Sail Far Live Free

Nothing is carved in stone yet, but we're very seriously contemplating a 2 or 3 month cruise of northern Lake Michigan and the Mackinac Straits for the summer of 2010.  Such a Great Lakes cruise would be a great way to "test the waters" and see how well our family adapts to living-aboard for an extended period while cruising. At this point in the planning/contemplating stages, the itinerary is wide open, but here's a sample of how the route could look: Grand Haven - White Lake - Pentwater - Ludington - Lake Crossing - Manitowoc - Two Rivers - Door County (multiple ports) - Washington Island - Fayette - Manistique - Beaver Island Archipeligo (Beaver/High/Garden Islands) - St. Helena Island - Mackinac City - Mackinac Island - Harbor Springs - Petoskey - Charlevoix (1+ week layover in Horton Bay) - Grand Traverse Bay (multiple ports) - Leland - Manitou Islands - Frankfort - Portage Lake - Pentwater - White Lake - Grand Haven. Wow...that's a lot o...

Have you ever been out for a lazy sail and wished you could step below for moment to grab a cold drink or perhaps a pair of sunglasses but you couldn't leave the tiller unattended? Davis Marine makes a product they call a " Tiller Tamer " that might help in such a situation. The Tiller Tamer is essentially a clamping device for a tiller control line. It is constructed of durable, hard plastic with stainless steel hardware (screw/hex nut). The Tiller Tamer mounts directly on top of the forward end of the tiller handle. If your tiller is made of anything other than wood, you may need to fabricate mounting hardware or forego the Tiller Tamer all together. The device is mounted via two wood screws. The control line (1/4" diameter provided) is then run from the stern corners of the cockpit to the Tiller Tamer. I personally used jam cleats mounted directly in the fiberglass of the cockpit's stern to anchor the control line. You could also use cam cleats or other me...

Now that the sailboat is out of the water and hibernating until spring, my mind has started to wander and wonder.  One of my passions is adventuring, which seems to have manifested itself in my life in the form of sailing and backpacking.  So I started to wonder, other than adventure, what the common theme is between sailing and backpacking.  Erin & I approaching the summit of Mt. Shasta Both activities require and reward self-sufficiency.  Cruising many miles from land on a sailboat, you have nothing except the wind, the waves and that which you brought oboard.  So it is with backpacking in the wilderness.  All you have is the trails, the trees and that which you have in your pack. 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.  Again, when you're on a long wilderness ...

Just thought I'd make a quick post to share the stormy fall season on the Great Lakes and specifically Lake Michigan. Back on September 28, 2009 we had a major storm come ashore in Grand Haven. The NOAA forecast called for a storm warning with 50kt+ winds and 15-20 foot waves. I don't know the actual wave heights or the wind speeds that day, but I can say that I've never seen more wind or bigger waves on Lake Michigan than I did that day. Check these videos for a better description than words can provide: And lastly, 20 degrees of heel in the slip:

Thursday (Oct. 8) was the day I dread every year...the day the boat is hoisted from the water and put on the hard for half the year. But that's the trade-off for boating in the beautfiul and abundant waters of the Great Lakes. Island Bound was hoisted with North Shore's travel lift, powerwashed and set snuggly on her storage cradle for the long winter hibernation. I went back out on Saturday and winterized the engine (hopefully!), the freshwater system and the head. I also removed the sails and secured all lines and halyards for the winter. All she needs now is her cozy shrink-wrap blanket!

Now that fall has officially arrived here in the Great Lakes, I thought I'd make a quick post to review our first season aboard s/v Island Bound . Incredibly to us, we actually spent significantly more nights aboard IB than we did on Hannabel. On average, we were living on the boat 5 out 7 nights per week. And once again, the dock life and community was amazing. We became close friends with several other boaters on our dock and look forward to continued friendship through the off-season. After several daysails and another run at the 8+8 rally with IB to get to know her a bit, we first headed south back to Eldean Shipyard in Holland for two nights in late June. The trip back was a blast with 25+ kt winds, 6'+ waves and a small craft advisory! Island Bound handled the quartering seas wonderfully and cruised us back to Grand Haven on a fast (6+ kts) broad reach. My mom and dad picked up the girls in Holland and drove them home via automobile just to be safe. In July we head...

Ok, so it's been waaayyyyyyy too long since I've made a blog entry. But hey, I've got a good excuse: We've been busy enjoying our new boat. That's right, we reluctantly sold our beloved Hannabel and moved up to a Caribbean themed Irwin 28 MkIV named "Island Bound". Let me introduce you to our new girl. Here are her vitals... LOA: 28'5" LWL: 23' Beam: 9' Draft: 4'6" Displacement: 7,800 lbs Ballast: 3,000 lbs She's got everything we want in our "next boat". The list includes straight shaft inboard, furling headsail, standing headroom, plumbed head, functional galley, plenty of storage and a bit more speed. So far we've cruised from Muskegon to Grand Haven, raced in the Grand River Sailing Club's 8+8 Rally, cruised to Holland and enjoyed numerous day sails and wonderful nights at the marina. Stay tuned for more frequent updates!

