Thursday, September 1, 2022
After four nights at White Lake Marina we finally pulled out at 7:15 to ride down to Holland, MI, and the Eldean Boat Yard. Our sailboat friends next door were headed down that way and we followed them out of the lake since they'd been out once before already. It was 5 miles from the marina to the entrance to the lake...
We didn't have small craft warnings...but it was an uncomfortable ride. Waves were hitting on the side of the boat and rocking us back and forth, side to side. Yuk!
We got to Eldean Boat Yard at about 1:15 and had an awful time finding our assigned slip. And they didn't have any help rushing out to assist and direct, as we usually find. We were assigned a slip on Z dock. As we came in there was a sign on A dock and the rest of the docks seemed to go far, far, down the waterway. We called to make sure we were going to be headed in the right direction and they answered in a way that left us clueless still. "Don't go in the direction of the fuel dock sign." Well, turns out that's exactly the way we had to go." And..."It's right there by our other buildings." Everything around us looked like houses??? Finally, after roaming and finally spotting dock boxes with Z numbers we found our spot...tucked in among the sailboats. ;-)
Hooking up the electricity, we discovered that we needed a splitter for a 30 amp that would then feed two 30 amp plugs. With that kind of setup you only get about 1/2 the power you would find at most marinas. They were kind enough to loan us one that we returned the next morning before we left.
This section of Holland was obviously a well off section of town. May be that the whole town is well off! Maggie and I walked around to see lots of nice homes, cars, and well-heeled people. ;-) Of course, the area we covered was very small compared to the map I saw.
Enjoyed a quiet afternoon with very pleasant breezes...
Friday, September 2, 2022
Sunrise as we left Holland..
Today we left around 7:30 and headed down to anchor in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI. We had tried to make reservations for the night but they were having sailboat races on Saturday and were booked. We'd even called several days to see if something had, by chance, opened up. So...what's one more call, right?! Wayne called and they had a cancellation!!! We had a slip at West Basin Marina!! Wayne always says, "Think good things will happen and they will!" ;-)
We had a very pleasant, calm trip down to St. Joseph. Another lovely Michigan town, St. Joseph. The marina is one of the many run by the state of Michigan...and it may be the best we've seen. Well kept grounds with a park, picnic tables, and gas grills available. Lovely neighborhood with sidewalks that Maggie and I enjoyed. And, oh! The laundry! Now, remember me getting all excited about the laundry that had a dryer that would run 40-45 min. on fifty cents??? Well, this marina charged nothing for the laundry, had those high efficiency machines...and furnished the special detergent you have to use. Guess what we did that afternoon!! ;-)
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Being among all the sailboats that were going out this morning, we got an early (7:15) start.
The weather was safe for us today...but again we had wind and waves blowing us around to the point that we hesitated to go up and down the stairs a lot. About an hour or two into the trip I went downstairs and, on the way back up, noticed that the dinghy was dragging the motor end in the water! Wayne went down immediately to see what the problem was. Meanwhile, we slowed to idle, but kept the gear in forward so we were barely moving.
After about 1/2 hour of working on the problem he discovered that a part of the hoist that lifts the dinghy was broken and would need to be replaced. We decided to continue on to Michigan City, but at a much slower pace. I was at the helm and Wayne kept his eye on the dinghy
Getting to the marina by 1 PM was necessary today. The surgery group I deal with at UT for the colon cancer has me signed up for blood draws every 3 mos. so the research company, Natera, can monitor a DNA factor that will, according to the surgery group, detect cancer about 8 months sooner than the CEA test which measures blood antigens in colon and other cancers. (My oncologist at Vanderbilt does a CEA test every 3 months, as well.)
So. It's time for my Natera blood draw. The company sends me a blood draw kit with all the equipment the phlebotomist needs...Then they find a phlebotomist in the area I'm in and we schedule a meeting place and time. My kit had already been sent to the marina in Michigan City. Now all I had to do was schedule an appointment at the marina with the person who would do the job. Being Labor Day weekend, there were some extra issues thrown in. The phlebotomist had to send the blood samples by FedEx on the day it was drawn. FedEx was closing today at 2 PM so 1 PM was the latest we could do the draw. When we started out today we would have had no problem getting there by 1PM. With the dinghy situation we slowed down considerably...to the point that we would arrive at 12:45. We could still do it...we just didn't need anything else to happen to delay us.
We inched the speed up to about 6.5mph instead of our usual 8.5mph. That seemed to be the best setting to move forward without bouncing the dinghy a lot. When we were about 1/2 hr. away I looked down to see the estimated arrival time was 11:30!! Then it dawned on us both that we were now in Central Time Zone!! I sent a text to the Trish, the phlebotomist telling her a 1PM meeting would be perfect. That way we could take on fuel and get situated into our slip before I would meet her at the marina office.
Bottom line, all went well. We met at the marina office and asked where we could go to do this procedure. We were directed to the ladies restroom, which, fortunately had a table and chair. One of the marina workers came in and saw what we were doing and said we could use the conference room instead. Much better! We were through in about 10 minutes and by the time I need the next one we should be in Knoxville. ;-)
Washington Park Marina is a big one, right on the edge of Lake Michigan. We're going to stay here until Thursday morning so we can check off some items on our to-do list: get a part for the dinghy lift and fix it; get a grooming for Maggie; and grocery shop. Next move for us will be to finish our Lake Michigan journey by going from here to the Calumet River, about 10 miles below Chicago, and stay at a marina not far "down the road." Ta-ta for now.....
