Petoskey MI July 25, 2016

We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies and waters, brisk winds and white caps on the seas. The temperature had moderated quite a bit from yesterday. It was a perfect morning.

I decided to stop trying to get into the Charlevoix City Marina and just stay at the Irish Boat Shop where I have a reservation already. The GLCC Harbor Report made it sound very nice. We can bike to the city, about 1/2 mile I think. With that decision made, we decided to spend another day here, and just enjoy Petoskey.

The good ol' boys were fishing again. One chap caught a 17" bass. By 8:00 they said the fishing was done , and split. Art got his fishing poles out of his truck and some lures and we tried our hand. Nothing. Although I did toss my lure into a tree, not my most impressive cast for sure. One guy caught two big sheepshead fish and planned to keep and eat them. Yuck. We decided we needed some night crawlers to achieve success. We got night crawlers, but no fish. The good thing was that we stopped at McDonald's while out, and made the Princess quite happy when I returned with a sausage McMuffin.

After fishing I made up a batch of gel coat and tended to some nicks and cracks in the cockpit. Then it was time for a bike ride. We rode along the lake to the area with the beautiful houses we saw last night. We also got a good harbor view.

We rode through downtown on the way back, just to be sure Kerry had completed her shopping. I talked to Jim while Kerry was in a store. Jola has a big goody basket for us with rum, eggplant parmesan, powdered white donuts, M&M Peanut Candies, and more. Kerry has one for us with wine, chips, M&M Peanuts, pumpkin seeds, ginger snaps, pistachios, nacho chips, Doritos, powdered white donuts, and more. We have steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, Italian sausages, etc. It could be a very fattening week!

Jim is ready to do projects on Annie. I hope the cordage needed to fix our broken window shade arrives at his house before he leaves. He is bringing up my new AIS unit. I'll get a second opinion from him on my leak. Mark from Parker Marine sent me a lengthy list of things to check and consider. 

Brillig is still in Tobermory. They are going to Kincardine tomorrow, continuing their trip home. They met a new set of friends with a brand new Ranger 29' tug. They must live near Lion's head in the Georgian Bay because Marianna mentioned going their next year. Our new friends, Art and Janet Earl, have a home in Sarasota. We might try to get together again next winter, as they are less than 25 miles from where we stay in Venice.

We fished during cocktail hour. Art agrees with me that every evening needs a proper cocktail hour. We caught a few fish. The biggest was a sheepshead Art caught. I got a little small mouth bass. Here's my fish and a picture of our fishing hole from Annie's top deck. It's the Bear River that empties into this area.

No big dinner tonight. We had the rest of yesterday's pizza plus we finished up some cheese dip, salami and sliced cheese. Kerry is cleaning out the food stores and packing for her trip to Washington DC. We fished a little more after dinner, but with no more success. We plan to depart for Charlevoix about 9:30. It could be a little bouncy tomorrow.