Indulgence and the trip home

2006-07-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

June 4, 2006 – Mile 1217 to 1328, 111 mi run
Frankfort, MI –Mile to Mackinaw City, MI.
We left this morning at 7am in 55 degree, sunny, flat conditions. Heading North, we crossed the 45th parallel at 9am, meaning that we were now closer to the North Pole than the equator. To Port is Manitou island and there’s a shipwreck sitting right out off the beach. I want to say, how cool, but I’m sure the crew on board when it happened didn’t think so…
Around noon we alter course from Mackinaw to Beaver Island for fuel, since St. Johns Harbor is about 50 mi closer than Macinaw City. The water on Lake Michigan right now is like glass, and the air coming off of it is like from a refrigerator. Coming up to Beaver Island, we’re in 360’ of water. Once in the harbor, the water looks just like we’re in the Florida Keys, deep blue, green and crystal clear. Water at the fuel dock is about 7’ and the stones on the bottom are clear as day. We pay $3.79 a gallon, and took on 280 gallons, no discount for cash, no discount for quantity. I was griping about the cost, but little did I realize that I would pay more, much more….
Back out on the Lake, past the shoal markers for Vienna, East, and Gray’s Reef Shoal. Around 6pm we can make out the uprights on the Mackinaw Bridge and we’re still more than 25 miles away. As we get closer, you can see large windmills up on the hills at the shore. At 7:40pm we’re under the bridge. It is truly awesome, spanning more than 5 miles across. Entering the harbor for the marina, we’re crossed by the ferry that shuttles over to Mackinaw Island. It’s a hydrofoil with a rooster tail about 80’ high.
We stayed in Mackinaw City Marina where the water in the slip is 14’ deep and you can clearly see the bottom. Mackinaw City looks like something at Disney. Everything in the downtown area looks to be newly remodeled with all of the store fronts complementing each other. There must be 20 fudge shops within eyeshot of where we ate dinner, which was the “Key Hole Bar”. Local food at it’s best.
Pics are from the harbor in Beaver Island, (check out the clarity of the water) the bridge at Mackinaw, and Mackinaw City Bridge.

2006-07-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

Thank's to everyone that has kept us with our travels. The next posts are those that I've promised, picking up from the Muskegon to Frankfort, Mi passage.

2006-06-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

Mile 2001.8 - After more than 6 days without internet and phone, we're back in the country. Log and pics to come. All is well....

2006-06-04T09:45:00.000-05:00

The crew doing what we do best!!

2006-06-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

June 3, 2006 – Well, we’re back underway. Today we left Muskegon, MI for Frankfort, MI, about 95 NM. Weather was good, with Lake Michigan flat as we started out, building to 1-3 ft and later 2-4 in late afternoon. The diesel service returned with our AC generator yesterday. We moved over to the service slip and used the marina’s forklift to set it in the pilothouse through the back boarding door. From there, Ed, the diesel tech, used a series of homemade picks and trolleys to move it down the stairs and into the engine room. Ed’s the man!
During our little layover, we were able to make improvements and repairs that needed done. One of those was the autopilot and what a difference it made in today’s run. Use the Raymarine unit to set your waypoints, set the autopilot and keep a watch! Sure makes a difference in your fatigue level at the end of the day!
We got into Frankfort around 4:30pm and stayed at a nice place called Jacobson Marina. Great location. Within walking distance of everything. Restaurants, bars, theaters, etc. We had an early dinner and retired to the boat, with Vinny taking in MI3 at the local movie house. Tomorrow we’ll try to make Makinaw. Pics are from the breakwater coming into Frankfort and the dunes that make the coastline of Lake Michigan.

