The Ruff Life

August 18 – Day trip to Menominee Michigan

Laura — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:15:10 +0000

We had friends from Florida visit for the week and we finally got a break in our humid weather just in time for their visit. However, even though our Florida friends were happy to be out of the intense Florida heat and into temps in the 70′s, we had a very windy week, which made boating impossible….well, almost impossible. We braved four foot waves on a Thursday afternoon and headed across Green Bay over to Menominee, MI where we had lunch at the Irish Pub. Fortunately, the water calmed down to less than a foot for the return trip back to Sturgeon Bay. It turned out to be a great day on the water and the boys went fishing later that night. The fish had better ideas though…the boys came home with an empty cooler.

Feeling frisky...

Jody & Chrys

Self Portrait - Chrys & Laura

Chrys & Jody in Menominee Michigan

70 Degree Water! You are not in Florida anymore!

We finally learned how to use the timer on the camera!

August 6, 2010 Sand Bay

Laura — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:38:58 +0000

We were back from the North Channel and were ready to be back on the water. We headed out to Riley’s Bay for the afternoon and took a dinghy ride to Wave Point for some lunch and cocktails. Our friends Ben and Nikki were with us on board “Big Dog” – the name of our dinghy. The weather was just beautiful and we had a spectacular sunset.

Dinghy ride to Wave Point

Ruff Life at anchor by Snake Island

: Beautiful sunset.

Going Home – Saturday, July 24, 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:56:33 +0000

We got up early and threw lines off at about 7:15am to start making our way home. We had several contingency plans on how to navigate our way based on conditions – basically, all this means, is that we had “bail out” locations in mind that would get us off treacherous waters.

Once we passed the Macinac Bridge, the water picked up a bit and we were struggling to find a good cruising speed that was comfortable. It seems the seas were confused and were trying to shift. We persevered and once we got close to Beaver Island, the seas completely flattened out. We were feeling so lucky about this, that we re-charted our course directly for Sturgeon Bay. Not only had we made it through the North Channel with no boat damage (liver damage, maybe), we were also experiencing calm seas on Lake Michigan.

We set our course and we pulled in safely to Sturgeon Bay ship canal doing high fives! We were at our slip at noon local time! It was about a 5.5 hour ride from St. Ignace to Sturgeon Bay. We were tired, but thankful we made the trip with nothing to report but good stories!

Last photo - St. Ignace - Goodbye for 2010!

Macinac Island – July 23, 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:49:23 +0000

With weather creating rough seas, we decided to hunker down in St. Ignace for the day. This didn’t mean that we couldn’t take the 20 minute ferry ride over to Macinac Island though! We arrived around lunchtime and immediately found the Sea Biscuit to eat at. It was fabulous food and very good beer!

The island has no motor vehicles at all. Everything is walking, biking or horse carriage. Since we had been on the boat for so long, we decided to walk, and walk and walk! We ended up at a bar where we met some folks that were attending a wedding. We had a great time with them! Then, we made it to another restaurant for dinner (where we over ate) and then caught the ferry back to St. Ignace. It was a great time and I’d love to go back there!

Sea Biscuit - great black & tans

On Macinac Island goofing around.

Fort

Horse carriages...

More goofing around...

No joke...this guy is eating SMORES! It is offered on the menu!

Macinac Marina

Pretty homes on the bluffs.

The Grand Hotel - it is where the movie "Somewhere in Time" was filmed

Back to St. Ignace – July 22, 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:29:28 +0000

We left the group around 7:30am to start making our way to Drummond Island (customs check-in for US), and then continuing on to St. Ignace. Scot’s weather report showed that seas would be picking up, so we wanted to get the best water we could be leaving early. Once we rounded the island, the seas were a little more than we expected – about 3-4 feet. The weather report indicated less than 2 ft. We found a speed that put us at a comfortable ride and headed for customs check-in in Drummond. We actually ran into a cold front, that delivered calm seas and fog! I texted back to the group the water conditions so that they could make arrangements for their next anchorage based on what we were experiencing.

