And SO It Begins.............

 Loading up and moving out

We spent Saturday and Sunday transferring our big load o' stuff from Spirit of Desoto to Iriah Lass.  This process was complicated by the fact that the Lass was still sitting in her storage cradle with the swimstep 7 feet above a concrete floor.   Fortunately, the crew fitting our a 52 foot carbon fiber racing sailboat in the same storage building loaned us a ladder.  And help heave a few of the heavier items up for us.  Thanks, guys.

On Saturday and Sunday,  as we begin to stow clothes and equipment, we encountered an immediate  cleanliness issues.  The carpet cleaning we had contracted for took place over the winter, a planned.  But subsequent work by Eldean's mechanical and electrical crews tracked back dirt on the steps and carpet around the engine room hatch in the main cabin.   Very sloppy.   Forunately, the carpet guy came back early Monday before we launched and cleaned up the mess.  But the whole incident was SO unecessary and set a bad tone for the rest of our time at Eldean.  We later found similar poor housekeeping below decks in the engine room, with bits of wire and electrical fasteners and shop towels strewn about.  Very frustrating, on top of the exhausting work of shifting all of our cargo.  We hope the repairs we paid for meet a higher standard than their housekeeping.

Meanwhile Admiral Maggie luxuriated in the king-sized comfort at the Home2 Suites by Hilton.  Sheesh.

😝PPHHHHHTTTT!!!!!😝

We launched on Monday at 1:00 PM.   Both engines started easily and we navigated to our assigned slip.  (Didnt even hit nothin, neither!  👍)  Wade began checking for leaks, etc while Commadore Kathleen made an initial grocery run. We moved aboard Monday evening.  Heavy sigh!

Tuesday, we had a date at another marina to meet our new friend Chris from Canvas Innovations, from whom we had ordered a new front bridge enclosure last fall.   It is not unusual for boat yards to assess a surcharge for work done on their premises by outside contractors. But Eldean's 25% rate was more than we could stomach.  (This despite the fact that Eldean A) does not have a canvas shop and B) recommended Canvas Inovations for our work.  Sheesh.)   By moving a few miles up Lake Macatawa to MEYR Yacht Restoration , we cut this premium to 10%  AND we got to moor at MEYR's brand new floating docks AND we were much closer to town for further provisioning.  Chris's team met us at the docks and went to work making precise laser measurements and discussing attachment options.  They then retreated to their sewing facility, promising to return on Friday with the finished product.   What's not to like?

Well, alternators, for one thing.  Long-time readers will recall our ongoing struggles with alternators.   Since purchasing the boat in 2020, we have replaced the starboard alternator twice.  Last year, the port alternator begin giving us trouble intermittently,   So much so that we intimidated it into compliance by purchasing a spare to keep on board.  

Well, on the short trip from Eldean Shipyard to MEYR, it dropped any pretence of intermittance and the alarm light flashed and the alarm horn honked pretty constantly.   And no amount of belt tightening and wire wiggling would silence it.  Clearly the time had come to replace it.  (Alternators live a hard life  and at 1150 hours of engine time, its not surprising it had failed.  But the timing sure sucks.)  

But apparently, in this post-pandemic, inflation-ridden, short-staffed world, all boat yards are back to being "booked out six weeks."   So, with the new alternator on one hand and the 50 lbs of tools he packed into the boat on the other, Wade decided it was DYI time.   Hey, its like two bolts, one belt, and four wires, right?  What could possibly go wrong?  I mean,  40 years ago, he swapped a generator on a 68 VW bus.  How much harder could this be really?

Well, actually, not much.  On Wednesday morning (Commadore Kathleen wisely left for the grocery store at this point) within an 90 minutes he had the old unit dismounted, and was sweet-talking the MEYR shop into swapping the pulley.   An hour later the new unit was in place and carefully reconnected, using the wiring to the starboard alternator as a guide.  When Kathleen returned, he had it all buttoned back up.  And, after a brief prayer, we hit the starter button.  And it turned!  And it ran!! And it charged to 14 volts!!!  An NO ALARMS SOUNDED!!!!  Thank. You.  Dear.  Lord!

Thursday morning was devoted to shifting the dinghy from the foredeck where it spent the winter to the davit on the swim platform.  This proved to much easier than lifting it  last fall for storage.  Jur tie it off and toss it over the rail.  (Gravity and botancy are our friends.)  Then it was off the Walmart and Costso on yet another provisioning run.  (The larder is full!)   We closed out Thursday at dinner with old friends Glenn and Nancy Teall, who live in the Grand Rapids area. 

Friday was designated as both Canvas Day and Departure Day, in that order.   Canvas arrived at about 10:00 am with Chris, Mitch and the crew working diligently to make everything fit correctly.  The result is downright beautiful and dramatically improves oiour forward vision while underway.   And, as subsequent heavy rains proved, it also keeps the bridge area drier.   So, except for the number of boat units on the invoice (Sheesh!), we re very happy with it.  