Are we halfway through another winter in the Great Lakes? Close enough by my calendar. As February quickly approaches, spring task lists start to float to the top of a sailor's brain. I'm sitting here in my office daydreaming about oiling teak handrails, applying bottom paint to my hull, cleaning my sails and a dozen other activities that would seem like chores were it any other time of year. The middle of winter has a strange way of making me appreciate summer. To paraphrase John Denver's "Relatively Speaking": The sunshine needs the shadows of the night. Contrast makes it go. And so, summer needs the depth of winter.

Just thought I'd add a quick post to let you know about a video slide show I put together recapping the first year with our Helms 25, Hannabel. You can view the video on YouTube here: YouTube Slideshow of Hannabel's 2008 Season Enjoy!

Now that I've spent a season sailing our Helms 25 and have had time to reflect on the experience since having her hauled out in October, I thought it would be appropriate to post my review of the boat. So here it is... There are many small sailboat builders who had passion, good designs and quality craftsmanship that are no longer in business. The sailboat market can be fickle. Demand ebbs and flows. Niches grow and shrink. Fortunately, many sailboats from years ago survive the market conditions, unlike some of their respective builders. Today we're left with a few choices in the pre-owned market for small, trailerable weekend cruisers. If you're shopping, don't overlook some of the smaller builders like Helms Yachts. Helms Yachts were built in Irmo, South Carolina during the 1970s and early 1980s by Jack Helms. To the best of my knowledge, only 600-800 total boats were built throughout the Helms line. Jack supposedly personally delivered most of the boats. The c...

I should have listened to my dad when he warned that purchasing a boat would only make the summer go by more quickly and the winter more slowly. I now sit at the edge of a very long winter reflecting back over a very fast, yet enormously memorable summer. Maybe somehow putting it all down on paper will make the sailing from this past summer last just a bit longer. Let's start at the beginning. Before this summer, I was first a young boy spoken to by the sweeping sheerline of a Maine lobster boat, an adolescent teen enjoying the wind in my hair from the bow of mom and dad's boat, and more recently a novice sailor seeking wisdom from the wind and waves aboard a Laser on Lake Charlevoix. In fact, just one summer ago I was a mere armchair sailor, reading all I could about sailing adventures in far off places. The internet was my virtual showroom allowing me to step aboard the thousands of sailboats listed for sale and drift just a little further into my South Pacific f...

On what turned out to be a rather spontaneous decision, we threw off the docklines and headed south towards Port Sheldon and Pigeon Lake. The crew consisted of Erin, Hannah, Isabel, Shasta and I. The weather forecast was perfect...10-15 knot winds out of the north with waves 1 foot or less. We rounded the south pier head of Grand Haven at about 11:30am and enjoyed a perfect broad reach for 8 nautical miles to Port Sheldon. The wind and waves were so very right that day that we did not even once take a tack or pull on the jib sheet. Just awesome sailing! Port Sheldon is listed in the chart books as simply a "port of refuge" with no services or marinas. Fair enough, we were looking for a bit of relaxation and quiet before the busy holiday weekend that lay ahead. The channel into Pigeon Lake is a bit narrow and sometimes shallow, but well worth navigating because of the clear blue water and narrow sandy beaches on the shorelines. We motored down the channel and into Pigeon L...

On Wednesday, July 16, 2008, we embarked on our first overnight cruise from our homeport. We had originally planned to sail from Grand Haven to Saugatuck (~24 nautical miles) to meet up with some friends who have a boat there. The voyage from Grand Haven to Saugatuck affords a couple of ports in between for weathering a storm, provisioning, etc. The ports are evenly spaced with Port Sheldon/Pigeon Lake being a short hop at 9.5nm and Holland being an additional 8nm. The forecast for Wednesday, our departure day, called for winds out of the south from 5-15 knots. This meant a tough, slow beat upwind. Luckily the seas were only 1-2 foot and the sky was clear. We stayed on Hannabel the night prior to the trip and both Erin and I woke early Wednesday morning (6:00am) with excitement, ready to begin our journey. We rounded the Grand Haven pier and headed south at about 9:00am. The girls both played for the first few hours. Our dog, a golden retriever named Shasta, slept. Then af...

The Grand River Sailing Club graciously invited Erin and I to participate in their annual "8+8 Sailing Rally" and we happily accepted. The 8+8 Rally is a laid back "race" that uses a handicapped start so all boats finish relatively close together. The course is set so the race has one turning mark 8 miles out on a beam reach. I know many of the regular GRSC members don't really consider the 8+8 to be a race, but believe me, Erin and I were racing! This was our first organized sailing event together with Hannabel and we're happy to report she did great! The race started with dark storm clouds looming overhead and 15 mph winds bustling about. But the conditions quickly mellowed out and all participants were sitting still in the water with little to nowind for about an hour. At that point the race committee decided to shorten the 8+8 to a 6+6 (6 miles out, 6 miles back) race. Because of our PHRF handicap starting place, we were the first boa...

