Mackinac Island July 21, 2016

We listened to the Republican Convention in bed as we fell asleep last night. The wifi  at the Marina is pretty poor, so we did not watch it on the Slingbox. I woke up at 6:15 and turned on Fox News just to be sure I was totally saturated with politics. Later I walked to another dock to take a picture of Annie in front of Fort Mackinac.

 Annie docked in front of the Statue of Liberty 

On the way back from the harbormaster's office, I was accosted by a mink trying to beg a snack. Cute little guy. The ducks show up in the afternoon to beg for their treat.

I spent the early morning hours drinking coffee with a Ranger 25’ tug owner named Art, who is from Sarasota. He drove his tug up here on a trailer and launched it yesterday from Mackinac City. We had a boat show with him and his wife Janet. A Nordic Tug 32 is definitely easier to cruise on than a Ranger 25'. He has been somewhat disappointed with the quality of the materials used in the Ranger's construction. They joined us for cocktails on the upper deck. They are going to Mackinac City tomorrow so we will likely have dinner with them there. They are from Sarasota Florida and trucked their boat up here, which is the advantage of the Ranger.

I was able to get another day here, which was a relief. There was a major storm forecast and we did not want to travel. Friday and Saturday look good for traveling and Sunday does not. So we changed our schedule to adapt. We will skip going to Beaver Island. Tomorrow we will go to Mackinac City and Saturday go to Petoskey with a good weather window. I had planned to stay 2 nights in Petoskey, but we may be there three unless we try to go to Charlevoix early.

The island is pretty empty today. The storms seemed to have kept most tourists away. It did rain and blow about 11:00 as forecast, but the storm was not as severe as it could have been. It was a good day for shopping. I bought my first t-shirt of the trip.

Marianna said they were chased out of Little Current today because of a Grand Banks rendezvous. Earlier this week they got chased out of Gore Bay for the same group. They made it to Killarney before the storm hit there.

I did a big bike ride again today. I started to go around the island, but decided to take a detour and bike over the top on the island. It is pretty hilly and the ride was difficult at times. I ended up near the Grand Hotel.

Kerry was really on her game today. For breakfast she made a knock off of Marianna's egg and potato Fatitta. It was quite good. For dinner we had another creative treat, toasted flat bread brushed with olive oil, garlic, thyme, parmesan cheese and tomatoes. Yum.

She also helped me narrow in on my water leak. The area under the engine was dry this morning, but really wet this evening. Why is that? All the way up to the North Channel we did not have water under the motor, but lately it seems we have it every day. She noticed that we used the wash down pump this afternoon to clean the bikes. Ha! Is that it? I climbed down into the engine compartment and she turned on the wash down pump. Nothing. No leak. But, there was water under it. The shelf where it sits has the water heater, the fresh water pump and the wash down pump on it, and there was water on most of the shelf. One other thing happened - I filled the water tanks today. Yesterday there was a little water under the batteries too, which should not be. So, finally we have a suspect, or group of suspects anyway. Jimbo - ready for a project?