Day 1 The Journey begins!

The day we have been waiting has finally arrived! After a year of planning, and three days of careful packing, it was time to leave port and head north. Our goal was to get to the boat and be ready to go at 6a.m. and we came close! We arrived at 6:20a.m. and met Ben's dad, Bill, who helped us load the rest of our gear and film our departure. We left Portage Harbor at approx. 7:20a.m. and headed northeast on the lake with the gps set to Muskegon . The day started out rainy with calm seas, and progressed to much rougher seas. By the time we reached Saugatuck waves were reaching 3ft, and hitting 4ft at Grand Haven!

We reached Muskegon in about 5 hours, where we stopped to see the Tall Ships and meet a fellow Four Winns forum member Cap'n Morgan. Thanks for the open marina slip tip! After touring the Tall Ships it was time to have lunch on the boat, fuel up and complete our trip to White Lake, a little over 10 miles away.

Entering White Lake was very beautiful and peaceful. The lake is 6 miles long, with White Lake Municipial Marina at the very end. We pulled into slip #44 on our port side and a marina attendant was there to help us tie up and tell us about the area.We unloaded our bikes, connected to shore power, and discovered our AC Pump stopped working!! :-( Lucky the forecast called for a cool evening.... and we made plans to try to get a new pump in the morning.

After showering and relaxing a bit, we headed into town in search of pizza. We ordered a deluxe pizza from Big Johns and walked around town while we waited. Back at the boat, we enjoyed dinner and relaxation.. and headed to bed at 10pm, beat up and tired from the long day on a rough lake

Day 1 Miles -154.9

Moving time -7hrs 9min

Fuel used- 77.7 Gal

Average Mpg -1.99!

Seapickle II Crew

Our first embroidered Seapickle II gear! Yes!! We finally fit in with the rest of our Four Winns friends! haha...

Thank you to Bill & Kathy (ben's parents) for the gift! We can't wait to wear them on our trip! We'll probably have some cooler nights up north in Michigan... and while I love hot summer weather... I'm actually looking forward to some cooler days.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for updates on our progress through Lake Michigan! We'll try to update as regularly as we can.

~dana

Fuel Flow Meter

With our trip coming up I wanted to install a fuel flow meter so I could not only use it to estimate fuel usage(mpg), but also as a more accurate way to monitor total gallons used. I decided to go with the Floscan 9000 because of a high quality construction and it also uses an NMEA 0183 communication sytem which is the same system my gps unit uses so the two units can properly communicate. The Floscan uses a sensor installed in the fuel line to measure the flow of fuel, then caculates mpg based on the information output by the gps unit.

I had trouble finding a good spot to mount the unit where I would have good visability. I decided the spot on the dash currently occupied by the trim tab switches would give the correct viewing angle,and would not distract my attention away from the helm while underway. I never cared for where the trim tabs switched are mounted since you have to reach over the throttle controls and spotlight control to adjust them. The logical position for them would be right in front of the throttle control so while controlling the throttle, the switches are at your fingertips, the only problem is that space is occupied by the spotlight control. Finally what I ended up doing is putting the trim tab switches were the spot light control was, mounting the spotlight control on the lower dash, and installing the Floscan in the spot once occupied by the switches.

I have been using this set up for a couple of months now and I absolutely love it! I don't even have to take my hands off the throttle control to adjust the tabs, which is really convenient in rough seas. I'm finding that I now pay more attention to this gauge than any other gauge I have! It's easy to trim a boat out by feel, but you can perfect it while monitoring a fuel flow monitor and runs at it's most efficient rpm and trim angle. I'm hoping this is one modification that will pay for itself in fuel savings.

