Sun Sept 3: Petosky to Charlevoix Muni Marina

We had a dither fest until 11pm last night - looking at wind/waves/weather and trying to decide if we should go this morning. After much rehashing and drama we decided to give it a try, in order to learn a bit more about 'what we can take'. (Doesn't it sound like a fun trip we are on?!)  The only possible window was 'the earlier the better', so we shoved off at 6:30am.  Sadly there was a slight issue with floats hitting pylon,s and in order to get out of the slip Rick had to LAY on the bow thruster (moves the bow sideways - we don't have one in the back, but he's so good now we don't need it anyway, so there).  I may not have mentioned previously that the bow thruster makes a hella loud noise when you lay on it (usually we use it in short, tasteful little bursts).  So I'm sure we woke the entire marina up (we were the only idiots moving today). That's OK, we never have to see any of them again.  OH WAIT - we will see LITERALLY ALL OF THEM in Chicago at the end of Sept.... More on that later.

On the plus side, we got to see the sun rise.  On the minus side, IS THAT RED SKY???!!!  Bad weather coming???  Well, we were committed, and only had 2 hours to cruise. 

 

We were sheltered for part of that time by the land.  The rest of the time there were 1-2ft waves, but far enough apart (that space is called the period) that it was reasonably comfortable and we arrived at the drawbridge before our marina in time for its 9am opening. Mr Timing had it all worked out, like 4 days ago probably.

We were, of course we were, too early for our assigned slip to be ready - but we had a plan for that, and waited on the city day-use 'shopping' docks until 11am when we could move.  We invited another Looper to raft their boat to ours while we both waited.  Rick figured we might as well get used to that, as once in Chicago we will move down the river system in 16 boat groups with the result being that we may need to raft together (one boat ties to the dock and a second boat ties to that boat) each night as dock space will be limited.  And, again, more on that later.

Once in the slip we trotted off to John Cross Fisheries, because it is famous for its fish market - especially its smoked fish, and we wanted to get there before closing (1 pm).  I mean...we only have enough food on board to feed 4 people for 2 months, so we clearly need more. Rick bought calamari rings so he could make one of my favorite dishes for lunch - calamari on salad.  It's so good, people! 

Then it was nap time.  This is the kind of day that Rick calls 3-in-one.  Day 1: 6am-11am, on the water. Day 2: nap.  Day 3: process being in a new place, while talking about other places or places that we might see soon.  Time for exploring tomorrow.

We are beginning to think about the cluster that awaits us in Chicago.  The Looper association, AGLCA, is busy working on a way to get all of us through when the commercial locks open Oct 1 (if the repairs are on schedule).  This happened a couple of years ago and their system seemed to work well.  But there are so many boats this time around that we are skeptical.  To the survey asking for preference for locking days (go right away, wait a bit, wait 2 weeks, etc) 274 boats responded.  75 of them wanted to go the first day. And that doesn't include non-Looper boats, delivery captains, pleasure boats, etc who are not part of the AGLCA and may have their own (unknown) plans.  The Lock Authority has tentatively agreed to lock through 16 boats once per day at first light, once the repairs are completed and the locks open. That's it for pleasure boats each day as the commercial barge traffic that is backed-up waiting is their priority.  Each group will travel together down the river system and stop each night as a group as the marinas can only handle that many boats at a time.  And each group will need to keep traveling each day so that the next group can come through.  Around St Louis the river will open up and this won't be such a giant mouthful for the snake to swallow.  But 274+ divided by 16, + non-looper boats.  You do the math... We may never leave Chicago.

This made me laugh - does anyone remember this expression?!