Vacation Voyage

[BDofMSP]

So I'm way behind on a number of posts that I've been meaning to send, but I thought I'd start by at least jumping on one of the topics - our summer vacation. This post isn't particularly interesting to anyone, but I've learned that the best approach is to just post it and the forum will decide if they're interested, so here it is.

We're on a 10 day cruise around Lake Superior's South shore. We left yesterday with the intention of hitting Ontonagon, Copper Harbor, Grand Marais, Pictured Rocks, Marquette, Houghton, and Black River Harbor. We have one guest who fits in perfectly so we're extremely excited for this extended cruise.

We left yesterday AM at 7 with one footers knowing it would be a tough slog expecting 2-3 by noon. Instead we got 2-3 by 10 and 3 regularly by noon with plenty of 4s in there, all right on the nose. It simply wasn't any fun at all, and a couple times it was ... eye opening. So I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and bailed to Black River Harbor, even though it meant having to pass it and tack back because otherwise we would have been taking them straight on the beam which needs no explanation.

We laid in at Black River and hiked which was beautiful, but the marina is closed for reconstruction, and had no power on the docks, so it wasn't exactly enticing to hang out overnight. By 5 PM things started to calm down, and Ontonagon was reachable within a couple hours if I was willing to spool it up, so that's what we did. We were able to handle about 15 knots in the better conditions and we made it into port around 7:30 pm. We were glad we did because it saved us a few hours of an already long day today.

One big lesson I learned from that was that, although I usually run 8.6 knots, I've always counted on being able to run faster if conditions made me want to bail out. Well yesterday I learned that by the time you realize you want to bail out, conditions may already be such that you're not doing 20 knots if you want to or not. Obviously i knew this, but experiencing it was different than knowing, and it was a good lesson. Another thing that I hadn't thought through was seasickness. Nobody had a serious issue during the trip but we didn't feel great and one of my guest got pretty sick once we made it to land. I thought hard about how difficult things would have been if I had a physically sick passenger, or been sick myself, during this and I was glad to learn the lesson that way rather than directly.

Today was a super easy, although long, run right up to the last 3 hours. Winds picked up and we had some tough conditions but they were following seas, so they were completely manageable. We're thrilled to have three nights here and we're going to try to get to know the town a bit before taking off on our next full day big water crossing from Copper to Grand Marais. Lessons from the past two days will be front of mind as we evaluate the crossing conditions. Last time I did this, it was delivery. This is now vacation and it needs to be treated as such. We don't need to be anywhere anytime soon, so we'll keep that front of mind as we plan the next moves.

We took a lot of pics and video of the waves and such, but they're not really as interesting as the reward at the end. Some great sunsets last night, and I know if there's no pictures, it didn't happen.

Happy 4th all!

BD

 

[rslifkin]

That sounds a bit like my experience yesterday. Making a short run from Rochester to Pultneyville in what should have been 1-2 footers. Got out there and it was definitely 2 footers just forward of the beam and a little bit confused. One of those days where the seas were just right for "this feels worse than it looks". So we jumped up on plane to cut the rolling and with the angle and short period, the ride wasn't great, but wasn't too bad.

All seemed fine until the last 15-20 minutes. The nice rain cloud over us very suddenly went from a happy rain cloud that wasn't yet raining to an orange blob on radar with plenty of thunder and lightning, much higher wind and some rain. It kicked to solid 3 footers, then the wind shifted a bit. By the time we got in it was 2-3 from one direction, 3 footers about 60 degrees off from that and some 4s where they were coming together. Not a great ride and soaking wet, although the quartering downwind run the the last 2 minutes was pretty nice. I did have my first experience with ventilating a prop on this boat. Heading downwind we had a haystack form under us in a way that the port aft corner (and therefore the port prop) was just out of the water for a half second. That was an interesting one.

By the time we arrived the dog was pretty stressed, mostly from the thunder and worrying about the admiral (she was sitting with her eyes closed and starting to feel less than great). Impressively, the seas weren't bothering him one bit. Once we got in, they both took a nap and all was well. And the boat handled it all well, so in that sense I'm satisfied. I was still able to make about 15 kts in the worst of it, as speeding up made the ride worse, but slowing down further didn't really improve anything (the motion was significant and a bit rapid, but smooth and would be even more at lower speed). At higher speeds things can get a little harsh though.

 

[BDofMSP]

Wow. At least we didn't have lightning to go with our trip. My wife would have been a wreck.

We have our (elderly) dog with us too. She did fine but slid off the vinyl three times. She gave me a look like she thought it was my fault.

We're off to enjoy the town of Copper Harbor now. Beautiful weather for a dinghy ride and a swim today.

BD

 

[GFC]

Great write-ups both of you. Thanks for sharing your sea tales with us, and keep 'em coming.

