As I've said in many other posts, I'm not a racing sailor and don't have any interest in winning races or setting records. However, there are some sailors who have been so profoundly successful in racing sailboats that I can not help but be inspired. Blake is just such a sailor. He won the Whitbread Round the World Race and in so doing set the record for the fastest circumnavigation at just 74 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds. He also skippered dominating wins in the 1995 and 2000 America's Cup yacht races for his home country of New Zealand. He was tragically killed in 2001 by pirates while on an environmental expedition in Brazil on the Amazon River. Blake is easily one of the most recognized names in modern sailing and is at the top of many people's "Top Ten Sailors" list.

7) Webb Chiles: "A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind." I love that quote by Webb Chiles and often think of it as I'm trimming my sails and trying to get the boat into that perfect rhythm. As a writer, Chiles has authored seven books and published hundreds of articles. As a sailor, he's completed five circumnavigations and holds several world records and long ago became the first American to sail alone around Cape Horn. In his words, he "wanted to live an epic life". He has plenty of skeletons in his closet (six marriages, etc.), but he's always good for a salty and thought provoking quote. For instance, try to digest this gem: "I believe that the artist’s defining responsibility is to go to the edge of human experience and send back reports." If you long for more, check out Webb's website (or is it webbsite?) at In The Present Sea.

Kon Tiki in 1947

6) Thor Heyerdahl: The Kon-Tiki expedition is remarkable in so many ways. Imagine building a sailing raft by hand, using only the natural materials that would have been available to primitive people from thousands of years ago. Heyerdahl did just that when he built the Kon-Tiki. Even more remarkable is the journey Heyerdahl completed aboard his homemade sailing raft. He set out from South America in 1947 bound for the islands of French Polynesia. Heyerdahl theorized that the aboriginal settlers of the once uninhabited South Pacific islands originally came from South America. After 101 days at sea and over 4,300 miles of blue Pacific Ocean, he landed on a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands. Though most modern anthropologists now have different theories about how the South Pacific was first discovered and populated by humans, I have major respect for a man who took such massively courageous steps to prove the feasibility of his theory and beliefs. If you want to learn more about Heyerdahl and the expedition, I highly recommend the book Kon-Tiki written by Heyerdahl.

Joshua Slocum

5) Joshua Slocum: Sailing single-handed around the world these days is still a major feat, but being the first to do so is truly deserving of this list. Some said his wooden boat Spray wasn’t up to the task, but he proved the naysayers wrong when he finally returned to Newport, Rhode Island in June of 1898 after completing the 46,000 mile circumnavigation. His book, Sailing Alone Around the World, is a travel and sailing classic. Slocum disappeared in 1909 when he set sail for the Caribbean.

4) Ferdinand Magellan: I'm both fascinated and frightened to imagine circling the globe aboard a sailing vessel 500 years ago. 500 years ago! While Magellan himself died on the voyage, his expedition and some of his crew are credited with the first circumnavigation of the planet Earth. Many of today’s geographical landmark’s either bare Magellan’s name or were named by Magellan. Of particular note are the Pacific Ocean (Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning “Peaceful Sea”) and the Strait of Magellan.

3) Robin Lee Graham: The 1960’s were in many ways the dawn of the cruising sailboat era. Graham was a pioneering cruiser and the precursor to the recent slough of youngsters attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world (see Jessica Watson above). Graham began his epic solo voyage around the world on a 24 foot sailboat when he was just 16 years old. He completed it at the age of 21 in 1970. Graham's book about his experience (Dove) is one of my all-time favorites.

2) Bernard Moitessier: Cruising aboard a sailboat would quite simply not have the deep meaning that it does today for so many of us without Moitessier’s inspirational words and foundational world cruises. Moistessier was one of the first to discuss a non-stop, around the world solo race and eventually competed in the initial event when it finally came to be known as the Sunday Times Golden Globe (known today as the Vendee Globe) in the late 1960’s. He ended up quiting the race but continued on around the world almost one and two-thirds times before finally stopping to recharge in Tahiti. He was never about racing, speed or winning but rather finding himself and challenging his sea-hippy spirit. That statement could well describe myself. The following is a Moitessier quote from one of his books, The Long Way, that I recently received as a gift (Thanks Dad!): “My real log is written in the sea and sky; the sails talking with the rain and the stars amid the sounds of the sea, the silences full of secret things between my boat and me, like the times I spent as a child listening to the forest talk.”

1) James Cook: No list of great sailors would be complete without mention of Captain James Cook. His three epic voyages of discovery in the late 1700’s helped lay the groundwork for nautical charts still in use today. Cook is credited with being the first European to discover the Line Islands archipelago (including Hawaii), the first European to set foot on Australia’s eastern shoreline, the first person to very accurately map the entire coastline of New Zealand, and the first to chart most of North America’s northwestern coastline. Cook also put to rest Aristotle’s notion of Terra Australis, the great southern continent thought to include all of today’s Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand. Countless locations on today’s maps owe their modern names to Cook and his voyages (Botany Bay, Cooktown, Endeavour River, New Caledonia, etc.) Of particular note are the Hawaiian Islands, which Cook originally named the Sandwich Islands after John Montagu, the 4^th Earl of Sandwich. [Free tidbit: Lord Sandwich himself is the reason we call two slices of bread separated by meat a “sandwhich”. Apparently, Lord Sandwich had a habit of requesting his meat be placed between slices of bread when playing cards and ever since the combination has been called a “sandwich”.]

John Webber's 1776 oil painting
of Captain Cook

While much of Cook’s story comes acrossed as roses, there were plenty of thorns. Cook and his crews typically had good relations with the native South Pacific islanders and in particular the Hawaiians, but this ended after a dispute over small boats being stolen from Cook. The confrontations and quarrels that followed led to James Cook being killed on the beach at Kealakekua Bay on the big island of Hawaii. In addition to the notable achievements listed above, Cook’s voyages are also often credited with introducing venereal disease, alcohol and firearms to many cultures in the South Pacific that had previously been untouched by the woes of Western civilization.

The South Pacific looms large in most modern day cruisers’ dreams, including my own. While much has changed there since the 1700’s, the mystique of an isolated tropical paradise still remains. The islands of the South Pacific remain a long passage from any mainland and the blue horizons on such a passage are the same as Cook would have seen. I can’t help but picture myself feeling like Captain Cook if I’m ever fortunate enough to make the milk run to Polynesia. Researching and reading about Cook’s voyages has fascinated me for years. If you’re interested in learning more about Cook, I highly recommend Tony Horowitz’s book Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. Cook’s embodiment of the words explorer, captain, and sailor are what easily puts him at the top of my “most inspirational sailors” list.

Awakening from a Cruiser's Dream

2012-01-03T16:55:00.000-05:00

The following is a reprint of one my articles that was recently published in Good Old Boat magazine (November/December 2011 issue - Thanks Karen!). I originally titled the article “Awakening from a Cruiser’s Dream”, but the editors went with “A Cruise Feeds the Soul”. Some of you may have already read this article in the magazine, but it’s some of my most inspired and honest writing so I wanted to also share it here on my website.

A CRUISE FEEDS THE SOUL

By Kevin Walters

The docklines are once again tied and my feet plod once more on solid ground. My body is back in port, but I don’t know if my sailor’s soul will ever make it back to the dock.

Perfectly peaceful anchorage in Baie Fine, Ontario

Before we left, I did my research. I read all I could and talked to everyone who would share their experiences about the pros and cons of taking an extended cruise on a small sailboat. Now that we’ve returned, I realize most weren’t honest about the most difficult part of cruising: coming home. As my family (wife and two young daughters, then ages 5 and 8) and I returned to our home port and stepped ashore, I realized that – after more than 1,000 nautical miles and nearly 70 days spent living and cruising aboard our 28-foot sailboat – I am closer to drowning on shore than I ever was while at sea. On land it’s not water, but rather the pace and particulars of being a landlubber, that’s stealing the breath of life.

Last summer (2010) I lived a cruising fantasy. I snatched a dream from my sleep and made it reality. I now have something to write about, something to recall fondly, and something to build upon. How can I be drowning?

Cruising gave me a clear goal; I knew where I was headed and how to get there. I have goals when I’m on land, but I don’t always know how to achieve them. I also have skills on land, but they pale in comparison to my ability to move watercraft from one place to the next. I’m not a great breadwinner, perhaps, but I’m the best cruiser, navigator, sailor, and captain I can be.

Bridal Veil Falls near Kagawong, Ontario

As we plied the waters of the Great Lakes and headed to the isolation of the islands in Lake Huron's North Channel, I was alive with freedom. “Sail far and live free!” became our slogan. I was on fire with ambition. I was full of the life a cruising sailor longs for in the deep of winter. It’s not easy to describe how 28 feet of fiberglass suddenly contained all I ever hoped for; my family, my charts, my gear, and my passions were all on board.

Little and Big Point Sable flashed by. Lonely freighters broke up the horizon. Our voices echoed in the crescent-shaped bay of South Manitou Island. The passage to Beaver Island was cold and wet. Grey's Reef amazed us with turquoise water, massive boulders, and abandoned mid-lake lighthouses. The Mackinac Bridge soared overhead, and the island gave us sights to see as we biked around her shoreline. We found peace at sunset in Les Chenneaux Islands. Monarch caterpillars became our pets on Harbor Island. A storm blew through in Pilot Cove. We provisioned in Gore Bay.

Family campfire in Pilot Cove, Drummond Island

The anchor held tight during a stormy night on South Benjamin Island. We tied stern-to-shore on Heywood Island. Fish and chips filled our tummies from the old bus in Killarney. We climbed high in Covered Portage Cove. We watched a bald eagle soar in Baie Fine. We welcomed July in Little Current. Sturgeon Cove’s entrance challenged our piloting skills. We shared a campfire and new-found friendship on Louisa Island…blueberries galore on Croker Island…more friends, campfires, and cozy anchorages in the Benjamin Islands. Freshly caught walleye fillet encrusted with Frosted Flakes cereal was on our dinner menu in Beardrop Harbor. We enjoyed the same beautiful views as did the megayachts in Harbor Springs. Six-foot waves helped us surf home from Pentwater, Michigan. I pinched myself each morning when I woke, making sure I wasn’t stuck in a January dream.

After years of daydreaming about an extended cruise, I fooled myself into believing I’d feel fulfilled when I returned to the dock. I thought the itch would have been scratched and the hunger inside would have been fed. I was wrong. I am now full of memories but somehow empty. It took months of planning and preparation for a small old boat to carry a family of four over a thousand miles of Great Lakes water in the period of about three months. My life on land was focused during months of pre-cruise preparation. My life at sea for three months was intense and full of passion, challenges, beauty, and closeness to my family. I won’t forget the quiet reflection during my solo-sailing days at the beginning of the journey, or the sight of my daughters sleeping snugly in their berths below as my wife and I battled through waves and rain in the early hours of morning, or our first night anchored at a deserted island.

I was completely fulfilled while cruising in the wilderness of the North Channel with few amenities, yet I find life can be lacking back here on land. The great irony is that on land I’m surrounded by high-definition televisions, cell phones, high-speed Internet, cars, DVD players inside of cars, restaurants, shopping malls, and every other “luxury” of the 21^st century ashore in America. If I learned anything from cruising, it’s that material things cannot fill the soul but memories and experiences can make it overflow.

My wife wonders how I can be in such a funk after having lived another of my dreams. I wonder how I let prudence guide me back to our home port when reckless abandon and my sense of adventure could easily have had the bow headed for the Erie Canal and ultimately the Intracoastal Waterway. From there, the whole world is just over the horizon. As I sit at home writing, planning next year’s sailing adventure is what will make the weather a bit warmer and the winter sky brighter until that spring day when our bow once again points away from our life here on land.

Welcome the Wind

2011-12-29T14:20:00.001-05:00

Much has already been written about the wind. One of my favorite wind quotes is from William Arthur Ward who said, "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

And another from Captain Christopher Shelton (from s/v Albatross and the movie White Squall): "You can't run from the wind. You trim your sails, face the music, and keep going."

So now allow me to write a bit more about the wind, for sailing would be a lot more like drifting without it. There are a few things in life that we can't see even with our eyes wide open. God. Love. And the wind. We can see the effects of all these things, but we can't see the actual thing. However, if we allow our other senses to open up, we can feel them. It amazes me that something as cryptic as the wind has the ability to carry a sailboat thousands and thousands of miles.

And lastly, I'll finish my tribute to the wind with the lyrics to Windsong from one of my favorite musicians, John Denver.

The Wind is the whisper of our mother the earthThe Wind is the hand of our father the skyThe Wind watches over our struggles and pleasuresThe Wind is the goddess who first learned to fly

The Wind is the bearer of bad and good tidingsWeaver of darkness, bringer of dawnThe Wind gives the rain, then builds us a rainbowThe Wind is the singer who sang the first song

Wind is a twister of anger and warningThe Wind brings the fragrance of freshly mown hayThe Wind is a racer and wild stallion runningAnd the sweet taste of love on a slow summer’s day

The Wind knows the songs of cities and canyonsThunder of mountains, roar of the seaWind is the taker and giver of morningsThe Wind is the symbol of all that is free

So, welcome the Wind and the wisdom she offersFollow her summons when she calls againIn your heart and your spirit, let the breezes surround youLift up your voice then and sing with the Wind

Double Enders According to Perry (Guest Post by Bob Perry)

2011-12-26T08:16:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered why many classic bluewater sailboats are double enders? Is there something inherent in the double ender design that makes them particularly well suited for offshore work? Or maybe you're like me and simply find them to be irresistibly good looking and aspire to own one regardless of the design's intended function. I'm pleased to welcome a very special guest blogger to SailFarLiveFree.com. Bob Perry, one of the world's foremost yacht designers and a double ender aficionado, has graciously agreed to share his thoughts on my blog. For more of Bob's writing, visit Yacht Design According to Perry. What follows are Bob's words...

Oh boy. I get to write on someone else’s blog. I think I will write about double enders as a subject in itself. Without bragging too much I think I might be responsible for more double enders on the water than any other designer. I don’t have a total number but it has to be close to 1,500 boats maybe more. I know double enders. I have always been drawn to double enders from the time I was 15 years old. I used to walk from our house on Mercer Island, across the floating bridge and down to Lake Union where I would sit and dream, aboard a converted Bristol Bay fishing boat they had for sale at Vesoga’s brokerage. I was 15 and there was no way I could buy the boat but I could dream.

I was lucky as a kid in that I became aware of Bill Garden’s design early on. Bill did some great double enders. Some were based on the Colin Archer style and some in Bill’s unique way were straight from Mars. Walking the docks one day at Shilshole Bay Marina I was stopped dead in my tracks by a long, skinny, light green boat that looked like no other boat in the marina. I knew I was looking at a very special boat but I had no idea what it was. It was OCEANUS, Bill’s own boat. In time I would get to crew on OCEANUS for local races. I loved that boat. I also learned about and studied the double enders of William Atkin. His ERIC was a favorite of mine. One of the very first boats I drew hull lines for was a 32’ double ender I called BUDDY after Bud Stantorf, the man who really taught me how to sail. He died when I was 16. The Albert Strange canoe yawls remain some of my all time favorites.

Baba 30 in Scotland

Years later, with the IOR making people angry, a reactionary movement sprung up in the cruising community. Heavy, slow, salty, Colin Archer type double enders propelled by the Westsail movement were the accepted boats for offshore cruising. For some reason double enders were seen as safer offshore boats. This probably came from the Colin Archer lifeboat tradition. But there were all sorts of strange theories as to why the double ender was the best hull form for offshore. “The stern parts the following seas.” I call this the “Moses effect”. Maybe the stern parts the following sea because there is not enough buoyancy aft for the stern to rise to the following sea. “There is more reserve buoyancy aft.” This is certainly not true in a boat like a Westsail with almost no stern overhang at all. There is almost no buoyancy aft. Ok, fine, what about a canoe stern? Yes, a canoe stern can give you far more buoyancy aft than a Westsail type stern but a nice broad transom stern with some overhang will have far more buoyancy aft than a canoe stern. “In a double ender the heeled waterlines are more balanced.” Yes, in most cases this is true and it’s a good thing but I’m not certain it makes a boat more seaworthy or sea kindly. It does make some boats easier to balance over a wide range of heel angles.

Then why did I make the Valiant 40 a double ender? Marketing! It was just assumed that offshore cruising boats had to be double enders and rather than buck that trend I decided to go with it and at the same time add my own twist to the shape to try and improve the performance of the double ender.

Baba 40

The stern shape I used for the Valiant 40, 32 and 47, Esprit 37, Tayana 37 ( they built over 600 of these), Hans Christian 34 ( my step child the HC 36 aka Union Polaris 36, Mao Ta 36, et al), Polaris 43, the Baba 30, 35and 40, the Tashiba 31, and 36 was what I began to call a “tumblehome canoe stern”. I got the idea for this shape from a K. Aage Nielsen design, HOLGER DANSK. “Tumblehome” because the way the stern profile rolls back forward at the top. I think K. Aage got the idea from a number of Scandinavian designers and you could probably trace the origins of the basic tumblehome stern profile back to the Viking ships. I didn’t “invent” anything. I will take credit for combining some basic design elements into a new combination to try to bring the double ender up to date with modern designs. But Skip Calkins had done this earlier with his spectacular Calkins 50 double ender. Garden had tried to do it with OCEANUS but as much as I revered Bill and loved OCEANUS it really had a weird shape below the DWL and a strange distribution of volume. Aesthetically I found OCEANUS hard to beat but on the race course an 8 meter could beat us boat for boat. The Valiant used the midsection of an IOR two tonner with a sensible skeg hung rudder and one of the first NACA foil section keels ever seen on a cruising boat. My other double enders were mostly full keel boats but again I tried to do what I could to bring their performance level up.

Lafitte on a beam reach

I remember sitting at dinner one night with the Lafitte group who built the Lafitte 44. At the other end of the dining table I could hear a discussion going on about the benefits of the canoe stern. I thought to myself, “What BS.” If any boat is going to spend it’s life moving forward the best way to end the boat is with a transom. The bow and the stern do very different jobs. The stern should not look like the bow. I don’t think there really is a cogent argument for why double enders are the best sea boats. But if you insist on sailing around in reverse I think a double ender makes the most sense.

Sawyer 42

But I still like double enders. I’m working on a new 62’ double ender right now. This is the 62’ SLIVER and it is a marvelous, long and skinny double ended sled being built now in Hadlock. I just like the look. Years ago YACHTING Magazine wanted me to come over to their mag and write their design reviews. I was happy at SAILING but YACHTING offered me twice the money. I said I’d think about it. They said why don’t you try a test article to see if we can work together. I decided to write an article on double enders. I decided to interview a few other designers for the article and get their thoughts on double enders. I asked each one, “Why is a double ender better?” They all said it wasn’t better than a transom sterned boat. All except Bill Crealock who said the double ender was better but when I asked why he couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me. I also asked these designers what kind of boats they personally sailed. All but one sailed a double ender. I had an El Toro pram at the time so I considered that a double ender. The bow looked like the stern.

Baba 30 in slings

I am often thought of as primarily a designer of double enders. That’s OK. At least I am thought of. The Valiant 40 did get me into the first 15 people inducted into CRUISING WORLD’s Hall of Fame. That made me feel really good. But if you look at my entire body of work I have designed far more transom sterned boats than double enders. For a wide variety of reasons a transom works best. But if I sat down this afternoon to design a new boat just for me there is absolutely no doubt it would be a double ender.

