August 20-23, 2012
The day we left Grand Haven, Monday, 8/20, we had every intention of stopping in Saugatuck, MI for a night. (At least, I did!) Saugatuck is well-known for its shopping and art galleries and I was excited to get there. We had a great 21-mile trip with almost no wind and calm seas. When we were about 3 miles from the Saugatuck breakwater, Roger asked me to call Sergeant Marina to confirm water depth in the harbor. When I talked to the dockmaster, he said the boat that was in our assigned slip was going to stay an extra day and they didn’t have any other slips available. I think there is some Michigan rule about squatter’s rights? Anyway, the dockmaster called another marina and was able to get us a slip. By then, we weren’t too happy and these 2 places were $2.50/ft., which is almost twice as much as the $49 a night we’d been paying all the way down Lake Michigan. So we blew past Saugatuck (at 7 miles an hour), and no shopping for me!
We had said we’d take our time cruising down Lake Michigan, but we went directly to South Haven, which turned into a 50-mile day, and spent 2 nights there. South Haven is a cute town, but the grocery store within walking distance was a “Save A-Lot”. I think the name is appropriate; you really do “save a lot” because you don’t WANT to buy anything in the store! We met a couple of people doing the Great Loop and had drinks with them on Monday night. The next day Roger went for a bike ride and stopped at a Maritime museum, one that he & Travis must have missed on a road trip 8 or 9 years ago. I sorted through 15 pounds and 2-months’ of mail. Fortunately, Karin, from the UPS Store in Clearwater where we have all of mail sent, had alerted me to a jury duty notice that Roger received and he was able to postpone it before the deadline. Life doesn’t stop just because we’ve been on the Great Loop!
More “Loopers” arrived at South Haven marina on Tuesday and they organized a get together for drinks. Some of them are just at the very beginning of the Great Loop and some are about ½ way through. The 12 of us were comparing experiences and they had a lot of questions for us because we were one-stop-away from crossing our wake. Craig from Blue Heron proposed a toast to us and we were very touched. It was fun to hear their enthusiasm, fears and concerns about the trip ahead of them. We hope we’ll cross paths with them again, maybe in Clearwater as they pass through our area.
And so….it was our last official day on The Great Loop…. Wednesday, August 22nd, which was yesterday. We checked weather and were on our way by our usual 7:00 a.m. Only the fishermen were out again this early and as we edged our way out of the river and into Lake Michigan, conditions were once again very good for the last 48.8 nautical miles! In fact, the further south we went, the calmer the seas got. We had the wind on our nose again and we could only do 6.5 knots, but we were in NO HURRY to reach our final destination on the Great Loop. We reminisced about our great adventure, and as we got close to the Michigan City power plant, the more emotional we became. Roger was excited. I was excited too, but tearful.
Three years ago, when our son Travis dropped us off at the Michigan City marina and drove off with our car, I had a really big cry. I cried then because I knew that I was going to miss the kids terribly (which I have). I cried because I was going to miss Indianapolis & our friends and my tennis girls (which I did). I cried because our house still hadn’t sold and I was concerned about leaving it vacant (which it did sell – 3 weeks after we started our Great Loop). I cried because we had left our lives behind for the unknown experience that lay ahead of us. I cried because I was not experienced in long distance cruising and I was fearful of what I didn’t know. How could I have let Roger get me into this? That’s what I was thinking when we told Michigan City marina that we were vacating our slip and we pulled up our lines and went into Lake Michigan, bound for Chicago. The rest is history now, as illustrated in our blog…
And yesterday…… I was tearful again as we got closer to the marina; in some ways, I didn’t want to come home! I cried because of the adventure that we are now leaving behind; it’s come to an end. I cried because we have been so fortunate to have met ALL the people that we have, and we have made some friends for life (for which I will always be thankful). We’ll miss Danny & Susan from Potest Fieri as they moved on to Lake Superior to go back to Thunder Bay, ON. We cruised on and off with them for 3 years and became a part of each other’s family. It would be impossible not to be emotional at this time, but in fact it was just the two of us and Louie as we “crossed our wake” in Michigan City at 2:50 p.m. on August 22, 2012.
We had requested a slip on our old dock in Michigan City, and we pulled into the slip right next to our old one. I had emailed a few people from the dock that we had stayed in touch with and they will be here this weekend and they are even having a dock party for someone who is just starting the trip down the rivers. That’s lucky timing for us! We can’t wait to see them!
