2021 GLBWCC Cruise
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:17 am
The Great Lakes Boston Whaler Cruising Club trip for 2021 was a bit shorter and more local than our usual adventures, due to the inability to plan a visit to the North Channel of Lake Huron. The pandemic made entry into Canada by boat for non-essential travel just about non-existent. Instead, we organized a shorter cruise in northern Lake Michigan. After discussions with about ten boats, only three survived to actually join the cruise. The rally point was Beaver Island. The three participanting boats: MANIC MOMENT, LUCKY TWO, and CONTINUOUSWAVE.
MANIC MOMENT trailered to St. Ignance and launched there, only a short distance from its home port of Barbeau. LUCKY TWO embarked from Cheboygan, its home port. CONTINUOUSWAVE departed from the launch ramp at Northport, its home port.
Day One: Monday, August 9,2021
CONTINUOUSWAVE departs Northport's marina at 12:25 p.m. with a full tank of fuel, under cloudy skies with the threat of rain. Winds are from the south, so a following sea is expected for the approximately 48-mile run due north into Lake Michigan to Beaver Island. Visibility offshore in Lake Michigan is limited to about a mile or less due to mist and fog. We spend the first half-hour of the trip resetting gauges, trip logs, starting a track, and also eating lunch. A light rain begins to fall.
Due to the clouds and rain, all the weather canvas is up. This is also something unusual. I don't think we have used the windshield and side curtains since our trip in 2019. We maintain a lookout ahead through the isinglass of the weather canvas, and every minute or two we peek around the weather canvas from the aft cockpit to check for other boats without having to look through the rain-streaked windows.
It has been a long time since we ran the boat this heavily loaded. We have all our cruising gear aboard and a full-tank of fuel. Generally we avoid filling the fuel tank to the FULL mark, to save weight and to keep gasoline out of the fuel inlet filler hose as much as possible. For this trip 16-ounces of Evinrude Fuel System Cleaner has been added. The engine hours are 518:49 at departure, and this is the first use of a high-detergent fuel additive on the boat since I have owned it. We also set the fuel tank level to "full" or 70-gallons. The tank is actually a 77-gallon tank. By setting "full" as 70-gallons we allow for about ten-percent of the fuel to be possibly unusable due to the fuel pick-up tube being exposed to air during fuel sloshing.
The propeller in use is a four-bladed CYCLONE 17-pitch, which we have been using for about a year or more, but mostly for local boat trips with the boat in a very light configuration. This propeller gives the best fuel economy at higher boat speeds, peaking at about 29 to 31-MPH. With the limited visibility and a 1-foot swell, those boat speeds seem too fast. We settle into a cruising speed of about 25-MPH, with the fuel economy a rather poor 2.2-MPG. Experimenting with throttle and trim, we optimize at an engine speed of 4,300-RPM, LOAD of 41-percent, boat speed 28-MPH, and MPG at 2.5.
As we make our way farther offshore the swell increases to 2-feet. We observe a big rain squall ahead. Rather than drive right into the rain, we slow to 6-MPH to let the rain pass ahead of us. When we resume our cruising speed, we eventually sail into a short period of very heavy rain, and again come to a stop to let it get past our course line.
At 2:15 p.m. we are running along the eastern coast of Beaver Island, heading north to the harbor entrance, when the AIS target for LUCKY TWO appears on the chart plotter. What a unanticipated coincidence: we will arrive almost simultaneously at Beaver Island, and a mile or two behind is MANIC MOMENT.
We have made reservations for three slips at Beaver Island's south dock. This year with restriction on travel to Canada, every cruising boat is staying close to home, and the marinas in northern Lake Michigan are typically at full capacity every night. Getting a slip was something taken for granted for years, but now it has become a major part of trip planning. You cannot expect to find open transient slips at a marina any longer in mid-August.
The fixed-height docks at Beaver Island are, with the current high-water level, a very good match for the gunwale height on our boat. We have only about a 1-foot step up to the dock from the boat gunwales.
Around 3 p.m. the skies clear up and the sun appears. It is now a warm and sunny day in the harbor. I break out the scrub bush, hose, and bucket. I mix up a gallon of boat soap and begin trying to scrub off a nasty coat of mildew that has begun to take hold on the foredeck of the boat. When it sits on the trailer, this part of the boat remains uncovered. We have morning dew almost every morning, and those little droplets of freshwater are turning into mildew.
For dinner we take a taxi to the CIRCLE-M restaurant, located in the old rectory of an old church parish, about "a mile and half" south. That is the advertised distance, but we are very glad we did not try to walk there. I think the restaurant is quite a bit farther away than that, based on the cab ride.
With a reservation for a table for six--made about a week earlier--we get seated immediately. Most reviews indicated this is the "best restaurant" on Beaver Island. The food was decent, but not spectacular. We are, after all, on an island in northern Lake Michigan that is about 35 to 50-miles offshore from the nearest cities.
Getting six into the taxis is also a bit of a challenge. Two or three passengers must be nimble enough to get into the third row seats in the back.
At the marina, there is no break wall, and the harbor opens to the East. Just about bedtime, a breeze comes up from East, so we retire to the cabin for the night with the boat gently rocking fore-and-aft to the small waves coming into the harbor. Around 3 a.m. the breeze veers back to the North, creating a new set of waves on the beam. Now we gently roll the rest of the night.