Canvas crew at work.  Yay!

By 1:00 PM, Deparure Day had arrived.   We set off west out of Lake Macatawoc to enter Lake Michigan and turned north.  Our destination Grand Isle  Marina in Grand Haven, MI.   This departure broke one of our cardinal rules, to leave early and to be off the water by 2:00 to avoid the inevitable afternoon heat-driven winds.   So it was a rolly, lumpy ride up the coast, with NW winds on the port bow of 15-ish knots and a weird WSW swell hitting us sideways.  We were NOT a happy ship (especially fur-Admiral Maggie)   

But it was only 27 miles and two and a half hours until we tied up at our destination for cocktails and  a nice ribeye grilled on the swim step BBQ.  And we are now officially UNDERWAY!!!

Important Reminder

Don't forget you can track us on the free NEBO boat tracking app.  Go to www.nebo.global  or in your favorite app store.  Once you have it installed, a quick search on "Irish" should find us.   (Note: Beware the similarly-named digital notebook app.  That ain't the right one.)

Thanks for following.

Wade and Kathleen Griffith (and fur-Admiral Maggie)

    

  

Back In The Mitten

It was another fast and uneventful cross-country dash.  

Montana once again proved to be our favorite state for highway travel.  Wide open spaces, minimal road  construction,  80 MPH speed limits, and limited law enforcement presence make for fast efficient cruising.  Despite a delayed start, we made Billings for dinner and overnight accommodations, as planned.

Tuesday marked our first visit to North Dakota.   The western portion of the state intrigued us with rolling green hills and stunning badlands around T. Roosevelt National Park.  We had lunch in the charming town of Madora just outside the park gates and made a mental note to return when we have time to explore.  East of there, however, we began to see the real North Dakota.   In the words of a our late friend, Mitch Thomas, "God, what were you thinking?" 

"High on a hill, it MOO's for me"

"God, what were you THINKING?"

Approaching Bismark, the terrain becomes so flat (giant cow excepted) as to make Nebraska seem  mountainous.  And those wonderfully straight and flat highways are saddled with a 75 MPH speed limit AND an surprisingly active State Patrol presence.    Our overnight location in Jamestown proved a disappointment for both accommodations and dining.  Its only redeeming feature was to be 514 miles east of Billings.  We were up early and outa there!

Our next stop was in the 'burbs of Minneapolis with Kathleen's cousin, Charlene and her wife Meg, where we enjoyed a fabulous salmon dinner and a restful night's sleep.  Their unique home is sited on 2.5 acres, including a 1.5 acre wetland teeming with wildlife. Their three dogs welcomed Admiral Maggie to their large fenced yard.  Beautiful Lake Minnetonka (an aboriginal name perhaps meaning "small yellow trucks"? ) is a short walk away.   

On Thursday we made our way south through Wisconsin.  Our lunch stop was Wisconsin Dells .  This also seems to an aboriginal term, perhaps meaning "Let's build shops and attractions to relieve city folks of their money".   More cotton candy, ice cream, museums, and curio shops than is healthy, for sure.  Even a ski "hill" with a whopping 250 ft vertical drop.   We left wondering why there is a there there.  Sheesh.

Thursday evening brought us once again to the Geneva, IL home of Charlie McLaughlin.  Always a gracious host, he treated us to a pool-side gourmet salad dinner and his cat Oliver welcomed Admiral Maggie by retreating grumpily to the basement.   Our day ended on a down note with a call from Eldean Shipyard informing us that they would be unable to launch Irish Lass on Friday as planned due to weather risk.  (We're getting back into the mode where Weather Rules All.  Good warmup for cruising)  They promised a Monday launch and gave us access to the Lass in storage over the weekend so we could being our loading and commissioning. 

On Friday, we swung south to miss Chicago and then across Indiana to reach the base of the Michigan Mitten.  Indiana apparently has a long memory and recalls the not-so-nice things we said about it on past visits.  We were treated with heavy rain, heavy traffic, and heavy construction, extending our 3.5 hour drive to Holland to 5.5 hours.  We arrived just in time to confer with Eldean's service manager and to inspect the Lass before closing.  (More on both of there later. )  And off we went to our hotel.  2014 miles on the clock! 

A few words about Spirit of Desoto

Out 2021 Chrysler Voyager minivan served us well.   For interstate travel for two people and a fur-Admiral, along with a big bunch o' stuff, he could not be beat.  A smooth quiet ride,  28.5 MPG at our customary speed-limit+5 pace, and all the room Admiral Maggie could want.  Plus he had no nanny-like "lane departure warning" feature to repeatedly annoy us everytime we drifted withing 6 inches of the center line, fog line, or any random mark on the pavement.   (Long-term followers will recall our past comments on this feature.)  

Three points of concern.  

First power from his 3.5L V-6 was adequate at best.  But perhaps that is the price of 28.5 MPG.  

