So we have this great idea for a documentary based on sailing the ports of the Great Lakes. We would detail the mariners working on the Great Lakes, and how the various ports of call have fit into the complex and storied history of the Great Lakes. We would interview harbormasters past and present to tell stories of the ports and how things have changed. We would do this by sailing to the various ports, utilizing new and old technology to navigate the waters and learn a little bit about what it was like to work on the water a hundred years ago, and what it is like to work on the water today.

It's a fun idea. Now all we need is a few piles of money, this boat, a few more piles of money, and we'll be all set. So if you're interested in buying the boat and/or supplying some piles of money, let us know. Phone lines are open.... :)

BTW, I've found myself drawn to this style of boat lately. It's called a Friendship Sloop, and is based off of some working sailboats of years long past. It is typically a gaff-rigged boat. The example in the link above happens to be quite large and quite awesome.

jonathan

Argh #1: Two of my old woodworking clamps gave up the ghost today. They weren't great clamps. I've been slowly trying to replace some of my oldest clamps with good clamps. My oldest clamps are some cheapy bar clamps from Home Depot that I bought back in 2000. They aren't all that strong, and the workmanship is pretty poor. I didn't know all of that at the time, though--they looked like fine clamps to me. One of them now has a permanent bend in its bar, which affects how far apart I can set the clamp heads.

We had a 100% homemade dinner tonight. We still had some meatballs and sauce left-over from the party last weekend. I decided that we'd buy some pasta today so that we could try to finish that up before it went bad. Well, after we got home from a little afternoon drive, I remembered that we had five eggs left from last weekend, too, and we had plenty of flour. A small plan was hatching in my brain. I first started a loaf of bread in the bread maker (the big oven is down for the count right now--it needs a serious cleaning after an issue with a pan that tipped badly last weekend).

I've managed to find a beautiful and awesome 30-foot Tartan 30 sailboat. It's a great deal, the boat looks good, and it looks like there would be plenty of room on board for us and friends to camp and cruise. Sadly, it is several thousand dollars over my imaginary budget. I need to play the lottery some more! :)

jonathan

Hi.  Sorry that I haven't had any updates here for a while.  I've been somewhat busy lately and have been letting this slide.  I still have to get the vacation pictures off of my camera and consolidated. 

Jenny and I have been taking sailing lessons at Moraine Sailing Club at Moraine State Park.  They're good people.  I have one skill left to demonstrate, and that is the man overboard (MOB) response drill.  We don't actually have to pick up a person--the instructor along for the drill tosses a cushion out at some point and calls out "man overboard!"  The skipper then must enter into a broad reach to pick up speed and get a stable course.  He or she then comes-about in a 270-degree "chicken jibe", aiming to put the boat downwind of the MOB by two to three boat lengths.  Once there, he or she luffs-up toward the MOB, finally letting all sails luff as the MOB is approached on the windward side of the boat.  Why the windward?  Well, for one thing, if the MOB was approached on the leeward side, the boat may be blown on top of the MOB. 

We've been having a good time with that stuff.  A couple of weeks ago was the last session that I could make it to this season.  I only had the MOB and the capsize recovery drills to complete.  Unfortunately, due to some delays doing the capsize recovery drills, I didn't get a chance to do the MOB drills. 

Capsize recovery, you say?  Yes.  We went out in pairs on Sunfish (small dinghy-style lateen-rigged sailboat), then had to intentionally capsize the boat, recover the boat, and resume sailing.  We each had to do this twice--once as the crew and once as the helmsman.  By the time I got out, it was me and another bigger guy, and we had a boat that already had its hull structure partially flooded from previous drills.  Let me just say that it was an adventure doing our two drills. It was a good skill to practice, though, so I think it was well worth it. 

Since then, Jenny and I have been busy with all sorts of things.  We had some family obligations to attend to, and spent some time doing some bike riding up at Presque Isle and on the Yough River Trail.  Last weekend, we finally did our annual Connellsville -> Ohiopyle round-trip ride.  We hadn't done a long ride in a little while, and our knees were killing us by the time we got home, but it was a great ride. 

