Friday, June 23, 2023 Algonac

It started to rain about 5:30 this morning as predicted by the Weather Channel. It was nice laying there listening to the rain splash on the hull. When I got up and checked the weather forecast I was happy to see that the rain is predicted to end late morning.  It looks like we will be able to go downtown as we had hoped. 

When my air pressure sensor valve broke Mark at Parker said I should seal the opening off so nothing could get sucked in. While Peter and I thought using screen to seal it would be best, I received a reply yesterday that plastic would be better, as normally no air is sucked through that sensor. So, I'll seal it with plastic today, and will have a nice piece of screen available for the next emergency. 

Two random thoughts - What would a cruising sailor do without Amazon? I'm having Rooibos tea K-Cups for Kerry and 2 electronic bug zappers delivered to Riverstreet Marina in Port Huron. They will be there Monday. Second, Big Jim has been harassing me for not knowing a big white bird from a buoy and for not turning on the autopilot switch. (He forgot about the magnets by the autopilot compass) And he says I have 58 days of decision making left. As I tell my daughter, "Sadly, this is as good as I am going to be!"

It rained all morning so we did not leave the boat. Kerry got up about noon. She announced several times that she was getting up, but I think the sound of rain on the roof and the comfort of her bed made it just too easy to roll over. When she did get up, she was kind enough to repair the stitching on my Past Commodore flag. I read, watched TV, caught up on emails and put plastic around the broken air filter sensor. There was almost no activity in the marina even though this is a big Chris-Craft antique boat show weekend. Several of the show boats have arrived. We were fortunate to get docks here because of the boat show. It's only because of Marianna's skill and persistence that we are here.

The rain persisted for most of the day. We started out on our bikes once, but turned around when this heavy drizzle started again. Earlier we had decided to do dinner at 5:00 PM in town, so Kerry and I decided to bike in at 4:00, shop and meet the Orros at the Flaming Grill. When I spoke with Peter, I learned that he had been researching AIS today, and studying the various lights on his unit to understand what they mean in preparation for a troubleshooting call to Garmin. We did some comparison of our units and concluding that his AIS reception was similar to Annie's, but that his unit is not transmitting location data.

It wasn't raining when we left, but it started as we traveled downtown on our bikes. We had to stop under a store front to wait for it to diminish. But we eventually made it to our Algonac consignment store. Then we stopped at CVS for some items Kerry wanted. By then it was time to meet the Orros for dinner. We all had the breakfast specials which included six pieces of bacon each. Most of that went home with us for BLT's tomorrow. Peter did get to speak to Garmin about a couple of technical issues, but that technician apparently did not know much more (or knew less) than Peter. He might try another call hoping to get a more knowledgeable rep.

It rained off and on as we ate, but rained steadily as we biked back. We had planned to visit Voyager for an after dinner drink, but went right to Annie instead as the rain was forecast to intensify. It looks like it will rain most of the night too. We are hoping to go garage sailing in the morning, before we need to leave at 11:00, if the rain stops.

One disadvantage with leaving home in June is that Kerry's flowers start to bloom then, and we miss the show. Karla from VYC sent us a picture of our dock pots at VYC.

Our neighbor Pat sent pictures of Kerry's flowers at home. Many thanks to both of them.

I promised Kip a picture of Voyager's interior. Peter sent this picture of his beautiful interior to me.  Voyager is approximately 13' wide inside, compared to Annie's 9' - quite a difference!

Tomorrow we are off for 4 nights in Port Huron. I think it is about 26 miles upriver, not too much of which will be hand or foot steered by the captain.