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)