Our first leg on our journey home was from Northport to Frankfort on September 9. That leg was over sixty nautical miles and took up all of the daytime hours. The second leg was from Frankfort to Ludington, also more than sixty NM. After two long days of sailing, we elected to stay put in Ludington for two nights. Finally, on Thursday, we set out for our home port of Muskegon and tied up in our slip at 6:30pm.
That’s a pretty grueling end to an excellent cruise. Then came the haul-out on the 25th of September, ending the water part of sailing season. It was a beautifully warm day to take the boat out, and it certainly was nicer than waiting until the bitter end in October. It might seem a little early to end the sailing season, but we were heading to Scotland less than a week later for two and a half weeks.
I have already started on the off-season maintenance: replacing the damper plate between the motor and transmission; maintenance of the shower sump pump, and bilge pump; upgrading our house battery bank to lithium iron phosphate – that will require some electrical changes and new equipment; and then in the spring of 2025, we’ll add an AIS transponder, a wi-fi interface, repair some cracks on the transom, raise the waterline at the stern as the dinghy and davits have pushed the stern down, and all of the usual work to be ready to go into the water in May.
2025 will be an adventurous year, as we will launch without going to a slip. Our plan is to sail away and return to Muskegon in the fall. We will be prepared, and we have some hope for landfalls in some beautiful places, but there’s no schedule, and just sketches of where we hope to visit. And you’ll be able to follow along right here on this blog.