The Big Lake, part one

Part one? Don't panic. Lots of pictures and little talking.

Saturday dawned cloudy with no wind and no rain. Quite a change from Friday's weather of 25 mph winds and a temperature that barely broke 50 degrees. Look how calm the marina looked that morning.




I took a walk up to the marina bathroom to collect my now dry clothes and snapped a couple of photos of the Manitou as she sat at the dock.







Every morning at eight o'clock we enjoyed a hot drink and freshly baked muffin or scone on the deck while breakfast was being prepared. At nine o'clock breakfast was served in the galley and shortly after we would leave our port for that day's destination. Today we were headed to Beaver Island which was approximately 40 or so miles away. That seems like a long way on a boat with sails.

Speaking of sails it was time to tighten the lines.




Once the two main sails were up Brendan climbed up the rope steps to raise one of the smaller sails at the top of the mast.




That sure is a long way to the top.




For you people who worry about safety, yes he does tie himself off once he gets to the top.




I see there are lots of lookers but few volunteers.




Can you blame them?




The crew is always busy with something.




Dave is still amazed at how high Brendan has climbed. So am I.




In case you're concerned he did make it safely back to the boat deck.




Is that a little bit of blue sky peaking through the clouds? I think it is. Though the day was a bit warmer and the lake much calmer than the day before it also meant less wind. Less wind means the sails aren't very effective. In fact, there was so little wind that we ended up using the engines most of the way across the lake. Some days are like that.




This is Cheyenne. She is part Cherokee and a full-blooded sailer. She is the captain of the boat on many of the day sails throughout the summer. For this trip she was a deck hand but she was okay with that. She didn't mind letting Captain Dave shoulder the responsibility of this trip. I don't blame her. Being the captain isn't an easy job.




Because we were under power there wasn't a whole lot for the crew to do. Brendan kept himself busy working on this. Many times we would find the crew reading with an occasional trip down to the galley to look up a work in the dictionary. This crew was really smart and very interesting to talk to. The crew said they enjoyed these longer trips because it gave them a chance to talk to the guests on board and get to really know them. We felt the same way about them. They have led such interesting lives.




to be continued....