We're Getting Good at This

It was a struggle to get all the things done this week in order to leave Friday morning. It did not help that we had the hottest week of the year so far and everything we did was slow and sweaty. In addition to the heat, our lives get busy with kids that is for sure. Pierce had his last soccer game in the heat as well on Wednesday. The league cut the skills portion out and just played the game. His coach ended the game with a water balloon fight.

Susan ended up leaving work earlier on Thursday so she could get the grocery shopping done and get a head start on the packing. It was still so hot and we ended up trying to wait until the sun would be lower to get the bikes on the boat. When I finally grabbed Susan's bike that was hanging in the garage  I noticed her front tire was flat. Yup it had a hole! It was already after 8 and all of our bike shops where closed. Quick trip to the local Walmart and we were back in business, however, this delay was enough to give the mosquitoes a jump on us. As soon as the sun went down it was on and we were still putting the bikes on the boat. We quickly finished up covered the boat and called it quits.

Friday morning we ended up getting out about 10:30am. I wanted to clean up the boat's hull and polish some of the repairs I had done. Once that was done we where on our way. We ended up taking a back route to Green Bay to avoid road construction. Around 11am tummies began to rumble. We ended up stopping at a truck stop and getting some food in Forest Junction. The thought was to eat now verses waiting until we get there as we had much to do once getting to Sturgeon Bay.

Once we arrived in Sturgeon Bay we called Center Point Marina to get our slip assignment. After getting into the slip Susan and I had a plan on how we where going to get the boat back together and entertain the boys.  Remember the heat index was well into the triple digits on this day!!!! Once we got into our slip we started re-installing the canvas and electronics. The original plan was to have Susan take the boys to the pool once the canvas was removed from the cabin and in place. Not completely installed just pined in place. I needed to get the electronics on the arch before we can zip the canvas into place. It went so smooth that the boys helped out and everything fell into place quickly and we all went to the pool afterward. 

On a very positive note: my Sister and Brother-in-Law offered to watch our dogs because of the conflict that my parents had. This was a wonderful surprise and we appreciate it very much. It was amazing to not have the dogs amongst the chaos that ensues when we have to put the boat back together.

Getting Ready...Summer Trip 2013

The time is here where we are starting to get ready for out trip. We leave July 19th and will return on the 27th. This year we are taking the dogs and the kids. We had talked about not taking one or the other. The plan was we would have the dogs stay with my parents, but it just is not going to work out, so they are coming with us again this year. When planning our trip this year we were determining were we would like to go. It was determined that we really enjoyed the area on our 2010 trip and would like to go back. This time instead of visiting all the same places we are going to go into Traverse Bay and explore that area. Our destination is Elk Rapids, but may spend a night at Suttons Bay or Traverse City. If time allows we may even go to the famous Torch Lake area. In order to do this we would have to rent a runabout or a pontoon from a local marina as there is not access from Lake MI.  There is a dam that separates the water way in Elk Rapids

The weather this week is looking great and Susan is worried that we may not get a good week again based on the law of averages. I am thinking an praying we will continue to have this weather for sometime to come. It would be great to be able to leave right away on Saturday and make the most of our time across the lake.

In preparing to go we have already been racking up the expenses. The truck's brakes needed a surprise repair. I had already replaced all four pads, rotors and calipers three years ago. With the little I drive the truck they should have been fine. However, as luck would have it the passenger caliper had froze and needed to be replaced. I was fortunate to be able to warranty the pads and calipers, but labor and the rotors did cost us. I decided to do both front brakes because that is what was recommended. With pulling as much weight as we do with our boat I thought I better listen to the experts. Because of the way I had warrantied the parts I elected to replace the driver side caliper on my own (the driver side caliper was not available when the truck was in the shop). While bleeding the line, the line that comes from the master cylinder to the rear of the vehicle burst. It had become corroded and rusted through. So it all went back to the shop again. That was some more money sucked out of the wallet.

Even though it kinda sucks spending the money it will be nice to have confidence in the fact it is one less thing that may go wrong while towing. While the shop had the truck I also had them look it over and replace a few more brake lines that were suspect. That is the last thing I want; to have the brakes go out with a boat behind you!

On the Hook - High Cliff State Park

It was decided late in the evening to run over to High Cliff State Park for a night on the hook. For Susan and I it was our first attempt at this. The same for our friends Scott and Jill who accompanied us in their Regal 2760. Our largest barrier to doing in the past is the hassle we have with two dogs requiring the land to do "their business".

When we made the decision after dinner to do it, Scott and I needed to run back my house to grab the dinghy. Susan and I normally do not leave our dinghy on the boat when we are on Lake Winnebago. There is really no real benefit from having a dinghy on this lake, however, getting the dogs to and from land when anchored it was a must. The dinghy ended up working great and everyone used it to entertain the kids as well as getting Scott and his wife back and forth for their ritual morning runs.

We really lucked out with the weather which was the driving factor for doing this, especially so last minute. Scott and I had talked about it during the week, however, I was having difficulty convincing Susan because she did not want to hassle with the dogs. It turned out the night could not have been better for anchoring. There was absolutely no wind that night and throughout the following day it continued to be eerily calm. 

The area is so beautiful, it is the largest natural shoreline on the lake about three miles of uninterrupted natural shoreline. We woke in the morning to cook breakfast for the entire crew as Scott and Jill are not equipped with a generator. Susan and I were more then happy to cook as they took care of dinner on the dock the night before. While Scott took the kids out on the dinghy he was able to get some great shots of our boats tied up.  

We had both a great evening and morning and all agreed to do this more often. The only downside of this trip was Scott and Jill needed to cut the weekend short. They needed to leave early Saturday afternoon to get their oldest to a Girl Scout Camp and to attend a party at Jill's mother's place for Manitowoc county's annual fly-in airshow.

So many boaters are fearful of anchoring out from the horror stories that many tell.  Many include scary nights on the hook from either storms or tide. Scott and I agreed we really have nothing to worry about and should not over complicate things. We do not have extreme tide effects, being an inland lake, and storms were not going to be an issue this particular night. Even having that security, we did use our Drag Queen app on the iPhone. This is actually a great app as you always have your phone near by and it really never gets turned off. At least my never does...