DAY ONE TRIP LOG
Underway time: 2-hours 28-minutes
Distance: 47.6-miles
Average speed: 19.3-MPH
Maximum speed: 33.3-MPH
Engine hours: 521:17
Trip Fuel: 18.7 gallons
Fuel economy this leg: 2.5-MPG
Fuel Remaining: 51.3-gallons
Added 27.4-gallons at $4.43-per-gallon before departure. Stopped when boat tank level gauge hit "FULL."
[To be continued]
MANIC MOMENT trailered to St. Ignance and launched there, only a short distance from its home port of Barbeau. LUCKY TWO embarked from Cheboygan, its home port. CONTINUOUSWAVE departed from the launch ramp at Northport, its home port.
Day One: Monday, August 9,2021
CONTINUOUSWAVE departs Northport's marina at 12:25 p.m. with a full tank of fuel, under cloudy skies with the threat of rain. Winds are from the south, so a following sea is expected for the approximately 48-mile run due north into Lake Michigan to Beaver Island. Visibility offshore in Lake Michigan is limited to about a mile or less due to mist and fog. We spend the first half-hour of the trip resetting gauges, trip logs, starting a track, and also eating lunch. A light rain begins to fall.
Due to the clouds and rain, all the weather canvas is up. This is also something unusual. I don't think we have used the windshield and side curtains since our trip in 2019. We maintain a lookout ahead through the isinglass of the weather canvas, and every minute or two we peek around the weather canvas from the aft cockpit to check for other boats without having to look through the rain-streaked windows.
It has been a long time since we ran the boat this heavily loaded. We have all our cruising gear aboard and a full-tank of fuel. Generally we avoid filling the fuel tank to the FULL mark, to save weight and to keep gasoline out of the fuel inlet filler hose as much as possible. For this trip 16-ounces of Evinrude Fuel System Cleaner has been added. The engine hours are 518:49 at departure, and this is the first use of a high-detergent fuel additive on the boat since I have owned it. We also set the fuel tank level to "full" or 70-gallons. The tank is actually a 77-gallon tank. By setting "full" as 70-gallons we allow for about ten-percent of the fuel to be possibly unusable due to the fuel pick-up tube being exposed to air during fuel sloshing.
The propeller in use is a four-bladed CYCLONE 17-pitch, which we have been using for about a year or more, but mostly for local boat trips with the boat in a very light configuration. This propeller gives the best fuel economy at higher boat speeds, peaking at about 29 to 31-MPH. With the limited visibility and a 1-foot swell, those boat speeds seem too fast. We settle into a cruising speed of about 25-MPH, with the fuel economy a rather poor 2.2-MPG. Experimenting with throttle and trim, we optimize at an engine speed of 4,300-RPM, LOAD of 41-percent, boat speed 28-MPH, and MPG at 2.5.
As we make our way farther offshore the swell increases to 2-feet. We observe a big rain squall ahead. Rather than drive right into the rain, we slow to 6-MPH to let the rain pass ahead of us. When we resume our cruising speed, we eventually sail into a short period of very heavy rain, and again come to a stop to let it get past our course line.
At 2:15 p.m. we are running along the eastern coast of Beaver Island, heading north to the harbor entrance, when the AIS target for LUCKY TWO appears on the chart plotter. What a unanticipated coincidence: we will arrive almost simultaneously at Beaver Island, and a mile or two behind is MANIC MOMENT.
We have made reservations for three slips at Beaver Island's south dock. This year with restriction on travel to Canada, every cruising boat is staying close to home, and the marinas in northern Lake Michigan are typically at full capacity every night. Getting a slip was something taken for granted for years, but now it has become a major part of trip planning. You cannot expect to find open transient slips at a marina any longer in mid-August.
The fixed-height docks at Beaver Island are, with the current high-water level, a very good match for the gunwale height on our boat. We have only about a 1-foot step up to the dock from the boat gunwales.
Around 3 p.m. the skies clear up and the sun appears. It is now a warm and sunny day in the harbor. I break out the scrub bush, hose, and bucket. I mix up a gallon of boat soap and begin trying to scrub off a nasty coat of mildew that has begun to take hold on the foredeck of the boat. When it sits on the trailer, this part of the boat remains uncovered. We have morning dew almost every morning, and those little droplets of freshwater are turning into mildew.
For dinner we take a taxi to the CIRCLE-M restaurant, located in the old rectory of an old church parish, about "a mile and half" south. That is the advertised distance, but we are very glad we did not try to walk there. I think the restaurant is quite a bit farther away than that, based on the cab ride.
With a reservation for a table for six--made about a week earlier--we get seated immediately. Most reviews indicated this is the "best restaurant" on Beaver Island. The food was decent, but not spectacular. We are, after all, on an island in northern Lake Michigan that is about 35 to 50-miles offshore from the nearest cities.
Getting six into the taxis is also a bit of a challenge. Two or three passengers must be nimble enough to get into the third row seats in the back.
At the marina, there is no break wall, and the harbor opens to the East. Just about bedtime, a breeze comes up from East, so we retire to the cabin for the night with the boat gently rocking fore-and-aft to the small waves coming into the harbor. Around 3 a.m. the breeze veers back to the North, creating a new set of waves on the beam. Now we gently roll the rest of the night.
DAY ONE TRIP LOG
Underway time: 2-hours 28-minutes
Distance: 47.6-miles
Average speed: 19.3-MPH
Maximum speed: 33.3-MPH
Engine hours: 521:17
Trip Fuel: 18.7 gallons
Fuel economy this leg: 2.5-MPG
Fuel Remaining: 51.3-gallons
Added 27.4-gallons at $4.43-per-gallon before departure. Stopped when boat tank level gauge hit "FULL."
[To be continued]