Now we're getting ready to depart for a little journey--I'll have pictures posted of that when we return.  It should be fun! 

In other news, I think that it is time to drop the DirecTV service. I love it, but I don't think that we use it nearly enough anymore.  We've used it only a little over the past eight months or so.  We've used it more to watch stuff on local channels than we have to watch network TV, so I think it's time. We probably use it most often to listen to XM Radio in the house, so I think we might get an XM Radio subscription--we'll see. 

Well, that's about all for now. 

jonathan

Well, we've been back from vacation for a week now, but I haven't had time to write about it yet!  We got home and fell into a bunch of stuff that was waiting for us to return.

First up this week, of course, was our return to work.  We arrived home late Saturday night, spent Sunday getting the house in order again, then we were back to work Monday morning.  Ugh.  Getting back to work was good, though.  Though I think I could have done well with a few more weeks off, it felt good to get back to work.  Jenny and I discovered that we were really missing the cats Sunday night, so I went to get them Monday after work.  I had originally thought that we might leave them at the kennel for one additional night while we worked on getting laundry re-organized and getting the house cleaned-up before re-introducing cat fur to everything.  However, we were done on Sunday, and we missed the cats a lot, so they came home Monday afternoon.  They were initially a little confused and a lot upset when I brought them home.  By the time that Jenny got home, though, they were pretty much back to their former comfort level. 

Tuesday evening was National Night Out Against Crime.  The Parnassus Civic League sponsored a block party on another block here.  This was an important event to attend for me--not only because of my role as an officer in the organization, but also because I think that our efforts to get crime out of our neighborhood are highly valuable.  A block party at night on a weekday is a great way to show the nefarious types that we don't really appreciate them, and will not tolerate their element in our neighborhood.  It's also a good way to get people who rarely get a chance to come out to meet one another to do just that. 

The rest of the week pretty much progressed apace.  Jenny and I ment my friends Nick and Phil for dinner on Thursday evening, and that pretty much covers it.  Overall, though, it was pretty busy as we both worked to catch-up on stuff. 

Now on to vacation!  We had a great time!  We drove up on Saturday the 26th of July.  We had good weather for the whole ride up.  We woke up with a plan to leave at around 5AM.  My parents' car, which is usually notoriously late as we leave for vacation together, ended up leaving at just about exactly the same time.  Jenny and I thought that we were going to beat them out of the gate by hours, but it didn't happen.  We ended up heading north pretty much together the whole way, which worked-out pretty well.  We had our little sailboat strapped to the top of the car.  Except for some major strap noise in the beginning, it worked pretty well.  There was some high-frequency noise if we went faster than about 65MPH without a large vehicle in front of us to draft, so we tried to follow tractor trailers once we got into Michigan and onto 70MPH roads.

Everything was going swimmingly...

... until I ran out of gas!!!!  Ugh.  I'm such an idiot sometimes.  We were about 35 miles outside of Mackinaw City when I saw that we were running really low.  The "hey dork, stop for gas" light wasn't on yet, so I figured I'd take the next close gas station, with the thought that we should easily make Mackinaw City if the light wasn't on yet.  Next thing I know, the light is on.  Umm, OK.  We're too far from Macinaw City yet to make it there with the light on, but I should be able to make the next exit, which is only a few miles away. 

About 2000 feet before the exit, the engine starts to heave, so we pulled-off.  How embarrassing.  I've never actually run out of gas before--ever!  My parents were right behind us.  They pulled-off, too.  We weren't sure exactly how far the exit was in front of us at that time.  I placed a call to put our AAA membership into action, and finally convinced my parents to go on ahead over the bridge and to get into the house that they had rented for all of us.  About fifteen minutes later, AAA showed up and gave us some gas, which got us safely to the next exit to fill-up.  Ugh.  I can't believe I did that. 

Drama aside, the trip to the house on St. Martin's Point on the shores of Lake Huron was great.  We (and the boat) arrived unscathed, only about ten or fifteen minutes after my parents got there. 