I always thought my Esprit 37 RICKY NELSON had the prettiest fanny in any anchorage.

The Christmas Tree Ship

2011-12-18T20:03:00.010-05:00

Lake Michigan was not feeling the Christmas spirit in November of 1912. The big lake wasn’t giving any gifts that year, but rather was taking ships and crew to her cold depths. Captain Herman Schuenemann knew the Great Lakes could get ornery in November, for it was in November of 1898 that his brother August was lost forever when his schooner sank in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois while attempting to deliver Christmas trees to Chicago. August had asked Herman to join him on the ill-fated voyage, but he declined after proudly telling August that his wife was giving birth to twin daughters. After August’s death, Herman was undaunted and carried on in the family Christmas tree business.

Herman Schuenemann became beloved by Chicago residents for brining fresh cut Christmas trees from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula aboard sailing vessels to Chicago. Each year the arrival of his ship in port near the Clark Street Bridge would signify the official start of the holiday season. He spread good cheer to everyone who came to the dock to get their family tree. You couldn’t help but feel jolly looking at the Christmas lights adorning his ship and the tree set atop the main mast. Children were so enamored that they believed Captain Schuennemann came directly from the North Pole with his evergreen trees. His ship became known as the “Christmas Tree Ship” and he “Captain Santa”. Over the years, Captain Santa and the Christmas Tree Ship became as much a part of a Chicago Christmas as did the release of the Sears and Roebuck Catalog.

Rouse Simmons under sail

By November 22, 1912, Captain Schuennemann and his crew of lumberjack-sailors had loaded around 5,500 trees aboard the 123 foot three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons, better known as the Christmas Tree Ship (Note: Schuenemann actually commanded several schooners that carried Christmas tress as cargo to Chicago, but the Rouse Simmons was the last.). They were in Thompson Harbor near Manistique, Michigan in northern Lake Michigan. Several other ships in the area were postponing the sail down Lake Michigan because of stormy weather. Captain Schuennemann must have thought carefully about his departure window. Interestingly, some of the crew also had thoughts about the timing of the departure. Several claimed to have seen rats leaving the Rouse Simmons recently, which is a bad omen obvious to even non-sailors. Others may have been put off by the plan to leave on November 22…a Friday. Superstitious sailors never start a voyage on a Friday. So some of the crew, Afdtterby omen or by luck, ended up taking a train back to Chicago. Nevertheless, Captain Schuennemann and his remaining crew (of an unverified number) put to the inland sea on the evening of Friday, November 22, 1912.

When the Christmas tree ship and crew reached the base of Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula near Kewaunee during the afternoon of November 23, they were spotted by the watchman at the Life-Saving Station (pre-cursor to the U.S. Coast Guard). The Captain of the station reported in a phone call to the Two Rivers station that the ship was flying its flag at half-mast, a universal sign of distress. The stricken schooner was “under short sails heading south and under a good headway...”. After the Life Saving Station further south at Two Rivers was notified, a search and possible rescue was attempted in a power lifeboat, but was unable to locate any sign of the Rouse Simmons. No one ever saw the ship, crew or Captain Santa again.

Rouse Simmons as she lays today
(photo by Tamara Thomsen/Wisconsin Historical Society)

Twelve years later in 1924, Captain Schuenemann’s wallet was brought up from the depths of the big lake wrapped in oilskin when it became tangled in a fishing net. Their was initially a report of a distress message from the crew found in a bottle a few weeks after the storm, but many believe it to be a cruel hoax. There are also stories of a second message in a bottle, but again opinions on the validity differ. It was not until 1971 that the wreck of the Rouse Simmons itself was finally located. Legendary Great Lakes diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard found her resting upright and largely intact on the bottom in 172 feet of water off Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Evergreen trees can still be seen on her decks and in her holds today. A survey of the wreck showed that the ship’s wheel was missing. It was recovered, again in a fishing net, in the 1990’s. Damage to the wheel lead some to speculate that the mizzen boom may have collapsed and broken the wheel off of the ship. This may explain why the Rouse Simmons didn’t seem to make any effort to make safe harbor at Kewaunee or Two Rivers when she was spotted by the Life Saving Station. However, a 2006 technical field report from the Wisconsin Historical Society offers good evidence that the wheel may have actually been torn from the ship by fishing nets years after the Rouse Simmons sank. Interestingly, the report also indicates that the crew had actually deployed the port anchor in nearly 165 feet of water shortly before the ship sank. The wreck's current orientation has the bow facing the direction of the wind on the night of the storm. (I highly recommend reading the above mentioned report if you're at all interested in the the wreck of the Rouse Simmons).

Tree atop mast of s/v Friends Good Will
in South Haven, MI (photo by K. Walters)

Captain Schuenemann’s widow and children diligently continued to keep the family Christmas tree business alive in Chicago for many years after the family’s second shipwreck tragedy. The first municipal Christmas tree and lighting ceremony in Chicago were held in December of 1912 in Captain Schuenemann’s honor. Even now, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw and servicemen commemorate the Schuenemann Christmas Tree Ship legacy each year by delivering trees to needy families in Chicago.

While the above words are my rendition of this story told to the best of my ability, I have to thank author Rochelle Pennington for the inspiration to write this post. I recently saw Rochelle speak at the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, Michigan and found her telling of the story and display of artifacts recovered from the Rouse Simmons to be fascinating. There are many more details which I didn’t have space for in my post, but are masterfully put to print in Rochelle’s two books about the Christmas Tree Ship. I also wish to thank Tamara Thomsen of the Wisconsin Historical Society for providing factual and historical edits to my original post. For me personally, the story of Captain Santa and the Christmas Tree Ship is a favorite, even if it is filled with tragedy. The Schuenemann’s spirit is inspiring. The power of the Great Lakes is daunting. The lore of the inland seas is ever captivating.

From the Great Lakes to Great Escapes: Live Free (guest post)

2011-12-14T20:40:00.001-05:00

Lake Michigan is my home water. My cruising roots have been fertilized and grown here on the Great Lakes. I feel a connection with Great Lakes sailors and have a bit of a quest to heighten awareness for the Great Lakes and raise their profile among sailors, outdoor enthusiasts and those with an intrinsic passion for water. I believe those who have never been on the Great Lakes would be in awe of their size and beauty. It is in this vein that I plan to periodically host guest blog posts authored by cruising sailors who started their great escape in the Great Lakes.

Brittany and Scott from Windtraveler started their journey at the southern end of Lake Michigan in Chicago back in September, 2011 (although planning, dreaming and scheming occurred long before). Today they've made it as far south as Grenada in the Caribbean. Given the theme of my website (Sail Far, Live Free!), I thought their blog post titled "Live Free" was a good fit and actually reminds me very much of my own Why I Sail post. The post below was written by Brittany and first appeared on their blog here. (Thank you Brittany for allowing me to use your post!)

Live Free! (by Brittany Meyers)

We've been asked so many questions during this short visit home: what's your favorite place? Your scariest moment? Your favorite dish? ... the list goes on. But the most interesting question, perhaps, came from a very good friend of ours when he asked: "What is the biggest lesson you learned so far?"

I actually had to think about that one. Anyone who has read our blog for any length of time knows that the lessons learned through this "journey" are great and vast. We have learned so much about ourselves, about life, about nature, about the universe...it's incredible, really.

So what is the greatest lesson we have learned?

After some thought, I finally answered: "I think the biggest thing I have learned is that - once you get away from land, once you shove off and are free from societal contraints - anything is possible".

Does that make sense?

Because it's true. The minute Scott and I said goodbye to Chicago an entire world opened up to us. Not just the physical world, but the figurative world as well; the world of opportunity. We were now in a world where we were able to dream...and not only could we dream, but we could do so freely and without doubt. Suddenly, it was not insane to imagine opening up a tiny marina in some tropical isle, or running a charter company in the Caribbean, or opening a hostel for wayward travelers or running a boutique sandwich shop in the islands...suddenly all those things that on land seemed silly and fruitless, held weight and possibility. It's amazing to be thirty-two and still be dreaming what life will be like when I "grow up". I mean, I am just getting started!

I don't know what it will take for you to see your dreams as something more, but you should do it. It is an incredibly freeing way to live. Scott and I feel like kids in a candy store who found a ten dollar bill on the floor. It's like nobody knows our secret, yet it's so simple and easy. How come we have this ten dollars when so many people don't? There really is power in dreaming. There really is another way to live. There really is a way to live a life less ordinary. You just need to step aside and extricate yourself from the status quo, it's designed to keep you there! Easier for some than for others, for sure. But I am a firm believer that where there is a will, there is a way.

And that is the best lesson of all; we have learned what it feels like to be free!

Update: Best Apps for Sailing and Boating

2011-12-13T10:36:00.001-05:00

Just a quick update to let readers know I've made two new additions to the Best Apps for Sailing and Boating blog post. You'll now find the Star Walk and Cruisers Forum apps included in the list. I'll periodically continue to add new sailing apps as they become available and I have a chance to review them.

A New Home Port!

2011-12-09T10:52:00.002-05:00

Notice anything new about the blog/website? I started blogging back in 2007 on SailBlogs.com and fairly quickly moved over to Google's Blogger. I can humbly say that the site has grown, matured, and increased in readership. Now that my blog is nearly five years old, I thought it was a good time to freshen things up with a new look, layout, features and name.

Let's start with the name. Most of you will know that I have used "Sailing Island Bound" for several years, with Blogger's default domain name of http://www.sailislandbound.blogspot.com/. Since the site has transformed into much more than just the chronicles of Island Bound's journeys, I've choosen a new name that reflects my own personal journey and hopefully inspires my readers...Sail Far, Live Free! So now I've got my own domain/URL, which is http://www.sailfarlivefree.com/. Don't worry, your old bookmarks and links to the blogspot address will still work too, but updating is recommended.

You'll also notice hotlinks to new pages just under the Sail Far Live Free header. These will allow you easy access to categorized postings and content I've written over the years. You'll find pages such as "About", "Ponderings", "Gear Reviews", etc. I figured adding these pages was a good way to keep my hard work from getting lost in the blog archives.

So take a tour through the website and feel free to provide feedback via email or comments on this post. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can follow SailFarLiveFree.com using the email box to the left or by using the "Subscribe to Our Blog" options further below. As the new welcome message to the left says, "Stay awhile and read, dream, and be inspired to Sail Far, Live Free!"

YURBHSDU6VKB

Ghosts of the Great Lakes

2011-12-06T11:35:00.003-05:00

Every year or so, a new lost shipwreck is discovered somewhere in the Great Lakes. Many are remarkably well preserved because of the cold, freshwater in the Great Lakes. With literally thousands of ships lost (some estimate as many as 8,000) in the inland seas, it's likely this trend of discovery will continue. Perhaps the most coveted and yet to be discovered lost shipwreck in the Great Lakes is that of Le Griffon.

Le Griffon was a French barque ( or "bark", referring to the rig which consists of multiple masts, fore-and-aft sails on the aftermost mast and square sails on all other masts) commanded by famed French explorer Robert de LaSalle. She displaced around 40 tons and was likely only 30 to 40 feet long. LaSalle was seeking a Northwest Passage to China for France. Le Griffon was launched in 1679 by LaSalle as a way to control the fur trade with Native Americans in the Great Lakes region. Le Griffon may very well be the first “ship” to have sailed on the Great Lakes by some criteria (decking, permanent masts, bearing a name).

Surprisingly, Le Griffon disappeared on the return trip from her maiden voyage. The ship left her birth place on the Niagara River in July of 1679. She made her way into Lake Erie and on through the St. Clair River into lower Lake Huron. After weathering an August gale on Lake Huron, Le Griffon and crew made port at Mackinac Island. They pushed on, likely to Washington Island at the mouth of Green Bay, where they met up with Pottawatomies and fur traders that La Salle had sent ahead to begin trading. La Salle stayed behind as he ordered the crew to take the newly acquired furs back to Mackinac Island aboard Le Griffon. After holding up near Washington Island in Lake Michigan while waiting out another big storm, Le Griffon departed on September 18, 1679 to drop furs at Mackinac and make her way back to the Niagara River.

The ill-fated ship and crew were never heard from again. While some theories suggest foul play amongst the Pottawatomies may have led to her disappearance, a more likely scenario is that Le Griffon was lost in the stormy waters of the Straits of Mackinac. Historical records indicate a storm did occur shortly after Le Griffon set sail from Washington Island. A third scenario that La Salle himself considered after hearing rumors amongst the Native Americans was that the crew of Le Giffon scuttled her and ran off with the furs. No matter the true story, many shipwreck hunters have searched for the missing ship ever since.

It’s not uncommon for Great Lakes shipwrecks to go un-identified after they’ve been found and there are at least a few that may indeed be Le Griffon. There are unidentified wrecks off the western end of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron and another off of Escanaba in Lake Michigan that have archeologists, shipwreck hunters and historians digging for more clues. The most promising find is a wreck discovered in 2001 at an undisclosed location by the Great Lakes Exploration Group. In late 2010, GLEG released a press statement announcing an ongoing assessment of the site and a cooperative agreement between GLEG, the State of Michigan and France that describes the process for documenting and identifying the suspected shipwreck. The agreement stipulates that the investigation must be completed by January of 2012, so we soon may finally have a conclusion to the final chapter of Le Griffon’s story.

Irwin 28 Boat Review

2011-11-22T21:55:00.014-05:00

It’s been a while since I’ve done a boat review. What follows may quite possibly be more than you ever wanted to know about an Irwin 28 sailboat.

Disclaimer: My own personal boat is an Irwin 28, so the review is admittedly biased by my firm belief that my favorite boat will always be the one that I own at the time. However, my biased perspective also assures that I know intricacies about the I28 that may not be apparent to those who haven’t spent significant time aboard this model.

Irwin 28 Review

Ted Irwin began building boats in his backyard at a very young age. He started professionally as a draftsman and part-time boat builder with well known racer and founder of Morgan Yachts, Charley Morgan. After learning on the job from Morgan and successfully racing some of his own designs, Ted started Irwin Yacht and Marine Corporation in 1966. He used his racing success and passion to inspire his early cruising designs. Though Irwin Yachts closed its’ doors in 1991 due partly to the luxury tax, Irwin sailboats are best known today for their large center cockpit cruising yachts. In fact, Irwin has built more cruising sailboats over 50’ than any other boat builder in the world. Over 6,000 yachts have been built and there are currently over 300 Irwin 52, 54, 65 and 68’s cruising the globe today.

While the focus of Irwin Yachts seemed to be on larger cruisers, they did dabble with smaller boats, including a 23, 24, 25, 27 and the subject of this review, the Irwin 28. I contacted Gene Gammons, long-time friend of Ted Irwin and Irwin Yachts project manager, who estimated that the Irwin 28 was probably first produced sometime in 1970, while the last hull was probably commissioned sometime in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. There were several variations, including mkI through mkIV. Early boats were mostly shallow draft full keelers with centerboards while most later boats seem to be fixed fin keel variants. The Irwin 28 has always been sloop rigged. As far as I can tell, there were only subtle changes (aside from the keel) between the versions and years.

Construction was typical for a production coastal cruiser in the 1970’s. The hull is a one piece molded fiberglass unit using alternate layers of hand-laid mat and 24 oz. woven roving. Although built to a price point, chopper guns and blown glass were not used in the hulls. Additional laminate was used in high stress areas. Floor timbers were hand glassed into all keel models. The deck is a one piece molded fiberglass unit with a plywood core for stiffening and insulation. The ballast of the fin keel version is pre-cast lead through-bolted with stainless steel bolts torqued to a reinforced keel boss. The rudder is supported on a partial skeg. Though not fully protected by the skeg, I prefer a skeg-hung rudder over a spade rudder because it can add extra strength if constructed properly.

The mast and boom are anodized aluminum. Standard standing rigging is 1x19 stainless steel wire with single upper and lower shrouds. The single lower shroud arrangement is less common than double lowers, but is no less sturdy. The shroud chainplates are mounted midway between the coachhouse wall and the toerail. These chainplates are one of the strong points of the Irwin 28, as they are relatively large (for a 28-footer) heavy-duty steel strips extending through the deck and are bolted solidly to the hull grid down low. This setup, while prone to deck leaks, is more substantial than the common method of attaching chain plates to a knee brace or interior bulkhead as seen on many small coastal cruisers.

Deck hardware is generally of good quality. Much of the hardware is sourced from larger boats in the Irwin line. The bow and stern cleats are nicely oversized for a 28-footer. Unfortunately, there is no midships cleat. However, one of the biggest drawbacks for the I28 as a cruiser is the lack of an anchoring platform or even an anchor roller. Oddly, there’s a rope/chain locker in the bow, but the only access is through the v-berth, not the deck. I added a chain pipe on the deck of my boat, but I still haven’t come up with a good option for an anchoring platform or roller given the obstructions that the toerail and custom stemhead fitting present.

The aforementioned perforated aluminum toerail runs the length of the deck and can be used to provide almost limitless jib sheet angles with snatch blocks and provides attachment points for fenders and spring lines. Several I28 owners (including myself) have noted leaks in the deck-to-hull joint. While this is mostly only a concern for rainwater, the proper remedy would be removing and resealing the toerail along its’ entire length. There are also very small jib lead tracks on the cockpit gunwales that are more convenient than using snatch blocks on the toerail, but they limit car/block positioning. The mainsheet traveler is mounted on the companionway threshold. This arrangement has pluses and negatives. First, having the mainsheet traveler in the cockpit can be a bit awkward and get in the way of entering the cabin in certain positions. However, control of the sheet and traveler is easy and always close at hand.

The Irwin 28 was offered with both tiller and pedestal wheel steering. My personal boat has the tiller, so my review is based only on that perspective. I personally love the direct feel and sensitivity of a tiller. The simplicity of the setup is also reassuring. The boat tracks well enough, but needs precise sail trim to balance the tiller. You can’t take your hand off the tiller and not expect the boat to wander a bit. However, weather helm is easily controllable by adjusting the mainsheet traveler. A tiller pilot (autopilot) doesn’t need to work overly hard to keep the boat on course in mild to moderate conditions. Backing up with the Irwin 28 is something the boat does not do well. When in reverse, she prop walks badly to starboard and renders steering almost totally ineffective.

The boat handles moderate seas and wind quite nicely. She’s controlled and manageable in winds up to about 25 knots and Lake Michigan seas to 5 or 6 feet, as long as you reef and keep the waves off the beam (quartering and headseas are fine). However, you’ll find yourself motoring a fair amount in light air, unless you’ve got spinnaker gear. My boat came fitted with the factory spinnaker package and is complete with secondary cockpit winches, downhaul block and track on the deck, spinnaker pole, pole topping lift and off-set masthead spinnaker halyard. The favorite point of sail is close hauled. She’ll also reach and run nicely, but definately feels in the groove when close hauled. She doesn’t point any better than most other similar sailboats, but really bites in just off the wind. Her 41% ballast ratio (see below) makes her relatively stiff and inspires confidence.

Down below presents a common layout for sailboats of this size. Starting at the bow and moving back, the layout consists of: roomy v-berth, hanging wet locker to starboard, enclosed head with sink/vanity to port, adult-length settees to port and starboard in the salon, bulkhead hinged table, L-shaped galley to starboard, quarter-berth to port. Storage is plentiful, but not necessarily convenient with most recessed away below the berths and settees. The galley features a roomy ice box (converted with NorCold refrigeration on my boat), alcohol stove, and flip-up countertop extension. Some I28’s feature a slide out nav table above the quarter berth. The best feature of the cabin is the large bulkhead table that stores neatly tucked against the bulkhead when not in use.

