Author: Harold Beer

We had a haul out scheduled for 9am, so we got up before 6:30, made coffee, had breakfast and made sure everything was ready for the trip to the fuel dock and into the TraveLift basin. The morning was wet. After a week of fine days, of course we would have rain. Not heavy, but you needed to be dressed for it. We got our pump out of the holding tank, fueled with 18 gallons of diesel to just about fill the fuel tank. I put some biocide into the fuel tank the day before.  Diesel can form a thing called diesel bug, an organism that grows in the diesel, especially when the diesel has some water in it. The biocide keeps the bug from forming and kills any bug in the diesel. Filling the tank reduces the air space in the tank…

We’ve written about the Loopers before. These are the people that are a part of the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association. That’s a 6000 mile loop that starts anywhere from Florida, up through New York City, and the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, various waterways into Lake Huron, the North Channel, Lake Michigan, the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Tenn-Tom rivers, Mobile Bay, the Gulf ICW and back to Florida. It’s primarily done with Trawlers and Cabin Cruisers, individually or in groups. They fly a burgee (small flag) that shows the great loop and the parts that they have completed. When we sail, we monitor the marine radio and are equipped with AIS (Automatic Identification System). We’ll hear radio calls that include their boat name, and it will also display on our chart plotter and our other charting programs. And if we are in…

In 1988, the Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw was being considered for decommissioning. It had served as the largest icebreaker on the Great Lakes for over forty years then. Reporter Stephen Ward, and me as recording engineer spent about a day and a half on board in the cold of January documenting the sounds and voices on board the Mackinaw. We got on board on a frigid day, were assigned our bunks, told to wear these insulated thermal floatation suits called Mustangs whenever we were on the weather decks, and also told where we could not go due to safety or security concerns. Beyond that, we had the run of the ship and could record anyone and anywhere we wanted. As VIP’s, we took our meals in the wardroom mess after getting our food cafeteria style with the crew. We were in officer country,…

August 28 We arrived in Canada on July 29, and we leave tomorrow August 29. We have visited six towns: Thessalon, Tolsmaville, Meldrum Bay, Spanish, Blind River and Gore Bay. Tolsmaville on Cockburn Island is the smallest, with a year-round population of one - and he’s retiring as island caretaker. Historic one room School at Tolsmaville Bay. We have had meals out in Gore Bay (poutine and fresh whitefish), Blind River (pan-fried whitefish). We have been to one brewery - Split Rail. The Independent grocery stores in Thessalon, and Gore Bay were excellent, with high quality meat and veg. Spanish and Meldrum Bay had glorified convenience stores, and we got what we needed but not so great. Canadian boaters were amazing. Power, fishing, jet skis and dinghies would slow right down when passing. The only boats that threw up a wake had US…

To be sure, a Great Lakes passage is short. You’ll only make a multi-day passage if you sail the lake in the long way. Ocean passages can be measured in weeks. As I write, the nearest land is 18 miles away or about three and half hours at our current speed. A look in any direction, as far as you can see, is water. I’m on watch. With 9 knots of wind from the north, we’re making 5.4 knots on the rhumb line (93º True) to the tip of the Leelanau peninsula. We left Pedersen Bay around 5:30am CDT. It’s about 35 miles or seven-ish hours until we get to Leelanau. We’ve come about 25 miles in the five hours since we weighed anchor. The wind was light at first, so we had the sails up, and the motor running at 1700rpm.  That…