31 « July « 2010 « The Ruff Life

Going Home – Saturday, July 24, 2010

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!

July 31st, 2010 Posted by Laura | Day Cruise | no comments

Macinac Island – July 23, 2010

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

July 31st, 2010 Posted by Laura | Day Cruise | no comments

Back to St. Ignace – July 22, 2010

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.

July 31st, 2010 Posted by Laura | Day Cruise | no comments

Croker Island – July 20-21, 2010

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

July 31st, 2010 Posted by Laura | Day Cruise | no comments

Little Current – July 19, 2010

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...

July 31st, 2010 Posted by Laura | Day Cruise | no comments

Covered Portage Cove – July 17, 18 – 2010

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!