Auxiliary power from the factory in the Irwin 28 came from one of two sources: Volvo or Universal. Both engines are gasoline powered. Much has been written and is known about the Universal Atomic 4, so I’ll focus on the engine I have in my boat, the Volvo MB10A. Many people shy away from the old Volvo engines, particularly the gas variants, because parts can be hard to find. However, the MB10A is still in production today by Marna Marine in Norway and parts are readily (though not cheaply) available. I believe the MB10A block started life as a tractor engine and was adapted for marine application by Marna and marketed by Volvo. The little 2 cylinder engine chugs out 15 peak horsepower, which is just about right for the for this boat. She’ll motor along at just over 6 knots when pushed, but I like to keep the rpm’s down and chug at around 5.5 knots [Note: I have a Martec low-drag fixed two blade prop]. The exhaust is routed through a waterlift muffler and provides a good putt-putt tractor soundtrack. I have had no major issue with my little two cylinder Volvo and trust it to get me home when the wind won’t blow (or at least won’t blow from the right direction!). Engine access isn’t the best, though oil and plug changes can be accomplished from the front of the engine by removing the companionway steps. There’s also a small port access panel in the quarterberth and starboard access through the cockpit lazerette.

Warning: The following paragraphs are not for those who don’t like numbers and math! It’s time to look at specifications and ratings.

The Irwin 28 measures 28.5’ LOA with a waterline length of 23’. She carries a 9’ beam. Dry weight displacement is 7,800 lbs with 3,200 lbs of ballast. Her sail area to displacement ratio (SA/D) is 15.36. The fin keel version draws 4’6” of water. The length to displacement ratio for the Irwin 28 is 286.2, putting it squarely in the “average cruising” category, as shown below.

Light racing multihull 40-50
Ultra light ocean racer 60-100
Very light ocean racer 100-150
Light cruiser/racer 150-200
Light cruising auxiliary 200-250
Average cruising auxiliary 250-300
Heavy cruising auxiliary 300-350
Very heavy cruising auxiliary 350-400

The boat has a motion comfort rating of 26. This rating estimates the overall comfort of a boat when it is underway. The formula predicts the speed of the upward and downward motion of the boat as it encounters waves and swells. The faster the motion, the more uncomfortable the passengers will be. The higher the number, the more resistant a boat is to movement, which typically means a more comfortable ride. This rating was created by famed boat designer, Ted Brewer. Comfort ratings will vary from 5.0 for a light daysailer to the high 60s for a super heavy vessel, such as a Colin Archer ketch. Moderate and successful ocean cruisers, such as the Valiant 40 and Whitby 42, will fall into the low-middle 30s range. The I28's rating of 26 means she's rides more comfortably than you might expect in this class [Note: See ratings below of other similar sized common sailboats - Most are lower and presumably less comfortable].

The capsize ratio for the I28 is 1.82. According to Ted Brewer, a boat is acceptable if the capsize ratio is 2.0 or less but, of course, the lower the better. For example, a 12 meter yacht of 60,000 lbs displacement and 12 foot beam will have a capsize ratio of 1.23, and so would be considered very safe from capsize. A contemporary light displacement yacht, such as a Beneteau 311 (7716 lbs, 10'7" beam) has a capsize ratio of 2.14. Based on the formula, while a fine coastal cruiser, such a yacht may not be the best choice for ocean passages. The Irwin 28 sneaks below the 2.0 mark and represents a design that is relatively safe from capsizing in coastal conditions.

So what’s the take home message with all of these ratings, ratios and numbers? The Irwin 28 isn’t going to be the fastest sled for Wednesday night races (PHRF handicap rating of 213), but she’s likely a bit more comfortable and stable than other popular high volume production models from the same era. For example, the very popular Catalina 27 (std. rig) has a motion comfort rating of about 23.5 and a capsize ratio of 1.87. The O’day 28 has a motion comfort rating of 20.57 and a capsize ratio of 2.11. None of these boats are suitable as bluewater passagemakers, but they all make good coastal cruiser. Of the three, the Irwin may well be the most stable and comfortable while the O’day (PHRF handicap rating 204) would be a better choice if speed is a priority for your coastal cruise. The Catalina splits the difference (PHRF handicap rating 210).

In summary, the Irwin 28 is a fine coastal cruiser for those on a modest budget. She’s the perfect balance between the cramped accommodations of the 25-26 footers and the higher expenses of the ~30 footers of similar vintage. The slight spring in her sheerline coupled with a bit of teak on deck (handrails, forward hatch) and the modest stern overhang provide noticeable character. If you’re looking for an alternative to the similarly priced but more common 27-29 foot boats (Catalina 27, Hunter 27, O’day 28) of this age and price, check out an Irwin 28. She’s not a racer but she does offer good performance and accommodations for a small family looking for a friendly cruiser.

Racing Around the World

2011-11-16T11:57:00.001-05:00

I’m personally not a racing sailor and don’t have the itch to become one. I’m perfectly happy letting the winds dictate my speed and often my destination. But I do appreciate the intricacies of squeezing out another 0.5 knots with perfect sail trim, weight distribution and helm control. I crewed for a season aboard a 38-footer during the Wednesday evening club races and also during longer races such as the Queen’s Cup, a night-time race across Lake Michigan. My time as a racing crew member taught me a lot about seamanship and sailing.

Sailing around the world is a remarkable endeavor, whether at a leisurely pace aboard a small private cruising sailboat or as crew on one of the fastest, most hi-tech racing sailboats on the planet. What started out in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race has, in today’s sponsorship laden world, become the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR). The nine month race, which starts in Alicante, Spain and concludes in Galway, Ireland has teams sailing over 39,000 nautical miles of the world’s most treacherous seas via Cape Town and around Cape Horn. Each raceboat has a crew of 11 and requires racing for 20 days at a time on some legs of the race. The current VOR began in October and is scheduled to finish in July 2012. The boats are currently racing on the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town. You can follow their progress and see live video feeds here.

While I personally consider the Velux 5 Oceans Race (single-handed around the world) even more challenging than the VOR because each contestant is alone on their boat for the entire race, the Vendee Globe is truly the Everest of sailing. The Vendee Globe is a solo NON-STOP sailing race around the world. You read that right, SOLO NON-STOP! Not only do these brave (crazy!?) sailors race all alone around the world without stopping, they do so in the Southern Ocean, where some of the planet’s worst weather is found. The next Vendee Globe starts in October of 2012, so for now I’ll have to be content passing the offseason by following the progress of the VOR.

Sailing Dreams...Winterizing the Soul

2011-11-07T20:51:00.001-05:00

I'm continually racing to catch my mind after fall haul-out as it sprints away from another oncoming winter. S/V Island Bound is safely resting on her jackstands and the winterization tasks are complete. The winterization of my soul begins with dreaming of sailing adventure. So I figured this is a good time to share one of my favorite "dreamer" quotes:

"All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

The quote is from T.E. Lawrence, better known to some as "Lawrence of Arabia". The British army officer likely didn't have sailing on his mind when he made the statement in his autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. At the time Lawrence was serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918. But still, his words force me to be aware of what time of day I dream about sailing far.

Best Apps for Sailing and Boating

2011-10-23T20:02:00.006-04:00

I've often said that one of my favorite aspects of sailing is the ease at which you can unplug yourself from the complexities and over abundance of technologies. However, I'm also a bit of a gadget junkie and have become very fond of my iPad, even while on the boat. What follows is a list of my favorite apps for sailing. All are available in Apple's app store (and likely in the Android market too) and work on both an iPad and iPhone.

1) Navionics HD: While expensive compared to most apps, Navionics HD is an outright bargain when compared to tradition chartplotters. The bathymetric charts are beautifully detailed and include the option of overlaying Google Earth, Bing aerial photos or topographic terrain maps for land. Functions include tracks, route planning and guidance, speed data and many other goodies you would expect from a gps plotter. You can my more in depth review of the Navionics app here.

2) Sail Master: This is a simple app, but it looks and works great. Think of Sail Master as your digital instrument panel. The app shows boat speed, boat position (lat & long), and heading. As a bonus, there's also an inclinometer to see your angle of heel. Each instrument can be shown onscreen individually or in a nice combo screen showing all data. The teak and brass look of the instruments really makes the aesthetics pop.

3) Ship Finder HD: If you don't have AIS on your boat, Ship Finder brings the data to a screen near you...sort of. You can't transmit your position with the app, but any commercial or recreational vessel that's transmitting can be displayed on your screen. You'll get the usual AIS data such as vessel destination, course, speed, length, etc. This probably shouldn't be relied upon for navigation and traffic avoidance, but it's a fun tool.

4) Wind Meter: Here's your anemometer for the iPhone. This isn't quite as accurate as a handheld Windmate or your masthead anemometer, but it's a cheap, simple app that gives wind data good enough to be useful. I love the ingenuity of using the wind noise coming through the iPhone microphone combined with algorithms to spit out an approximate wind speed.

5) Compass HD: This is as simple as it sounds - just a nautical-looking and functional compass for your idevice.

6) MyRadar: There are many good weather apps available and most include weather radar. However, not many are as simple, reliable and quick as MyRadar if all you're concerned with is seeing what storms are headed your way.

7) Star Walk: What better place to view the glory of the night sky than offshore on a sailboat? The Star Walk app shows users exactly what they're looking at in realtime. Just hold the iPad toward the sky and the screen displays constellations, stars, planets and even satellites overhead. There's also a search function that will direct your eyes toward the stellar object that you're looking for. This app is simply amazing and must be experienced.

8) Cruisers Forum: Perhaps the largest online cruising community can be found at CruisersForum.com. Now you can stay active on the forums with your mobile device by using the Cruisers Forum app.

9) Cruising World: iPads are excellent for viewing magazine a content and Cruising World magazine is the first (far as I can tell) sailing mag to publish issues digitally for IOS devices.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Fall storms (and surfing!) on Lake Michigan

2011-10-18T09:46:00.002-04:00

While the fall season means that the sailboat gets pulled from the water and tucked away for winter hibernation, I always look forward to watching a few big storms come ashore on Lake Michigan.

Here's some video footage shot on September 29, 2011 at Grand Haven:

And for those of you who (including my daughters) that wonder if anyone ever surfs on the Great Lakes, here's your answer:

Weekend Cruising Destinations: South Manitou Island

2011-10-11T21:19:00.000-04:00

The following post is a reprint of an article of mine that was published in the July 2011 issue of SAIL Magazine. Enjoy!

Weekend Cruising Destinations
South Manitou Island, Michigan (Lake Michigan)
by Kevin Walters

As we approached the southern end of South Manitou Island the wreck of the cargo ship Francisco Morazan came into view resting in shallow waters where she ran aground in 1960. My daughters had plenty of questions about how the wreck got there, what happened to the crew (all survived) and what was left inside. If we had more time we could have anchored nearby and took the dinghy and snorkeling gear over for a closer look. Earlier that morning we departed the harbor at Frankfort, Michigan bound for the quiet calm we hoped to find in the lee of South Manitou Island. The 26-mile passage provides a perfect daylong sail. Our southern approach to South Manitou Island included rounding Sleeping Bear Point and eventually crossing the busy shipping lane in Manitou Passage. Our two daughters played quietly below in the cabin while my wife and I scanned the horizon looking for freighters as the autopilot obediently steered our course to solitude.

South Manitou Island is part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore and is the southern most island in a chain that extends all the way to the Straits of Mackinac. The western shore has high sandy bluffs while the eastern shore has a low-lying rocky beach. There’s a National Park Service ranger station on the eastern side but the island is uninhabited. Having an island to ourselves for exploration was an exciting adventure for the entire crew. The only safe overnight anchorage is in the large and deep crescent shaped bay on the eastern shore of the island. Anchoring here is only advisable if the wind is from the N/NW, which it was on the weekend we visited. We dropped the hook in about 30 feet of clear blue water and went to shore in the dinghy. The beach is almost entirely smooth, surf-pounded rocks. A trail led us inland about 1 mile to discover an abandoned farm, orchard and horse-drawn farm equipment from the 1800’s when the island had residents. We eventually made our way to the old one room schoolhouse and imagined island life in the 19th century as we peeked through the windows. On the hike back to the beach we witnessed an amazing example of camouflage. A small yellow butterfly appeared to be resting on an equally brilliant yellow flower. On closer inspection we found that the butterfly was actually ambushed by an amazing yellow spider that apparently hides out on yellow flowers waiting for its’ prey to make a landing.

Later back on board our sailboat, we enjoyed the calmest evening I’ve ever witnessed on Lake Michigan and were mesmerized watching the boat floated over her slack anchor rode on the placid water. We took full advantage of being the boat in the anchorage that evening as the bay and forested backdrop echoed our shouts, songs and family laughter. Sleep was peaceful under the crescent moon in the crescent-shaped natural harbor on our own little deserted island. The next morning we found that our anchor had snagged. After a lot of effort and nearly an hour, we finally wrangled the hook back onboard and brought a large (6’x6’) section of rusted metal up from the deep blue. I re-checked the charts and realized that we may have anchored right over one of the numerous wrecks scattered about the Manitou Islands. If you plan to anchor at South Manitou, pick your anchorage very carefully! Although South Manitou Island is only a few miles offshore, the quiet solitude of the island felt oceans apart and proved to be the perfect retreat for a couple of days.

A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel: Part 5

2011-09-25T18:53:00.003-04:00

Best North Channel Cruising Tips

The North Channel is a unique cruising destination and therefore there are some things that just don’t fit into any of the previous "Best of" categories but still merit mention in an article titled “A Cruiser’s Best of the North Channel”. So to conclude this series of blog posts, I'm presenting you with my "Best North Channel Cruising Tips".

Tip 1: North Channel Cruiser's Net
Every cruising season between July 1 and August 31, Roy Eaton broadcasts a very useful and entertaining VHF radio (channel 74) network specifically for North Channel cruisers. The net begins at 9 a.m. and lasts approximately 30 to 45 minutes. Roy starts each broadcast with calls for any emergency or priority traffic. Then he moves to world, national and local news stories, all communicated professionally and with a good dose of humor. Then the broadcast continues with check-ins from any cruisers picking up the signal anywhere in the North Channel. At this time Roy and any boat calling in share relevant information, ask cruising related questions and generally keep a sense of community among those cruising the North Channel. The whole show comes across as a call-in AM radio show and is as far as I know, unique in the Great Lakes cruising world. Similar cruising nets are found for those venturing to the South Pacific and the Caribbean. Without this valuable resource, we would never have known that current water levels and conditions would allow us to access the normally very shallow port of Spanish in Ontario. Be sure to tune in if you’re in the area to be a part of the net!

Tip 2: Cruise early in the season
We arrived in the North Channel in mid-June and didn’t share a single anchorage with another boat until early July, including popular spots such as South Benjamin Island. If the weather permits, cruising the North Channel in June (or earlier!) can be a great wilderness experience. Not only will you have your choice of anchorages, you’ll also likely enjoy higher water levels, as they tend to go down throughout the season. As soon as Canada Day arrives on July 1, the North Channel starts to awaken and cruisers begin populating the many island, bay and cove anchorages right through August. Cruise early and have your choice of anchorages at the popular spots and then spend the busier periods in lesser-known gunkholes.

Tip 3: Visit Baie Fine, but don’t anchor in the Pool
While the beautiful freshwater fjord (largest in the world!) of Baie Fine is deservedly very popular, the Pool at the far end is massively overrated. The water is murky and brown with what little depth there is taken up by overgrown aquatic vegetation. This makes anchoring very difficult and also makes props and rudders badly entangled with weeds very likely. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t visit the Pool, but rather don’t plan on anchoring there. There are some nice anchorages at the far end of Baie Fine in the narrows before reaching the Pool that are scenic and well protected. Once secured in one of those more preferable spots, take your dinghy to the Pool for exploring and don’t miss the short hike up to Topaz Lake at the Pool’s entrance. Locals and long time North Channel cruisers say that the Pool wasn’t always so shallow and overgrown with weeds, but that’s the reality today.

Ending a best-of list for the North Channel is like ending a maintenance list for your sailboat: There’s always more that can be added and you’re never really done. This series of blog posts is really just a starting point for planning a North Channel cruise. Hopefully you’ve gleaned a few tips and added a few items to your itinerary, or maybe you’ve just had something on your itinerary affirmed. In any case, if you’re fortunate enough to cruise the North Channel, savor every moment, as you really can’t go wrong if you’ve made it this far!

A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel: Part 4

2011-09-13T19:52:00.002-04:00

Best Towns
The towns in the North Channel are typically small and isolated from larger population centers. This lends itself to a certain charm and quaintness. You won’t find Wal-Mart and Home Depot nor a Starbucks on every block, which means you might have to sometimes search and improvise to meet your needs. But typically cruisers are known for their ingenuity and self-sufficiency, so no worries!

For Quaint Adventure: Kagawong, Manitoulin Island

Kagawong is a small, out of the way stop deep inside of Mudge Bay on Manitoulin Island. Kagawong isn’t a major stop for provisioning. There’s a small market store across the street from the marina, but they carry very few groceries. If you want a bigger selection you’ll have to hoof it a mile or so up the hill on the way out of town and stop in at the gas station that carries a few more provisions such as milk, frozen meats, and canned goods. The point is, don’t come to Kagawong for provisioning. Come to Kagawong to visit the unique St. John’s Anglican Church (“The Sailor’s Church) and see the nautical décor, including the pulpit made from the bow of a sunken boat. Come to walk under Bridal Veil Falls as water falls down from up high. Come to let the kids wander through the rock maze and the bush maze or slide down the spiraling water slide at the beach. Come to have a quiet lunch experience at Tweebles, an Irish teashop. Simply put, come to Kagawong for quaint adventure.

For Amenities: Little Current, Manitoulin Island

Little Current boasts several marinas all within easy walking distance to town. With over 2,000 residents in the surrounding area, Little Current is also the largest town you are likely to visit while in the North Channel. As such, you can find just about anything you might need from a hardware store to multiple coffee shops. There is also a choice of two groceries stores, though neither is convenient for walking if you plan to purchase more than just a backpack full of goods. You can, however, request a ride back to the marina for a nominal fee. You’ll also find a good selection of restaurants to choose from and plenty of souvenirs and clothing stores as well. There are nearby parks to walk to, internet access (WiFi) in many locations and an active community with several events and activities held along the waterfront throughout the cruising season.

For Provisioning: Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island

In addition to the fine chandlery at Canadian Yacht Charters mentioned in previous posts, Gore Bay also offers a large grocery store within reasonable walking distance from the marina. There are also a few local bakeries, LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) for beer and liquor, and a small hardware store. If you can’t find what you need in Gore Bay you likely won’t find it anywhere else in the North Channel either.

Stay tuned for the final post in this series featuring my "best tips" for North Channel cruising.

A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel: Part 3

2011-08-26T07:25:00.000-04:00

The North Channel's Best Marinas
The North Channel is famous for its’ many beautiful, secluded anchorages, but not necessasarily its’ local marinas. With a shorter cruising season than most places, North Channel marinas are likely subjected to comparatively little income from transient and seasonal boaters. This subsequently translates to smaller marinas that are often very dated and in need of upgrades and repairs. In any case, there are still some marinas in the North Channel that are a cut above.

Best Facilities: Sportsman’s Inn, Killarney

The Sportsman’s Inn in Killarney is newly renovated with top-notch floating docks made of wood. The shorepower and water hook-ups are also all new as of 2009. Shoreside there is an adequate ship’s store with basic boating supplies, snacks, and souvenirs. The showers and bathroom facilities are also new and very nice with tongue and groove pine walls and ceilings. The Inn itself features a nice dining room as well as a pub that serves typical pub fare with free WiFi Internet service. Fuel is available on the docks.