2006-05-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

May 26, 2006 Made it back to Muskegon this afternoon with a new crewmember, Vinny Sr. We’re still flying in and out of Mackinaw, which is a 4 hour drive down to the boat. But, it’s where we were supposed to be… Kind of makes for a long day…
I heard from the diesel service late today. They have the windings for the genset at the rewind shop, only the shop is not working this weekend due to the holiday. Seems nothing will be known more until Tuesday morning. Oh well, there’s plenty on my list to do between now and when the parts come back, anyway. Dave and Bettie have acclimated themselves very well to the area and know where most everything is, so between West Marine and Home Depot, we can find what we’re after….
The service person from Van Eck Diesel, Ed, successfully identified and located the source of my starboard engine overheating. Repairs were made and recommendations offered for further enhancements. Both mains were serviced and a clean bill of health given. Dave had said that Ed was a real professional. When I jumped into the engine room to observe the in progress generator repair, I saw that all of the bolts were laid out according to diameter and length on an absorbent pad. Specialty washers and pins were laid out according to their point in the re-assembly of the generator. Needless to say, I touched nothing! Ed was even nice enough to leave me a little piece of copper jewelry that the genset had spit out into little copper bb’s. I haven’t figured out if I’m going to frame it or put it on a chain. I figure it’s probably going to be the most expensive piece of jewelery that I’ll ever own…
Since we probably won’t be heading out before Wednesday at this point, we’re going to make the best of being here and partake in the Memorial Day activities. Hope everyone enjoys their holiday. Pics are of Dave working on the boarding steps this morning at Muskegon and the sunset this past week at Clarevieux.

2006-05-20T17:59:00.000-05:00

May 20, 2006 Muskegon, MI. The burgee sleeps with the fishes.
Friday night and we are in Muskegon, Michigan, after an interesting day on the Lake. There’s a guy at NOAA who’s ass I want a piece of right about now. Seems winds were to lay down mid morning and seas reducing to 1-2 feet. That didn’t happen. Not till Saturday morning, anyway. Winds started out just as advertised at 10- 15, but built steadily to over 30. We had to slow to about 8 kts to keep from tearing more up than we did.
At 11:45am I lost the burgee to water over the nose of the boat. We had the wipers on for 8 ½ hours and it looked like a fire hose spraying the windshield all day. (The control unit for the A/C units sheared it’s bolts and was laying in the bottom of the helm station.)
It looks like Indulgence will stay here for the week for some maintenance. Coincidence or not, in the middle of all that pounding, the windings of the genset shorted out, threw fire everywhere and filled the boat with smoke. Not what you want! The hope is that the mechanics here at Great Lakes Marina can pull the AC end and have it rewound this week.
Dave and Bettie will stay on the boat this week while I return to the real world. I’ll get caught up on the previous day to day then….

2006-05-19T06:33:00.000-05:00

Multi day update- 5-19-06

We’ve had very poor internet connectivity for the last couple of days, so I haven’t been able to get much of anything out. However, more to come. Yesterday, Thursday, May 18, we made it into Benton Harbor, MI after overnighting East of Chicago in Hammond, Indiana. Lake Michigan is beautiful, with the inshore waters the same green as Honolulu harbor. The deeper water is as blue as the Gulf stream. And when the wind blows, she can be quite the bitch. We left Hammond yesterday in 10-15 kt winds and about 2 ft seas. Forecast was for more of the same. However, after we’re 25 mi from any land, and the wind has steadily built to over 30 kts and the seas really nasty, out comes the small craft advisory. No Duh… I’m impressed with the way Indulgence handled the rollers and breakers. The hi-lo table in the salon finally went over in one of the 8 ft troughs. And I think we only lost one picture frame. Everything else was already rigged on the floor or on a bed.
We’re heading out this morning for more of the same, hoping to make it either to Muskegon or White Lake. All depends on how much fun we want to have…By the way, we’re over the 1000 mi mark..
The pics are from Harborside in Wilmington, Il (shower) and Henry, Il (fog and sun)

2006-05-14T12:16:00.001-05:00

Day 10 – quick note – It’s 12:10 pm here and we just passed MM 73 on the Illinois River. That makes 700 miles. We left at 12:15 pm last Sunday, so our intended 100 miles a day is still on schedule. Looks like pics are back up on the site, I added a couple, and will get to more this evening. Happy Mothers Day!