 

[BDofMSP]

The incident with the rocks

We had an absolutely lovely stay in Copper Harbor. The weather was great (a bit breezy but kept the heat away) and the people and the town were fantastic. The fireworks last night were also extremely high quality. No drama whatsoever - until last night.

Backstory. We have an elderly (13 year old) dog who has lost her hearing and frankly her sense of obedience, who has dedicated her life now to finding food in any way, shape, or form it might come in. And for her that form can be very nasty if given the opportunity. Case in point, yesterday she was on the beach with us while we swam, and found a spot where something had eaten some fish at some point, and she went to town on the remaining scraps. But since most of it had decomposed into the rocks, she just ate the rocks and all (pebbles about the size of a pea).

Anyway, after said wonderful fireworks we hit the hay, but were awakened around 2 am by the sound of the boat hitting the dock. I got up to find lightning flashes and wind picking up, and tried to reconfigure lines to stop the davits from hitting the dock. The wind was too strong to do it alone, so I got my wife up. By the time she made it out there the rain had started and by the time we got it done, we were soaked. Oh well. Back to bed

Around 3:30 we got startled awake again. The dog rolled off the back of the bed onto the floor - close to a 4 foot drop. She's old and arthritic, so obviously we were concerned. I was completely unaware of this, but this drop literally knocked the crap out of her - as in there was a small turd on the floor where she landed. My wife grabbed some TP and flushed it down the head, and with me none the wiser we tried to get back to sleep.

Per usual I'm up at 5 to make my visit to the head, and when I flush I hear a horrible grinding noise! I ask my wife if she heard it, and she mentions the dog incident. It takes me about five minutes as I'm drifting off to sleep before I remember - the rocks!! That dang dog pooped a pebble and now it was in my macerator doing it's worst. Falling asleep at this point was in direct conflict with my mental review of my installation of my Raritan ME last year and how many things might stand in the way of resolving this issue.

We all used the marina restrooms in the AM and shut down the head for the day. When we arrived in Grand Marais I was immediately reminded of one of the reasons I chose that head - it was very simple to actually completely uninstall it, clear the rock, and reassemble. Took less than an hour and I didn't even need to swear (except at the dog).

Our crossing to Grand Marais was excellent and conditions cooperated mostly (LOTS of spotty fog, but that's normal). But that is it's own post - I'll take that separately.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Radar in open water

Other than the first day, most of the cruising on this trip has been about 5 miles off shore, following shore, so I've always had those radar returns on my display. Today however we were well off shore (50 miles in any direction). I noticed two things that surprised me.

First, not too far into the crossing is Stannard Rock (an interesting story on it's own if you're not familiar - https://www.lakesuperior.com/the-la...hthouse-the-loneliest-place-on-the-continent/ )

The lighthouse shows up clearly and from about 15 miles out on radar, as expected. What was NOT expected was the guy who was out there in his 20 foot open fishing boat, and this guy did not make a blink on my screen until I was 1/2 mile from him. Now he was very close to the lighthouse and was trolling, so maybe he did ping, and it just blended in with the large return of the lighthouse. But it was enough to put me on edge, especially given the patchy fog that we had.

The rest of the crossing was uneventful. We saw several freighters on AIS and they all showed up on radar from about 10 miles - except for one. Huge boat (770 feet) and it didn't show up until I was about 4 miles from it. I had loosened up all of my radar settings after the previous incident such that I was just occasionally picking up bits of sea clutter, so I was shocked that I was not seeing this guy. We've done several open water crossings in the past year, including an 85 mile one a couple weeks ago, and I've picked up small fishing buoys regularly, and now I'm not seeing a huge ship?

The final eyebrow raiser was when we finally approached shore. Grand Marais is the eastern end of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The shoreline nearby is made up of very tall bluffs. I didn't paint shore until I was 7 miles from it - which is ridiculous.

I'm both concerned and bamboozled by this experience. We had absolutely normal radar performance with the other freighters we saw, but then that one eluded us. We've had fine performance with, say Stannard Rock showing up, but the huge cliffs don't show up until I'm 7 miles out? I'll clearly be paying closer attention to this, and will be inspecting the installation to make sure everything is right. Maybe I'll get the yard guy to review it since he's Raymarine certified.

Anyway, Pictured Rocks tomorrow and then anchor out by Grand Island near Munising. (Grand Island National Recreation Area). Can anchor near a wreck that is clearly visible - if you work around the glass bottom tour boats. Expecting good conditions - fingers crossed.

Wish us luck!
BD

PS - I'm docked behind a lovely Kady Krogen here in Grand Marais tonight. The owners are brand new to the boat - they just purchased in Silver Bay MN and are taking her home to Connecticut. Sad for us to lose such a great boat to the salt!!