Getting to Drummond definitely involves skill. Everything is marked – EVERYTHING. So, it was a little challenging figuring out which markers were for the check-in. We safely navigated through the channels and got to the check-in post. A homeland security officer interviewed us, we paid our re-entry fee of $27.50 and we were on our way to St. Ignace. Drummond is very insignificant, and we were happy to be on our way.

We traveled about 125 miles from Crocker to St. Ignace. After the original seas of 3-4 ft, we were blessed with flat seas all the way to St. Ignace. We toyed with skipping St. Ignace and heading for Charlesvoix, but when we looked at weather radar, all sense came back to us and we pulled in to St. Ignace – there was a huge storm coming up the lake. Which meant, we would most likely be in St. Ignace tomorrow too.

Croker Island – July 20-21, 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:20:26 +0000

Well, I guess I was getting tired of taking pictures! Crocker Island was a great time, but I left my camera on board when we did our dinghy rides! Partly because I didn’t want to get it wet, and partly because I knew I was missing some of my faculties and that it was entirely possible to have dropped it in the drink!

We anchored at Crocker Island and it was simply beautiful. We all went for dinghy rides and found lots of new places to try next time. So far so good for the Ruff Life, we haven’t hit a rock or dead head yet – and we were feeling a little too lucky to push our nose into uncharted waters – so we stayed put at our anchorage for 2 days. A small, but powerful storm, blew in one night and we all held anchors just fine. We were a little nervous because the heavy wind was right on our bow – so Scot started the engines just in case we broke lose – there was a rock wall behind us! Our entire group did fine, but a sailboat in front of us started to drag anchor and head our way. His anchor skipped a few times and then finally took hold again. We kept our engines on for him too! Ultimately, the storm went over and 30 minutes later, we were all dried out, with sunny skies and warm temps!

This is our last day playing in the islands. Due to weather concerns, we are going to depart from the group in the morning and start making our way west toward St. Ignace. While we don’t enjoy seas over 3 feet, our 14 year old dog really doesn’t like them – so we figured we’d try to travel in 3ft or less so that we all were enjoying things a little bit more.

Jenny Jo and WaterKraft - side by side

Storm is brewing...

Storm on our bow - sailboat drifting our way

Little Current – July 19, 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:05:54 +0000

We pulled up anchorage at Covered Portage Cove and headed for Little Current and the municipal marina. We didn’t need fuel or pump out, but we did need to fill up the fresh water tank – we were down to about a 1/3 of tank. We could have managed for many more days, but you just never know when we will come across another marina – so we decided to fill up. Both Ruff Life and O B Quiet pulled up anchors and headed out first, with Jenny Jo and WaterKraft following behind at their tug speed. We heard Little Current was going to be packed, and since it is first come first serve, we thought we could race over there and secure spots for our group. Fortunately, it worked out great and all of us were accommodated.

Little Current is very deceiving – it is a huge current that comes through the channel with the slightest hint of wind. No one in our group had issues docking, but several sailboats (like 6) hit other boats while docking. Some even ended up in slips that were behind them! WaterKraft got bumped twice – fortunately on the dinghy, so no damage.

I’m not sure what we were up to, because I didn’t manage to take many pictures here! We did get up and run in the morning, which was very much needed, then we all headed out to the Benjamin Islands.

Ben & Nikki - from WaterKraft

Enjoying time on land!

Janie's ruff ride to Little Current...

Covered Portage Cove – July 17, 18 – 2010

Laura — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:51:09 +0000

We traveled back through Collins Inlet, through the Killarney channel, and ended up back at Covered Portage Cove. We really enjoyed this anchorage with Merrill, and so it was not a hard decision to go back with the new group. Plus, we really wanted to hike up the bluff for some more blueberries! Anchoring out proved to be a bit challenging with the winds gusting over 25, but we all managed to get secure and enjoy the day. We hosted cocktails on our boat and had a great time. Wind died down before going to bed and we had a very peaceful rest – even the temps cooled down a bit which made having hot coffee in the morning that much more enjoyable!

