Petoskey MI July 23, 2016

I have come to a conclusion about my water leak. I did not want to come to this conclusion. The first thing I did this morning was to open the bilge compartment to see if more water had accumulated overnight. It had. So, I think the water tanks themselves are leaking. I regret that this could be the case. The water tanks are, unfortunately for me, built into the hull. Getting to them is not possible without cutting away some bulkheads in the engine room. Mark at Parker Marine told me to pray that they never leaked. If I am right, this means that Annie will get some heated indoor storage at Parker's again this year for another significant repair. I think I am losing 2-3 gallons a day, maybe less. I will get a second opinion from Jim when he is here next week. Mark - are you ready for this?

After my shower I sat out and talked with Art. He is staying today and driving his boat to Petoskey tomorrow with his truck. Google says it will take him 59 minutes. It took us 5 hours and 40 minutes to travel the 46.0 nautical miles with an average speed of 8 knots. I called Kip on the way to ask him about taking a shortcut around the Gray's Reef Light. He said he did it with no problem, so I saved several miles.

Abandoned lighthouse at the beginning of Gray's Reef.

It was a perfect travel day for a powerboat. No wind and glassy looking water. It was quite pleasant and I sat outside for the majority of the trip. Here is a picture of Art's Ranger 25 coming into Mackinaw City Marina.

The first event of the trip today was going under the Mackinaw Bridge. My loon helped me navigate. As you can see, it stays near the chart plotter. You can see the bridge through Annie's window. The next picture shows a view not many people see - the bridge from the bottom!

It got pretty warm at the end of the trip. Too hot for me to sit outside. I even turned on Annie's pilot house fans for the first time this voyage. When we got to Petoskey I could see that the kids jumping off the breakwall had the right idea. When we tied up the air conditioners were on immediately. That and a rum and coke made the world right.

Petoskey is deep inside Little Traverse Bay. On the way back I think it will be shorter to go from Charlevoix to Mackinaw City so we will bypass Petoskey on the return.

We walked downtown later in the afternoon. It is a good downtown, with "real businesses" as Kerry says. It even has a J C Penney store. Everything at the Chico store was 30% off, so Kerry saved me a bunch of money on some earrings. Other than her teacup, that is the first thing she has purchased on this trip.

Every night it seems we have a different 3 digit bathroom and shower code. That certainly tests the memory of this old captain. It's getting to be a pain!

We had a nice dinner of fresh sweet corn and tomatoes with fresh basil. Lunch on the trip over was pizza slices with a fresh garden salad that was very good. Kerry did a great job of feeding her captain today. We had chilled water on the table served out of our elegant water pitcher, courtesy of Marianna. :-)

Marianna and Peter made it to Tobermory today, officially starting their trip home. They are a bit bummed to be on the last part of their summer cruise which I find quite understandable. We will be there soon.

Storms are forecast for tonight and tomorrow. We would like to wash Annie tomorrow if the weather permits. We have not actually washed the entire boat yet on this trip. We had been unable to get a Charlevoix City Dock reservation so far. I have one for Wednesday at the Irish Boat Shop, but not for Tuesday when we will be arriving. Touch and go at the moment. If need be, we can always anchor in Round Lake where the city marina is located, and kayak to shore.