Day 20 - the might knot

We slogged our way southwest for 75 miles from Harbor Springs to Frankfort. The conditions did not settle down overnight as forecasted so it was a bit snotty out on the big lake. Not anticipating rough conditions on the nose we had not secured the dingy as well as we should have. The bouncing brought back memories of the delivery trip across Lake Erie in October where we decided to leave the dingy in Sandusky, Ohio for the winter. Today the dingy tried unsuccessfully to launch itself off the swim platform while we were doing 25 kts. We stopped twice to secure the dingy using our dock lines and might knots. What is a might knot you ask? A might knot is a knot that might hold or it might knot. If we had a lighter dingy it would have easily launched itself. We need to add more pad-eyes (fasteners) to our swim platform to better secure our dingy.

Last night in Harbor Springs the crew of Paragon invited us aboard. This is the new Cruisers 540 . It is a work of art. She has a three engine propulsion system with pod steering. That is three 600 horse power engines with computerized bow and stern thrusters. The boat is docked using a joystick. Just point and push the joystick toward the dock and boat docks itself. Where is the drama in that? The other boaters and people on the dock want to see a real show.

David and Cathy Welstead are the BO’s (boat owners) and Cathy’s brother Rob and his wife Muriel were aboard. David is the captain that moved his boat so the boat next to him could get their mega dingy out from behind their boat. They are all from Ontario, Canada so we had a good time poking fun at the Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford. They were very gracious hosts. David mentioned his first world problem on his $1.5 million (or more) motor yacht. There is no window that opens in the helm station. All the windows are permanent. It is like driving the starship Enterprise while inside the Biosphere. Their electric power cord reel is broken so they have to store 50 feet of power cord in their dingy. The ice maker has already been replaced. How do they persevere under such conditions?

We stopped in Leland to secure the dingy. The harbor master let us tie up to a face dock. We lowered the swim platform and repositioned the dingy. Dale used the time to buy some smoked whitefish. One of our dock mates from Waukegan Harbor mentioned they were headed north this week while we are headed south. Sure enough, there at the gas dock in Leland was the boat from Waukegan, An Appointment. It is a small lake.

We are staying at Jacobson’s Marina in Frankfort tonight. We fueled up and pumped out. While we were coming into the gas dock we saw a red sailboat that we recognized as a boat from Waukegan named Blush. We hovered for a while while they put on 10 gallons of fuel. As they pulled out I called over to the BO George who decided I was just another crazy power boater. Misty is also at this marina. That is the boat we watched disappear into the mist at St. Ignace. Jacobson’s has a great pool and hot tub. It finally warmed up enough today to go swimming.

We had the best popcorn at the Storm Cloud Brewey. Not only do they have an amazing assortment of Belgian beers they have popcorn like mom used to make. They put cooking oil in a pan to pop the kernels and use real butter and sea salt. Each batch is custom made for you when you order it. It was magical to taste real popcorn again. The Belgian doublet was a bit of alright too.

Speaking of beer, a local citizen was in the BP gas station where were buying some supplies. He showed me a 25 ounce can of Bush beer and pointed to the 5.7% alcohol content. It was $1.39 per can. He assured me this was the best beer value on the planet and if you drank two your night was complete. Thank you sir, now please go away.

Continuing on the beer theme there is an unsung hero from Little Current. Denise was our waitress two nights in a row in the Anchor Inn. Dale and I ordered a pitcher of beer while ladies ordered wine. Then we asked for separate checks. Denise split the cost of the pitcher evenly between the two checks. We have never before or after seen such initiative on the part of a waitress. Denise, we salute you.

Tomorrow we will cruise to Ludington and then on to White Lake on Thursday. We are watching the weather closely to choose our day to cross the lake to the Wisconsin side. Gentle readers we have only four more nights remaining on this cruise.

Photo of a bowl of cheeseburger soup at the Storm Cloud brewery in Frankfort.

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