Once Sail la Vie was behaving like a regular sailboat, we decided to take her on a shakedown cruise of lake Michigan before getting her ready for the 1300 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Our plan was to head north from Racine, Wisconsin to Green Bay, cross the top of the lake, and travel down the east side to Holland Michigan, before crossing the lake again to return to our home marina in Racine.
We left Racine on July 14th and with light wind and 4 foot waves we managed to have a decent motor sail for the 25 nautical miles up to Milwaukee. We rented a slip from the state park alongside a busy walking trail. The city was super cool – a lot of great restaurants, cool markets and a young friendly vibe. Douglas went to explore the Harley Davison museum while I checked out the amazing art museum. We spent two days there, but we could have stayed for a week.
Our next stop was Port Washington, which required a lot of tacking with unfavorable wind direction. It was a good chance to get to know the boat better and understand her abilities better. We met a really nice sailing couple at the dock, who invited us out for lunch the following day. The town was really nice, and we had a great lunch with Mary and John and got a lot of advice on other parts of the lake and the various apps they use.
We left Port Washington on July 19th, heading to Sheboygan. The wind was predicted to be 10 to 15 knots with 1 to 2 foot waves. We saw 6 to 22 knot winds, and 3 foot waves, which was fine up until hell decided to let loose. When we were nearing the breakwater approaching Sheboygan Harbor we started up the motor and took down the sails. Almost immediately the motor started to overheat. I let out a couple of feet of jib and watched the wind climb to 26 knots while my handy hubby ran a bunch of diagnostics on the motor. He realized pretty quickly that the alternator belt, which also runs our water pump, had broken. Coincidentally it was the same belt that we had decided to tighten instead of replacing a week or two before when it was smoking. The waves really started to build up and although I tried to take them at a good angle, I have no idea how that whole thing didn’t make him sick. He came back on deck covered from head to toe in grease but happy the belt was fixed.
We were feeling relieved and ready for the adventure to be over for the day. So we headed into the marina and I called them for a slip assignment. The marina said that we had to back into the slip, which we agreed to not knowing any better. At this point the wind was hitting over 30 with the gusts. We got the boat into position, and started to back in. It went well, at first. We were about a quarter of the way in, I threw the midship line and the stern line to the dock attendants. Then, Bamo, a huge gust hit us from the side and swung the whole bow around the dock, popping us out of the slip and narrowly avoiding the boat next to us. Everyone threw back the lines, they landed in the water. Next thing I know I am scrambling to get lines out of the water while anchors of docked boats are flying past my head as we careen down the row. The dock attendant yells, “Just get into any empty slip you see!”. Thanks…. Could have said that 10 minutes ago though!
We see an empty slip and try to get our starboard against it since we are set up for that side docking. Totally futile, the wind just sweeps us into the other side. A local guy runs over from his slip to catch us and yells, “Don’t worry, I’ll hold you off until you get fenders over here….. Holy shit you are heavy!” And that is the story of how we became friends with Sam and his wife Hannah. After we got the boat secured, Douglas brought them over beers and invited them over to see the boat later. I made everyone dinner, and they took us out to the local bars. They didn’t let us buy our own drinks all night and also treated us to a Wisconsin delicacy served in bars: pickled chicken gizzard.
We bought new docking lines the next day that are easy to throw and catch, and swore an oath to never let someone else tell us how to dock in bad weather again. We didn’t move the boat for 3 days!
When it was time to move on from Sheboygan we were lucky to have a nice blow from a good direction. The wind was sustained at about 18 knots with 20 knot gusts, we practiced reefing our fancy in-mast furling main – what a treat! We can reef whatever amount we want, and it is so easy! We arrived at Manitowoc and began meeting the most amazing people! The lady who runs the marina was fantastic and talked us into staying more days and renting stand-up paddle boards and a tandem bicycle. We then met a group of really fun boater friends, Julie, Ray and Little Ray, Shelley and Jeff, and Gretchen and Scott. We hung out with them for a week, even borrowing their cars, plus we attended a craft beer festival, a farmers market, and got some important work done on our black water system. Honestly, we liked the town and the people so much that if we didn’t have plans to head south with the boat we may have just moved to Manitowoc!
