"Too Tall" Remedios

The next section of our journey will be through the Oswego Canal and then through Lake Oneida and then through a section of the Erie Canal. These are all waterways that are managed by the state of New York. At present it is raining quite hard as we motor along and I couldn’t see the sense of all three of us sitting out in the rain so I offered to come down here and update the blog. Pat does have a rather heroic look back there at the wheel while sheets of rain come down. We do have a bimini top but that just stops some of it. Rob took a picture when we had a break in the rain.

The real excitement of the last couple days was the process of taking our mast down, building some cradles out of scrap lumber and tieing it all down. After we get to the Hudson River and get past the last low bridge, we will stop at a boatyard to have a crane lift it back up. This was lots of work but for three guys raised on Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets it was the dream of a lifetime.

Here are Pat and Rob looking over the scrap pile of lumber from mast cradles from other boats who raised their masts at this marina and then left the cradles behind for others to use.

Here is Remedios with the cradles all ready. We took the boom down with the mainsail in it ourselves. Yes, it was heavy. Real heavy.

Next is Bernie, the local de-master, going up to attach his line. He puts on a sling and the electric winch hoists him up. He has two trusted local boys as helpers.

After Bernie gets back down, all the strong guys gather at the base of the mast while the crane lifts it off the deck. Pat helps with this part as Rob and Tom stand wisely, a distance away.

Next, the mast is allowed to swing over the side and will be lowered in place. Rob and Tom stand even farther away. Even Pat has stopped helping.

And, at last, the mast is safely down and ready for its trip through the canals. After we got it all lashed down, Rob and Tom worked out a plan to put a tarp over the mast and spreaders, and offered, on their own time, to go get colored lights and a couple of those lighted hula dancers and set it all up for a big marina party underneath. But Captain No Fun said we had a date with the ocean and had to leave. Maybe when we hit France...

The Welland Canal

Yesterday we went through the Welland Canal as planned. The Welland Canal is a joint Canadian / US enterprise that consists of a canal and 8 locks. The Welland Canal is what all the commercial and pleasure boats use to bypass Niagra Falls and the adjacent rapids. The longest stretch of canal is about 11 miles and goes through flat countryside. The locks each drop the boat (if you are locking down from Erie to Ontario) about 40 feet. In a couple places you go straight from one lock to another so when you look back you see about eighty feet of doors behind you. You really hope they have strong latches because that is a LOT of water back up there. We asked Pat if we should close the hatches on Remedios in case the door breaks and he said it wouldn’t really matter. Pat’s answers to these kind of questions are always quite factual but not always comforting.

Towards the end of the canal we received a radio message that we were supposed to tie up at the side of the canal to let a “Saltie” go by. A saltie is an ocean going freighter. A BIG ocean going freighter. Here is Remedios tied up and then for perspective, next is a shot with the freighter going by.

While we are on the subject of big things in the water that can hurt you; sometimes we get asked why we can’t just set the autopilot and then go to sleep all night. Actually, I ask Pat this question every night. It’s because the Great Lakes are full of stuff like this. This big thing is a stationary beacon in Lake Erie.

Things like this, and other kinds of huge bouys are all over the place. Most are lit, some are not, some are 50 miles off shore, almost all are charted, but even charted bouys break loose in storms sometimes. So, that is why we sit out here at night with our iPods and check the radar, and the horizon every 30 minutes all night. Pat is the most worried about hitting one of these at night. Rob and I are not sure if that is because it is Pat’s boat, or because he is sleeping up in the front cabin.

Lake Erie Excitement

Remedios survived its first gale on Wednesday night. Or more accurately put, Remedios, with Rob’s help, survived its first gale Wednesday night. Now for starters, sailors don’t throw words like gale around lightly. There is a world wide wind scale known as the Beaufort scale that is used to rate wind conditions.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

Our first clue that this was going to be a bad 24 hours was when the Coast Guard issued its weather forecast and all the boats on Lake Erie started heading back in to port. We, of course, were heading out into the middle of the lake because we need the practice.

Conditions weren’t too bad during the day and we even had a hot lunch if I remember correctly but later in the evening nobody seemed to want dinner – smart thinking on our part, in retrospect. The wind started to build and it started to get black in the west instead of that nice orange glow you prefer at sunset.

We divide the night into three watches – first is from 9 to midnight, second is from midnight to 3, and last is 3 to 6.

