Leland to Frankfort

450 ft Vertical - While low resolution, a few Pixels  are people.

The trip from Leland to Frankfort was smooth motoring, basically glass water with minor boat wake intermixed.  Very nice traveling.

We had 'docktails'  with four other couples who are also loopers.  There was a neat mix of experience of looping amongst the group.  One, 'In My Element, Bob and Debi' who are on their loop 1 2/3 will cross Lk Michigan to Door County, tour there, then have their boat shipped to the state of Washington.

Frankfort is a great fishing community, many anglers, and the fish cleaning station was packed.

Frankfort is an area where I flew my ultralight with a group of great guys.  We started from Thompsonville, flew to the lake and had a great time flying over the sandy beaches (I will post a pic when I can find it). We did many 'touch and goes' on the sandy beach areas, it was awesome fun.

The sand dunes along the lake were impressive, Obviously the Sleeping Bear area is most impressive with the 450 ft tall dunes.  The angle of the sand is also a wonder, as it seems that the sand would naturally level out, but alas, the wind keeps the dunes in a very majestic state. No wonder it is a National Park.

I have climbed the Sleeping Bear  dunes (only certain areas are designated  for this purpose), it is a tough challenge, as the sand keeps moving down with each step, sometimes half of the stride.

Charlevoix to Northport to Leland

We departed Charlevoix, and made the trip to Northport,  calm waters, light winds and arrived early.  It was a great afternoon with the Grand Kids (read their blog entry).  We departed from Northport for Leland after a significant rain lighting, and thunder storm, (reminds me of a looper in a sailboat in Mackinaw a few years back).

Leland is truly a nice laid back tourist town.  Hikers going to the Manitoulin  Islands National Park, the Historical Fish Town area, and of course the marina.  Truly a classy village.  We have been here several times via trailer boating (one time with Beth and George but we did not launch due to 6-7 foot seas).  We have scubaed  the islands, there were some remnants of past schooners.  We have also made the trip down here from Harbor Springs in our Pleasure Craft, it was 100% glass water for 2.5 days, a great memory.

Grand Kids Blog page of their two days with us. Northport to Leland

By:  Jason Mark Hill Jr and Janelle Mary Hill

Dad dropped us off with Grandma and Grandpa. We hung out with Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma. We had goulash and garlic bread for dinner, our favorite! I Jason took grandpa out for a dinghy ride.

Grandma Janelle and me in the Dinghy in Leland

I dropped grandpa off at the beach and tried getting the dinghy up on plane with a 4 horse engine and I made it! Grandpa, Grandma, Janelle and Daisy went swimming.  After that, we went and got Moomers ice cream at a gas station WEIRD! Janelle got blue moon, super moo, Grandma got blueberry cheesecake Grandpa got coconut chocolate chip and Jason got blue moon,mint chocolate chip.After that we played Rummikub and Jason won the first round and Grandma won the second round.We went to bed at 10:15 and got up at 7:20 UGH OH thunder,thunder,lightning and SUPER hard rain.We departed about 11:15 and got to Leland at 3:30 when we got to the harbor it was very hard to pull into the dock and Janelle even closed her eyes because it was so close. Jason and grandpa went on the dinghy to scout out the beach. Janelle and grandma went to take Daisy for a quick swim at the boat launch.We ate dinner at ricks cafe right by the Leland damn.  Mom Is picking us up at 7pm Hope we can see Grandpa and Grandma in florida.

I am pointing to Florida for a reason.

Day Two - Mackinaw to Charlevoix

One of many nice homes on Round Lake (Charlevoix)

We started out after a four hour fog-in.  We had contact with others that went out into the soupy weather.  Visibility was about .25 miles early, we departed in about .5 mile visibility.  The ferry traffic   (as always) was a pain in the butt, constant traffic and ensuing wake.  Radar on, going slow, and staying out of the freighter lanes, and not too close to shore.  Radar performed awesome, nice overlay over the electronic navigation charts.

Grays Reef Passage was nice, no freighter traffic.  When we made the turn south, the three foot seas were on the beam, thus rolling.  I then tacked a bit to reduce the amount of items to hit the floor.

Passing Cecil, and Sturgeon Bays via boat was awesome.  These are two of our favorite areas to take Daisy.  I really, really, wanted so to turn in to Sturgeon Bay, anchor, and swim. Alas, we needed to make progress.

Passing Little Traverse Bay was very nostalgic.  This is the area that we both grew up in, graduated from Petoskey High School, and started our family here.  The view looking in is as good as looking out.

Our anchorage was Round Lake (Charlevoix).  Nice and peaceful.  Of note, Daisy fell into the water at the shoppers dock when trying to exit the dingy.  I needed help to retrieve her.  She had her life jacket on, it has a handle, good thing.  As nice as could be, after Daisy exiting the water, a 4 year old girl offered the bottom of her ice cream cone to Daisy to eat. All was good after the cone.

The architecture in Charlevoix is pretty awesome around the waters edge.

Finally, First Day on the Loop

Day One.  Cheboygan to Mackinaw (shakedown)

We started this trip that we have been working on for so long, and it feels great.  All systems are go, all is good.