Best Service: Kagawong Marina, Kagawong

Kagawong’s municipal marina is small and due for updates. However, the dockage is adequate. What sets this marina apart is the polite and friendly service from the young staff. They greet boaters at the dock to help with lines and then promptly supply a welcome packet as soon as the boat is safely secured. Farquhar’s ice cream is even available on the dock in the marina office!

Best Chandlery: Gore Bay Marina, Gore Bay

Gore Bay Marina has very nice newer docks but their bathroom and shower facilities are due for an upgrade. However, the reason they make this list is for the superb chandlery available at the Canadian Yacht Charters (CYC) facility nestled in the marina basin. CYC offers nearly everything you could need to outfit your boat. They have all the North Channel charts available electronically and in paper format, a great selection of gear and several necessities for general boat maintenance. Lastly, the folks who run CYC are very knowledgeable about the North Channel and can help you fine-tune your itinerary as well as advice on weather conditions and local intricacies. You’d be hard pressed to find all of this available in any other single port in the North Channel.

A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel: Part 2

2011-08-01T19:41:00.000-04:00

The North Channel's Best Eats

You don’t cruise the North Channel because you’re on a culinary quest. In fact, some of the very best food in the North Channel can be had by dropping a fishing line over your transom. Invariably, however, North Channel cruisers will come in to port from time to time to have a meal prepared for them and relax a bit on shore. When this time comes, the following are some of the places to consider.

Best Lunch: Herbert Fisheries, Killarney
Just as the Benjamin Islands are the most talked about and most frequented islands in the North Channel, Herbert Fisheries is likely the most well-known and popular spot to grab a bite to eat. If ever there was a restaurant atmosphere befitting the North Channel, Herbert Fisheries has it. An old school bus has been painted red and white and converted to a makeshift kitchen and service counter. All of the tables are of the picnic variety and are located on a deck overlooking the dock where the commercial fishing boat pulls in daily to offload fresh fish to Herbert’s. The menu is simple: deep-fried fish, chips (fries) and slaw. That’s about it. There’s a self-serve condiment table with several varieties of vinegar to dip your fish into. If you go to Herbert Fisheries, and you should, don’t forget you’ll be eating outside so you want decent weather and they only accept cash. If the sun is out and you’ve got loonies in your pocket, you can’t beat the flavor and setting of fish and chips from the bus on the dock.

Best Dinner: Meldrum Bay Inn, Meldrum Bay (Cockburn Island)

These days there’s not much to bring a cruiser into port at Meldrum Bay. The marina is rather run down (a new marina is in the works) and there’s nothing within walking distance except Meldrum Bay Inn. In fact, if it weren’t for a customs check-in spot and port of refuge on the trip between Drummond Island and Manitoulin Island, most cruisers would likely skip Meldrum Bay and Cockburn Island altogether. If you do find yourself in Meldrum Bay, stop by the Meldrum Bay Inn just across the street from the marina for a great home cooked dinner. As you walk up the big covered porch at the inn, you’ll feel like you’re being welcomed into someone’s home even before you enter the cozy living room and wait on the couch for your table. If you brought your laptop you can enjoy the free WiFi Internet service. The eating area is small with few tables so you might consider reservations during July and August. The Meldrum Bay Inn is family run by friendly locals who make most of the meals from scratch. Fresh walleye, steak and ribs are the most popular menu choices. There’s also a full bar if you’re in need of a sundowner. The menu prices are a bit on the high side, but what else would you expect on a small isolated island when getting good service and great food?

Desert/Indulgence: Farquhar Dairies, Little Current
With short summers and long, cold winters, the North Channel might be the last place you’d expect to find some of the world’s best ice cream. The Farquhar family and Farquhar Daires have been producing excellent ice cream and dairy products for years in the relative isolation of Manitoulin Island. However, there’s not a North Channel cruiser to be found that hasn’t tried a cone of some of their ice cream. The flavor selection is excellent, including a local favorite made with hawberries, and the consistency is rich and creamy. If you’re strolling the waterfront in Little Current or simply waiting for the swing bridge to open, take a few minutes to stop by Farquhar’s and treat yourself to the some of the best ice cream anywhere.

Check back soon for the next edition of "A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel" where I'll be giving you my picks for best marinas.

A Cruising Sailor's Best of Lake Huron's North Channel: Part 1

2011-07-13T19:19:00.000-04:00

The next several blog posts will include my compilation of the very best that Lake Huron's North Channel has to offer to cruisers. Each post will feature a "Best of" category, starting today with the North Channel's Best Anchorages. Subsequent categories will include "Best Eats", "Best Marinas", "Best Towns" and "Best North Channel Cruising Tips".

There’s a lot for a cruiser to love in Lake Huron’s North Channel. Indeed, The North Channel itself could be included in a list titled “World’s Best Cruising Grounds.” However difficult it may be to single out specific locations and features of the North Channel as the best, I’ve tried to do so to the best of my ability in the following posts. Even after cruising the North Channel for almost an entire summer, I only began to scratch the surface of the many great locations that one could spend several full seasons exploring. Therefore, it’s very possible that I’ve left out some of your favorite spots. And like all good “best of” lists, there’s plenty of room for debate about what’s been included and what’s been omitted.

Best North Channel Anchorages
This is the bread and butter of the North Channel and picking favorites is not easy as nearly every anchorage is more impressively scenic and ideal. After an extended cruise and pouring over the charts, I’m convinced that a cruiser could spend a lifetime exploring the endless number of anchorages available in the North Channel.

Most Scenic: South Benjamin Island (south side in the narrows)
The Benjamin Island group, including Croker Island, is quintessential North Channel and lure enough by itself to draw hundreds of cruising boats each year. You can hardly go wrong choosing where to drop the hook in the many bays surrounding the islands. But my personal favorite for scenary is in the narrow passage along the south shore of South Benjamin Island. The passage zigzags through rocky boulders for about 100 yards or so and offers room for just a select few boats to anchor. However, if you’re one of the lucky few to find an open spot, you’ve hit the jackpot. The views of the North Channel and South Benjamin Island are out of this world. Giant pink granite boulders the size of houses make you feel like you’re on another planet. The water in the passage is perfect for swimming with plenty of ledges to leap from and clear blue water to paddle in. There’s not a lot of room for excessive anchor scope or swinging, however, there are several iron rings cemented into the granite to use as mooring points to spider web your boat securely in place. The 3 or 4 little coves act as granite slips in nature’s best marina. The only downside to this anchorage is its popularity. In June you may be fortunate enough to have some time alone in this spot, but anyone cruising in July and August can expect company. Despite the sometimes crowded spectacle of the Benjamins in mid-summer, a visit to the south side of South Benjamin is worth it.

Most Secluded: Pilot Cove, Drummond Island

While cruisers entering the North Channel from the East may overlook Drummond Island as a destination, those coming from Lake Michigan or Lake Superior have Drummond Island as a gateway. After leaving civilization behind in Detour Village, many cruisers view Harbor Island in Potagannissing Bay as the only viable anchorage on the way to Cockburn Island, Manitoulin Island and points east. However, the eastern side of Drummond Island near Marble Head hides a little gem of an anchorage called Pilot Cove. The shoreline of Sitgreaves Bay near Pilot Cove curls finely like the tip of an elf’s shoe to form a perfectly protected natural harbor. The entrance to the cove is very narrow at only about twenty feet, but this isn’t necessarily a problem. What can be a problem is the shallow depth through this narrow entrance. The depth can teeter on only about five feet or less in a low water years. The bottom is gravelly rock; so enter with extreme caution if you don’t have a shoal draft boat. Use a dinghy along with a handheld depthsounder to check water depths before proceeding into the cove. If you find yourself at Pilot Cove and don’t think you can make it through the shallow entrance, you can still anchor out in sandy Sitgreaves Bay if the wind and wave forecast permits. Inside Pilot Cove is an ideal spot for passing a few days’ time. The cove deepens and widens inside the entrance enough so that 2 or 3 boats can anchor snuggly. But be aware of the many timbers littering the bottom that can easily foul your anchor. Privacy and seclusion are the order du jour. There are plenty of trails ashore for exploring and lots of perfectly sized boulders to use as a fire ring. White-tailed deer often wander down to the waters edge to share the anchorage at dusk.

Best Overall: Browning Cove, Heywood Island
If you’re east of Little Current and have North Channel big hitters like Baie Fine and Covered Portage Cove on your itinerary, don’t overlook a favorite anchorage among locals in Browning Cove on Heywood Island in the open waters north of Manitowaning Bay. I suspect many first time North Channel cruisers hurry past low-lying Heywood Island while exploring the area between Little Current and Killarney. If shoreside hiking and exploration is your fancy, than Heywood might not satisfy because its thick forests that make going ashore very difficult. However, if turquoise water, a sand beach and plentiful wildlife sound inviting, read on. Heywood Island has one large and well-protected bay on its northwestern edge with a small (~100 feet wide) channel stretching east behind tiny Browning Island into Browning Cove. The larger harbor can get busy in July, but there’s plenty of room for lots of boats to swing at anchor. If you enter the large harbor and don’t like the view or feel crowded, veer east down the tiny channel. The water quickly drops to 20 feet at the shore’s edge so you can (and should!) take a stern line to shore and tie off to a tree, North Channel-style. This keeps the boat from swinging and leaves the stern within feet of the forested shore. You’ll feel like you’re at a floating wilderness campsite! The low wooded island is known as a haven for many species of birds, including nesting bald eagles and loons. The beautiful turquoise water is very inviting and swimming is excellent. Browning Island provides great protection from any weather brewing out in the open water. Don’t forget to take a dinghy ride over to the large sandy beach and wide sandy shoal in the big harbor. Sand beaches are a rare find in the North Channel and the one on Heywood Island is one of the best. This is one of the spots that is the whole package: opportunities to socialize in the big harbor, seclusion in the little channel, sand beach, beautiful water, good protection and abundant wildlife.

Why I Sail

2011-06-08T08:11:00.000-04:00

The simplest answer to the question of why I sail is that something deep inside of me is drawn to the wind and the water with the intensity of a double-reefed beat to windward in lumpy seas on a cold and wet Lake Michigan morning. But I have to admit there’s much more to it than that. It’s not just a deep desire to fulfill the yearning inside that keeps me sailing. In an age where consumerism tries to convince us that faster is better and that life is easier lived through our laptops and iPhones, it may seem odd to non-sailors why some of us take to the water in something crassly powered by wind. In fact, maybe it’s not even obvious to those of us who are sailors.

Sailors from years ago had an obvious reason to sail. They needed to cross oceans and sailing provided the only means. But steamships brought a new means. In the business of claiming new lands and transporting valuable goods, time is money and steam power equaled speed when compared to a square-rigger wallowing in the doldrums. Yet while switching to steamships made some men rich, others still today chase priceless treasure with the wind filling their canvas and their spirits. Money may be one reason why some mariners no longer sail but the “free”dom of sail helps explain part of my own infatuation with sailing. A cruising sailor who patiently relishes the adventure of the journey can circumnavigate the world on a very modest boat and budget without much need for speed.

In addition to providing a relatively affordable way to see the world, sailing is also addictive. There's something about riding the wind and the waves that makes the destination matter very little, but the journey matter a whole lot. Maybe it has something to do with the way sailing makes you slow down and breathe in the world around you. Out there on the blue there's no internet, no cell phones, no bad reality television, no dramatic news headlines, no hands racing around the numbers on some clock on the wall. There's only the wind, waves and your dreams. Last summer on my most ambitious cruise to date I made a major deposit in my memory bank, but it turns out that only halfway through the off-season I had greedily overdrawn my account. Like a hungry Wall Street broker, I can’t seem to ever have enough in my memory bank account, but sailing helps me make the biggest deposits.

While on a family cruise of over 1,000 nautical miles in Lake Huron’s North Channel for the better part of last summer my understanding of why I sail increased and developed immensely. We spent most nights secluded at anchor, but of course occasionally had to come in to port to provision. As lovely and quaint as some of the North Channel ports are, there wasn’t much to keep us there for very long. Even if the local marinas had all the amenities of our home marina (pool, showers, playground, electricity, etc.), the weather was the only thing that kept us in port beyond time needed to refill the icebox and food bin. We grew quite fond of life on the hook among the islands of the North Channel. Again I was reminded that there’s just something freeing about being unplugged from the electricity, sounds, smells and sights of civilization. At anchor and on passage you learn what you really need and you learn how to get it. More importantly you learn what you don’t need and you live without it. Life as a serious cruising sailor is just that simple.

I’m not trying to suggest that sailing offers freedom from responsibility. Oh no, that kind of freedom is definitely not offered. There’s plenty of responsibility required to live the cruising life. Among the many responsibilities of a cruising sailor are keeping the crew and vessel safe, maintaining morale, watching and interpreting the weather and a whole host of other necessities. I am, however, suggesting that sailing can offer freedom from the flaws and pressures of society. You are who you are when you sail and not what society expects you to be. In fact, I believe sailing actually makes you more of who you are. If you’re someone who is obsessed with technology while on land, you’ll be even more so when you immerse yourself in the acronym soup of technology available to sailors (AIS, GPS, VHF, SSB, etc.). If on land you’re someone who needs close connection with friends and family, you’ll find yourself either sailing with or longing for them when at sea. The rigors, challenges and rewards found aboard a sailing vessel intensify your core being.

Still, there are those atypical times after a long, hard passage or after many consecutive nights spent at anchor that my mind begins to betray my sailor’s soul and I catch myself thinking about how nice it would be to tread on solid ground. Luckily once on land my thoughts make a quick tack and I find myself craving the motion of the boat, the smell of the watery air and the wind whooshing across my sails. So I admit there are rare occasions when I think about the land while on the water, but conversely there’s almost no time ashore when I’m not thinking about sailing again. I’m convinced that a sailor needs the perspective gained from the contrast of the land and sea just as every sunset needs the dawn to form the next day. The contrast makes it all flow and helps to further answer the question of why I sail.

But alas, don’t think sailing doesn’t come with hardships and that cruising is just palm trees and martinis and time spent splish-splashing the days away in the tropics. I’ve mentioned a lot to like about sailing, a lot to be inspired by, but it all comes neatly packaged with serious trade-offs. If you don’t know it already, you’ll find sailing also includes storms, shoals, reefs, freighters to dodge, big waves, exhaustion, never-ending maintenance, repairs, loneliness, and any number of other challenges. Fortunately, the unforgettably good experiences, wonderful sights, interesting people and personal growth that comes from living and traveling on a small sailboat as a family in a seemingly far away place easily outweighed those challenges for me personally.

I remember not so long ago when I was afraid to fly our symmetrical spinnaker simply because I never had before. Well that, and because it’s a lot of canvas and horsepower dangling un-tacked in front of the bow and the word that scares a lot of sailors was in the front of my mind (“Broach!”). Now after finding the courage to hoist that big, beautiful sail I’m blessed with the knowledge that trying should precede saying “I can’t”. Sailing has confirmed for me that whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re correct! So that’s it, right? I sail because I find personal reward in rising to the challenges. Yes, that’s another piece to the puzzle, but there’s still more.

Sailing gives me a deep sense of adventure and self-sufficiency, even if I don’t always capitalize on that feeling. I grew up near Lake Michigan and still keep my sailboat in the powerboat-centric port of Grand Haven on the big lake’s eastern shore. I’m comforted knowing that the world is literally just a toss of the docklines away. I haven’t done it yet, but I could make my way out through the Erie Canal or St. Lawrence River and then have just about any port on the globe available as a waypoint on a course around our watery world. There’s real adventure, power and freedom in that thought. Perhaps only an airplane pilot can know the same feeling, though they can’t possibly be as self-sufficient with their need for fuel, airports and much shorter periods away from civilization.

Serious cruising (or racing in an event like the Vendee Globe) on a sailboat requires and rewards self-sufficiency. Cruising many miles from land on a sailboat, you have nothing except the wind, the waves and that which you brought onboard. Good offshore, bluewater sailors know that they must be competent in many skills. On a long passage you need to be your own mechanic, navigator, doctor, chef and any number of other professions. I very much like the idea of being able to survive in harmony with the water and my fiberglass ticket to adventure. I also cherish the dreams I have about the wind carrying me to far away places and my sailboat serving as home. Self-sufficiency is simple and complex at the same time and again the contrast seems to be what I find so fulfilling.

So what does it all mean? Inner yearnings, freedom, contrasts, challenges and rewards all sound like good, if a bit idyllic, explanations as to why I sail. Sailing is helping me to discover myself. I’m finding I have talents I didn’t know I had and talents I didn’t think I had a use for. But the best answer of all may be that sailing keeps me searching for new answers. And as I sail and search like iconic explorers from hundreds of years ago, I continue to find.

Up The Mast (as published in Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine)

2011-05-25T19:11:00.000-04:00

The following is an article I wrote for Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine that is currently on newstands in the June, 2011 edition:

Up the Mast
By Kevin Walters

Sooner or later your mast and the hardware installed on or in it will need inspection, repair or maintenance. Ideally, an inspection of your mast should be done annually. This of course means going up the stick if the mast is already stepped. If your boat isn’t equipped with mast steps or you don’t have specialized mast ascender gear, you can still get the job done with mostly what you already should have on board. The prudent sailor will take the time to learn and practice the procedures to make a successful and safe ascent and descent before they are truly needed.

As mentioned, you may need to go up the mast for any number of reasons such as re-taping spreader boots, rigging flag lines, inspecting standing rigging or installing any number of masthead hardware (wind vane, anchor light, antenna, etc.). Therefore, go up prepared with the following equipment in addition to anything specific you’ll need for your intended job:

Rigging tape and duct tape
Screw drivers (one flat, one Philips)
Multi-tool (i.e. Leatherman, Swiss Army Knife, etc.)
Rope long enough to reach the deck from the top of the mast in case you need to pass something down or have something sent up
Camera

All tools should be either kept in a drawstring bag or secured directly to your bosun’s chair or climbing harness. The bag should also be attached to prevent bombing the deck and crew below with tools and equipment. The camera can be used to take pictures of questionable things seen during inspection and to help log what’s on the masthead for future reference. Of course, taking pictures looking down at the deck while up on the mast is mandatory because they just look so neat!

Bosun’s chairs are purpose-built for mast ascents. However, rock climbing harnesses can be just as suitable and are often more affordable. In particular, the Alpine BOD climbing harness from Black Diamond is a good choice for budget minded sailors while still offering all the necessary safety features. Additionally, the climber should consider wearing a helmet (bike helmets work well) and a life vest to protect against being swung into the mast, particularly if the ascent will take place at sea or in windy conditions. A tether is also highly useful to keep the climber close to the mast if climbing while at sea. Never climb the mast while the boat is on the hard as stability can be compromised and cement will cause more injury than water should an accident occur.

You’ll need two halyards to ascend the mast. The main halyard should be used as the primary uplift and any of the other halyards (back up main or headsail halyard) as the back up. Tie a bowline knot to secure the main halyard to the bosun’s chair or harness instead of using the shackle by itself as it can accidentally be released with dire consequences. However, the shackle should also be connected as a secondary precaution. Use the same set-up for the back-up halyard. If you have wire-to-rope halyards that cannot take a knot, be certain to use tape or seizing wire to prevent the shackle from accidentally releasing. If your halyard winch is mounted on the mast, consider using snatch blocks to route the halyard back to a cockpit mounted sheet winch to keep the area beneath the mast clear.