2006-05-13T20:35:00.000-05:00

Day 9 - quick update- Still can’t upload pictures to this site, but sent a couple to the club site. Resolution isn’t the best, but better than nothing. We’re in Hardin, Illinois, which is 21 miles up the Illinois River. We left the Mississippi River this afternoon at 2 pm. As soon as we started up the Illinois, we were slowed by 4 kts from what we were running down the Mississippi. We opted to put in here, at the Illinois Riverdock/Restaurant, ‘cause the next stop is 80 miles upriver from here. We met the owner of the Restaurant, Mel, who gave us the history of his place and lots of great samples. Dave had an honest to goodness 2” thick smoked pork chop that was as moist as any that I’ve ever had. Between the 1 lb sweet potatos, and the $2.50 ¼ pie slices, life is good. Carl would love this guy!
The dock here is a bunch of old fuel tanks/barges welded together and tied to the shoreline, but it’s perfect for us this evening. We’re going to put it down early tonight and try to do a 12 – 14 hr one tomorrow…

2006-05-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

Day 8 Friday, May 12 – 06. MM 383 to MM 283. Fort Madison, Iowa to Rockport, Illinois.
8:25 am Still windy and about 45-50 degrees. Today is locks 19, 20, 21, and 22. Lock and dam 19 is the largest on the Mississippi. The Keokuk Dam is a large hydroelectric dam with the powerhouse right beside the lock. The lift/drop in this lock is 38 ft. They use what is called floating bollards, kind of like 55 gal drums in a tube, to tie up to while in the lock. It floats up and down with you. Good, ‘cause the water dropped in this thing about 1 ft every 5 – 10 seconds.
Today we see the first pleasure boat in 4 days. A Lazzara heading north against the current. I guess the weather has just been so crappy that nobody is out.
1:30pm and we’ve got Hannibal, Missouri to starboard.
5 pm MM283 – Entering Twin Rivers marina in Rockport, Illinois. The waterway guide advertised 6-8 ft depth for the approach. It wasn’t in the middle of the marked channel. I plowed my way through. Thank goodness for a soft bottom. This by far is the nicest marina where we’ve stayed. Laundry, good ships store, fuel, large docks, and nice attendants. We got a load of laundry done, a few consumable supplies replenished, fueled up (233 gals at $2.91) and dinner next door at the Lighthouse Restaurant. We’re now 60 miles from the Illinois River where we will turn up from the Miss and make northeast for about 325 miles to Chicago.

2006-05-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

Day 7 Thursday, May 11 –06. MM 483 to MM 383. Davenport, Iowa to Fort Madison, Iowa
8:45am – We leave Lindsay Park Yacht Club to about 40 kt winds. Made it a little testy getting away from the dock, but once underway, we were back to the pounding. Today we went through locks 15, 16, 17, and 18. It’s a fuel stop day, so we use the waterway guide and find Sunset marina, diesel on premises. Only, when we get to Sunset, the nice lady that directs us to the fuel dock says, “oh, today is Thursday, there’s nobody here to pump the fuel”. Back out into the river… There’s an on-channel marina farther down, Fairport Landing, with fuel. Only problem, trying to keep from getting blown off of the swim platform while fueling. The wind is howling… We take on 225 gallons at $2.87 and we’re on our way again.
Lunch was crock-pot beef stew ala Bettie. It was fabulous! As we’re approaching lock and dam 16, out to port there’s a sand bar with about 500 swans sitting there. It looked like snow..
Lock and dam 17 was a doosie. The lock handler dropped us one line and just walked away like we weren’t there any more. The wind was blowing +40 kts and there were rollers in the lock with us (which we didn’t bring in) This one was unnerving. We slammed the wall hard a couple of times, deflated a fender, and raised some blood pressure.
MM 428 – There’s a joint called Bikinis. Interesting…
We’re now entering Des Moines County, Iowa, and we’re taking major spray over the boat. Thank goodness for the windshield wipers. The wind is still howling outside, still +40 kts
6:15pm We’re approaching the Fort Madison RR swing bridge. This thing is huge. There’s a train track on the lower deck and a highway on the upper deck. Looks like the cars have to slow down in the center and pay toll. After waiting for a train to pass, they open for us, and we’re on to Capt Kirk’s marina just down a mile or so. They try to tell us where to put the boat, but the piers are not numbered and no one bothers to come out and grab a line from us. With the high winds, let’s just say my maneuvering skills were put to the test. We persevered, got tied up, blew out one of their power receptacles and ran the genset for the night.
We went over to the marina restaurant, and the music was so loud you could feel it as much as you heard it. Quite a younger crowd… We had the requisite bar food and called it a night. The beer is cheaper back at the boat, anyway.