Had a great send off from Anchor In last night, "Rocking the Red Dock" with the Anchor In crew and 'Quinn'.  Thanks to all who attended and wished us well.  We had a great time, looking forward to the return party.

The trip to Mackinaw was uneventful, just a nice slow cruise, waves 2ft and less.

Mackinaw was busy as usual, Corvette show, and the 'Fudgies'

We have been to Mackinaw so many times for so many events (including the Island) that we will not attempt to describe this area).

Thanks for checking in

Happy Trails to You

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Here She Comes To Save The Day.....

     As you can see in the Pic above, we are making progress.  Our new canvas maker (Donna) is making significant progress to correcting the screwed up effort by our original canvas guy.  The Pic above has the front three panels in place, and are finished.  Not in the Pic are two of the three rear panels that are finished.  Sooooo....  5 of 8, that makes 62% completed.  Today Donna, will make the patterns for the sides, and the final rear panel, create the blue frames, and install the vinyl.  Donna is doing an awesome job finishing up a botched effort, by someone else, on our enclosure.

Departure date........   ah, setting a date has not worked in the past so, stay tuned.

We received a question as to:  How is this extended delay affecting our schedule?.  The answer is: we have eliminated several 'play' locations heading down the east shore of Lake Michigan.  We still to plan be in Chicago around Labor Day (our original plan).

Patience--Patience---Patience

Well.....
We have the new burgee, we have the boat, but still no canvas as yet.  Seems as though this coming Wednesday may be our lucky day. (Maybe).   Time has not been lost we are catching up on some projects on the boat, topcoat on the rails and back doors etc.  We have been promised by the lady that picked up the pieces and is doing our canvas that we should be on our way on Wednesday with canvas to cover the flybridge.  What an ordeal, but we are finding a way to stay positive through this.   We are now seven days behind schedule but still have plenty of time to enjoy our trip down the Lake Michigan shoreline.

We enjoyed watching the National Marathon boat races on the river yesterday, both of our kids used to race in this marathon, very nostalgic.  We will keep you up to date on our official departure when it occurs.

Daisy is enjoying her walks, so all is well.

Mark and Vicki

There are Nice people and not so nice people out there

Well......

There are nice people in this world.  We have had so many well wishers that have expressed such nice things to us about our planned trip.  We thank you for the kind words.

Below is a bouquet of flowers from a very young girl whose parents (John and Liz)  are slipped next to us here in Cheboygan.  What a nice treat with such sincere meaning in her words.

In the same spirit, the other side of us (Brian and Sharon) stopped over to give us this fine bouquet of flowers, and shared some nice words about our departure.

The two examples above are demonstrations of the 'Nice' people in this world (we need more like them). 

 Below is a picture of our delivered canvas for our Flybridge today, 23 days late and not complete or installed as was in our contract.  This person, who deceived us with so many words that were lies and false promises, is the epitome  of 'Not So Nice' people of the world (we need less of them).

This Not so nice person has caused us much grief, and a delay in the start of a trip we are so anxious to start.  We are positive people, and know things will get better soon.  We have made contact with another canvas maker to finish the Flybridge to a level that will make our planned trip okay, but not as originally planned.

Who selected the departure date?

10,000+  decisions were made to plan and execute our Great Loop trip. One of them was to hire a canvas maker a YEAR AGO to make an enclosure for the Flybridge.  I should have asked HIM,: "when I should plan to depart? ".

As you might have guessed, we are still in our slip in Cheboygan waiting for our canvas.  He has promised to install it today.  (sarcastic comment here).

Like the space shuttle disaster, Kennedy assassination, I shall remember this date.  "Where were you on August 10th 2014".

We made the best of the day. We went out to Mullet Lake, grilled, swam, and rested.  It was a good day considering the negative emotions that we experienced.

For those that wished us good luck, safe travels and Bon Voyage..... Thanks, we really appreciate your comments.

Five Days to Go.

The GB Curl

Our planned departure date of August is still a go!   We have mixed feeling about leaving Lake Michigan too soon (fresh, clean, swimming water), but also want to get on the "rivers" (no swimming, and yuck water).

We have been very, very busy working on getting Blue ready for the "Loop'.  Kudos to Vicki for doing all the prep work (Heat Gun stripping, sanding 80, 120, 180, then 220 grit) on the Rails, Door frames, Anchor Pulpit, and the Risers (old dingy racks that we will use for the bikes and motor).  I then put two coats of top coat (one high gloss coat to go).  We are very happy with the results. Not perfect, but significantly better. This project alone exceeds 100 hours of work.

I installed a new stereo and speakers, nice!  I also subscribed to XM Satellite Radio, even better.  The first channel that came on was the "Jimmy Buffet Channel"  I will take that as a sign of good things to come.

I inventoried all the spare parts, and am waiting for some filters to come in.  There are some parts that were on the boat when I got it, and I still have no clue what they are, or, where they go.

We are now starting to clean the inside.

Thanks for reading, more information coming soon.