Ideally, at least three people should be used to ascend the mast. One serves as the climber while the other two each work the primary and back-up winches. Using the lightest of the three-person crew as the climber makes hoisting easier and leaves the bigger and likely stronger crewmembers on the winches. If you do not have self-tailing winches you may need an additional helper to tail. If your boat is equipped with rope clutches for the halyards, be certain they are closed and locked when ascending.

Using the primary halyard and a winch, slowly begin to hoist the climber up the mast. The climber should help by using arms and feet to shimmy up if possible. The person on the back-up halyard should take up slack every 1 or 2 feet, cleating off the halyard as the climber is hoisted to prevent an accidental slip. Once the climber has reached the necessary height on the mast, both halyards should be secured by cleating. Movement on deck should be kept to a minimum because any boat movement will be amplified for the climber up on the mast. When the work is complete be sure to have the climber take the requisite pictures looking down at the crew on deck. Then slowly reverse the ascent process to lower the climber in a controlled manner.

If done properly and cautiously, ascending the mast can become a rewarding part of your annual sailboat maintenance repertoire and help prevent rig failures by inspecting and repairing potential trouble spots. And don’t forget you’ll have some great photos to use as your computer’s wallpaper in the off-season!

Author Bio:
Kevin Walters and his family (wife & two daughters) cruise the Great Lakes each summer aboard their Irwin 28. They pride themselves in doing nearly all of their own maintenance and repairs.

The Fine Art of Gunkholing

2011-04-23T19:05:00.000-04:00

I spent some free time during this past off season writing about our adventures and experiences on our 3 month cruise in the North Channel. Several of my musings are set to be published in an assortment of sailing magazines, but the first to hit the newstands is an article I wrote on gunkholing for SAIL Magazine. The article was published in the March edition of SAIL, but the editors have now gotten around to posting the article on SAIL's website for those who don't get the print edition. If you haven't read it, check it out here: The Fine Art of Gunkholing by Kevin Walters

The Nation of the Sea Mourns

2011-02-23T19:52:00.003-05:00

One of the most iconic long-distance sailors and pioneer of the cruising life, Bernard Moitessier, once said: “I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea.”

I think a thread of Moitessier’s thoughts about living a life as a citizen of the sea is woven into all of those who have been bitten by the cruising bug. And as such, the cruising community populates the nation of the sea. This week that nation mourns for the tragic loss of four fellow cruisers. By now you’ve probably heard about the sailing vessel Quest, Jean and Scott Adam (owners) and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle (guests aboard Quest). These four Americans had their lives needlessly taken from them after being held hostage on their sailboat by pirates.

I’m definitely not a very political person. In the nearly four years and over 100 posts that I’ve been blogging I’ve never felt compelled to share a story with so many political details. But something inside of me is deeply and disturbingly stirred by the fate of Jean, Scott, Phyllis and Bob. Maybe it has something to do with my own cruising dreams and fears. Maybe it’s the thread that connects some of myself to Moitessier and the ill-fated crew of the Quest. No matter the reason, I want to try and summarize what I know of their story here, but to do so means venturing into uncharted blogging waters for me. I know most of you have heard the basics of this tragedy already, but the emerging details and the missing facts are interesting at the very least.

Jean and Scott Adam, from California, were in their sixth year of their global circumnavigation aboard their 58-foot sailboat, Quest. Like many dreamers and cruisers, they relished the places they visited and the people they met along the way. Their website (now unavailable) reveals that part of their “quest” was to “allow the power of the Word to transform lives.” They did so partly by distributing Bibles to places they traveled all over the globe. They had been sailing as part of a fleet of cruising vessels (Blue Water Rally) since leaving Thailand. The Gulf of Aden and an alarmingly growing part of the Indian Ocean is well known among the cruising community as a dangerous area because of pirate activity. Sailing as part of a rally provides safety. Macay and Riggle, from Washington State, are veteran circumnavigators who joined the Adam’s as crew for part of the rally.

For an unknown reason, Quest broke off from the rally fleet on February 15, 2011 after departing the port of Mumbai, India to cross the Indian Ocean en route to the Red Sea. Sometime on February 19, 2001, pirates hijacked Quest in the Indian Ocean approximately 190 nautical miles southeast of Masirah Island, Oman. The United States Navy began to closely monitor Quest and dedicated four warships to its’ recovery: the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, and the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Bulkeley. According to US Central Command, at approximately 1am on February 22, 2011, “while negotiations were ongoing to secure the release of four American hostages, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the pirated vessel (S/V) Quest. As they responded to gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.”

Apparently, the pirates had sent two of their own over to the USS Sterett the day before to meet with FBI negotiators. Shortly before 1am on February 22, a rocket propelled grenade was launched at the Sterett but ultimately missed its’ target. Immediately thereafter, gunfire was heard onboard Quest and US Special Forces (SEALS?) were sent in small boats to Quest. Upon the Special Forces reaching Quest, 13 pirates came on deck and walked to the bow of the sailboat and surrendered with their hands in the air. The crew of Quest was found mortally wounded in the cockpit while two additional pirates were also found dead aboard Quest. Yet another two pirates were killed (one by gunshot, the other by knife wound) when the Special Forces men cleared the Quest. The 13 pirates who surrendered were detained along with the two pirates already aboard the USS Sterett. Thus far, there’s no word on if the two pirates found dead were killed during infighting among the pirates, killed by the crew of the Quest or some other possible means such as sniper fire from the US Navy. The Navy is only reporting that they were found dead onboard and denies that they were killed by US forces. The US Navy was intent on not letting the pirated Quest make it to port in Somalia where negotiations would become much more difficult. Reports by the Associated Press and interviews with pirates by Reuters indicate the pirates were attempting to take the Quest near Hobyo in Somalia.

This Reuters' article quotes two Somali pirates who spoke with Reuters by phone as saying “Our colleagues called us this morning, that they were being attacked by a U.S. warship. We ordered our comrades to kill the four Americans before they got killed.” Another Somali pirate leader speaking from the pirate stronghold in the Puntland region of northern Somalia was also quoted as saying “I lost the money I invested and my comrades. No forgiveness for the Americans. Revenge. Our business will go on.” He later added that he had invested $110,000 in weapons, food and salaries for the Quest hijacking. [As an aside, does anyone else find it striking that the pirates and some of their leaders are seemingly available for interviews and comments, yet they are still allowed to carry on with their disgusting pirate-ways?]

Unfortunately we’ll likely never know the true story of what happened during the several days of the hijacking or the final minutes before the hostages were executed. Could this have been a botched rescue by the Navy? Could the pirates have begun fighting with each other over the terms of a negotiation? Perhaps the U.S. Navy told them that they would not be allowed to reach land and this caused panic among the pirates. Maybe they were told there would be no ransom paid? Why did the pirates unexpectedly launch a rocket-propelled grenade at the USS Sterett? Why did some pirates immediately surrender to the bow of the Quest while two others remained defiantly below deck until being killed? Did the fact that the crew of the Quest was Christian Americans with bibles onboard play a role in their ultimate fate?

Many questions remain and only a few have been answered.

What will happen to the pirates who hijacked Quest?
At this point they are being held aboard a U.S. warship awaiting “justice”. According to U.S. Justice Department spokesmen Dean Boyd the United States “is committed to working with our international partners to ensure that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice.” To me that sounds like lawyers, appeals, more lawyers, long sentences and the burden of keeping these thugs in prison at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. A U.S. prison may very well be an upgrade in living conditions for these pirates. I find spending taxpayer money to defend the rights of pirates who hijacked a U.S. flagged vessel, fired upon a U.S. warship and murdered four Americans very hard to swallow.

Where did the pirates come from?
Pirates in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean generally originate from ports in Somalia. After the collapse of government and the ensuing civil warm in Somalia in 1991, piracy has been on the rise in waters surrounding the eastern horn of Africa. Somali piracy got its’ roots from illegal fishing by foreign boats in Somalian waters and the collapse of local fishing fleets. Local Somali fishermen took to piracy as a response to the loss of their livelihood from fishing. Today the Somali pirate problem continues to escalate and spread its way across the Indian Ocean. The pirates have become increasingly bold from the recent huge ransoms being paid. The pirate bosses stay safe on land in Somalia, free from government authority and recruit young Somali men (some teenagers) to carry out their crimes.

How does Somali piracy work?
The Somali pirates most often prey on commercial and merchant vessels such as container ships with valuable cargo onboard. The cargo and expensive ships are then held for ransom. The ransoms being paid to free these ships has recently been reaching into the millions of dollars. The 2009 hijacking of the commercial container ship Maersk Alabama made national headlines when Captain Richard Phillips was held hostage on a lifeboat until US Navy snipers killed his captors and rescued him. Interestingly, the one surviving pirate who was taken into custody was sentenced to 33 years in prison by a New York court just 2 days before the Quest was hijacked. Internet rumors speculate that the Somali pirates were eager to take an American vessel as revenge for the prison sentence.

Occasionally small private vessels like the Quest have also been hijacked and their crews held hostage for ransom. The most recent story prior to Quest that made global headlines was that of a British sailing couple who were held hostage by Somali pirates for 388 days before being released this past November. When a private vessel is captured, it is taken to one of the many known pirate ports along the Somalia coast and the hostages are held on land.

The pirates have recently been using previously captured large ships as “mother ships” to extend their pirating further from the Somali coast. The mother ships then send smaller vessels to carry out the hijacking after a target has been spotted. Reports estimate that Somali pirates are currently holding at least 40 ships and more than 660 hostages.

What can be done about piracy?
Clearly the motive behind the piracy in the Indian Ocean is collecting ransom money for people, ships or goods being held hostage. If ransoms were not paid, piracy would largely go extinct. If the government in Somalia actually existed, it would be reasonable for the international community to sanction them to clean up the pirating that seems to be centralized in their ports and cities. Blockading known pirating ports such as Hobyo, Harardhere and Labad along the Somali coast is also an option, though blockading is considered an act of war. There are also some who believe the insurance industry is actually profiting from pirating by charging exorbitant premiums to merchant vessels traveling through the area. I’ve also heard others quip that the United States would clean up Somalia if there were something of value there, such as oil.

The United States, the European Union and NATO all have counter piracy task forces working together and there are currently 34 warships from 15 different countries patrolling the area. However, since the pirates have expanded their territory through the use of mother ships for hijacking, it seems no level of policing on the sea will be enough to end all piracy in the Indian Ocean. Perhaps the best solution is to get rid of the land-based pirate leaders who finance, plan and order the hijackings. If only the pirates at sea are captured or killed, the leaders will simply recruit more to do their dirty work. In many ways the situation is very similar to terrorism, though without the political motives.

How can cruisers avoid this area?
Cruising sailors should think long and hard about their intended route around the world. The only real options are: 1) risking the piracy of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden to cruise north of Africa into the Mediterranean Sea, 2) risking the extremely long and potentially very stormy passage around South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, 3) sail back across the Pacific and fight the opposing currents and weather, or 4) pay to have your sailboat transported aboard a cargo ship across the Indian Ocean and into the Mediterranean Sea. Those options don’t make for an easy choice.

I have a goal to do a major cruise someday. I’ve never felt that the cruise has to include a circumnavigation to live up to my lofty expectations. I’m not the kind of sailor who makes decisions based on setting records or checking boxes off on some list. In fact, part of why I sail is to escape such societal values. I do know that if I were doing my world cruise today I’d probably skip the Indian Ocean all together. I think I’d make a u-turn in the Pacific at Australia and ride the Kuroshio and North Pacific Currents back to California.

My heart and prayers go out to the cruisers who lost their lives, to their families and to their friends. In my relatively limited cruising experience, I can safely say that Scott and Jean Adam probably lived more richly, experienced greater splendors and learned more deeply about who they are during their six-year adventure than most people could hope for in a lifetime.

Somehow it seems fitting to end this post with another quote from Moitessier: “My real log is written in the sea and sky; the sails talking with the rain and the stars amid the sounds of the sea, the silences full of secret things between my boat and me.”

Winter Along Lake Michigan

2011-02-13T17:49:00.001-05:00

I’m not a winter person, never have been. The water is just too hard in the winter, as you can see in the pictures below. And while old Lake Michigan herself seems a foreboding February mistress to this sailor, she still entices me with her beauty. I can’t deny the attractiveness of ice, snow and sand piled up to form magnificent shoreline scenery.

Event Review: Strictly Sail Chicago

2011-02-01T11:15:00.002-05:00

The middle of a sailor’s winter here in the Great Lakes is marked by the occurrence of the Strictly Sail show in Chicago at the end of January. Chicago is the perfect host for such a show, with frozen Lake Michigan as a backdrop, skyscrapers creating one the world’s best skylines and deep dish pizza to feed your hunger. The show itself gives you something to look forward to after the holidays are over and helps you ease into your spring maintenance, repairs and upgrades for the coming sailing season. As the nation’s largest indoor all-sailboat show, there’s literally something there for every kind of sailor.

Best In Show: Tartan 4300

While many of my favorite bluewater sailboat builders such as Pacific Seacraft, Valiant and Tayana were not at the show, the Tartan 4300 appealed very well to my salty sensibilities. I have nothing against the higher volume production boat builders like Catalina, Beneteau, Jeanneau and Hunter but you immediately notice a different feel when you step aboard a Tartan. First, the exterior styling is much more traditional with longer overhangs, teak toe and hand rails, a bit of spring in the sheerline and a boxier coachroof. The show boat was also fitted with the optional hard bimini which not only adds shade and protection but also puts the mainsheet traveler on top and completely out of the way. Once you step belowdecks, the look of solid cherry hardwood (as opposed to laminates) gives a cozy feel and showcases good craftsmanship. The cabin layout is also traditional, but nicely done and roomy. My favorite part was the huge nav station abaft the galley. With a cushy ultra-leather chair and plenty of desk and storage space it felt more like an office than a nav station on 43-foot cruiser. FYI - Sabre's 386 was a close second for "Best In Show" and is in a lot of ways similar to the T4300.

Best Feature Seen on a Sailboat: Spa Tub on the Hunter 50CC

Sure, many people are going to say that the Hunter 50 Center Cockpit caters to those who want a floating condo, but there’s nothing wrong with being pampered while you’re staying at the dock. The aft master cabin in the 50CC features a spa-style tub under the berth. The mattress cleverly folds back toward the stern to reveal an athwartship tub with water jets. My only concerns would be the extra maintenance/plumbing required for such a tub and getting water on the cabin sole when you exit the tub. Still, this is a unique feature that I haven’t seen on any other production sailboat of this size.

Best Seminar: Around the World with Bob Bitchin.

Bob is known as a biker from Los Angeles who sold the first magazine he started (“Biker”), bought a boat and cruised around the world for several years. Upon his return he started Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine and recently also purchased another (“Living Aboard”). Bob, along with wife Jody, is a great storyteller and has lots of interesting material from his mishaps and triumphs while cruising. As Bob says, “Attitude is the difference between an adventure and an ordeal”, to which Jody adds “Sometimes it’s just an ordeal!” Another of my favorite Bitchin-isms is “Don’t dream your life, live your dream!”

Other notables from the show…

*The head of the v-berth on both the Catalina 355 and 445 electrically lift with the push of a button for easy reading and relaxing. It's kind of like having a giant chaise lounge on the boat.

*The unique cabin layout of the Island Packet Estero puts the u-shaped dinette in the bow in place of the v-berth and also features twin aft cabins. The head and galley are amidships. While the design is a refreshing change, Erin and I would both prefer the more traditional cabin of the similarly sized IP35 for family cruising. (If you like the Estero's non-traditional cabin, you can find a similar layout on many Gozzards.)

*The Beneteau First 30 truly does remind me of a mini-Open 70 from Volvo Ocean Race fame. The twin rudders, tiller steering, hard chine, t-shaped keel and plumb bow give a speedy appearence while the light colored veneers in the cabin and the cruising layout make me think this would be a good dual purpose boat. While this isn't my personal preference in boats, the First 30 will help redefine the racer-cruiser label.

*The Michigan State University sailing club and U. of Michigan sailing club booths are located next to each other and it’s always fun to visit both and hear and see a little friendly rival ribbing.

So the show was a nice winter diversion, a good excuse to spend some time in the big city and a chance to see the shiny new boats and gear. But just like last year, we left the show with a greater appreciation for our own boat. She may not have a jacuzzi tub, washer/dryer, or ultra-leather settees but she's ours and she does everything we need her to do! We'll likely be taking a cruise to Chicago on Island Bound for a week or two next summer, so we were also able to scope out Monroe Harbor and talk with the Chicago harbor master about mooring ball rentals. Admittedly, it will be nice visiting next time when the water out on the big lake isn't so hard.

Newly Salted

2011-01-24T19:30:00.006-05:00

There are a ton of great resources available for new cruisers and those planning to become cruisers, but perhaps the best resource is the sharing of ideas, information and experiences within the cruising community. Some of the best places I’ve found to connect with the cruising community and begin gleaning some of this first-hand knowledge are at online forums such as Sailnet and Cruisers Forum. Additionally, you can get some particularly good insights by reading blogs from other cruisers like those listed in the links in my sidebar.

Relatively recently a new online resource for accessing the collective knowledge and experience from cruisers has become available. The following two websites offer a chance to learn by reading answers from cruisers to 10 (or more) common questions that most all of us have before we cast off the docklines and begin life anew traveling and living on our boats.

The Interview With a Cruiser Project: Interviews with cruisers who have been outside their home country cruising for more than 2 years.

Newly Salted: Interviews with people who began cruising in the last few years or who have completed a cruise of less than 2 years.

Having just completed our own 3 months cruise last summer and with plans for more even longer cruises sometime in the future, I thought I’d take a shot at answering the questions for the Newly Salted interview. You can read the interview as it originally appears on the Newly Salted website here. I suppose technically we aren’t “newly salted” since we sail the sweetwater seas of the Great Lakes, so maybe we’re “newly unsalted”. In any case, at the very least I may actually learn something from my own interview!

Here’s the interview:

Background: Kevin, along with wife Erin and daughters Hannah (age 8) and Isabel (age 5) are all lifelong boaters, but first began sailing when they purchased and restored a 25 foot sailboat in 2007. They now sail aboard a 28 foot Irwin sloop out of Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. During the summer of 2010, they spent the better part of 3 months and over 1000 nautical miles cruising roundtrip to Lake Huron’s North Channel and nearly every port and island in between. Future cruising ideas include a possible trip out the Erie Canal, down the ICW and into the Bahamas. This interview focuses on their 3 month North Channel cruise experience.

1) What (if anything) do you wish someone had told you before you started cruising?

That cruising is addictive and the hardest part is returning to port when the cruise is finished. There’s really no easy way to re-adjust to life back on land. The pace, distractions, complexity and consumerism of being a landlubber become much more visible after having cruised for an extended period of time.

2) What transitions did you find the most difficult during your first extended cruise?

Living in a small space with 3 other people with just a fraction of the possessions and “stuff” that we were all accustomed to back at home. While the transition can be difficult, it is not without great reward. Learning to live with less, growing together as a family, and relying on each other for companionship and our individual strengths are some of the priceless gems of cruising.

3) What mistakes did you make on your first extended cruise?

We wished we had stayed longer in certain anchorages, but felt pressure to move on to see the next great place. In retrospect, slowing down and cruising at your own pace are what it’s all about. Though the North Channel is uniquely stunning, the most beautiful part of the cruise was seeing our family work together to meet the challenge of moving a small boat a very long distance.

4) What is one piece of gear/equipment you have onboard that you couldn’t do without?