2006-05-12T16:14:00.000-05:00

The website is having technical difficulties right now. I'm not able to post any pictures to the site till they get it fixed. We're in Rockport, Il at at place called Two Rivers Marina. It's just South of Hannibel, Missouri and on the other side of the river. I need to check with Jeff and see what dredging a channel is worth, 'cause I definitely cut one into this place. They advertised 6-8 ft but I started churning mud right in the middle of the marked channel. Those 33's got polished and we dug our way through... The depthfinder was showing 2.3 ft. We're in for the evening, doing laundry, cleaning up, and charting our fuel and overnight stops on the way to Chicago. We're 60 miles from our turn up the Illinois river and 380 miles from Chicago, and have travelled 560 miles so far. If the low pressure system in the Lakes moves out, we should be in Lake Michigan by Wednesday of next week. More to come when they get things straight at the server...

2006-05-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

Day 6 –Wednesday – Ma6 10, 06 MM 580 to MM 484 Dubuque, Iowa to Davenport, Iowa
We wake up this morning to fog, the heavy stuff. All the pilothouse glass on Indulgence is fogged up wet inside, but after clearing that, it still didn’t look much better outside. We decided to wait a little while for it to start burning off before we departed. I took advantage of the delay to do a little maintenance and nosing around in the engine room. The log shows we left at 8:15am.
Leaving Dubuque Yacht Basin, on the bluff overlooking the river, are some of the largest homes I think I’ve ever seen. Some of them seriously looked like they had to be 20,000 sq ft. Maybe larger. You could call them castles, mansions, whatever. Somebody is making some serious money out here… Probably the guy that owns Ingram Barge Co. As we make our way back out onto the Mississippi, we pass from Wisconsin to Illinois on the port side.
About 6 miles upriver of lock and dam 12, there’s what appears to be a ski lodge on the Illinois side of the river. A huge lodge, hotel, lifts, runs cut into the hillside, but not a lot of vertical drop. Seems strange, but the river does freeze over up here, so I guess a ski lodge right on the side of the Mississippi isn’t out of the question.
Today we went through locks 12, 13, and 14. We breezed right into and through 12 with no delay. They even had the gates open and the green light on for us. Approaching lock and dam 13, we passed a tow with benzene barges headed to the lock. He ok’ed our pass, but probably laughed the whole time. By the time I got around him, he had pushed me over into really shallow water. Not his intent I don’t think. Anyway, our reward for the passing and the extra speed/fuel burn was being allowed to lock through #13 ahead of that tow since we had put so much time and distance between each other. At the spillway side of the lock and dam 13, there were lots of waterfowl. Trumpeter swans, herons, cormorants, what looked like pelicans. All fishing…
Prior to Albany, Illinois, we got a picture of a windmill. Not one of the new wind power jobs, a real honest to goodness Don Quixote windmill. I’m sure the locals are used to it, but it sure seemed out of place to me.
Lock #14 was another story… When we contacted them, they said to bring it on and they’d have the tow that was currently in the lock out of the way. Well, maybe we got there sooner or the tow was having trouble, but we ended up waiting out on the approach wall for about an hour. It was cool, though, to be able to watch them maneuver the tow and barges in such a confined space.
We called ahead to Lindsay Park Yacht Club in Davenport, Iowa for overnight docking. Coming in to LPYC you have Moline, Illinois to port and Davenport to starboard. Sitting right out at the waters edge in Moline was Kone Elevator’s test tower. Not a bad location!
Lindsay Park Yacht Club has been around since the 1800’s. We met Warren, the general manager who gave us the history and insight into how things run there, and gave us the key to the gate to get in and out. The marina is gated all the way around from the street. No problems yet, he said, just a precaution. He suggested we eat dinner at a German place called “Bier Stuble”. Good suggestion, ‘cause it was great.
Prior to dinner, we walked into town for supplies. Along the way, we saw a ground hog sitting in someone’s front yard just like he owned the place. On the walk back, we came upon 4 rabbits chasing each other and just generally having a good old time.
After returning from dinner, it was time to sit down and go through the day’s pictures and try to get something in print for the posts. I woke up at 1 am and decided I was done for the day.