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, so I thought I'd take the time to make a few posts. I was blessed with the good fortune of being asked to crew on 37 foot sailboat for the 2008 Queen's Cup race. For those unfamiliar, the Queens Cup ( http://www.ssyc.org/queenscup/default.asp ) is one of the oldest cups in world-yachting still being offered for competition every year. The race begins on the western shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee and finishes on the eastern shore in Grand Haven. Our boat and crew crossed on Wednesday morning from Grand Haven to Milwaukee (approximately 72 nautical miles) in near perfect sailing conditions. We had 15-25 mph winds on our beam nearly the entire way and averaged about 6.8 knots for an 11 hour crossing. The race back home was even better. We started in a thunderstorm and tacked around the starting area with a double reefed main. Eventually the storm passed and we shook out the reefs and enjoyed an all n...

This is a brief but important post I should've made long ago. We decided very early this year that the name of our sailboat is to be "Hannabel", which comes from simply combining the first four letters from our daughter Hannah's name and the last four letters from our daughter Isabel's name. Tricky, huh? In any case, our beautiful little boat is hence forth to be known as the sailing vessel Hannabel!

This past Sunday marked the first trip on Hannabel that was more than a mere daysail. Erin, Hannah, Isabel, my mom, dad and I all shoved off from the docks at North Shore Marina at about 11:00am and headed north to Muskegon for lunch. The weather called for light air (5-10kts) out of the north, so we knew might be in for a long, slow trip of only 24 total miles. Still, we were eager to get some mileage beneath our keel so we worked our way windward...for about 3 hours. The trip to Muskegon was uneventful, as we munched on my mom's almond bars and basked in the sunny (but cool!) 1st day of June. Just west of Grand Haven we observed a couple of the USCG boats practicing towing drills as we sailed by at a very leisurely pace. We pulled into the Muskegon breakwater and channel around 2:30pm and motored our way to Dockers. The food was good, even if they did take the very memorable calamari off the menu. There was also a live blues band and plenty of activities for the girls. The ...

Our first sail on our "new to us" boat was short but ever so sweet! We tried our sails and running rigging at the slip before departing for the lake. Everything seemed like it was working as it should, so we shoved off for Lake Michigan. Once reaching the big lake, we motored out about a half mile before shutting down the outboard and preparing to hoist the sails. Erin took the helm as I scurried about the deck and cockpit setting the sails and sheets. Once the jib went up, we were off! The conditions were light (wind to 10 knots from the North), but we made headway and enjoyed every minute of the first sail. We practiced making a couple of tacks and alternated between beam and broach reaching. On the way in we encountered engine problems, as the pull cord for our outboard broke, the choke stuck open and caused the engine to run poorly and to top it all off, it wouldn't stay in gear! Luckily we had my mom and dad nearby with the mothership (their Carver motoryacht) fo...

The big days for our little boat keep rolling in. Today we splashed her at her new summer home, North Shore Marina in Grand Haven. The marina staff used a modified fork lift that is typically used for their "in and out" service to lift the boat off the trailer and set her gently down in the water. Even though the staff knew exactly what they were doing, I was still quite nervous as I watched the boat lift from the trailer and be set into the water. I was also nervous after the hull hit the water. Would it keep the water on the outside where it belongs? Or did I miss some hidden spot on the hull where water could get inside? Will the swingbolt for the centerboard be water tight? Time will tell. Anyway, here are a few pictures (courtesy of my mom): And finally, resting peacefully in her slip:

Finally...the day I've been anxiously awaiting since last fall has arrived. Today we stepped the mast. Obviously, this is a big day since it moves us that much closer to actually sailing our "good old boat". But despite my excitement, I was also very anxious because of the unknown. I've never stepped a mast or rigged any sailboat larger than a Laser. Luckily, I received a lot of great advice from forums members at Sailnet and a few other trusted Helms owners. Based on this advice, I constructed a gin pole from Home Depot materials (10' 2"x6", 4 eye bolts, ratchet strap) that made the job very manageable. I cut the gin pole to fit around the base of the mast and used the ratched strap to hold it in place. We then attached the forestay to the opposite end of the gin pole and ran a line from the same end through a block on the bow and back to the sheet winch in the cockpit. One person stood holding an extension ladder which supported one e...

Today was a big day for our sailboat. Most of the hard restoration work has been completed and she's moving to her new home in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. We loaded her up with all of our crusing gear and towed her west. Recently completed projects include: -New compainionway hatchboards installed -New teak handrails installed -Refinished teak railslides installed -Transom boarding ladder installed -Fishing rod holder installed -New dinette table built and installed