Wednesday, July 12, 2023 Beaver Island

Sometime during the night the wind clamed down as was predicted. When the wind calms the waves diminish and the sound of the waves hitting Annie's hull quiets. Nordic's are famous for noise from hull slapping by waves. All kinds of things have been tried to eliminate it. Kerry and I just decided to live with it and most of the time it does not bother us too much.

I had a nice email conversation with Mark from Parker Marine yesterday. As I mentioned before, Annie's batteries are 10 years old and I plan to replace them next year. Peter's troubles got me thinking about it again. I have 3 Northstar house batteries that are 182 amps each. Northstar makes a battery that is almost the same physical size that is 217 amps. Mark recommends that I switch to that battery which will give me about 20% more capacity. I always go back and forth about adding more solar.

I had a conversation with Peter who is still trying to figure out his battery situation. The previous owner bought new batteries in 2021, I think, but bought lead acid batteries. That type of battery and a lack of information has made it difficult for Peter. He was telling me about topping off the battery cells with distilled water last night. I bet Julian is the only one old enough to remember doing that! He is going to Little Current today and hopes to be able to buy a hydrometer to check the status of his battery cells. I asked for a picture if he finds one. It has been a long time since I saw one of those used or needed. 

The weather was nice today. I decided to move to Beaver Island when Kerry got up. It's only 5 miles away, and only about 10 miles from Little Current where we will go tomorrow. It took us less than 1 hour to get there after we enjoyed a pot of tea on Annie's foredeck. The hardest part of the trip was getting the mud off the anchor. It was like concrete. No wonder we did not drag anchor in all the wind yesterday. 

On the way to Beaver Island, Kerry cooked bacon for my favorite boat lunch, a triple decker BLT. Yum! The anchorage here is like a big bay with trees on all the land sides. If there was a big stretch of marinas on the south side I would think we were in East Harbor. We would need a few fishermen too. There are none here.

We had a very nice afternoon. Kerry did some more oiling of Annie's teak. I washed off Anne's waterline. The water was pretty cold, but awfully refreshing at the same time. We took showers in the warm sun off the back of the boat, something we enjoy doing when conditions permit. After that, it was time for a nice cigar. Life is good.

There is one other boat in this large anchorage. We are anchored far apart, but they brought their dingy over to say hello. It turns out we met them 5 years ago in Tobermory. They have one of our boat cards. We're both going to Little Current tomorrow, so they promised to deliver their boat card for their new boat, Kracken the Wine. It's amazing how people remember Annie.

When Kerry was preparing lunch she brought a large head of garlic up and said "Donald, get this off my boat." She bought it several weeks ago for something she and Marianna were going to make, but never did. Apparently she did not like the smell of it. So, with it being biodegradable and all I tossed it overboard hoping it would sink. Well, garlic does not sink. So, this clump of white garlic, about the size of a tennis ball, starts floating away. So here I am sitting on the back of the boat watching it bob up and down in the water and slowly drifting across the bay. The white head of garlic was very visible and it seemed like a Caddyshack moment to me as I watched it bobbing away. Of course it was drifting right towards the only boat in this huge harbor (the sailboat described above). What to do? I launched our kayak and retrieved the garlic. Later, I rowed it to shore and disposed of it.

A wonderful afternoon morphed into an even better evening. We had a long happy hour on Annie's bow. It was so quiet, peaceful and beautiful - one of those moments you don't want to end. I think this anchorage looks more like East Harbor than East Harbor does. Really amazing. We grilled a thick steak and baked potato for dinner, For desert we enjoyed the very last of Rosemary's brownies. We added butterscotch caramel and chocolate sauce and whipped cream to make it an absolutely decadent dessert. So good! Thanks Rosemary!

There is a 50/50 chance of rain in the morning. We'll leave early for Little Current. With Annie I can scoot under the swing bridge which only opens on the hour and half hour. Am I smiling when I pass all the sailboats waiting for the bridge to open and zip under the bridge? You bet your ass I am!!

John Robertson made it to Lexington Michigan yesterday, he had hoped to get to Port Huron, but no space is available because of the upcoming Port Huron to Mackinac Race. The Simpsons stopped at Presque Isle, MI.