That night we spent getting settled-in and making some preliminary plans for Sunday.  My sister Marissa her her boyfriend Joe went off to pick up dinner for us at a take-out place we often use when we arrive in this area.  I settled-in to do some reading and watch all of the stars.  I always forget how many stars we can see from that area.  With so little light pollution, the entire sky is dotted with stars big, small, bright, dim, and everywhere in between.  With the start of the active meteor showers, too, this is a great time to be up there--I can usually spot at least one every night. 

Sunday we went to Mass in the nearby town of Hessel.  We then returned to the house, and Jenny and I went off to do the shopping duties to buy us most of what we'd need for the meals we were planning.  As we've done this more and more, my Mom has become pretty good at making sure that we don't over-plan meals.  I remember the first time we joined them in Michigan at a rented house (actually, this same house) a few years ago.  My Mom had planned a strict three meals per day, and brought many of the necessary ingredients with her from home.  That meant an over-stuffed car, for starters.  Also, we found that we usually only ate twice per day, and didn't take into account days where we ate one meal at a restaurant due to our location (or due to the fact that Clydes, a drive-in hamburger stand, is a huge family favorite, and is usually the source of two meals while we're there).  All of that added up to a huge amount of food that had to be brought home at the end of the week, which was just insane.  This trip was much better--we ended up with generally little to bring home, which was good. 

I also got my Dad to help me to get the sailboat rigged on Sunday.  This was my first time doing it on my own, so I took my time.  It all went together quickly with my Dad helping, though, so it was ready in no time. 

At this point, memory of the actual daily events gets a little foggy.  I had meant to keep a good record of what we did up there specifically for updating the blog, but I just don't remember.  So, in lieu of that, here's a shortened version in the sequence that I remember it all happening.  :) 

The first time I took the boat out, the wind was good and steady, and there were some light waves coming into the bay.  It was an on-shore wind, which makes things sometimes a little harder for setting-off, but would make things easier for coming back, even if I had major issues.  Well, I had major issues, but they weren't involved with leaving, or coming back, for that matter.  I couldn't get the darn thing started!  The beach area near the house is rocks and lots of soft mud and sand, which makes walking in it and standing in any one place pretty difficult.  I would get the boat out to about the depth where I could still get into it and it wouldn't touch bottom.  I would get in, try to set the sails, and blow back onto some rocks and come to a stop.  Argh.  I tried this a few times.  While I was doing this, I didn't notice that the wind was getting stronger, and the waves were starting to get some whitecaps.  At one point, after I had decided to start by setting-out further from the shallow area, I was climbing aboard the little boat when a wave came over the starboard side and completely swamped the boat.  I dragged the boat as far as it would go full of water, pulled-out my manual bilge pump, and started to pump it out.  Joe had cut a water jug into a scoop and brought that down to help.  We'd empty a bunch of water until it floated free again, then drag it further on shore, then bail some more.  We finally got it just about empty, and I pulled it up into the reeds for the evening.  The wind now was getting pretty strong, and looking out on the bay, the waves were getting pretty strong for such a little boat.  It was probably a good thing that this happened, and I wasn't stuck further out trying to right a boat that may have capsized due to the waves and my inexperience. 

The next day, I took the boat out again.  This time, I decided to try just the jib instead of just the mainsail.  I was having better luck with not swamping or capsizing, but I kept blowing back on shore.  A friendly gentleman who was renting the house next door came over to offer some assistance.  As it turns out, I think that the two most beneficial things he said were that I was right the first time, and should start with the mainsail hoisted; and that I need to have at least a little bit of the daggerboard in the water.  The daggerboard is a board that fits into a pocket in the centerline of the boat.  It sits down in the water to resist the force of the wind blowing the boat sideways, helping to translate that force into forward motion.  Well, I didn't realize that even a few short inches would be enough to get me out of the rocky area to where I could drop it the rest of the way.  Those were the magic words.  That short little bit of daggerboard got me forward motion instead of sideways motion back onto the rocks, and I was sailing! 