Four Winns Chicago Meet-up

We had the unique opportunity to meet up with some of our Four Winns friends for what turned out to be an unbelievable weekend! We all met up Friday night at Hammond marina, with Dana and I being the last to arrive which is ironic considering we had the shortest distance to travel by far! One couple, Joe and Pat in their beautiful Four Winns 338 named "Better Yet", had a 10 hour trip up the Illinois river from their home port! Dennis and Christa trailered their Four Winns 278 "Wet Ink" up from southern Illinois, and the couple responsible for putting together this gathering Joe and Miranda trailered their Four winns 268 "Serenity Forever" up from Indianapolis.

The plan was to complete the Chicago loop cruise, see the Gary air show, and try to make it to boaters beach. Along for the ride with us was my cousin Mark and his wife Stacy. After a nice breakfast we casted off and headed north for downtown Chicago. Joe and Pat had decided to ride along with Joe and Miranda in Serenity Forever.

Our first stop was a scenic cruise through Burnham harbor to drool over the yachts (some with their own garage in the back of the boat). We then headed to the lock to enter the Chicago river, but were put on hold due to a massive barge locking through. With boats getting backed up waiting for the barge it gave us a good opportunity to head a couple of miles out into to the lake so we could swim and prepare lunch. We rafted, or tied the three boats together so all three swim platforms were even allowing us to walk from boat to boat. We ended up spending the next three hours soaking up the sun and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

As we were finishing lunch we started hearing reports of foul weather south of us, but none of it seemed to be coming our way. We packed up and headed back to try our luck at the lock again, and this time we got through rather quickly! It was the first downtown Chicago trip (by boat) for Dana and I as well as our first lock experience, but with the guidance of Joe and Pat, our seasoned veterans of lock procedures, we made it through with no problem!

Our trip through downtown was amazing! We have spent alot of time in Chicago, but it was a completely different experience by boat. Actually the city is alot more peaceful from this point of view. We took our time and just cruising slowly through the city at idle speed taking in all the sites and sounds!

At the end of our cruise, while we were watching helicopters chasing each other overhead filming Tranformers 3, the bad weather we had been avoiding all day finally found us and the skies started to open up. It was a mad scramble to put up the canvas while locking back through to the lake! We had the canvas up before the real heavy rain thanks to Mark and Stacey's help.For the first time putting up canvas, they put it up like a old pro's! Once we got past the break wall outside Navy Pier the wind kicked up, the skies got dark, and what was a calm beautiful lake all day turned ugly fast! Our trip back to Hammond Marina was in very rough seas with pouring rain and howling wind. As we entered the harbor the bad weather left as quickly as it came, and the once dark skies was replaced with sunshine and a massive rainbow!





On sunday we fueled up and headed to the Gary air show. Unfortunatly, Dennis and Christa had to pack up "Wet Ink" and head home early due to prior obligations and a long drive home. Joe and Miranda got onboard with Joe and Pat in "Better Yet" and we cruised to the show. Just like seeing downtown Chicago from a boat is a completely different experience, so is seeing the air show. It is so cool to have a fighter jet take a hard bank right over your boat at low altitude. Once again we rafted our boats together and thank to Joe and Pat's hospitality, we had an excellent lunch aboard "Better Yet".

After a great air show we decided to take a cruise along the lakeshore to see Dunes State Park, and then over to Boaters Beach to end the weekend the way every weekend should end, soaking in the 90deg. water with a cold drink in hand! It was an amazing weekend we will not forget. It's so neat that aside from a few emails, three couples that hardly knew each other got together because of a common interest, and by the end of the weekend parted ways as friends! Within days of getting home the emails started flying around making plans for next year! We would like to thank the other couples for their wonderful hospitality, and a big thanks to Joe and Miranda for putting this gathering together...we had a blast!

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Executive Decision makes her debut!

The newest member to the family fleet, Executive Decision, made her maiden voyage with Captain Bill (Ben's dad) at the helm and guests enjoying the cruise onboard. (Ben's mom, Kathy, is riding on the bow in the photo) Bill purchased the 36 ft Carver Aft Cabin and delivered it just a few weeks ago. Welcome to boating life! Be careful... it's addicting!