So, shortly after 12, the winds built to over 40 knots and the light show started. Rob told us it looked like daylight at times and he didn’t want to touch any metal when the boat got hit by a strike because he was sure it would. He said it was the longest continuous session of lightning he had ever seen. I really should have come up on deck and shot some video but I was somehow trapped curled into a little ball in my cabin calling mommy over and over. The boat was going a lot faster than comfortable and it was tough to tell which way was up at times.

This was truly Rob’s storm because the winds really came on after midnight and it was almost all over by 3 AM when the next guy came on watch.

Here’s our man Rob the day after.

 

Here is a photo of Pat and Tom relaxing, much later in the day, and glad they are not at the bottom of Lake Erie.

And, here is a quick video Rob and I made after I finally figured out how to work my Mattel Pirates of the Carribbean camera yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9O3driYWas

We will work on our video production quality next.


And, the ultimate injustice - while Rob was working to keep us on top of the lake Wednesday night, there was a storm in St. Cloud Minnesota where he lives and two trees blew down in his yard.


Today we are at the east end of Lake Erie and will take the Welland Canal around Niagra Falls (instead of the other alternative). Pat says this is a sign our judgement as a team is improving.

Ships, Boats, and Stuff on the Waterways

This is a weird craft. We couldn't figure out what it was, where it was going, or what for, or really anything at all. No names, no markings, only two visible crew. I'm glad we didn't see this at night or it would have looked like a ghost ship.

This boat was BIG and left a wake big enough to wash over our deck (and into Pat's cabin because someone left the hatch open) A low point in the trip was when Pat radioed this boat and offered to sell Tom and Rob into boat slavery in exchange for dry sheets. And he didn't even specify high thread count pima cotton sheets. Just sheets.

Here is more of life along the river.

Here is what the Canadian side looks like right in downtown Detroit. They have casinos, cold beer, gambling, shows - the works!     Pat wouldn't stop.

Here is the American side at Detroit. We even have a monorail! 

 These large freighters leave almost no wake. We used to be afraid to get too close to these guys. But the channel is so narrow in some places that we have no choice and now we are totally blase' about being 20 yards from something this big. I tried to take a picture of this boat when it was closer but it was so big all you could see was a big wall of rusty steel.

Hello - Mo-Town!

This morning we left Lake Huron behind after sailing all night. We are now in the St. Clair River on the way to Detroit. Some of the surroundings are pretty and life on the river looks pretty nice.

And, since I didn't post this yesterday because it got really really wavy here is a photo of us leaving Detroit at 7 AM Jun 23.

And speaking of wavy - what a difference a week makes. The waves yesterday would have had me over the rail heaving but after some acclimation time now I just holler up "Can't you miss a few of these once in a while? I'm working down here!"

It doesn't make any difference, but it makes me feel better.

We took an anonymous poll of the Remedios crew and learned the following:

What do you miss most?
                    Intelligent conversation
                    Cold beer
                    Well, beer of any kind, really
                    A bed on solid ground
                    Anything on solid ground

If you won the lottery, what one thing would you buy?
                    A plane ticket to France

How will you know when you three have totally bonded?
                     When the three of us share one pee bottle

Reading, checking email, and oh, um sailing and stuff.

I have just sent our Spot position update and things are moving along well.  We expect to arrive at the St. Clair River on our way to Lake Erie by tomorrow morning.  The winds are light and we are motor sailing with the mainsail up and the Genoa furled.  We had a good hot breakfast and the three of us are reading and doing stuff on our computers.  

Yesterday went well over all, though we had a bit of a crisis with the navigation system when it seemed as if we didn't have the detailed charts we needed for Lake Huron.  The system kept crashing whenever we tried to get a detailed view of the Southern end of the lake.  I had two memory chips installed in the navigation computer, one for the Western Great lakes including Superior and Huron and one for the Eastern Great Lakes including Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.  Apparently the computer was overwhelmed as it tried to use both chips in processing our requests for detail.  By taking out the chip for Erie and Ontario, we were able to get it all back in order and the system is working just fine now.  We also found that if we use battery power like crazy we can outrun the ability of the engine and the solar panels to keep up.  It was a good lesson in keeping an eye on the power consumption even when we are steadily using the engine.