Easy answer…our autopilot! We simply can’t imagine putting any serious miles beneath the keel without the help of a good, reliable autopilot. The autopilot (or any self-steering device) not only prevents fatigue but also allows you to do other things while you’re on passage such as cooking, cleaning, repairs, etc. as long as you keep a vigilant eye on your surroundings and position. If money weren’t a factor or if we were on even longer ocean passages, we’d also install wind vane steering to supplement the autopilot and save on battery usage. You can see our Autohelm ST1000 in action in this earlier blog post from the cruise. Additionally, we really enjoyed having a hammock onboard for lazy afternoons on the hook and a small 2-gallon shop vac for easy clean-up on those rare days when we had shorepower.

5) What is one piece of gear/equipment you wish you had onboard?

A bigger solar panel. We carry two very small (2 watt each) trickle-charge solar panels, but they don’t do much. It would be really nice to harvest enough solar energy from the sun to keep our little Norcold refrigerator going instead of relying on block ice. A small (perhaps foldable) bicycle would also be a nice addition for those occasional long treks for provisions while in port.

6) What do you enjoy about cruising that you didn't expect to enjoy?

The food! I was pleasantly surprised that we were usually able to make healthy and delicious meals while cruising. Some of our favorites included fresh caught walleye encrusted with Frosted Flakes cereal, freshly picked wild blueberries in blueberry pancakes, and banana and nut oatmeal. Prior to cruising, I expected that we’d be eating a lot of mac and cheese, ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches, but I’m happy to report we mostly avoided those. All in all, cruising seems to keep you healthy because you tend to eat smaller meals (small galley = small meals) and stay active trimming sails, washing the boat, paddling to shore, hiking to the store, etc.

7) What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you didn't find to be true?

We thought we’d find lots of other cruising boats with kids onboard, but after nearly 3 months we hardly ever crossed paths with any other cruising kids. This may or may not be something specific to the Great Lakes, but we fully expected that our two daughters would make lots of new friends. Fortunately, they had a great time being each other’s own best friend. They weren’t bored by any stretch, but I’m sure more kids would have made the cruise that much more enjoyable for them.

8) What is something that you read or heard about cruising, that you found particularly accurate?

We had always been told and read how friendly and helpful the cruising community is and are happy to say that our experience backs this up. For example, the crews of the other boats in the many anchorages we stayed in were always stopping by in their dinghies to welcome us and share tips on the current anchorage and suggestions for the next anchorage. Cruisers are a very self-sufficient lot, but that’s not to say they don’t enjoy community and socializing with other cruisers.

9) What piece(s) of gear would you leave on the dock next time? Why?

We have a relatively small boat for a crew of four and therefore spent a lot of pre-cruise time planning what we should take and where we would store it so there really wasn’t anything onboard that we’d leave behind next time. In fact, we’ll probably take more the next time we go. There are pieces of safety gear (climbing harness for mast climbing) and electronic gadgets (WindMate anemometer) that rarely were used, but we’d still bring them along again either because they are essential for safety and/or repairs or simply small enough, in the case of the WindMate, that they didn’t take up unnecessary space.

10) What question do you wish I had asked you besides the ones I've asked you and how would you answer it?

We always find it interesting to hear how people are able to afford to cruise, both from a temporal and financial perspective. In our case, we have a very modest paid-for boat and only cruised as long as we were able to be away from shore. Erin is a schoolteacher so naturally she can be away from her job for three months in the summer. Kevin is fortunate enough to have a part-time position that allows him to telecommute during a cruise. This of course meant we had to bring along a laptop and printer and find reliable WiFi signals on a regular basis, but it worked out and allowed us to cruise for a summer. If cruising is a priority, you’ll find a way to make it work. There’s definitely trade-offs to cruising, like missing your family back at home, but the rewards found across large stretches of blue water are not to be missed.

Book Review: The Modern Cruising Sailboat by Charles Doane

2011-01-18T13:09:00.000-05:00

Book Review

The Modern Cruising Sailboat: A Complete Guide to its Design, Construction, and Outfitting

Winter is the time for Great Lakes sailors who haven’t pointed the bow south towards little latitudes to plan next season’s cruises, prepare the spring maintenance list, shop for boat upgrades, learn more about sailing and dream about their “next boat”. Books provide a great means for beginning all of these processes.

The Modern Cruising Sailboat (International Marine 2009) by Charles Doane offers a wealth of information useful as a guide for beginning cruising sailors and as an authoritative and nearly comprehensive review for cruising veterans. While mostly directed at the cruising sailor, racers and day sailors will also likely find the book interesting.

The book is well written with great illustrations and pictures. The first half of the book covers design and construction and is the most comprehensive at doing so that I’ve read in a book aimed at a cruising audience. There’s also a fair bit of historical information that some readers will enjoy. While readers likely won’t find all of the information and ideas for fitting out a cruising boat new, I’m certain they will pick up several ideas that will be helpful.

There's also a section at the end where Doane reviews 40 cruising boats ranging from 27' to ~60' feet. He chooses boats that he recommends for cruising based on his personal experience and gives a wide-array of different styles. This is the section of the book that many readers will gravitate towards for practical perspective on which boats to consider for purchase and which boats to keep locked in their minds as dream boats. I personally appreciated the size range, price range and collections of older boats included in the this section. Doane certainly could have included many new boats with his experience as editor-at-large for Sail magazine, but instead I believe he appeals to a wider audience by including several vintage, “affordable” cruising sailboats. While I would have liked to see a review of at least one pilothouse or motor-sailer, Doane candidly told me in an email correspondence that he’d like to add these if a second edition of the book is published.

While I’ve read just about all the sailing books and magazines I can get my hands on, The Modern Cruising Sailboat is the type of book I’ll keep close at hand for reference, alongside a select few other titles such as Beth Leonard’s The Voyager’s Handbook and Don Casey’s This Old Boat. Unfortunately I enjoyed Doane’s book so much that I read through it in about a week’s time so now I’ve got to find more reading to take me through the rest of the long Great Lakes winter.

The Modern Cruising Sailboat is readily available on Amazon.com. You can read more about the author on his personal blog at http://www.wavetrain.net/

Sleep tight, Island Bound!

2010-11-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

It seems like just a month or so ago I was writing a very similar post about our sailboat being covered and ready for her winter hibernation. Hard to believe it's actually been a whole year. The cruising season goes by quicker the more miles you put beneath your keel and the longer you stay out. Even with winter approaching (encroaching!) I've got plenty to keep me busy while the boat is on the hard. There's planning for next season's cruising adventures, writing about this past season's adventures (been doing lots of that lately), Strictly Sail Chicago in January, reading, researching...

Anyway, here's how s/v Island Bound will spend the winter:

All fingers...er, hands on deck! FiveFingers as Sailing Shoes

2010-11-04T09:03:00.001-04:00

Gear Review: Vibram FiveFingers for Sailing/Deck Shoes

Deck shoes seem to be a very personal matter to most sailors. Some swear by Sperry’s TopSiders or Sebago’s Docksider line. Racing sailors often seem to prefer a more snugly fitting athletic shoe with a sole specialized for the deck, such as those offered by Harken. I’ve always been much more casual with my choice of footwear for the boat. Typically you can find me in flip-flops, Crocs or often barefoot while sailing. Crocs provide a bit of protection from stubbing a toe on deck hardware and have a decent amount of grip in wet conditions when they are new. However, the sole loses its’ grip rather quickly, particularly if they are worn on hard surfaces such as asphalt and concrete. Admittedly, flip-flops usually don’t offer much grip, stability or protection from stubbed toes so they aren’t ideal for deck work in anything but the calmest of conditions. Even if it is calm and I’m wearing flip-flops, I’ll typically go barefoot if I have to leave the cockpit to go on deck. I prefer the natural grip my foot and toes provide.

This past spring I purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Classics hoping they would be good deck “shoes”. Vibram has long had a reputation as a high quality manufacturer of durable soles for shoes and hiking boots. Aesthetically, FiveFingers are funky with their bright colors and toe pockets, making them look like gloves for your feet. The tread on the sole is non-marking and sipped (see picture) for great wet traction. Additionally, you’d be surprised how much more grip you have when you get your toes involved in the process. Without a doubt, my FiveFingers are the best deck shoes I’ve ever worn. The grip is tremendous, dexterity is remarkable and the construction is proving to be highly durable. FiveFingers also offer good ventilation for your feet when compared to more traditional deck shoes. Additionally, Vibram claims that FiveFingers stimulate muscles in your feet and lower legs to make you stronger as well as improving your balance and agility.

FiveFingers are also great for going ashore on slippery rocks, swimming, wading and scambling over rocks and boulders like those found in the North Channel. If you haven't looked, there are many different styles of FiveFingers available, including ones with straps for an extra snug fit (Sprint, KSO, Flow), neoprene for water performance and warmth (Flow), open top designs for warm weather (Classic), and rugged soles for off-trail hiking (KSO Trek, TrekSport).

FiveFingers do take a bit more effort to put on than a more conventional shoe and also take some getting use to, but the grip, comfort and benefits to your feet make FiveFingers a great deck shoe for my sailing needs.

The downwind run to winter

2010-10-25T21:03:00.000-04:00

Another season of sailing (over 1,000 nautical miles on our North Channel cruise alone!), adventure and family growth is now slipping farther astern in our wake. Island Bound was hauled for the winter over a week ago and I finished up the list of winterization tasks last week. There's nothing left to do but reflect on where we've been and look forward to where we're going.

I've got a lot to say about the season that was and the season that will be. However, I've had to lay off the blog posts for a bit to collect my thoughts and prepare some of them for submission as articles to the sailing mags that'll help many of us pass quiet winter evenings in the more northerly latitudes. If I'm fortunate enough to find a willing publisher, I'll pass on the info here on the blog (Click here for a previously published article). In the meantime, sit back and enjoy some gear reviews, brainstorming about ideas for the 2011 season and other random sailing-related blogging I plan to spew on these pages in the coming months.

"Hey it's good to be back home again"

2010-08-18T17:20:00.001-04:00

As one of my heroes (John Denver) so melodically put it, "Hey it's good to be back home again."

But still I have to confess that it is with mixed emotions that I report s/v Island Bound is tucked safely back in her home slip at North Shore Marina in Grand Haven. And so, the sun has set on our big cruise of 2010, but has only just begun to rise on bigger cruising aspirations. Stay tuned to read more about dusk on the North Channel cruise and the dawn of future plans.

Sunrise over North Manitou Shoal Light sometime way back in June, 2010

Video updates from the North Channel

2010-07-30T19:01:00.000-04:00

Now that we've got about a week of down time while we're taking care of some business and waiting to get back to Island Bound in Charlevoix, I thought I'd share some videos we've shot during the cruise so far. Enjoy!

Meldrum Bay to Gore Bay

Covered Portage Cove

South Benjamin Island

Whalesback Channel

Topaz Lake

Lake Charlevoix to Grand Traverse Bay

2010-07-29T21:44:00.002-04:00

Charlevoix (Horton Bay) to Suttons Bay: 38NM - July 20

Next on our cruise itinerary was a short 4 day side trip to Grand Traverse Bay. Grand Traverse Bay is another place I’ve visited often from land. I have always longingly looked out at the open blue water imagining myself sailing. I can now attest that the big bay is an excellent sailing location and a cruiser’s paradise. We left Lake Charlevoix in the morning and motored in the very light air direct to Suttons Bay. While there was plenty of room at the marina we decided to stay on the hook in the south end of Sutton’s Bay and use the dinghy for shore side adventures. After anchoring we all quickly put on bathing suits and jumped into the clear, 25 foot deep water to deal with the building humidity. I snorkeled around the anchorage and saw sunken old docks, lost mooring equipment and lots of other unidentifiable pieces of lumber. On shore we met up with my mom and dad (Grammy and Poppa), who just happened to be visiting with some friends in the area. They treated us to ice cream cones as we caught up on happenings. Even though we’ve only been cruising since the beginning of June (~50 days), you can’t beat the feeling of seeing and hugging loved ones back on shore!

Suttons Bay to Bowers Harbor: 14NM - July 21

The next morning we went ashore again and shopped in many unique shops lining the main street of Suttons Bay. Then it was off to the public beach for some swimming, playground time and a game of tag before getting back to Island Bound and weighing anchor. Our destination for the day was Bowers Harbor on Old Mission Peninsula jutting out into the center of Grand Traverse Bay. We found a cozy (but deep!) anchorage in Bowers Harbor and never left the boat, except for a couple of swims to cool off. The dinghy outboard started acting up and I wasn’t up to a long row to shore and besides, there’s not much onshore in pretty Bowers Harbor.

Bowers Harbor to Northport: 18NM - July 22

The morning broke with a light south wind. Our goal was Northport on the northern end of the west bay of Grand Traverse. A light wind and a very reasonable 18 nautical mile jaunt were the perfect combination for a downwind run using our big symmetrical spinnaker. Erin and I have been pining for another chance to use the colorful sail because we haven’t flown it since the run from the Les Cheneauxs to Drummond Island. The spinnaker is a fun sail, but it takes some work. First we repacked the big sail in it’s bag. Then we placed the snatch blocks on the stern corners and ran the sheet and guy lines from the bag. Lastly, we attached the spinnaker halyard and lashed the bag to the bow. Then we hoisted the sail and watched as the light wind helped lift and fill the kite. We took our time setting and trimming the sail so we could enjoy the long downwind run. Otto dutifully maintained a steady course as we sailed peacefully downwind with the spinnaker for 6 hours. The wind freshened just as we doused the spinnaker and rounded into the marina at Northport. As evening approached heavy rain fell. We all walked into town in our raincoats and umbrellas and had dinner at Stub’s.

Northport to Charlevoix (Horton Bay): 30NM - July 23

Is there such a thing as a perfect day of sailing? I tend to think any day sailing is perfect, but today was a particularly perfect day for sailing. We had a gusty breeze off our port stern with quartering waves as we sailed and surfed our way back to Lake Charlevoix. We were wing-and-wing down Lake Charlevoix to Horton Bay where we once again picked up a mooring. From here we’re taking about 10 days to drive a car back to Grand Rapids. Then we’ll come back and resume our cruise south along Lake Michigan’s eastern shore.

Loon afloat on Grand Traverse Bay

Harbor Springs to Charlevoix

2010-07-29T21:40:00.000-04:00

Harbor Springs to Charlevoix (Horton Bay): 25NM - July 16 through 19

Waiting for better weather proved to be a good move as the lake was much calmer the next day and we were able to motorsail with Otto at the helm for most of the 25 nautical miles from Harbor Springs to Charlevoix. N ana, Bumpa and the girls met us in Round Lake in Charlevoix on their boat as we came into the harbor. We all went ashore for lunch and Venetian Festival activities before sailing down Lake Charlevoix to Horton Bay. Ever since I met Erin back in 1990 and started coming with her family to the cottage and Lake Charlevoix I’ve dreamed of sailing down the long, beautiful lake through the blue/green waters. Yet again, our summer cruise has allowed me to realize another of my sailing dreams.

We borrowed a mooring ball in Horton Bay and kept the boat moored while Erin, Isabel, Hannah and I soaked up a few days of life ashore. We were able to stretch our legs, catch up on laundry and sleep in a bed with an honest to goodness mattress. You landlubbers are soooo spoiled!

Mackinac City to Harbor Springs

2010-07-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

Mackinac City to Harbor Springs: 47NM - July 14 & 15

Erin and I got a mid-morning start on the route from Mackinac City to Harbor Springs after enjoying a quiet breakfast together at a restaurant in Mac City. After leaving the marina we quickly passed under the mighty Mackinac Bridge and were in awe of the view from beneath. The weather began to deteriorate as we moved westward towards the abandoned lighthouse east of Gray’s Reef and offshore from the mainland. Waves were building to from 2 to 5 feet and the sky darkened with rain clouds. It wasn’t long before we were motoring into the wind and waves in an intense downpour. Surprisingly, this is one of the few times we’ve need our foul weather gear on this trip. The rain stopped after about an hour and the skies cleared but the seas remained lumpy as made our way past another mid-lake lighthouse (Ile Aux Galets Light) and into the relative protection of Little Traverse Bay. Harbor Springs was busy with summer cruisers so we were happy to anchor at the far west end of the bay. We were soon ashore enjoying the hustle bustle of the busy main street in Harbor Springs. We treated ourselves to a waterfront meal at Dudley’s Deck and watch the crews scurrying aboard the large yachts in the marina.

We were anxious to get to Lake Charlevoix and see the girls again even though it had only been 24 hours since we’d seen them. Not only are Hannah and Isabel great daughters, but they’re also great crew and missed when they’re not aboard! However, the weather the next day had 5 and 6 foot waves and a headwind out on Lake Michigan so we conservatively decided to stay in port until things settled down the following day. It was just as well since we spent the day cleaning the boat, relaxing at anchor, swimming and enjoying good conversation and sundowners with the crew of a neighboring sailboat.

Abandoned lighthouse near Grey's Reef

Drummond Island to Mackinac City

2010-07-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Drummond Island to Mackinac City: 48NM - July 13

We’ve covered a lot of ground since the last blog post. After checking back in to the United States through US Customs, we departed in the morning for a westward run through the Straits of Mackinac to Mackinac City where we met up with Erin’s mom for lunch. Sailing past Mackinac Island for the second time on this voyage made us realize just how far we’ve sailed this year. Isabel and Hannah rode with Nana back to the cottage in on Lake Charlevoix while Erin and I stayed in Mackinac City and reprovisioned to sail the boat west and then south so we could eventually meet back up with the girls on Lake Charlevoix.

Turnbull Island to Drummond Island

2010-07-13T21:08:00.001-04:00

Turnbull Island to Drummond Island

July 13, 2010
67NM

We awoke at 5am to light air and fog as we departed Turnbull Island just before sunrise. I always feel blessed to see the sun come up over the water and light the way ahead of the bow. Seeing it many times on the trip is something I’m thankful for. Our intended route back to the United States would take us from Turnbull then south of Missasagi Island and across the North Channel proper to False Detour Channel between Cockburn Island in Canada and Drummond Island in the United States. In so doing, we were able to circumnavigate Drummond Island since we took Detour Passage coming into the North Channel several weeks ago. Next we were headed to Whitney Bay and Fort Drummond on the south western side of Drummond Island to clear customs. The trip was to be something like 55 nautical miles and take around 10 hours.

Our somewhat dated guide books said there was a U.S Customs Office at Fort Drummond Marine in Whitney Bay…but when we reached the bay and contacted the marina we were informed that we’d have to go around the other side of the island to Drummond Island Yacht Haven for customs. This added almost 2 hours to what was already a long day on the water. So don’t think there aren’t hardships that go along with cruising and that we’ve been up here in the beautiful north just splish splashing the days away. To steal a phrase from another cruiser I admire (Alex from Project BlueSphere), cruising isn’t always “peace, love and coconuts” or “palms trees and martinis” as Jimmy Buffett sings. But the unforgettably good experiences, wonderful sights, friendly people and growth that comes from living on a small boat as a family in a far away place far outweigh any obstacles. So we had to be on the water for 12 hours, but the water was deep blue, the sky clear, the sun hot and the wind pleasant…just another day in paradise!

