Planning Our Next Big Adventure

We are hoping 2012 will bring us another great summer and our next big adventure. We have decided to broaden our cruising destinations with the addition of a trailer for our boat! Although Lake Michigan still has a lot of places we have yet to explore there is a place that has peaked our interest for some time....The North Channel of Lake Huron! At first I was a little apprehensive about this trip because of the complete lack of civilization, detailed/current maps, and of course all those rocks to smack the prop on, but the more images and information we found on this destination the more intrigued we became by it's natural beauty and isolation from the outside world. The North Channel is considered by many to be some of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world!

For Christmas we received a copy of what many consider The North Channel's cruising bible, Well-Favored Passage, from Ben's parents Bill and Kathy! We had met the author Ralph Folsom at the Strictly Sail show in 2011, but didn't purchase his book then simply because we didn't think we would ever make it that far north. Ben's dad held onto Ralph's contact info and surprised us with a personalized copy of the new 37th anniversary edition of this legendary cruising guide! We are looking forward to meeting the Ralph and Pixie at their cruising the north Channel seminar at Chicago's Strictly Sail Show next weekend!

 A copy of Well-Favored Passage signed by Ralph Folsom and Pixie Haughwout.

 Planning a big trip like this is a lot of fun especially in the middle of winter!


We plan to stay at anchor the majority of the time, only going to a marina when needed to restock provisions and recharge the batteries. This is completely opposite of the type of boating we have done in the past were we would spent every night tied safely to the dock in a marina. Changes will also have to be made in the way we use our boat, and especially the way we cook. Instead of using our electric cook top and fired up our electric Mr Coffee pot in the morning we will be switching to using propane to cook everything in order to conserve our battery bank. We may also need to replace some of our halogen lights over to more energy efficient led bulbs.

The possibility of seeing the Northern Lights in person along with the chance to see a bear in it's natural habitat has us so excited. We plan to add a new photo gallery to this blog to help share all the pictures we plan to take on this trip. Of course we will keep you posted as details about this trip unfold!

Links:
Well-Favored Passage
Lakeland Boating Lake Huron Cruising Guide
A great blog with a lot of North Channel info

Hey we recognize that picture!!

We were pleasantly surprised recently when we were contacted by Christy Baughs from Lakeland Boating magazine in regards to a picture we had posted on this blog. She informed us they were looking for a picture to put in their Calender of Events section for the upcoming boat shows and loved the picture we had posted of our friends Bill and Mina. 

 See the original post here

 Shortly after the January 2012 issue came out we received an extra copy of Lakeland Boating with a personalized note from Christy thanking us for use of the photo! It is a real honor for us that someone from Lakeland boating found our blog. Can you believe we are actually listed as a contributor in the front of the magazine! We didn't tell Bill and Mina about the picture until we went to their house for dinner, so we placed this years boat show tickets inside the magazine and handed it to them. The look on their faces was priceless when they noticed their picture. Thank you Christy!

Saying Goodbye to Summer...Part 1

This weekend is going to be our last on the big lake till next season since Seapickle is scheduled to be pulled out of the water for winter storage this Thursday. Flat calm days on Lake Michigan are hard to come by, but to have three consecutive days of glass flat water is really rare! Three perfect days is exactly what we had, and we made the best of them!

Friday

Meeting Pier Pressure at the beac

Shortly after we raft up with Ron, Debbie and Jacob on Pier Pressure, Greg and friends on Not Now arrive for a port side raft up!

Rafting up with Not Now and Pier Pressure

This sure beats going in the cold water to get from boat to boat

 With everyone here it is time to start our nightly potluck style dinners at the beach!

Ben fires up the grill for some steaks

Dana heating the pulled pork for sandwiches

Beautiful sunset

Can you believe we had three days like this

Hey Greg are those Milano cookies in your hand?

 Saturday

I was not always a morning person, but when we stay at the beach I am up with the sun! It's hard to not be a morning person when you are greeted with a sun rise like this. Dana on the other hand still likes to sleep as long as she can.

Also up with the sun was the Pier Pressure crew who had a quick cup of coffee and then departed to take Jacob to band camp

Early morning departure

After Pier Pressure left we had a quick breakfast and decided to check out some of the trails that wind through the dunes behind our camp. We spent the next couple of hours hiking through some beautiful nature trails, and even came across a snake sunning itself in the middle of a path! 