The commercial and recreational traffic on Huron are a lot heavier than Superior.  The number and variety of lights from shore and from boats was much more than we were used to from remote Lake Superior.  The sky was clear and after moonset at about 4:30, the stars became a brighter and more complex experience for me than I have ever had before when gazing at the night sky.  It made me think of all the times you have taken me out into the yard and even down the street chasing after just the right view of a star, planet or the moon in the dark of the early morning.  It made me smile.

(this is the text of an email from Pat to Michele. Published by request)

Sailor Send-off in Superior

We were lucky and got serenaded during our festivities in Superior, Wisconson. Here are Mary, Peggy, Michele, and Rosy singing a special version of the theme song from Gilligan's Island:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DncZUte1scw

The next day, out on the docks by Remedios, Pat and Michele's son-in-law Mitch led us all in a rousing singalong of a sea shanty he wrote to commemorate the occasion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBGsQuTev_0

And, here are some pictures from the send-off in Superior, Wisconsin on June 13, 2010.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Farewell Lake Superior

This morning finds us in Sault Ste. Marie, on the American side of the St. Mary's river. During our trip through Lake Superior we saw all kinds of conditions and did pretty much everything we will ever do except sink. Here is one of the Apostle Islands early in the morning. We found a stowaway on the boat the other day - a tiny little yellow warbler who helped us out by eating flies. Rob considered putting a leash on it to be our insect killer.

Not all of the shoreline we see is pretty. But, to us this means civilization and civilization means bars and beer. This big robot-looking thing is part of the old section of bridge crossing the St. Mary's River. Pat said it looked like something out of Transformers. Rob said it has a face only a mother could love.

A big freighter is a common site on the lakes but this is the closest we have ever been to one. They leave virtually no wake as they pass by. This guy was heading out towards Duluth. Pat kept a watchful eye on Tom and Rob as it would have been an easy spot to jump ship and head back to Duluth - on a much bigger boat..

Here we are going down our first lock. Rob was our expert pilot through all the bouys and channels and just nudged us up to the wall. The lock tenders toss lines to you and tell you not to cleat them - just let them slide through the cleat. Cleating this line as the water dropped out would result in an upside down Remedios in the middle of this lock. Pat got us insurance for this trip but it contains an Idiot Clause and I would then own the boat...upside down in the lock.

Here we are on Sunday morning June 20. It's not the prettiest place in the world but it really was nice to sleep in something that wasn't bouncing wildly and making all kinds of creepy sounds. We did a little laundry as you can see and will head out after filling the water and diesel tanks. As we go down the St. Mary's River to Lake Huron we will have to motor a lot.

We will be on the move continuosly in Lake Huron. Nights are three shifts - one is 9 to midnight, one is midnight to 3 AM and one is 3 to 6 AM. We trade off on different nights.

Water Under the Bridge

This morning we cut through the upper peninsula of Michigan and traversed the Keweenaw Waterway. Here is a picture of our mast just clearing the bottom of the bridge. It was a puckering moment for Pat. Rob and Tom just closed their eyes.


Here is the bridge behind us as we continue on. If you look carefully you can see the markings on the side of the bridge that take the guesswork out of the height of the bridge over water. They take the guesswork out, but not the puckering.

Gotta go, Pat is making us oatmeal as a reward for not falling asleep on watch last night. The spectacular lightning show helped keep us awake, too!

Rough First Leg

As I sit here in the cockpit, Remedios tied to the dock in Bayfield, WI, with the crew beginning the day the winds are calm, the sun is shining and the coffee is hot. This is a big contrast to our first day out from Duluth/Superior, which was a pretty rough time with cold, rain, wind and 4-6 foot waves. We did not get a chance to raise the sails given that the wind was directly on our nose and we had a date with our sailmaker,Pete Kulenkamp, in Bayfield. As a consequence, we had to motor into the wind to get here in time. We anchored in Raspberry Bay in The Apostle Islands on Tuesday night and got here a little before noon yesterday.

On that first day, both Tom and I were seasick but thanks to Rob's iron stomach we had at least one of us feeling better than warmed death. The good thing about seasickness is that as soon as the motion stops, the stomach settles and getting in to anchorage had us feeling better in a short time. The calm water in Raspberry Bay was a great relief! Tom states without hesitation that it was the most miserable time he has ever spent afloat, and for me it was the second most. Rob just says he spent the day thankful that he wasn't going through what he saw us living with.