Long Point Cove to Turnbull Island

2010-07-13T20:49:00.000-04:00

Long Point Cove to Turnbull Island

July 12, 2010
5NM

It was just a quick hop over to Turnbull Island from crowded Long Point Cove. Turnbull is our last island to visit on this trip to the North Channel, so we all have bitter-sweet feelings. The anchorage at Turnbull is big and protected by the many small island to the east. We picked a spot tucked into small corner, set the anchor and began to explore with our dinghy. We had been told by several other cruisers that there was at least one nesting pair of bald eagles in the small islands surrounding Turnbull, but we were unable to find the nest after about 2 hours of searching. Back at Island Bound we all went for a late afternoon swim and settled in for a quiet evening of family games. Erin and I woke at 5:00am the next morning to begin the long sail back to Drummond Island and the United States.

Beardrop Harbor to Long Point Cove

2010-07-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

Beardrop Harbor to Long Point Cove

July 11, 2010
8NM

It was just a short distance from the beauty of Beardrop Harbor to the much anticipated Long Point Cove. We sailed lazily under full sail in light air and trolled with a NorthPort Nailer and our Dipsy Diver for salmon to no avail. Just the same, the cruise over to Long Point Cove was a relaxing way to spend the midday. In the distance to the west we could see Turnbull Island and the open waters of the western part of the North Channel. We were quietly reminded that our time in the North Channel was coming to a close. However, I’m sure to spend more time here in my mind this winter pouring through the memories we’ve made.

Long Point Cove proved to be a popular anchorage as we came in past Navy Island and saw 15 other boats already at anchor in the tiny cove. We took our time idling around the cove and weaving between the boats while carefully picking a perfect spot where we could swing at anchor without worry of bumping the other boats.

For dinner we had our walleye from the previous day grilled with Cajun seasoning, fresh squeezed lemon and olive oil along with grilled garlic bread. Later that evening we had Erin’s recipe for blueberry cobbler with the liter jug of blueberries we picked in Long Point Cove that afternoon. We’ve eaten very well on this cruise, as evidenced by the above menu. Much of our meals have consisted of things we’ve randomly thrown together with great success. There have been blueberries added to many meals. There was also a meal of whitefish that we decided to panfry after rolling it in egg and crushed Honey Comb cereal because we were out of Panko. It turns out that Honey Comb encrusted whitefish is a real treat. Remember, if you find it on the menu at the Bonefish Grill in the future we thought of it first!

Just before pulling the anchor in the morning I dropped the gate hook for our lifeline gate overboard so I was treated to an early morning snorkeling expedition prior to departing Long Point Cove. It took about 10 minutes of searching in the 10 foot deep water but I found the hook and we were soon headed for our next and last North Channel anchorage at Turnbull Island.

Spanish to Beardrop Harbor

2010-07-13T20:37:00.000-04:00

Spanish to Beardrop Harbor

July 10, 2010
15NM

The nice new marina aside, there wasn’t much to keep us in Spanish for very long. But the truth is that even if Spanish had all the amenities of our home marina (pool, showers, playground, etc.), you’d be hard pressed to keep us there longer than necessary to reprovision. You see, we’ve grown quite fond of life on the hook in the islands of the North Channel. There’s something freeing about being unplugged from electricity, cellphones, internet and the sounds of civilization. At anchor you learn what you really need and you learn how to get it. You learn what you don’t need and you live without it. Life at anchor is just that simple.

So we left Spanish behind and headed out into the Whalesback Channel eager to “live free and sail far” during the relatively small amount of time that remained for us in the North Channel. The bow was pointed west towards Beardrop Harbor as we moseyed along under full sail in 8 knots of a southwestern breeze. The girls rode in the dinghy for about a half hour as it was towed behind Island Bound. They both shouted with excitement asking what it was that was trailing from our stern. As I looked over the stern rail I first thought we had caught a rope on our rudder as I looked at the white/silver line flapping about one foot beyond the stern. Then I realized that what we were actually looking at was a lamprey. For those that don’t know, the lamprey is an invasive parasitic fish species that entered the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean when the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened up. It has since thrived on the many salmon, lake trout, pike, muskie and other large fish in the Great Lakes. The lamprey attached to our transom must have thought he struck gold by hooking up with a 28 foot fish, but to his dismay Island Bound’s fiberglass skin proved to tough for his sharp teeth to penetrate.

We squeezed through the pinch point near Berrypicker Rock and were amazed as the many rocky shoals and islets of the Whalesback Channel lay before us. This channel must truly have been a daunting sight for early mariners who weren’t blessed with our charts, gps and chart plotter. As the rock carrying the “Whalesback” name for which the channel was also named came closer, we all imagined those early mariners seeing the rock through the fog and thinking it might be a whale’s back. Turtle Rock must similarly have reminded them of a giant sea turtle’s shell breaking the water’s surface.

Island Bound pulled into the protected anchorage at Beardrop Harbor and we joined 16 other boats already at anchor for the night. First Nation (or Indian to us Americans) legend tells us that the large black bear population in this area was driven to the steep cliffs that surround the harbor and forced over the side by First Nation warriors, thus the “Bear Drop” name. In addition to being a good location for spotting bears, we had heard the anchorage was excellent for fishing. We concur, as Isabel promptly caught a nice sized walleye on her bobber. Later in the evening as the sun was setting I caught another and we suddenly had a surplus of fresh meat in our icebox.

We typically wake early while at anchor because the rising sun over the water is such and amazing sight through the open ports on Island Bound, but we all slept in until 8am in Beardrop Harbor. The day ahead promised more great sights in the Whalesback and another popular anchorage in Long Point Cove.

South Benjamin Island to Spanish

2010-07-09T23:38:00.001-04:00

South Benjamin Island to Spanish
July 9, 2010
12NM

I won't lie, it was hard to leave the beauty of South Benhamin Island. Not only was it hard to mentally leave, but it was also physically hard to get the boat out of such a tight anchorage with the wind building from the west. We managed to do so and began making our way through the navigational hazards on the way to the small village of Spanish, Ontario. First we had to negotiate the rocks west of Eagle Island, then it was through the small pass into the McBean Channel. From the McBean, we had to announce a security (say "Say-cure-i-tay") on VHF channel 16 as we entered passed through Little Detroit, the tiny rock cut connecting the McBean Channel to the Whalesback Channel. Once in the Whalesback, we had to weave our way around Whiteaves Island on approach to the shallow channel leading to Spanish. The Spanish channel is supposedly dredged to 7 feet but we heard of multiple boats with 5 foot drafts hitting bottom on the cruiser's net, so we were anxious. We kept the speed up because we knew the bottom was soft mud in this area and speed would hopefully carry us through if we did touch ground. We made it to the Spanish Municipal Marina without incident and promptly hiked the mile to the nearest grocery store. Luckily, the store clerk was willing to drive us back to the marina for the agreeable sum of $5 USD. We'll spend the windy night here in Spanish and prepare to begin the trek westward and then south that will lead us back to Grand Haven in August. But before we think too much about our home port, we've got all the splendor of the Whalesback ahead of us.

As a bonus, I've included a picture from Bridal Veil Falls in Kagawong. Enjoy!

A happy navigator just made it through Little Detroit!

Can you spot s/v Island Bound in the picture below (Spanish Marina)?

South Benjamin Island

2010-07-09T23:15:00.001-04:00

South Benjamin Island

July 8, 2010

The day before had been so picture perfect that we decided to stay two nights in our cozy anchorage on South Benjamin Island. The Benjamins are the jewel of the North Channel because of the many perfect anchorages, the crystal clear blue water, the superb blueberry picking and most of all the breathtaking landscape. So instead of blogging about how beautiful it is here, I thought I’d let some pictures speak a thousand words…

Croker Island to South Benjamin Island

2010-07-09T23:04:00.001-04:00

Croker Island to South Benjamin Island

July 7, 2010
4NM

The trip over from Croker to South Benjamin Island was short but full of navigational challenges. We had to retrace our previous course around Porcupine Island and then between the Sow and Pigs and Secretary Island. Then we turned west and watched carefully for shoals along the southern rim of the Sow and Pigs as we neared South Benjamin Island. We were somewhat familiar with South Benjamin as we had anchored one night here previously in stormy weather. This time we were seeking out one of the small little “hidey-holes” in the narrow rock passage on the southern end of the island that we had previously explored with our dinghy.

To our surprise we found our preferred spot empty and we carefully wove our way in at idle speed with a bow watch. Because of exploration with the dinghy we knew we had about 8 feet of water to play with in the tiny rock cove we intended to stay in. This particular spot is mostly known by locals and as such has several stainless steel rings drilled into the rocks for mooring. As we swung into our tiny rock slip, we put out our Lewmar Claw off the starboard stern and then moored to the steel rings with our stern port cleat and starboard bow cleat.

Later that day a couple of power boaters anchored across the channel from us. Each boat carried children the ages of Izzy and Hannah so South Benjamin became our very own swimming pool party for the afternoon. All three families mingled together while the children swam and played. Later we cooked dinner over a campfire and had roasted strawberry marshmallows as the sun set on a perfect North Channel day.

Kagawong to Croker Island

2010-07-09T23:01:00.000-04:00

Kagawong to Croker Island

July 6, 2010
14NM

We topped off the fuel tank and pumped out the holding tank in the morning in Kagawong just prior to departing for multiple days at anchor in the Benjamin Island group. The wind was 8 to 10 knots out of the southwest and we had a delightful sail all the way to Croker Island under the headsail alone. The approach to Croker Island meant we had to correctly identify Secretary Island and the Sow and Pigs, keeping Secretary to starboard. After passing Secretary Island we chose to take the safer deep water entrance to Croker’s inner harbor by passing north of Porcupine Island.

Croker’s main harbor had three other boats at anchor but we snuck into the smaller harbor behind the tiny unnamed island within the harbor for a quiet night by ourselves. After securing the anchor we all swam for at least an hour and enjoyed the rocky landscape of our surroundings. I snorkeled around the small harbor and tested my diving ability to see if my recent asthma diagnosis had changed my ability to stay submerged. For the most part, I was still able to enjoy snorkeling just as I have for many years ever since my parents introduced me to the sport in the Florida Keys when I was a boy. Croker’s underwater landscape was nearly as interesting as its’ rocky topsides. The harbor had many rocks, boulders and logs that I explored with a bright afternoon sun overhead.

The next morning we took Island Hopper over to the main harbor and went ashore to explore. The blueberry picking was excellent on the way up to Croker’s tallest peak. The girls had a blast scrambling over the massively large boulders as we hopped from one blueberry patch to the next. From the top of the highest rock we could see many islands spread out before us. We were once again reminded of how fortunate we are to be exploring this cruising paradise right here in the Great Lakes.

Matheson Island to Kagawong

2010-07-06T10:29:00.001-04:00

Matheson Island to Kagawong

July 5, 2010
16NM

After several nights out at anchor on small islands it was time to go re-provision and explore another of the North Channel’s small villages. This time we were on our way to the southern end of Mudge Bay and tiny Kagawong, self-proclaimed as the prettiest little town on Manitoulin Island. Kagawong means “place where the mist rises from the falls” in Ojibwe. So if the mist rises from falls, there must be a waterfall somewhere in Kagawong, right? It didn’t take long after we were docked before we were hiking the well groomed one mile trail out to Bridal Veil Falls. The falls drop about 100 feet off a shear rock cliff into a pool below. We waded in the pool and also carefully walked behind the falls on the slippery clay for a unique look out at the world.

We had lunch at an Irish tea shop called Tweebles up a steep hill on Main street. We also checked out a cool stone maze and tree maze where the girls played hide-and-seek in the humid air. There’s a very interesting little church next to the marina called the St. John Anglican Church or “The Sailor’s Church”. The church is decorated with a nautical theme. The pulpit is made of the bow section of a boat that tragically sank with all hands on board in the 1960’s. There are also lots of other pieces from boats and wrecks adorning the church. Back at the boat we watched the local kids jumping off the pier while Hannah and Isabel played on the twisting slide that ends with a splash into Lake Huron’s waters in Mudge Bay. Then it was time for another Farquhar’s ice cream cone, a real creamy treat here in the North Channel.

This morning we woke up rested and headed to the showers to clean up. Then it was off to the Kagawong Public Library to catch up on blog posts! Kagawong (Izzy calls it “Tag-a-long”) was a nice little retreat before we head back out to the islands.

Louisa Island to Matheson Island

2010-07-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

Louisa Island to Matheson Island

July 4, 2010
6NM

As you’ll notice if you’ve been following the nautical mileage I post in all the headings, our daily mileage has shrunk and we’ve been spending less time sailing and more time relaxing at anchor. This is by design. Now that we’re midway through our cruise (1 month behind us, just over a month ahead of us) and we’re in the heart of the North Channel we’re taking it slow and stopping at all of the anchorages that call to us on the charts.

Today’s destination is little Matheson Island along the North Channel’s northern shoreline. This pretty little rock island has a nice natural harbor that’s protected from the southwest winds forecast for today. As it turns out, we’re the only boat at this off-the-beaten-path island and so we’ll celebrate America’s Independence Day as a family enjoying our freedom to travel, freedom to explore and freedom to grow!

Bare in mind, this is a cruiser’s celebration somewhere between here and there so we’re not afforded the “luxuries” of sparklers, parades, bands playing the Star Spangled Banner or Old Glory flapping lazily in the center of a park. What we do have is unlimited quantities of refreshing blue water. So, we started our celebration by diving in from Island Bound’s gunnels and taking baths, complete with shampoo, conditioner and three bladed razors to remove the stubble that seems to sprout up on a cruiser’s body. Our Independence Day dinner consists of cheeseburgers and veggie-packets on the grill and Yankee Jim Ice Lager (brewed in Utica, NY). It doesn’t get any more American than that, does it?

Allow me to take a mid-cruise diversion from my normal blog entries. Are cruisers made or are cruisers born? After having lived in a floating 28.5’ by 9.5’ home that travels where the wind blows for more than a month, I’m starting to believe the answer isn’t that simple. I’ve felt an almost magnetic attraction to the water for as long as I can remember. Somehow I’ve always known that the seas (oceans and inland seas such as the Great Lakes) would shape who I am. And so, while cruising seems to be in my blood I can now attest that the fun, adventure and hardships have strengthened the attraction. I once read that “The cure for everything is saltwater: sweat, tears and the sea”. Whether you’re happy, whether you’re sad; whether you’re lost, whether you’re found; cruising will expose it. There’s no hiding your emotions from yourself when all you’ve got is 28.5’ by 9.5’. So we continue to live by the theme of our cruise: Sail far, live free!

Sturgeon Cove to Louisa Island

2010-07-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

Sturgeon Cove to Louisa Island

July 3, 2010
4NM

After listening to the Cruiser’s Net on VHF 71 and calling in our location, we made plans for our departure from Sturgeon Cove. Getting out of Sturgeon Cove’s rock-maze entrance was just as fun as getting in. So long as you’ve studied the charts, post a bow watch and know how to line up the range markers on shore, the entrance isn’t as bad as the guide books make it seem. Next it was a quick hop over to the small cove on Louisa Island’s eastern shore. Yes, yet another beautiful rocky anchorage. But this time we were joined by about 6 other cruising boats. We use the “North Channel Tie Up” with a bow anchor and a stern line tied to a tree on shore to keep us from swinging into the other boats in the cozy little cove. At the center of the cove was another sandy beach which we all swam to from Island Bound. The water felt great in the 80 degree heat of midday.

Later that day a 32 foot center cockpit ketch (s/v Western Whim) anchored next to us. However, the girls quickly pointed out that “There’s kids onboard!” even when the ketch was nearly ¼ mile outside of the cove. After they were settled in we invited them ashore for a campfire and ’smores later that evening. After each boat had dinner, we took our dinghy over and picked up the crew of Western Whim since they didn’t have a dinghy for getting to shore. We all shared ’smores, laughs, wine (adults only!), and some socialization, something Island Bound’s crew was looking forward to. The crew of Western Whim consisted of a mother, a father and two boys aged 7 and 8, all from Sudbury, Ontario. We had a great evening and truly enjoyed their company at the campfire!

Little Current to Sturgeon Cove

2010-07-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

Little Current to Sturgeon Cove

July 2, 2010
7NM

Our plan for today was to make the short hop up the Wabauno Channel to a little used anchorage behind Mosquito Island. However, winds were from the southwest and this would leave the anchorage exposed to waves building out in the channel. Another option was Sturgeon Cove on the northern shore of Great Cloche Island, but the entrance to the cove is riddled with rocks and shoals and most guide books recommend caution when going there. We have been meeting quite a few fellow cruisers along the way and crews from two boats suggested we give Sturgeon Cove a try after hearing their guidance and experiences with the entrance. The crew of s/v Kismet even invited us aboard there Catalina 40 to review the Great Lakes Cruising Club’s Pilot Guide and hand made chart for the cove. While aboard s/v Kismet, I reviewed the entrance procedures while Isabel and Hannah played with Kismet’s canine crew of two Dalmatians. The crew of s/v C’est La Vie was also planning to go to Sturgeon Cove today aboard their Beneteau 43 and offered to come out in their dinghy to guide us in if we needed help. It turns out we didn’t the assistance of a guided entry via their dinghy, but their kindness exemplifies the spirit of the cruising community.

After a rousing sail, reaching speeds around 6.8 knots with just the genny out, we took our time examining the entrance to Sturgeon Cove. I was on the bow with my wide brimmed hat, polarized sunglasses and an aerial photo of the entrance in hand as Erin skillfully handled duties at the helm. We identified and used 2 of the three range markers built by the Great Lakes Cruising Club and made an “S” shaped entry into the cove, not even putting a single scratch in our VC-17 bottom paint.

The cove is picturesque with rocky shores to the west and a sandy beach to the east. I know, I sound like a broken record, but hey, the North Channel is splendidly blessed with good scenery, commonly ranking it among the top 3-5 cruising destinations in the world. The girls played for a couple hours in the water at the beach as Erin and I continued chipping away at our library of summer reading.

The next morning Hannah and I woke up early with the sunrise and trolled some spoons around the perimeter of Sturgeon Cove. As we approached the rocky entrance, Hannah hooked up with a nice smallmouth bass. After she got it in the dinghy we circled around for another pass at the rocks. This time both poles got hits in the exact same spot. All total, Hannah landed four smallmouth and added to our supply of meat in the icebox.

Baie Fine to Little Current

2010-07-06T09:28:00.000-04:00

Baie Fine to Little Current

July 1, 2010
22NM

The first day of July brought summer weather with it after almost a week of cool, overcast days and intermittent showers. July 1st also had other significance in the North Channel as it is Canada Day, the equivalent of America’s Fourth of July. We were leaving Baie Fine, the eastern stops in the North Channel and several days at anchor behind as we had an amazing sail to Little Current. Erin and I even had time to enjoy the ride on the rail as the girls played in the cabin and Otto manned the helm without complaint.

We topped off our gasoline tank and pumped out the holding tank at Wally’s just prior to tying up at the town docks in Little Current. We were greeted with the sounds of live music and Canada Day celebration as we tidied up Island Bound. The main street in Little Current was closed to traffic and the townspeople set up art, craft and food booths along the sides. The live music continued until just after 8pm that evening. The Canadian people brought smiles to our faces with their national pride, friendliness and quirky accents (“ehh!?”).

Surprisingly the grocery store was open so we hiked the ½ mile up the hill and did our shopping. However, this time we got smart and took advantage of the free delivery service offered by G.G.’s Market and had them drive us and the groceries back to the dock. Who needs a car when you can hitch a ride! After shopping, we headed over to the Anchor Inn on the corner for dinner. The highlight was “poutine”, which is French fries smothered in gravy and cheese and served with vinegar and a couple local Canadian beers.