We decided it would be a nice day to visit Ben's cousin Mike and his family aprox. 20 miles down the shore in Long Beach Indiana. Pier Pressure returned just in time to help us shove off.

Save our spot for us!

 We had a great leisurely cruise down the shore to Long Beach! We slowed down around Michigan City to watch a sailboat regatta for a few minutes, then continued on to meet Mike and Nora on the beach.

Ben's cousin Mike, Wife Nora, Daughter Ella, and Baby Evan

Ella taking a time out from playing to have a snack

Ben and Mike kicking back and enjoying a great day!

Back to boaters to catch another great sunset

and moon rise!

Saying Goodbye to Summer..part 2

The best feeling in the world is waking up to a perfect, calm lake, beautiful sunrise and your friends rafted up on the boat next to you. We lounged around on the boat all morning... made coffee, picked on Jacob, ate breakfast, waved hello to Captain Ron... and waited for the rest of the boater's beach gang to arrive.

Jacob on Pier Pressure

Captain Ron checking out the beach

Slowly but surely other boats began to arrive. A little earlier than usual, perhaps because everyone knew that this may be our last opportunity of the season to all spend the day together. Everyone who arrived brought some sort of food or drink, plus friends and pets, to add to our beach party. We got the grill going early and didn't stop all day. Pizzas, veggies, italian beef, hot dogs (that fell in the sand), all kinds of snacks... we were feeling a little spoiled that day!

Just hanging out on the beach

Relaxing day on the beach

The whole crew

Jacob getting "toughened up"

Dana taking a break from sun bathing and napping

Ron and Kelly from D dock. You guys need to come stay on G dock!

It was so sunny and warm that day it was hard to believe it was really October and our last day out on Seapickle for the year. No one wanted the day to end, but eventually as the sun began to set and the evening grew cool, we had to give in and start thinking about heading back. Even after 3 full days on the beach, we still weren't ready... especially Dana who refused to get off her beach blanket, even while shivering in a sweatshirt and pants in the cool October air. Finally the last of us decided to pack up for the final voyage back to Marina Shores of 2011.

Dana was cold, but unwilling to leave "her beach."

Packing up for the final time

Goodbye Boaters Beach..we look forward to seeing you in the spring!

One last look at the sunset as we turn into the channel

We had the most amazing summer and wouldn't trade any of our memories for anything! Many of those memories due to our boat "family" and great friends Ron, Debbie & Jacob from Pier Pressure... we look forward to many more summers together!

G dock family

As we bid farewell to Seapickle that night we were definitely sad, but also just so grateful for the amazing 6 months of the year that we really live life to the fullest. There were times we stayed up all night, we may have overindulged on a "few" occasions, some of us didn't cut our grass for months, we neglected house projects, and obsessively checked the marine forecast while at work... but we can definitely say we soaked up every bit of sun we could and enjoyed every moment to the fullest.

October is still good for boating!

We've been having an AMAZING summer and have been spending wonderful days boating and on the beach... here's pics from this past weekend, and we will be updating with the rest of the summer news & pics soon! Sorry about the lack of posts... too much time on the water!

Is that us in BoatUS Magazine?

Why it sure is! But let me back up for a minute...

Last fall, we submitted 5 pictures from our Michigan Honeymoon Boat Trip for a BoatUS photo contest. While we didn't win, the following spring Dana got an email from the editor of BoatUS, who saw our photos and loved our story of "buying a boat as a wedding gift to ourselves" and our boating honeymoon! She said she was doing a story on how relationships and boating go together, and she'd like us to submit a few paragraphs about how we got into boating and how it works with our relationship. I happily obliged, and then waited and waited to see if our story would make it to the magazine! After a few months, we were very surprised to get the above photo as a text from Ben's dad, whose BoatUS Magazine arrived a few days before ours! We couldn't believe it when we saw our photo so big in a magazine... and we were definitely excited to be boating celebrities the next weekend on the beach :-)

 Here's the link to the article online:

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2011/october/loveboat.asp

I'm Just A Little Black Rain Cloud...

The first time Captain Ron sang this to us over the vhf radio, Pier Pressure was following us out to the lake as some dark clouds were rolling in. Even from their boat, they could see Ben's look of worry as he glanced back "a few times" at the clouds...

From then on, "the princess" (aka dana) insisted that she hear that song on just about every trip to the lake. :-)

And the Winnie the Pooh version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NitBpJaom5k