Let me just tell you all that I've been wanting to learn how to sail ever since I was a little kid.  It wasn't something I talked about a lot because it seemed impractical at the time, and yet another draw on everyone as another activity, so I never really mentioned it.  This was a fabulous feeling.  I was out there, in control of my own little tiny boat, and I was having a great time with it.  I was finally able to put all of the things that I've been reading into practice, and to actually see what was meant by some of the things I had read.  I dealt with tacking only--I wasn't ready to play with jibing yet.  I also sailed mainsail only an no jib--it was one more thing that I was going to have to learn how to control, so it would wait.  It was completely awesome, though.  It was also tiring, as I found that my little boat wasn't all that comfortable to kneel in for long periods of time, and I was doing a lot of work to keep things balanced in the wind.  I came back in after probably an hour or so out there, and was completely and totally exhilarated and exhausted.  I rested for a little while, then went back out again.  I had to prove to myself that I could get it started and underway on my own, without the help of the kind gentleman next door.  It was just something I had to do, and I did it!  Wow.  Awesome.  Cool.  My Dad, meanwhile, was filming everything.  During this second session, I did some stuff for him specifically for the camera shots.  I was in radio contact with him (yay for ham radio operator goodness, and waterproof radios!), so I also did a quick "how is everything going" report.  When I came out again for the day, I did a short interview with him about how everything went.  Unfortunately, when he went to review the tape later, he found that there was an error with the tape, and none of the second session was recorded.  Argh!  Oh well,  I planned to get out again while we were up here, and I had a great time! 

We all went into St. Ignace one afternoon for a walk around to look at things and do a little bit of shopping, followed by dinner at the aforementioned hamburger drive-in.  While the girls shopped, Dad and I went down to the marina to look at boats.  I'm seriously considering a bigger sailboat now, especially since I had so much fun on the little one.  I'm completely hooked!  After the women rejoined us, we all went to get dinner, then took it down to one of the Mackinac Bridge overlooks to eat and watch night fall over the bridge.  They light it up at night, so it is really cool to watch the lights come on as the sun sets. 

Jenny and I went into Hessel one morning to walk around the marina there a bit and look at boats there, then we headed to Sault Sainte Marie and the Soo Locks to watch BIG boats for a while.  When I say big, I mean these are 1000-foot freighters moving through locks that are just barely big enough to hold them.  It's really something to see.  We've gone there over the past few years with the whole family, but different people end up getting bored or wanting to do other things.  We were specifically coming just to watch boats, so we dedicated the entire day to that.  We had a late lunch in town across from the locks, then headed back to have the dinner that Joe and Marissa were making that night.  Mmm..  Good. 

I woke up one morning feeling really sick, which was no fun at all.  I had felt a sinus problem during the week, and this was its culmination.   Fortunately, it only was really bad in the morning, and I was up and fine by late morning.  Mom and Dad were going on a drive that day to visit some of the beaches and things along the Lake Michigan side of the Upper Peninsula.  Jenny, Marissa, Joe and I all decided to stay back and enjoy some sailing and kayaking time.  There were kayaks at the house, which Joe and Marissa had out earlier in the week.  Today, I took the sailboat out again, and Jenny and Marissa came out in kayaks.  This was another great day, and I had an even better time.  I got the jib up this time, and got some practice getting that set and making it work.  That little boat packs some good speed, too--I turned on the little old Garmin handheld GPS that I had my dad mount to the boat with some velcro, and once it picked up a good signal, it indicated that I was traveling at just about four knots.  That's a good speed for a small boat like that.  It had a little bit of heel to it, so I could hike out a bit on the windward side and really get a good feel for how the boat was performing and working.  It was great fun.  I also got a chance to practice some jibing, which was a good thing to do and to learn.  Jenny had a great time out in the kayak, and was out there a good long while before she went into Jenny Daydream Mode for a second and turned-over.  Her life vest kept her floating while she righted the boat, though, and she was able to swim it up to shore easily.  I had the chance to practice a sort-of Man Overboard drill when I saw that, though, which was also a good thing to do.  I headed back in shortly after she did.  It was another great day of learning a lot and putting a lot of things that I had read into practice.  Later in the day, we were getting a beautiful sunset.  Mom and Dad had returned, and all of us "kids" went out to do a little sunset sail/kayak.  I got Jenny into the little boat with me (and it is truly little with two people in it!), and we sailed-off pretty well, then the wind just about completely died.  We had almost nothing.  Instead of venturing out too far under these conditions, we turned around and headed for shore, using the tiny bit of existing wind to get us back there.  We didn't have to break-out the paddle, but it was pretty close. 