 

[GFC]

Lovin' your tales, especially those concerning the dog and said pebble. You need to feed the dog occasionally so he doesn't have to eat rocks.

 

[BDofMSP]

Saw Pictureed Rocks today. Sadly it was cloudy so the colors weren't as distinctive as they could be, but they're impressive nonetheless. Got a great sunset in a beautiful anchorage to make up for it.

BD

 

[Alaskaflyer]

I noticed that Kadey for sale earlier this year in MN, seemed a really nice boat.

We lived in Houghton for a few years last decade. Are you circling back through the canal to head west home? If I can give any suggestions let me know. Nothing spectacular for dining within walking distance but a few tolerable choices

 

[kthoennes]

Loved the dog story - I'll have to retell that one down at the marina. At least she passed them though. Rocks in the macerator, that's a new one.

 

[BDofMSP]

I noticed that Kadey for sale earlier this year in MN, seemed a really nice boat.

We lived in Houghton for a few years last decade. Are you circling back through the canal to head west home? If I can give any suggestions let me know. Nothing spectacular for dining within walking distance but a few tolerable choices

Yep we're in that marina Thursday and Friday night. We're challenged on dining because we need to bring the dog so it's mostly bar patios. But our guest has offered to dog sit so any suggestions are much appreciated!
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Loved the dog story - I'll have to retell that one down at the marina. At least she passed them though. Rocks in the macerator, that's a new one.

Built this yesterday although I need longer dowels. Good enough for on the fly. The plastic rustling serves mostly as an alarm for now.

 

[Alaskaflyer]

Yep we're in that marina Thursday and Friday night. We're challenged on dining because we need to bring the dog so it's mostly bar patios. But our guest has offered to dog sit so any suggestions are much appreciated!

BD

Hancock marina under the bridge (where the fuel is?) or the downtown wharf on the Houghton side?

 

[Alaskaflyer]

There’s usually one taxi company in business at any one time, I think this year it’s Superior Transportation. I believe there are Uber drivers around most nights too.

On the Hancock side I recommend the long walk or short Uber to Gemignani's Italian on Quincy Street. You may want to make a reservation. Also in Hancock my breakfast joint was Kaleva Cafe, it’s low brow breakfast but has some Finnish specialties. In Houghton downtown you could try Joey’s for “not so special but still pretty good for small town Michigan” seafood, Ambassador’s Pizza, or the Library. You can dinghy over - I doubt anyone will try to charge you for tying that up to the downtown cleats - or take the pedestrian walk over the lift bridge. Breakfast and coffee at Roy’s Pasties west of the bridge. Skip Suomi’s, it’s a Finnish American landmark but I don’t necessarily think the food’s worth it - as painful as that is to say.

If it works for your schedule and you can accommodate your dog somehow, the tour of the Quincy Mine is worth it.

Enjoy. We had a bucolic life there for a while before work caused us to move on.

 

[BDofMSP]

Hancock marina under the bridge (where the fuel is?) or the downtown wharf on the Houghton side?

Hancock marina. Stayed there once and liked it just fine.

 

[IRENE]

For breakfast - Soumi for Finnish Oven Pancake (Pannukakku)

 

[MYTraveler]

I noticed two things that surprised me.

First, What was NOT expected was the guy who was out there in his 20 foot open fishing boat . . . did not make a blink on my screen until I was 1/2 mile from him.
We saw several freighters on AIS and they all showed up on radar from about 10 miles - except for one. Huge boat (770 feet) and it didn't show up until I was about 4 miles from it.

I had loosened up all of my radar settings after the previous incident such that I was just occasionally picking up bits of sea clutter,


The final eyebrow raiser was when we finally approached shore. I didn't paint shore until I was 7 miles from it - which is ridiculous.

I'm both concerned and bamboozled by this experience.

I suspect it is your settings, although I had a friend with an older Raymarine radar with similarly unreliable performance.

My suggestion, next time you can't get a return when you should "tighten up" your settings -- I don't know what you did to loosen them in the first place but do the opposite. You may have to put up with some clutter in crappy conditions in order to pickup the viable targets. Also, FWIW, I wouldn't be too concerned about not seeing things more than 6nm distant. In fact, when offshore, I run my radar at 4 - 6 nm 95% of the time.

 

[BandB]

Great to read of someone boating on Lake Superior. We did include it when we did the loop, as did OCDiver. However, most don't. Great body of water.

As to the seasickness or near seasickness, the vast majority can be eliminated by stabilizers. However, I would venture a guess that's not something you normally need. Just a solution if the problem becomes excessive.

 

[BDofMSP]

I suspect it is your settings, although I had a friend with an older Raymarine radar with similarly unreliable performance.