July 1st not only marks Canada’s celebration of independence but also locally marks the true beginning of the cruising season in the North Channel. True to form, we saw more boats on the water today than we had in the almost entire month of cruising prior. There’s also a local Little Current resident and veteran cruiser named Roy who broadcasts a North Channel cruiser’s net everyday from 9am to 10am on VHF channel 71. Roy starts the broadcasts asking for priority and emergency messages from all the cruisers throughout the North Channel that are tuned in. Then he follows with a weather report, some world news, local news and wraps up the show with a role call with all the tuned-in cruisers calling in with their vessel’s name and present location. If nothing else, it’s fun to hear where other boats are located and hear from friends you’ve met in port or at anchor somewhere else.

Snug Harbor to Baie Fine

2010-07-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

Snug Harbor to Baie Fine

June 30th, 2010
19NM

The wind was still howling. The waves were still frothing with whitecaps. The crew of Island Bound was still full of a sailor’s gusto and wouldn’t be denied another of the North Channel’s treasures. So we pulled anchor in Snug Harbor and motored out the rest of Lansdowne Channel and then motorsailed with a sliver of the genoa unfurled with 25 knot winds on our port quarter, pushing us towards the much anticipated Baie Fine and the Pool. We couldn’t spot the all important green-red-green buoy marking the safe shortcut into Baie Fine with the cresting waves and spray from the wind so we prudently took the long approach around Duncan City Reef, keeping Caroline Rocks safely to starboard.

Baie Fine (pronounced “Bay Fin”) is a very unique experience. The only other place in the world where you can visit such a fjord is in Scandinavia. Here in Baie Fine you can take your able craft right up the middle of the fjord with sheer granite walls just 10 feet from your gunnels. The navigable waters of the fjord stretch for at least 8 nautical miles to an open area at the end named “The Pool”.

Only moments after entering Baie Fine we were greeted by a bald eagle soaring down from the granite peak above and glide over our masthead on its’ way to a perch in one of the pines that seem to grow directly out of the vertical rock walls. As we motored away our binoculars held to our eyes watching the big raptor in the tree. I told Erin that cruising in Baie Fine felt like sailing through Yosemite Valley if it were flooded with water. The mountains, rocks, walls and trees had a the wilderness feel that would have kept Ansel Adams’ shutter clicking for days.

Baie Fine narrows considerably as you approach The Pool. We rounded the little rock island with the Evinrude family cottage perched on it and eased our way slowly in. The guide books mention 7 foot depths and a very weedy bottom in The Pool, but they might more appropriately say that The Pool is down right overrun with weeds, so much so that we felt like Island Bound grounded out as we slowed to 2 knots under almost full throttle. In reality, we weren’t hard aground, but rather had so many weeds clinging to our keel and entwined on our prop that our little Volvo was being choked. I quickly determined that The Pool would be better explored with the dinghy. We turned 180 degrees and went to find an anchorage midway in Baie Fine. When the anchor was set (stern-tie to shore, bow anchor) behind the protection of a little rocky hook we hopped in Island Hopper and chugged with all 2hp of the little-Honda-that-could back to The Pool.

There’s a small landing on the north side of The Pool where you can bring your dinghy ashore and explore the many trails in one of Ontario’s best Provincial Parks. The wilderness that awaits on shore is superb. We followed a rocky wash through the thick, dark forest for about ¼ mile until we saw the trail sign for our destination, Topaz Lake. After following the Park Service’s yellow blazes for about a mile up the mountain, the trail opens to the grand shores of Topaz Lake. If anything near Baie Fine should be called “The Pool”, Topaz Lake surely deserves the honor instead of the prop choking jungle labeled as “The Pool” on the charts and guides. Obviously, Topaz Lake is a brilliant blue color…topaz blue to be specific. My daughters and I quickly shed our clothes and jumped in with our underwear (we forgot to put bathing suits in the backpack!). Erin stayed on the rocks above taking pictures and munching on wild blueberries.

Later that evening back at our cozy anchorage, we had a spaghetti dinner and caught a nice small mouth bass just afterwards, assuring that he wouldn’t become tonight’s dinner. It seems the fish in the North Channel only bite after they know dinner has already been served for the fishermen. After dinner went to shore and had a campfire and roasted marshmallows on the rocking outcropping about 20 feet above Island Bound.

Covered Portage Cove to Snug Harbor

2010-07-02T10:06:00.000-04:00

Covered Portage Cove to Snug Harbor

June 29, 2010
6NM

As beautiful as Covered Portage Cove is, we were still eager to keep moving forward because the North Channel offers so many unforgettable spots. We’re starting to think that even an entire summer is not enough time to explore all of the anchorages, gunk holes, beaches and ports. Winds had been gusting to near gale force overnight and were expected to stay near 30 knots through the day. While Covered Portage Cove offers very good wind protection with its’ high bluffs, we knew that the short 6 nautical mile trip down Lansdowne Channel to Snug Harbor should also be fairly protected. After feasting on pancakes bursting with the wild blueberries we had found the day before, Island Bound was underway again.

We arrived at the Snug Harbor anchorage after just a little over an hour of motoring into the wind and chop. With Erin on bow watch and myself at the helm we motored slowly across the shallow bar at the entrance to Snug Harbor. The natural harbor opens up and deepens to around 25-35 feet after passing the entrance. We anchored in the far northwest corner where we would be protected from the high winds by the abundance of pine trees on shore.

After the boat was secure, we piled into Island Hopper and headed to shore to seek out a trail through the woods past Devil’s Bay Lake and over to what the guide books said was a fossil filled beach on Frazer Bay. After a bit of searching along the shore we picked up the trail and had a great 1 mile hike through the thick forest. Along the way we found a treehouse (or maybe a moose/bear/deer blind?) that the girls enjoyed . When the trail finally spit us out on the other side we were standing on the shore of a large, open bay (Frazer Bay). The rock along the waterline was composed of large shale shelves while just above the splash zone were the thousands of baseball sized rocks filled with fossils. While hunting for fossils, Isabel and Hannah were startled by a snake soaking up some heat from the rocks along the shore. Luckily, this wasn’t the areas only poisonous snake, the Missasaugi rattlesnake, but rather something lessen threatening. The snake eventually slithered away under the rocks and roots as we stared.

Back onboard, we cooked the salmon we caught yesterday and settled in for a night of good books and games. The crew of Island Bound slept snugly in Snug Harbor as the winds howled through the trees.

Killarney to Covered Portage Cove

2010-07-02T10:02:00.000-04:00

Killarney to Covered Portage Cove

4.5NM

We woke to a misting morning rain but still proceeded with our plans to go stay in one of the North Channel’s most popular and most stunning anchorages. Covered Portage Cove was just a short motor away, back through the rocky shoals of the Double Island Ledges. When you read about or talk with veteran cruisers about the North Channel, Covered Portage Cove always comes up.

The entrance to the cove passes high rocky bluffs on the south side and a few scenic little coves on the north. The high bluffs create a really neat profile of an Indian chief’s face as round your way into Covered Portage Cove. Next the cove opens up with spectacular rock formations on both sides and teal-blue water and wind blown pines and cedars along the shore. After we were sure the hook was set we took the dinghy to shore in the far back end of the cove and began a steep hike up and around the back side of the rocky bluffs. The forest away from the cove was thick with old growth pine and large boulders. As we hiked higher we began to see the sun glistening off the rocks. When the forest gave way to large open expanses of rolling granite we found wild blueberry bushes growing low in all the rocky cracks and crevices. We stopped for about and hour to pick and eat blueberries. The girls verbally made lists of all the yummy recipes we could add blueberries to as they feasted on the sweet, sun ripened little treats. We filled an empty 12oz. water bottle with berries to keep for pancakes the next morning.

After our tummies were full of a bear’s favorite food, we carefully wandered over to the rocky cliffs and peered down at all of Covered Portage Cove and tiny Island Bound sway breezily at anchor hundreds of feet below. We sat on the ledge and took in the wide panorama spread out before us. The image that was etched in my mind as I sat on the ledge is one I’ll fondly recall many times this coming fall and winter while the boat is back on her storage cradle.

Back on the boat at anchor we casually tossed out a night crawler and set the fishing pole in the rod holder as we grilled our pork dinner. Within just a few minutes the bobber disappeared and Hannah began reeling in a nice 4 pound rainbow trout. This was the first fish we have caught on the cruise, though we’ve drowned many worms and dragged many spoons. The girls and I took our fresh catch to shore to filet it. As we got back to the boat with the dinghy we watched gulls and vultures fight over the scraps we left behind.

Just before dusk, a couple from a neighboring boat rowed over in there dinghy to chat. As several other veteran cruisers have mentioned to us previously, this couple again voiced there opinion on just how meaningful and valuable cruising was for children. We obviously agree since our children are with us, but it’s always good to hear. This couple had been anchored in Covered Portage Cove all week and mentioned that earlier in the week a bear and her cub had come down to the water right near where we were anchored and the night before two moose had swam across the cove at sundown. As the couple was heading back to there boat, they mentioned that they always feel close to God in Covered Portage Cove. Given the beautiful surroundings, abundance of wildlife and quiet calm felt at anchor, Erin and I agree.

Browning Cove (Heywood Island) to Killarney

2010-07-02T09:56:00.000-04:00

Browning Cove (Heywood Island) - Killarney
14NM

Browning Cove was just what we dreamed a proper North Channel anchorage would be like. After spending such a wonderful day there it was hard to leave the next morning, but there’s always more to explore in the North Channel. We left Heywood Island behind in the light air of the morning and proceeded up picturesque Landsdowne Channel past Hole-In-The-Wall. Lansdowne Channel is well protected by the La Cloche Mountains to the north and Partridge, Center and Badgeley Island to the south.

As we passed Maxwell Point on Badgeley Island it was time to weave our way through the tricky shoals of Badgeley Rocks and Double Island Ledges. The area is well known for Cash Flow Rock, the rock that many boats run hard aground upon and thereby help cash flow to the fiberglass repair shops in Killarney. With Erin posting a bow watch, I moved slowly ahead through the rocks to the channel leading into Killarney. The town of Killarney reminds me of the many coastal ports along the rocky coast of Maine. The homes in Killarney are built upon huge slabs of granite jutting up from the Earth. The channel between mainland Ontario, where Killarney is, and George Island is narrow and dotted with many small marinas. After passing through the channel and scoping out all the marinas, we chose to stay at the Sportsman’s Inn and Marina.

The marina featured new floating docks, a nice ships store complete with toys for the kids, a few basic groceries and the wick we needed for our Weems & Plath oil lamp (finally!). After docking, we quickly made our way down the main street over to Herbert Fisheries on the water for fresh fish and chips. Herbert’s is North Channel fixture and a unique experience. They harvest fresh whitefish from Lake Huron daily for the deep fried fish and chips (fries) that they serve. An old school bus is parked on the waterfront and has been converted into the kitchen. You walk up to the bus window to place your order and then eat at picnic tables along the waterfront. The menu is simple: 3, 4, 6, 12 or 20 pieces of fish and either small or large baskets of fries. That’s it. It’s wonderfully simple and delicious.

Today happened to be our anniversary, so after shopping for a few groceries at the Killarney General Store and checking out the only gift shop in town (located in the old jailhouse), we took showers in the very clean washrooms. Today happened to be Erin and I’s 12 wedding anniversary so we splurged and had pizza in the Sportsman’s pub in there lodge. And that’s about all there is to Killarney…nice scenery, several small marinas, a general store and Herbert Fisheries.

Little Current to Browning Cove (Heywood Island)

2010-06-27T22:14:00.001-04:00

Little Current - Browning Cove (Heywood Island)

10NM

We departed Little Current with clean laundry, freshly showered bodies and a full galley. The weather today was delightful…blue skies, temperatures in the mid 70’s and light winds from the southeast. Our eastward route took us through the swing bridge and very nearby the beautiful lighthouse on the tip of Strawberry Island.

As Heywood Island grew larger on the horizon, we read up on its’ geography in our guide books. The low wooded island is know as a haven for many species of birds, including nesting bald eagles and loons. As a side note, it’s taken us a while to get use to calling the Canadian one dollar coin a looney like the locals do because of the loon pictured on the back. Heywood Island has one large and well protected bay on its’ northwestern edge with a small (~100 feet wide) channel stretching east behind tiny Browning Island into Browning Cove. This is where we chose to stay because of the privacy and the amazingly beautiful setting. The larger harbor had about 5 sailboats and 5 powerboats anchored as we entered and veered east down the tiny channel. It didn’t take long before we picked out our spot and dropped a bow hook. The water quickly drops to 20 feet at the shore’s edge so we were able to take a stern line to shore and also tie off to a tree. This kept the boat stopped the boat from swinging and kept the stern within feet of the forested shore. It was like a floating wilderness campsite!

Within minutes we were all in our bathing suits and enjoying the topaz colored water. For the second time on this trip I was forced to don my mask. Izzy dropped one of her Littlest Pet Shop toys in and it quickly sank to the bottom in 17 feet of water. The little kitty named Oreo stared back up at us through the clear water and my daughters pleaded with me to play Coast Guard rescuer…so what choice did I have? After our swim we took the dinghy into the larger harbor and visited the other boaters and enjoyed some time at one of the few sand beaches in the North Channel. While at the beach we saw two different water snakes.

When we finally putt-putted back to Island Bound, we cooked a great taco dinner. Erin sautéed the ground beef on our trusty Origo stove while I grilled mushrooms and onions on the rail mounted grill. The great grub was only surpassed by surroundings of our favorite anchorage to date. After dinner we were visited by a Canadian solo-sailor and his two wiener dogs, Penny and Elvis. Elvis came aboard and gave the girls their canine fix while Erin and I chatted about some out of the way gunk holes in the North Channel.

As the sun began to set, the four of us enjoyed some quiet reflection in the cockpit while listening to the loons call to one another. Their call is eerie, lonesome and mesmerizing. As dusk to turned to night and we were tucked snug in our bags, the loons continued to serenade us. Before shutting off the cabin lights for the night, we played a round of Jenga and had the highest tower any of us have ever built. Isabel’s deft hand and arbitrary pulls of the blocks without toppling the tower brought smiles around the table. But alas, the evening wasn’t perfect as bald eagle-sized mosquitoes pecked away at our flesh and screens. Oh well, such is life in the north woods!

South Benjamin Island to Little Current

2010-06-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

South Benjamin Island - Little Current

16NM

The day broke with an overcast sky but the winds from last night had subsided. We pulled the anchor around 8am and began motoring east towards Little Current, the largest town in the North Channel. The wind was light enough that the bugs were out for most of the 3 hour trip. We carefully rounded our way past the Sow and Pigs (rocks just south of the Benjamins), Croker Island and then south of Amedroz Island.

As we entered the channel leading to Little Current, we hailed Spider Bay Marina on VHF channel 68 and reserved our slip. Spider Bay was about a ¼ mile walk from town but the marina has free wi-fi and coin laundry facilities on site, so we decided to make it home for one night. After safely docking next to several chartered sailboats, we began cleaning Island Bound. Next it was off to town for a stroll through the gift shops and a stop at The Pantry Café for lunch. I was treated to the special of the day, a Texas brisket sandwich. Even in relatively remote Little Current on Manitoulin Island we were able to see the influence of the United States.

After lunch we continued up the hill out of town and to the grocery store to restock our food supplies. We also stopped at a hardware store in hopes of finding a replacement wick for our Weems & Plath oil lamp, but were unsuccessful. We again walked nearly ¾ of a mile back to the dock with groceries in hand, but didn’t miss the car so much this time as both our minds and bodies are getting use to the simplicity of cruising life.

Little Current is somewhat of a misnomer as water from the large stretch of the North Channel to the west is funneled through the narrow channel beneath a one lane swing bridge creating a rather big current. The buoys in the channel have an interesting shape. The base of each buoy is shaped like a little tugboat and therefore point into the current so boaters can quickly identify the direction the water is traveling. Obviously this is useful information when docking or transiting the channel through the swing bridge. The swing bridge opens on the hour, every hour, for 15 minutes at a time. It waits for no boat. If you’re a straggler trying to make it through at say 1:14.55pm, you might well have your mast guillotined right off the deck!

Gore Bay to South Benjamin Island

2010-06-25T22:33:00.000-04:00

Gore Bay to South Benjamin Island

14NM

We left Gore Bay at noon under bright sun and scattered high clouds. The winds were heavy with a steady 20 knots blowing off our port quarter. There were gusts to 25 knots and waves building to 5 feet by day’s end. These weren’t ideal conditions, but we had a short sail planned and would have the wind and waves mostly behind us. Our original plan called for anchoring at Clapperton Island but with the heavy seas we didn’t think it would be safe to try and negotiate the many reefs guarding the western entry to Clapperton Harbor. Our goal is to make as much east as we can early in the trip, with Killarney and the end of Georgian Bay being our turnaround point, so Clapperton was to be a quick overnight stop on the way to Little Current and points east. The alternative we chose was South Benjamin Island, just a bit northwest of Clapperton.

The sail over to South Benjamin Island was another rough ride. We had a double reef in the main and only about a third of our 150% genoa deployed. Shortly after exiting Gore Bay, Isabel vomited from sea sickness. She’s much more prone to sea sickness then the rest of us, but there’s plenty of sailors who would’ve lost their breakfast on this ride. She fell asleep soon after vomiting. We try to give the girls Dramamine chewable tablets prior to rough rides, but had forgot on this day. Usually, the Dramamine works well and they both fall asleep when the going gets rough. As a side note, I once read that the best prevention for sea sickness is to sit in the shade beneath an oak tree by a church out in the country. Yeah, I suppose that would work!

If you haven’t heard about the navigational challenges of the North Channel, now is a good time for me to mention them. From Gore Bay eastward, the Channel is full of reefs, rocks, shoals and islands. It is absolutely necessary to know your exact position at all times and be able to cross reference this with the chart plotter as well as the backup paper charts. One old salt once told me that if you haven’t run aground, you haven’t cruised the North Channel. Another even crustier old salt at the White Lake Yacht club gave me this advice “If you see gulls and cormorants standing on the water, don‘t sail there!” Of course what he was referring to were the many rocky shoals that lurk just below the surface in this part of the North Channel.

Between the chart plotter, the paper charts, the GPS and the aerial photos in the Ports Guide to the North Channel, we were able to successfully find and navigate the narrow pass into the long narrow bay on South Benjamin’s southwestern side. We ended up moving three times within the bay to find a comfortable, protected spot where the rollers and wind didn’t keep us rocking to much to get some sleep later that night.

The Benjamin’s are likely the most popular spot in the entire North Channel, and deservedly so. The pink granite of North and South Benjamin, along with Croker Island to the east, really stands out against the deep blue of Lake Huron’s water. The granite rises steeply in many places and much more gradually in others. The rocks are giant and smooth. Amazingly, there’s almost no soil on the islands but still mother nature found a way for pine trees and many shrubs and flowers to grow. The girls had blast scrambling through the moonscape and tiptoeing through the endless number of little pools. We’re only staying one night at the Benjamins now but will spend several days here on our way back through to the west. We picked out a few choice anchorages where you can tie the bow to shore and have a stern hook out to hold you tight among the many rocky little coves.

Neither Erin nor myself slept very well as the boat rolled and bobbed all night long in the strong winds and big waves, even way back in the protection of the bay. Our anchor is almost comically oversized for our boat (33lbs Lewmar Claw) but I still set an anchor alarm with the GPS and kept it next to my head all night. I awoke 4 different times and went on deck to check our position and make sure the rock wall to our west wasn’t moving closer. Amazingly, we were the only boat at South Benjamin that night. I’ll be very surprised if that’s the case when we pass back through in a couple of weeks.