Yesterday we spent our time doing a number of additional jobs that two weeks of rainy weather had prevented. The anchor chain is now marked at 25 foot intervals so that we can easily tell how much we have paid out into the water when we are anchoring. We also ran new lines for some of our rigging, hoisted all the sails to assure they ran well and had sailmaker Pete give us a few important pointers. I even got a tutorial and materials for emergency sail repairs.

Keeping busy helps to offset the fact that we already miss our family and friends, but it helps only a little. I keep rolling the series of farewells, the songs and the hugs through my mind and it brings both a smile and a tear. Well, I need to go as we prepare for a stop at the fuel dock and departure for the Keweenaw!

Pat

How Do Things Like This Happen?

How do things like this happen, and would they still happen, if they happened differently?

So, just how did this sailing trip happen?

Well, the three guys have all had a long time love of sailing. We have all owned sailboats and used them for fun and adventure. One year at the Mpls Boat Show, we saw a Dufour sailboat. Tom and Pat went up and inside and spent - well, we think about 30 minutes, Michelle and Peggy say more like an hour. When we came out Michelle and Peggy were sitting in chairs with glasses of wine and Michelle had just looked at Peggy and said, “It’s over, he’s going to buy this boat.”


Well, you don’t buy a boat like this without planning to sail it, and the dream of a lot of sailors is to cross an ocean. We started in Lake Superior and just grew our thinking from there. We took some week-long trips like sailing to Isle Royale and back and talked a lot about taking some time off for the adventure of a lifetime, someday, before we got too old… Several years ago the three of us decided that 2010 seemed like a good year and it seemed far enough into the future that we had plenty of time to prepare, get ready, and make it all happen. We had plenty of time to prepare, and our spouses had plenty of time to get used to the whole idea. At least that’s how we remember it.
If all this had happened differently, it could have sounded a lot like:

“Honey, I’d like to stop working for six months while you keep getting up each day and tackling your job. I’m going to go off on a grand adventure with a couple buddies. I’ll write and call, but can’t promise to be too reliable about it. I won’t earn any money while I’m gone, and actually, I plan to raid our bank account, kind of, in the year before we leave, and well, I guess, while we are gone, too. I won’t be able to help with anything at home while I’m gone, like fixing anything, changing light bulbs up high in the ceiling, or just being around to lean on. All the attention will be on us while you are gritting your teeth and putting on a positive face. We will have a public forum to talk about all our challenges, which people want to hear about, but your challenges will really be personal, quiet and in the background. What do you think?“


Boy, do we owe these three women - LOTS.

There is not enough jewelry on the planet to even this out.

Our thanks, forever,  and lots of love to (left to right) Mary, Peggy and Michele.

What is Remedios Named After?

From Wikipedia: 

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel written by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1967. The book was an instant success worldwide and was translated into over 37 languages. Lauded critically, it is the major work of the Latin American "boom" in literature. It was also an immense commercial success, becoming the best-selling book in Spanish in modern history, after Don Quixote. It is widely considered García Márquez's magnum opus.


The novel chronicles the history of the Buendía family in the town founded by their patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía. It is built on multiple time frames, playing on ideas presented earlier by Jorge Luis Borges in stories such as The Garden of Forking Paths.

Fourth generation of family:   Remedios the Beauty

Remedios the Beauty is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child. It is said she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, and unintentionally causes the deaths of several men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town as naively innocent, and some come to think that she is mentally retarded. However, Colonel Aureliano Buendía believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he said. She rejects clothing and beauty. Too beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends into the sky one morning, while folding laundry.

Tom says: Rob and I are troubled by the reference to the deaths of several men who lust after Remedios. We are not sure if they might be pirates. We are also reluctant to ever do Pat's laundry, even if it is just a pair of shorts tossed into a bucket of our clothing. We might post more on this later. We might not.

Twin Cities Farewell Gala

On Saturday night, June 5, we held a going away party in Mpls.

One special guest was Mr. Sailor, a costume mannequin dressed up in our typical ocean foul weather gear. He has a life jacket, harness, strobe light, iPod, pants, jacket, boots, cap, glasses – the works.

We also drew an outline of the boat on the floor with blue painters tape. It really helped people get a feel for the size, or lack thereof, within Remedios. And, it was fun for each of us to take our friends and show them “our rooms”. Here is the boat outline – after the room filled up it was a lot harder to see!

Here is a shot of the three sailors (the real ones). In back of us are some of the flags we will fly when we visit other countries. It is customary to fly both your country flag and the host country flag while in a foreign port.

And here are some group shots of all the fun we had!