My suggestion, next time you can't get a return when you should "tighten up" your settings -- I don't know what you did to loosen them in the first place but do the opposite. You may have to put up with some clutter in crappy conditions in order to pickup the viable targets. Also, FWIW, I wouldn't be too concerned about not seeing things more than 6nm distant. In fact, when offshore, I run my radar at 4 - 6 nm 95% of the time.

Loosen, tighten, not sure those are real terms anyway. What I did is switch from "all automatic" to increasing my gain so that I was indeed picking up more clutter. I also increased the color gain to make sure that targets stood out for me. It's not really that I'm concerned about not seeing things 6 mi out, it's that it worked at 10 and even 15 earlier that day, but then later it didn't. I usually run radar at 8 nm range when doing a crossing, but I jacked it up to 25 miles and it didn't change a thing in terms of picking up those cliffs.

This morning it took 8 tries to get the radar to connect. Sometimes it takes two, but never more than that. Something is up with it. This radar is only a year old. The first one arrived DOA and Raymarine overnighted a replacement. I suspect it was a refurb given the packaging. I'll likely be placing a ticket for this one too.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Lesson Learned

This morning we tried to get out and get going. I knew it was going to be rough, but winds were predicted at 11-15, and seas 1-2 so we thought it might be tolerable.

Before we left we took another pass over the shipwreck that we were anchored next to. I got a chance to play with my Downvision sonar that I just installed. Man - I was BLOWN away! I took a screen shot but I'm having trouble uploading it. I'll try again later - it's crazy.

Anyway, we headed out and after an hour and a half it was getting worse - much worse. I decided I'd learn from my last experience, so we made for our pre-selected bail out point. It was a thousand percent better than the open water, but it still wasn't very pleasant. We decided that another hour and a half back in the snot was better than all afternoon and night there. Plus there were zero other bail out spots up the coast so continuing on was too large of a commitment based on all the things like sea sickness, etc. We turned around.

We chose the marina rather than return to anchor, and when we got in they were measuring 17 kts sustained with 25 gusts. Took us three attempts to get on the dock but eventually did so and got locked down. Tomorrow looks better - not great but better. We'll keep monitoring. Thankfully we built weather days into our trip.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Let's try this.

 

[BDofMSP]

Great to read of someone boating on Lake Superior. We did include it when we did the loop, as did OCDiver. However, most don't. Great body of water.

As to the seasickness or near seasickness, the vast majority can be eliminated by stabilizers. However, I would venture a guess that's not something you normally need. Just a solution if the problem becomes excessive.

I've mentioned how stabilizers would help several times. They would not be a simple add to this boat unfortunately. Maybe if I hit the lottery I could add a Seakeeper - although I'm not sure where it would fit.

This is our first year really venturing out with her on the Lake for vacation and we're really enjoying it. Prior to this trip we crossed over to Grand Marais MN for a long weekend and then from there up to Grand Portage area. Man was that a great trip. But like everyone always says, you have to respect this lake. Conditions can get dangerous quickly, and it is a LONG way to the next bail out point some times. That is what drove our decision to turn around this morning. If anything happened we would have been hours from anything with zero chance to tuck in somewhere. Dock seemed like a good idea.

BD

 

[Alaskaflyer]

Very impressive sonar image for a hull-mounted piece of equipment

 

[Alaskaflyer]

Does your unit have a performance check protocol? It's been a long time since I used a Raymarine unit, but it should have a test mode in the menu somewhere for a standard internal test cycle, then a performance monitor (PM) check where transmission and receive values can be compared to spec?

 

[mncruiser]

Awesome stories and adventures! I’ve been meaning to write some posts as well on some trips.

Now I’m inspired!

Stay safe!

Dave took us to The Library restaurant across the bridge, well worth the walk! I can’t remember if they have deck seating or not for the pup!

MNCruiser

 

[BDofMSP]

Does your unit have a performance check protocol? It's been a long time since I used a Raymarine unit, but it should have a test mode in the menu somewhere for a standard internal test cycle, then a performance monitor (PM) check where transmission and receive values can be compared to spec?

Great question. I'll have to look into that and see. I know there's an "Advanced " menu - might be on there.

Thanks,
BD

 

[Alisske]

“That dang dog pooped a pebble and now it was in my macerator doing it's worst.”

Haaaa! Thank you. That was a hilarious story!

Glad it worked out and safe travels

 

[BDofMSP]

Turning back and staying the extra day in Munising proved a smart move. Yesterday we got out early and had beautiful conditions all the way to Houghton. Today it was 80 and sunny and a textbook summer day.

Tomorrow we're hopeful that the forecast holds and we'll have a nice, albeit long, cruise back to Bayfield. If not we still have an extra day to make it two shorter legs.

I'll post some distance and fuel summaries when we get back to the dock. But from an owner perspective the boat has beaten my expectations for this trip so I'm really thrilled.

BD