Category Archives: 8 days of Sailing the Great Lakes

A neophyte sailor chronicling an eight-day adventure to help a friend bring home his new sailboat through three of the Great Lakes and one big storm on Superior.

The Sailing Adventure Begins

Thursday, June 8th

Friends and family seem to be always asking what my next biking adventure will be? Gee wiz… Just one time I ride a mountain bike for a few miles and a few days, now I’m ‘the biker guy’? I do have other aspirations. There are many things I would like to see and do, that do NOT involve peddling my butt there. Will say the adventure about to embark on, sailing a boat several hundred miles through the largest fresh water lakes in the world, was nowhere even remotely near my bucket list. Sometimes an opportunity presents itself and like that, you have a new bucket list.

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Onto The Big Lake They Called Gitche Gumee

Friday, June 9th

Sleeping in the front birth of the boat puts me directly under a clear hatch, which in turn provides me an awesome view straight up the mast rising 52 feet above the water. My first morning sleeping on the boat I woke to that view, however it looked as though the harbor was socked in with fog. Closer examination reviled that it was just a layer of dew on the glass. Waking this morning provided the similar foggy view but this time the mast was much more visible than yesterday. Now it is true, the Harbor indeed is socked in with fog.

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Forty-Five Hours and Twenty-One Feet Down

Monday, June 12th to Wednesday, June 14th

This Blog post will encompass three days worth of travel. Because well… It seems like one long day. So here we are with one big post.

The approaching storms that, on the radar, looked like they might enter our area overnight never amounted to much. However to borrow, and slightly modify, an old pilot’s saying: It’s better to be here in the harbor wishing we were out there, than out there wishing we were here. Continue reading

Ahoy Lake Michigan

Thursday, June 15th to Saturday, June 17th

Woke up in Mackinaw Island harbor with much calmer waters as the winds had greatly subsided over night. Today’s weather report is not great but it does indicate winds that may be favorable for putting up sails for south travel on Lake Michigan. Glad to see though the one biggie we now look for in any report. No storms predicted. Continue reading

Where One Adventure Ends, Another Begins

Saturday, September 18th 2018

Followers of this blog may recall my weeklong Sailboat adventure that took place just a little over a year ago in 2017. Having never been on a bigger sailboat in my life, I did so for the first time to sail three of the five Great Lakes, which lead to an interesting adventure. If you have yet to read that story the beginning is found here: Sailing The Great Lakes

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