Our final day we spent doing some additional shopping and sight-seeing in St. Ignace and Hessel.  Friday night we started to pack up, and had a nice big fire outside to watch the last of the starry skies in that part of the country. 

We set off early Saturday morning, aiming for Frankenmuth, Michigan.  My parents and sister and her boyfriend were all staying there for two nights.  Jenny and I had stayed for one night last year, but decided that we were going to drive all the way home this year on Saturday.  We really wanted the day on Sunday to unwind a bit before going headlong into a full week of work.  This turned out to be a good strategy for us.  We actually beat my parents to Frankenmuth, so we stopped at the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus to get some chocolate cheese for Jenny and some cheese spreads for both of us (good stuff).  We then went over to Bronner's, one of (if not the) largest Christmas store in the world.  They are open just about every day except for Christmas day itself.  They carry ornaments and decorations from all over the world, and we like to shop there for unique and interesting things for our tree and our families' trees.  This year, since Mom and Dad were going to have more time, they met us just so that Mom could get a look around, and so that she could buy us our traditional ornaments (thanks Mom!).  After we were done there, we headed over to get a famous Frankenmuth chicken dinner, which is served all-you-can-eat family-style.  Jenny had the sausage sampler dinner, and the rest of us had the chicken.  It was great. 

We said our goodbyes after dinner (or more like late lunch, in our case), and we headed for home.  We stopped a few times to stretch and once to get gas.  We arrived home at around 11:30PM on Saturday night, and were exhausted.  We unloaded the necessary things from the car, and left the boat and its stuff for Sunday. 

Sunday we went to Mass in the morning (with the boat still on the car :) ) then came back to get ourselves relaxed and ready for the week to come. 

Wow.  There's a lot of stuff to read.  I'll have pictures up soon--I simply haven't had time to handle them all yet! 

jonathan

If any readers out there have some traditional things that they thing we should do before setting out in our tiny boat next week, drop us a comment or an email to let us know! 

jonathan

If you have heard the rumors, they're all true--I bought a sailboat.  It's a small little dinghy-type sailboat.  It fits on top of the car.  Our neighbor Rob stopped by today to help us get it off of the car and into the back yard, and then he stuck around to help me figure out how to rig it.  Awesome is about all that I can say.  I can't wait to get it out onto the water in Michigan! 

Tomorrow, I need to spend a little bit of time picking-up some safety gear at our friend Jay's marina (well, it isn't his, but he works there, and he's a pretty darn cool guy).  I also want to build a set of supports to better anchor this boat to the roof.  I already have it worked-out as to how I'm going to build them.  I need to get a section of 2x4, some U-bolts, and some eye bolts.  I'm also going to pick up some additional bungees, as I plan to build a small shelf on it to hold the mast. 

I haven't written much about this here, but I've been interested in learning how to sail for a long time.  I've been interested in it since before I met Jenny, actually.  I just never had the gumption to do anything about it.  I started studying for my skipper's license, which would qualify me to eventually do bareboat charters for fairly large yachts, if we ever wanted to do an on-the-water vacation.  I'm hoping to use this small boat to learn a lot and improve my skills, with the aim of maybe someday being able to get a slightly larger sailboat that we could move around by trailer. 

... or maybe we could win the lotterly, and Jenny and I will buy a large yacht and live on the Great Lakes during the summer.  :)  hahaha.  Yeah, right.  When there's a contest with just two entries, I'm usually the losing entry.  Oh well.  There are always dreams, though, right? 

I hope to have some pictures of this from its maiden voyage(s) in Michigan.  I wanted to take a picture of it while we were rigging it in the back yard today, but it was getting dark by the time we finished everything.  Big thanks to Rob for spending his evening helping me to figure out which hardware went where. 

jonathan