Second, his "Start/Stop" feature, which shuts off the engine at stop signs, had enough latency in the restart to give one a "GLUP!" when trying to pull out into fast moving traffic.  A hole shot champion he ain't never gonna be. 

Third, we spent the entire trip wrestling with Android Auto for control of our phones and tablets.   I get that the driver needs to focused on the road.  But even the passenger cannot being up a map to assist with navigation when Androd Auto is engaged.   Talk about Nanny Tech!   I suspect with more time and study, we might have come to appreciate this technology, but this brief exposure makes us want to call it Borg Auto (Resistance-is-Futile)

Thanks for Following. More to Come!

Wade and Kathleen and fur-Admiral Maggie

 

East Bound and Down (again)

"By the time we get to Missoula, you'll be rising..........".

By the time most of you read this, we will be off on yet another one-way, cross-country highway adventure to rejoin our Great Loop adventure.  Once again, our steed is drawn from the stables of Budget rent-a-car.  And loaded with enough stuff to (hopefully not) sink a ship.  Our home is back in the custody of family and friends.  And our mail is once again in the care of St Brendan’s Isle.  (See 05-19-2020 post)

With Irish Lass awaiting us in Michigan, our trip is a bit shorter this time.  Just 1,945 miles with 4 sleeps.  Billings, MT; Jamestown, ND; Minneapolis, MN;  Geneva, IL.   (The last two are “family” stops.)  This will be our first visit to The Flickertail State (Motto: “Strength From The Soil”).    We can’t wait to see the billiard-table flatlands resulting from the 1950’s US Government Mountain Removal project.  And we are excited to see if all that fracking and tar sands make gas any cheaper.  All the time mindful of the fact that, were it independent, North Dakota would be 5^th on the list of countries with nuclear weapons.  (Maybe their motto should be “Strength From  Mutually Assured Destruction”?)

We expect to arrive at Eldean Shipyard mid-day on Friday, July 15, where we expect to see Irish Lass out of storage and floating in a slip.  Then its clean, clean, clean and stow, stow, stow.  Not to mention things like reinstalling the anchor and the dinghy and checking all systems to make sure they are ready to cruise.   By the 18^th, we expect to move aboard.  On the 19^th, we will leave Eldean to meet our new best friend, Chris, from Canvas Innovations who will install a beautiful new front bridge enclosure for us (and relieve us a of a few Boat Units*).   

If all goes as planned (listen for God’s laughter), we will be officially underway by July 22.  Our initial cruising plan  has us proceeding north on Lake Michigan from Holland to Ludington, MI, where weather permitting we will turn West and cross the Lake to the Wisconsin side in the vicinity of Manitowoc.  This will allow us the shortest possible crossing ( a distance of about 58 miles), arriving on the shore of The Badger/Bratwurst State in the closing days of July. 

August will find us gunkholing around Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay and Doer County in  Wisconsin.  The Doer Peninsula is reportedly a boater’s paradise, and we are anxious to explore it.  (More details to follow as we figure them out.)  Who knows, we may even visit Oconto, WI, the place of Irish Lass’s birth at the Cruisers Yachts manufacturing facility.

As the calendar shifts toward Labor Day, we will work our way south along the western shore of Lake Michigan, with stops in Sheboygan, Milwaukee , Racine, Port Washington and on into the coastline of the Windy City. 

With holiday behind us, we will embark on the next section of the Great Loop, the Western Rivers, with a goal of reaching the Gulf of Mexico by November.    And THAT will be a whole other adventure.  Stay tuned!

 Breaking News:  Our Ride is Here!

May we present the Spirit of DeSoto, a 2022 Chrysler Voyager minivan.   

In keeping with our conquistador tradition, we named her for Hernando De Soto, who “discovered”  the Mississippi River (at least in European-conquest-via-infectious-diseases sense) during his 16^th century wanderings north and west of  Florida.   The DeSoto Adventurer was also an  early Hemi-powered offering by The Chrysler Corporation in 1956-60.   (Voyager, Adventurer , potato, potatoe, close enough, eh?)     Regardless, The picture below captures both points of history well, don’t you think?

 

DeSoto discovers the Mississippi!

Apparently purpose-built for folks like us , she is aimed squarely at  the open interstates (and gasoline supply) of the northern plains.   She offers decent gas mileage and ample space for fur-Admiral Maggie to lounge, in addition to room for the big pile o'stuff we always seem to take along on these trips.  We pray she will serve us as well as her predecessors.   Driving impressions to follow…….

Thanks for following!
Wade and Kathleen and fur-admiral Maggie. 

 

* Regular readers will recall that a Boat Unit is a private virtual currency traded among boaters and marine service providers.  Despite supply chain issues, recent inflationary pressures, corrupt Italian satellites, and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, these are still trading at about $1,000 each.  There is great, if short-term, comfort in denial.  As in, “Ah, its only a couple of boat units to fix that.”   Sheesh.