And we're off..........

We crept slowly and silently (well, as silently as two 8.1 liter Mercruiser engines can be) from our slip at Mackinaw City at about 6:10 am Monday, August 1, 2011.  Not silently enough, apparently, as our next-door neighbor Noreen was up to wish us well and take pictures.

 (We didn't really wake her, she had stayed up after her husband, Jim, left early to go to work, so she could see us off.)  It's hard to imagine that we'll not be in the Mackinaw area again for about a year, as we've had a seasonal slip there since 1989 so have spent a good part of every summer enjoying the area.  Noreen and Jim gave us a beautiful set of embroidered pillowcases with our boat name and home port "so we remember where we belong".  The back of the St. Christopher medal from Linda and Ken says "Protect us wherever we may roam and guide us always safely home" so we ought to be able to find our way back to Mackinaw eventually.  In the meantime...

We cruised on flat water under the Mackinac Bridge, where we paused to drink a toast to the beginning of this adventure, past the St. Helena lighthouse to White Shoal Light and turned left. Cruising this area is a favorite, as the lighthouses at Waugoshance Point, Gray's Reef, and Skillagalee are on the route.  We picked up a little chop after the turn, but the run was fine.  Early morning runs tend to be best in the Great Lakes, but the lakes don't follow any rules, so attention to weather, wind and wave predictions and current marine observations are paramount.  As we were casting off the fuel dock in Petoskey (we used 100 gallons traveling to Petoskey from Mac City) to move to our assigned slip, the clock in the tower on the marina lawn was chiming 9 am.

We have been hoping to make this trip for about 25 years.  We spent some spring breaks and summer vacations traveling much of the route by car.  We joined the organization, America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA), that supports boaters planning, making, or dreaming about "the Loop" and attended a "Rendesvous" (AGLCA hosts 2 a year) in Charleston in 2008.  We intended to leave last year, but the Gulf BP oil spill changed our minds as we decided to let the area recover before we cruised down.  This delay proved fortuitous, however, as our navigation computer crashed on a run up the St. Mary's River in August of last year.  We sent it for repair and John reinstalled it during the winter.  When we turned it on after the boat was back in the water this spring, it wouldn't boot up.  Back to Maptech it went, where the new hard drive they had installed proved to be faulty.  It's working just fine now.  About the same time we were discovering that the nav system wasn't really fixed, the radar didn't seem to want to run, either.

John called Raymarine and explained the issues.  They told him the problem was the top circuit board and he would have to take it out and send it in.  He stood on a hassock on the front seat, with Paul steadying him and handing him tools, and removed it.  We didn't hear from them and our departure date was drawing closer.  When we finally reached them, they informed us they needed the lower circuit board as well.  This time it took a ladder from the marina office by the back seat and Paul again to steady the ladder and hand tools.  The unit was returned to us Wednesday, one day before our scheduled ride to Mackinaw with John's sister Jackie and Paul to begin the trip.  John and Paul installed it Thursday afternoon and it is working again.

If you are superstitious, you are probably anticipating "the third" as in "trouble always comes in threes".  As John returned down the dock after mounting our AGLCA burgee, since we are now officially "on the loop" he said, "What's wrong with the dinghy floor?!"  I put down my book and unfolded myself from the "Queen of  America" chair (the driver's seat turns and makes the whole front seat into a very comfortable reading lounge) and strolled back to the stern.  I didn't hurry, as I couldn't imagine the dinghy floor doing anything at all, much less something that required rushing.  Well, it looked as if someone had placed a small hot air balloon under the floor and inflated it.  Whatever holds the layers together has let go.  We have a new dinghy on order and it will be delivered to us on the boat when we arrive in St. Joe.