As soon as we tied our lines and plugged in our power cord, I hugged Roger. I told him I was so proud of him! And I thanked him for being brave enough to plan this trip – it’s what so many people only dream about and never do. I thanked him for his patience with me as I learned the liveaboard life and as I learned to trust our instincts, to not be afraid, to be more confident as I became a much better boater. I thanked him for being smart (technically) because he was able to troubleshoot issues that came up mechanically and electrically along the way. Susan Godin from Potest Fieri always told me, “If you never leave the dock, your boat won’t give you any problems.” But we didn’t want a “condo on the water”. We wanted to SEE and EXPERIENCE everything we could along the route of America’s Great Loop.
That’s why it took us 2 days short of 3 years and almost 8,000 miles under our keel, which included a number of side trips. When we bought the boat, it was 21 years old and had 503 hours on the engine. Today, 5 years later, we have put almost 1000 more hours on the engine. With all the new equipment we added in 2007 & 2008, the boat is barely broken in and we’ve been so many places.
I am grateful that we were able to complete the Great Loop safely and in good health. I didn’t forget about the times we fell off the boat or stubbed our feet, smashed a finger, hit our heads or fell into an open lazarette or engine space. But relatively speaking, we were unscathed.
So now you’re wondering, what’s next?! Well, we have plans…to sell Karen Anne (not ME, the boat!). Today we sold our dinghy and motor to Canadian “loopers” that we met in South Haven and are here in Michigan City now. And by December 1, we plan to transfer ownership to our good friends Steve & Rae Mason! They sold their boat in February, and after traveling with us on Karen Anne last summer in the Trent-Severn and more recently, they spent 6 days aboard in the North Channel in Canada, they decided that they loved this Krogen Manatee (as funny-looking outside as she seems at first glance) as much as we do. You’ve seen Steve & Rae in many of the photos on our blog. In fact, if you didn’t know us, you might have been wondering if they were the owners! We plan to cruise with them a little, but they already told us that we have to sleep in the salon and they will get the stateroom. Roger & I told them that will be fine with us because we’re going to stay with them in the Bahamas for a MONTH! Ha!
We’ll leave Michigan City next week, Tuesday, if the weather holds, and take the boat back up to Muskegon for the survey and then winter storage. Rae & Steve will meet us there and Steve and Roger will winterize the boat and get it ready for storage. In June, we had left our truck at Rae & Steve’s house in Kincardine, Ontario when we drove up to the boat in Georgian Bay. They dropped it off for us in Saugatuck a few weeks ago when they went to look at another boat before they decided to buy Karen Anne. So we’ll pick up the truck (and it looks like I’m not going to miss Saugatuck after all!), rent a U-Haul trailer and fill it with our stuff to take to Florida. On the way, we’ll stop in Indianapolis to help Travis move into his new apartment and offload some of my galley items and other things for him. Good timing, Travis!
I’ve been writing the blog since we left on the trip and now it’s time to stop. I’m a little bit sad, but I’m glad that so many people have been interested in our adventure. I asked Roger what he was thinking about the Great Loop coming to an end and here is what he wrote:
ROGER:
“Back when I was in the merchant marine, and we were arriving back to our home port (usually NY or NJ) after what was usually a 3 - 4 month voyage, we were busy in the engine room with all the things we did as we were maneuvering into port. When we were finally tied up, the bridge would ring down to the engine room "All Engines Stop" then "Secure Engines - Engage Turning Gear". We would then write those commands and the time they occurred in the engine room log. When that happened I would get the feeling, "the voyage is complete and I'm going home". That's what ran through my mind yesterday when I shut down the engine and turned off all the equipment in the pilothouse. Old memories die hard.”
There is a song that Rae Mason sent me when she & Steve said good-by to us as they went north in the winter of 2010. It is called “Friends”, by Eileen Quinn. Please visit our Home Page and listen to the words. The song has captured what is in Roger’s and my hearts and pretty much sums up how we feel about leaving this part of our life behind.
It’s kind of bittersweet, isn’t it? This chapter of our lives is complete. And now the Great Loop Circle is complete. For the past 3 years, we’ve really been “Living the Dream” as you’ve seen in our blog. And now…well we’re going to figure out what we’re going to do next…. soon enough.
Here’s a couple of excerpts from Friends, by Eileen Quinn:
I'm counting up what I've got to show for all these years afloat
a dog eared passport, a weathered face, a tired old boat
a yarn or two that might be true and a couple of battle scars
days of sparkling waters, nights of falling stars
I've got seashells, I've got souvenirs, I've got songs I've penned
I've got photographs, I've got memories, but mostly I've got friends
...
The weather’s settled and soon we’re underway
You’ll go North and I’ll go South, that’s the price we pay
But I’ll see you some day in some harbor I haven’t been too yet
And surely we will know each other even if we’d never met.
I've got seashells, I've got souvenirs, I've got songs I've penned
I've got photographs, I've got memories, but mostly I've got friends
...
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