We went hiking the next morning with the group and below are some pictures of us way up high on the bluff. We weren’t able to get any pictures of the Ruff Life or O B Quiet because we just couldn’t get to the right bluff – but we tried! We did come across a lot of blueberries and bear scat! We safely navigated our way around, and eventually back down the bluff to the dinghys. It was a beautiful day – but, weather radar shows some rain coming.

Scot caught his first fish! It is a northern pike. We did a catch and release. Rain started shortly after that, and we decided to make martinis and nachos! It was a splendid way to spend the time in the rain!

Northern Pike

View from bluff of anchorage cove

Nikki with WaterKraft in background

Up high on the bluff

Cleaning out weeds from the generator filter!

Janie in a coma after hiking for 3 hours! She is actually laying down in the dinghy!

Martinis on the Ruff Life

Chris driving O B Quiet following us out of Covered Portage Cove

Collins Inlet – Beaverstone Island – Friday, July 16, 2010

Laura — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:46:05 +0000

Merrill decided to break from the group and hit some ports on their own – we planned to meet up with them later on. The gang decided to go down Collins Inlet to another island anchorage. While weather had been just about glorious during our trip so far, the morning we left Killarney to head to the inlet proved to be windy – which created some turbulence in the water. While Ruff Life was the last one out of Killarney, as soon as we hit those waves, we put the throttles down and got going! We ended up passing the other 3 boats in the group, but as everyone assures us – because all boats are different, each Captain has to find the right speed/course for his boat to make for the best ride. So, we got on top of the waves and our 4 mile ride was over in 10 minutes. We waited in the inlet for the others to catch up – they were going pretty fast too – I think WaterKraft tug is on plane…

After cruising through a narrow inlet (more like a cavern), we popped out in pretty calm water, but still very windy. We all scouted around for some protection, and ultimately anchored out on the North side of Beaverstone Island. The other 3 boats all have 100% chain for anchor, while the Ruff Life is only equipped with 20ft of chain. Ruff Life set the bow anchor and took a stern anchor to shore, and the other boats set bow anchors and swung with the wind. We were snug as a bug all night as the winds picked up a bit.

The island had a ton of blueberries! Scot and I picked about 2 cups of little berries and the begging for blueberry pancakes in the morning began!

Goodbye Killarney...

WaterKraft on plane...

Nikki on WaterKraft is spying on us...

Tug "Jenny Jo" - George and Mary Jo

Ocean Alexander - "O B QUIET" Steve and Chris

We had lots of horse flies - but had to capture this picture of a dragonfly eating one!

Loving his day at the helm!

Backyard view at anchorage

Where's Waldo? She was happy to be on shore taking a nap on a rock!

Steve & Chris on O B Quiet - they invited everyone over for happy hour - I owe Chris a jar of olives!

Nikki & Ben from WaterKraft - Ben would later blame me for Nikki's hangover!

Finally - blueberry pancakes before pulling up anchor!

Killarney, Canada – Thursday, July 15, 2010

Laura — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:20:46 +0000

We left Covered Portage Cove this morning and headed to the town of Killarney to hook up with our friends from Sturgeon Bay, WI. We weren’t in any need of provisions or pump out, but we used the pitstop to get a load of laundry done – and what better day to do so – we had muggy/cloudy conditions! The town is pretty small, but has a nice charm to it. We ate dinner with a big group of friends at a real restaurant. After “preppy camping” for a week, we were ready to have someone else make our meal and clean it up! We had a really good time and had some martinis at the bar afterward – they tasted like tootsie rolls! Not sure if it is the bugs, too much sun or too much drinking, but we were in bed before 10pm!

Sportsman Inn - Killarney

Ruff Life at dock...hooked up to AC!

The Sturgeon Bay gang - happy hour before dinner

Scot and Ben - happy trails....

Nikki and Chris

Ben & Nikki - from WaterKraft