Reflections

Sailed from Holland to Muskegon. First part, wind was perfect. Waves could be measured in inches. We went fast for almost an hour. And then we slowed as the wind dropped. The black flies found us, even three miles off shore. Smooth sail, only saw three boats in thirty miles from Holland, and two came out of the channel with us. Such a smooth sail, Marcia went down to the V-berth and had a nap. Timed it perfectly, arriving two miles behind the Lake Express - the cross-lake ferry from Milwaukee that makes the almost seventy mile crossing in two and a half hours. It’s a big catamaran, over 190’ feet (58.4 meters) long and nearly 60 feet wide (17.6 meters). The channel narrows to about 200 feet, so it’ll take up about half of the channel if you allow some safe distance.…

Thursday May 28: Four dock cart loads. Three backpacks of clothes - everything from 40ºF to 90ºF - flannel lined jeans and long underwear, to swimsuit and t-shirts. Provisioned with shelf stable and canned goods, to fresh vegetables and meat. We’ll have to hand carry everything when we restock. Half the boat lockers have been rearranged. I even made an interior plan, gave each locker and cubby a letter from A to N, made a spreadsheet for an inventory of everything that isn’t clothes or food. It all fit. Mostly. Sent the electric coffee pot and power washer home with Tim. There he goes, we’re on our own now.  No car in the parking lot for us. What’s left to do: Wash, polish and wax the cockpit. Keep stowing stuff into the aft lockers. Go aloft to check the rig. Check the shroud…

Well, that was a different sailing season than we expected. It all started with getting some maintenance done on various boat systems. Every system had something that needed to be done. All in anticipation of the great sailing adventure of 2025, and while all of the work on the boat was completed, our plans quickly changed. When it became clear that I needed to have surgery, we quickly had to obtain a slip for the summer, as we had planned to launch and sail away without need for a ‘permanent’ slip for the season. Marcia did a great job of keeping you informed, and on my side, it just seemed like a long ‘No, wait, hold my beer’. First, the abdominal aortic aneurysm freaked me out. I had heard about them, and they’re not good news. Next came the flailing mitral valve, and…

We survived! It was big, it was scary, and it was necessary. I'm happy to report that Harold's heart surgery went "according to plan" and after a short stay in the hospital, he is home. I'm not gonna lie, this was hard. I listened to his heart and following the surgery, it sounds like lub dub, lub dub, lub dub rather than whoosh whoosh, whoosh whoosh, whoosh whoosh. We are looking forward to returning to Reflection. We'll be back on board when Harold can walk 30 minutes and be able to "hang on" and gets the Dr. permission. Initially we will need some extra hands on deck to help with sailing. Shoot us a message if you'd like to join us for a gentle sail on Lake Muskegon or Lake Michigan later this summer. Harold celebrating a week out of surgery with a…

That's what we are learning about. Most of our previous repair experiences have been - and no great surprise - on sailboats. From bilge pumps to wind vanes, hoses to prop shafts, and everything in between. And if you know Harold, he can repair anything! “If you can’t repair it, maybe it shouldn’t be on board.” —Lin and Larry Pardey Unfortunately, the mitral valve is not a DIY project. We have done our research and have found the best team to work on the repair. We met with Dr. Romano at Cardiac Center in Ann Arbor yesterday and have set the ball rolling to get Harold's mitral valve repaired or replaced.  We are very pleased with the team who will guide us through the surgery and recovery. He had a blood draw yesterday and scheduled a Cardiac Cath on Monday, June 30.  This will…

May 20, 2025 Over the last month, we have done a lot of routine maintenance and some upgrades to Reflection so that we could cruise all summer. I retired from the Southside Community Kitchen as of April 1 and we had plans to sail unhindered by a schedule and to go where the wind and weather were favorable. Our hope was to explore the North Channel, anchoring out, hiking, and enjoying the wilderness. We especially wanted to revisit South Manitou Island and to spend more time enjoying the beautiful anchorage and hiking the island. One of the things we loved last year was visiting all of the amazing farmer's markets - Frankfort and Northport provided most of our produce. Our dreams for this summer did not include finding out last week that Harold has a severely prolapsed mitral valve with regurgitation that requires…