Well this morning the winds were quieter than expected so we decided to venture out to Leyland - the next harbor down the way (34 miles). Before we left, however we went to the local farmer's market and picked up a few things. Brenda has been dying to go to a farmer's market and it was right up the hill from the marina.
It was broadcast that the winds would be 15 from the south and waves 2 to 4 feet. In fact once we got out it was seemed a lot less than that so I put the oat on auto pilot and only took it off once.
My training with the Canadian Power Squadron has come to good use. While I have a chartplotter with GPS on board, I actually plot our course on the paper charts and by taking fixes as we go along, looking at the depth profile changing course as determined prior to the start of the trip. I definitely would not be without my paper charts.
Along the way we passed another trawler which I did not recognize as one that we traveled with in the North Channel (Serendipity). They ultimately were going to Leyland also but they left from Traverse Bay.
We arrived in Leyland about 2 and got a slip. It was narrow coming into the slip and the slip was narrow. At first I thought that we might not do it without scrapping the side. However, by going slow, we made a perfect entry. One thing that has improved during this trip is my docking skills. I may have mentioned this before but Michigan has some beautiful marinas. The only thing that I would change is their use of posts to separate each slip. It usually means that you have to place the fenders right or have fenders which are bigger than the width of the posts so that they can est against the dock itself. Otherwise, the boat will scrap against the posts.
When we arrived, there was another boat at the marina (Windsong) which we had previously traveled with in the North Channel and the Canadian folks we met in Charlevoix. Then Serendipity came in and we had a 6:00 get together on our boat and then went to dinner in town. A great evening.
Went and did a little shopping in town. Picked up some delicious fish pate at the local fish market. I think we are going back to pick up a couple more.
When we went to bed, it was quiet and very little wind. Unfortunately, this did not last as the wind blew up in the night.
During the night I got up and saw the batteries had lost juice even though we were charging from shorepower. I went down into the engine room and the the inverter had kicked off. I reset it, went up to check the panel and almost took a header down the stairs. I was half asleep and forgot that right beside the panel there were stairs going down to the forward cabin. I leaned out the engine hatch and there was nothing to put my arm on. Fortunately, only a few scratches.
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