This photo was taken outside the dunes in Chesterton on Saturday, as we enjoyed the beautiful (hot) weather and smooth cruising conditions. We had a nice lunch and playtime on the beach with family before getting kicked off! (turns out you can be IN the water, but not ON the beach) We look forward to many more family excursions on the lake this summer!

~dana

These Are The Days I Live For

We were lucky this 4th of July weekend to have perfect boating weather all 3 days... and we made sure to take advantage of it! We somehow managed to have no weekend plans for once, so we were able to spend Friday through Monday at the Marina. There's just something so relaxing and carefree about Marina life... it's like being on vacation, but only 15 minutes from home. We didn't plan much for the weekend, other than being out on the lake, hanging out by the pool, eating all our meals off the grill, and installing a fuel flow meter (for Ben). Friday night we enjoyed a lake perch dinner at the Marquette Yacht Club.. which I highly recommend! It's nothing fancy and only open on Friday nights, but the perch is delicious!

Saturday we spent the day out on the lake with our friends Sergio & Lisa. Our first stop was boater's beach, where the boats were lining up side by side. Not too much longer later, the shore was reaching capacity and the Seapickle II was getting blown side to side by the wind. After one close call with a neighboring boat, we decided to head down shore to more open waters.

We anchored outside the dunes national lakeshore (chesterton, in) and enjoyed an awesome lunch provided by Sergio & Lisa. Sergio even baked a pineapple rum cake for Lisa's birthday... and we ate it while floating on our raft. This is the life! haha

Sunday brought the 4th of July and fireworks on the beach in Ogden Dunes. It was crazy to see so many boats anchored out all facing someone's house on the beach! I guess it's a resident there who puts on the show and a big party! Definitely one of the better fireworks shows I've seen... with patriotic music and everything... that's a must for me :-)

We finished up the weekend washing & waxing the boat, and enjoying the sunset at boater's beach. Everyone had gone home for the week... so we had the beach to ourselves. My favorite kind of night :-)

Spending 3 days at the marina has made Ben & I even more excited for our trip in August! We were sad to leave Monday night, but look forward to next weekend for the Gary Air Show, Chicago Loop Cruise, Navy Pier Fireworks, and meeting some new Four Winns friends!

~dana

The Trip of a Lifetime

For over a year we have been planning a big trip for the end of this summer, and actually we started planning this trip before we even had the boat. Originally I wanted this trip to be our honeymoon, but with the time of year, and unpredictable lake conditions we booked a Royal Caribbean cruise instead to be on the safe side.

Originally we had planned to travel up the western shore of Michigan, across the Upper Peninsula, and down the Wisconsin shoreline back home. We charted distance and time to find that every way we reconfigured our stops, we would be coming home on the last day of our vacation which would leave us no room for error, weather, or any other setback we may encounter. We've decided to make this a Michigan only trip to fit our time constraints. As disappointing as it is to leave out Door county Wisconsin, which is a place we absolutely love, we've decided that might make a nice trip on it's own for next year!

So here's the working itinerary:
Day1 Leave home port (Portage) and travel to White Lake -Dist 129mi.
Day2 White Lake to Manistee-Dist 65mi.
Day3 Manistee to Frankfort-Dist 27mi.
Day4 Frankfort to Leland-Dist 40mi
Day5 Leland to Beaver Island-Dist 55mi.
Day6 Beaver Island to Mackinaw City (2 days) Dist 45mi.
Day8 Mackinaw City to Petoskey Dist 58mi
Day9 Petoskey to Charlevoix-Dist 21mi.
Day10 Charlevoix to Traverse City(3 days) Dist 45mi
Day13 Traverse City to Arcadia Dist 75mi.
Day14 Arcadia to Ludington or Pentwater Dist 50mi.
Day15 Ludington/Pentwater to Sagatuck Dist 80mi.
Day16 Saugatuck back to Portage(Home) Dist 80mi.

We will update often with any news concerning the plotting and planning of this trip, as well as a complete write up of every port we stop in once we are on the trip!