Pictures to come…Just so everyone knows, we won’t be having dinner tonight with you at the club.

2006-05-11T20:06:00.000-05:00

Day 5- Tuesday - May 9 –06 MM 690 to MM580 Today we did locks 8, 9, 10, and 11. We left Lake Lawrence Marina to rain and about 20 kt winds. Still not terrible, but nasty just the same. Did I mention that I love my radar/chartplotter? I love my radar/chartplotter… Seriously, it just makes going in inclement weather a lot easier… The clouds seem to be descending on the surface of the river at places. (Everyone remember the song “Smoke on the Water”?) Well, Indulgence has 3 really good windshield wipers. Unfortunately, the one directly in front of the helm station decided to take a dump. While Dave tried to see through the rain, I crawled up into the helm station from below and found a wire that had come loose from the switch. Man, what a difference it made in the stress levels. I’m still a ways away from being totally instrument qualified… I like to see something to go along with my electronics. OK, Jeff, I’m getting there….
Sometime over the course of the day, we traveled into Iowa, on our starboard (right, you landlubbers) side, and kept Wisconsin on our port ( the other side, landies). We made a fuel stop in Lansing, Iowa and put on 210 gallons at 3.00 gal. With discount for quantity, .05 for each 100 gals, it ended up at 2.90 gal. It was pouring rain while I was fueling, but the lady running the place for the city stood right there and got drenched. I think I know more about her now than I do my own family. Seriously, she was a wonderful person. Anyways, fuel burn so far has figured to 1 gal/mi including genset time. Can you say happy :) ?
I noticed that I didn’t have a phone signal almost all day, so figured that business out here just didn’t get done. (Nextel, you know) Funny thing though, when it got later in the day, and the weather cleared enough to turn off the radar, I got the signal back. Full strength. Seems that the radome was directly over where I was to use the cell phone. Lesson learned!
We called ahead to Dubuque, Iowa to the DuBuque Yacht Basin and got an overnight slip. Getting into the marina was an adventure since the water depth on my sounder went below 3 ft a couple of times. We finally figured out where and how to tie. Cocktail hour was well deserved today!
We decided to go up to the restaurant for dinner tonight. Good thing, too… We met the owner, Charlie, of Catfish Charlie’s, and what a nice guy! He bought us Walleye Cheeks and Onion Rings as appetizers on his dime. We chatted with Charlie for quite a while, had dinner, and made our way back to the boat. Tomorrow will come soon enough

2006-05-10T07:12:00.000-05:00

Day 4-Monday-May 8 – 06 MM 776 to MM690. We got out a little later than we had hoped today, but the rest did us good. Leaving out into Lake Pepin we were met with rain and 15 – 20 mph winds, so there was a little chop. We ended up doing lock 4, 5, 5A, 6, and 7 today. Delays at the locks due to tows (we call them tugs) are commonplace here due to the amount of commercial barge traffic. We breezed right through #4, and called ahead to #5 just to find that they would be tied up for a couple of hours moving barges around. So we slowed down and still got there in plenty of time to wait another 1 ½ hr for the lock to be cleared. The tows here push barge loads that are close to ¼ mile long. The locks are only 100 ft wide by 600 ft long, so the loads have to be broken apart and pushed in separately, then pushed out, tow locks back down, gets the rest, pushes them in, pushes them out, puts everything back together… So, it can take awhile. And pleasurecraft are at the bottom of the list. So we wait….
In LaCrosse we came upon a floating beer joint named “Gross”. Sadly, they didn’t have enough room at the dock for us, so we motored on to our evening destination of Lawrence Lake Marina at mile marker 690. Distances on the Mississippi are measured off just like the highways with mile markers. The bouys are not numbered ( there are literally thousands of them from one lock to the next, and they are constantly being moved), but the daymarkers have the downstream distances (mile markers) on them.
Entering Lawrence Lake Marina, there are about 30 little floating houses, each with a porta-pottie behind them. Leaving these to port, we tie up at the gas dock and meet Dan the owner, who helps us get tied up. He offers us his car for the evening, and suggests that we go to a place in Brownsville called Sachens Halle for pizza. When we arrive at Sachens Halle, it looks like a German tavern, and it is a bar. But people come from all over for the pizza. And for good reason… perfect crust, great sauce and spices. It seems we got the last one that night before they shut off the oven. A few people came in later and were visibly disappointed, so Dave gave them the rest of ours. You would have thought we had been elevated to royalty, they were that appreciative. I don’t think their alcohol consumption had anything to do with it, either!
When we got back to the boat, a thunderstorm had set in and it was lightning and raining pretty good. I think I heard about 2 seconds of it before I crashed. Tomorrow we’re going to try to get in 120 miles. The picture of the lock here has a kayaker that locked through with us. Try clicking on the picture to get it to open up to full size to see him. The other shot is of the marina/store. Just a quaint little place with great customer service