After Manitowoc we sailed up to Sturgeon Bay. The sailing was okay, but during the day we lost our depth sounder, wind instruments and our chart plotter started crapping out. It was windy when we got to the anchorage so we struggled to set the anchor. This was the first time we had anchored and we thought that I must not be using the windlass right when the anchor-rode was just flying out and the boat was flying backwards. I managed to reach some rope way down under the pile and cleat it off before we got to the end of our rope. We had a windy night there and took a lot of time examining forecasts. The weather was calling for thunderstorms and a lot of wind in Green Bay in a few days and now we didn’t have a depth sounder or wind instruments, or a chart plotter that we could count on. We were going into rocky unfamiliar waters, and we also had to be in Holland to pick up our friend Michelle from Toronto in a few weeks. So we made the painful decision to not carry on to Green Bay, and the next day to cross the lake to Frankfort, Michigan.
The wind howled through the anchorage all night so we were pretty sleepy when we decided to take off at 7AM. The windlass completely failed at this point, and Douglas spent about an hour pulling up the anchor which was very well set by this point. Crossing Lake Michigan was uneventful, but still interesting. We had light wind on our nose all day, but waves coming from at least 2 if not 3 and sometimes 4 directions. It was curious, and nauseating! We spent the day taking turns on the helm; Douglas spending his off-duty time fixing the windlass and me reading or napping. We arrived in Frankfort Bay in time for a beautiful sunset, and the windlass worked perfectly now!
For the next 2 weeks we worked our way down the Michigan side of the lake hiding out at marinas from multiple thunderstorms, renting bikes and swimming at beautiful beaches. We arrived at Holland a few days earlier than expected and enjoyed the rest days at a beautiful anchorage next to a mooring field at the entrance to the harbor.
The day our friend Michelle was coming we booked a slip at the marina next to us so that we wouldn’t need to row ashore and get her. It was a good thing that worked out! We had strong winds from the south all through the last night we were on anchor. The winds were increasing and we could see that they were forecast to eventually come from the north that day. We called and asked the marina if we could come in early, but they said no. The wind started really screeching over 30 knots. I said, “Well the anchor has been holding for two days so it is really in there right?” Douglas explained that if the wind direction changed it wouldn’t matter how well it was in.
We were both feeling really nervous so I suggested before lunch that we go sit in the cockpit and start the motor. That way if we drag we are ready and if we don’t at least we charge our tired batteries. Just as we got everything on and ready and sat down to relax we literally watched the wind instrument show 25 knot south wind to 35 knot north wind in about 30 seconds. Next thing we know the boat is flying backwards towards the mooring field! Douglas gave it hard forward while I ran to the anchor. We had so much speed we couldn’t go forward, so he had to jam it in reverse and steer around a moored boat while I frantically pulled up the anchor so that we wouldn’t catch on anything. We then headed into the marina unwilling to wait for the allotted check in time any longer! We are so thankful that didn’t happen in the night. Another big lesson for sure! From now on we will watch for wind changes as much as wind speed.
On August 10th we headed back across Lake Michigan to Racine. This time the distance was about 70 miles, but we had an extra crew member on board so it was pretty relaxing. Michelle had sailed lasers and other small boats but had never been on a larger sailboat. I think the whole experience was a let down for her when she realized that we use auto pilot and had no wind for the first 40 miles. It was a lot of motor and not much else for most of the day, but the wind picked up and we had a great sail for the remaining 30 miles or so. By this point in the trip we had had a lot of experience docking. As we pulled into the harbor and waited for the bridge to open I got the dock lines ready by running them to midship, tied on the fenders and left them on the deck so they wouldn’t drag in the water on the way in. There was little wind and little current; Douglas did a tidy job of getting us onto the dock. I got my mid-ship line secured onto the proper cleat, he turned the wheel all the way over leaving it in forward and the boat pulled nicely into the dock. I stepped off with my stern line, cleated it, took the bow line off where I tied it at mid-ship and got that secured. As I was walking back down the dock Michelle asked, “Should I hang these fenders over the side like the other boats have them?” I looked up and saw all 3 fenders still sitting on the deck where I left them. I said, “No that’s okay, Douglas has is so good at docking now that we don’t use those anymore.”