2006-05-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

Day 3 - We finally got underway today, although much later than I had wanted. There were still a couple of small unfinished projects that were better served to take care of before we left.
Indulgence and crew blasted out into the 5 knot current at 12:15 pm. It's like running on the local rivers during a flood. I felt sorry for those trying to run upriver against this current. It made it look like they were sitting still.
We got a great look at St Paul from the water. There's miles of waterfront developed and miles that are just mooring areas for the large barges that are pushed up and down this river every day.
Our first lock was Lock and Dam 2 just south of St. Paul. We announced ourselves as "lock-virgins" and the lock keeper was more than happy to pass on the "ins and outs" of locking through. We lucked out at Lock and Dam 3 when we were allowed to ride center of the lock without using lines and rubbing up and down on the lock walls. We've heard stories of boats waiting hours to pass through some of the locks due to commercial traffic which has the right of way, but we lucked out today. Each lock was ready for us within minutes.
At Red Wing we spotted a parking lot full of Harleys and a sign that read "Harbor-Bar" at Trenton Yacht Club. It was quite an interesting looking place.
We put in for the night around 6:15 pm at Henson's Marina at mile 776. We only made 70 miles today, but with the late start, we were ready to find a quiet spot. I feel like I hit the jackpot. Overnight docking, electric and water, only $40 for the night. And the diesel here is $2.80 gal. Bettie fixed up some wonderful burgers and fixin's and we dined on the boat tonight.
The plan is to up and out early in the morning. We've got some time to make up.

2006-05-06T22:09:00.000-05:00

Day 2 - "Stevie-Poo, we have a problem" - Bettie and Dave Greiner and I left Richmond at 10:45am to travel to St. Paul, MN for the first leg of the trip to bring Indulgence home. We arrived at 2:45 pm CST and travelled directly to the marina to find Indulgence at the fuel dock being filled for our departure on Saturday morning. We loaded the pallets of supplies that had been shipped ahead and straightened up in order to get everything put away.
As we're up and down the steps and on and off the boat, Bettie calls me from down in the aft cabin - "Stevie-Poo, we have a problem"... I go below to find a nasty red stain on the carpet. Red, like dyed diesel fuel. We abort fueling immediately and pull the bed frame apart to expose the tanks below. There on the starboard tank, the fuel sending unit is floating on top of the tank, with 200 gals of $3.25 a gallon diesel pushing out and into the bilge. A good portion had run over the edge of the tank onto the floor of the aft cabin, soaking into the carpet.
Well, the marina staff here at Watergate Marina went into action. Pumps were brought in, surfectants added, carpet removed, fans installed. In 2 1/2 hours, the fuel, all 110 gals of it, and the added water and surfectants, had been pumped out, cleaned up, and the boat put back in the slip. Since there was still cleaning and degreasing left to do, we opted to stay in town for the night.
Dinner was at "Mancini's" with some of the largest portions of filet and steak tips I've ever seen. The food was wonderful, and the service great, at least until our waitress asked which of us had been working on a truck. I guess I had absorbed more diesel than I'd realized. Oh well...
Saturday is another day, and it looks like we won't be leaving till Sunday now.

2006-05-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

The internet is a wonderful thing. It allows you to reach out all over and find information that you'd never put your hands on previously. And so it is with using the internet to search for a boat. And not just any boat... THE BOAT....
So what happens when the internet puts you in touch with THE BOAT, but that boat just happens to be in Minnesotta? You buy it and then figure out how to get it home.

Such begins the journey...