The sun is back! There was a little bit of chill left in the air this morning when we left for breakfast, but we were headed for the low 70’s by mid-day. Winds were projected to be 7-10 knots out of the North. Almost perfect for our 8 mile jaunt up to Bowers Harbor.
After breakfast we spent a few hours cleaning up the boat. We also decided to take down the bug screening, which turned out to be quite a mess. There were dead bugs caked everywhere! And, to top it off. Water somehow made it’s way into the canvas border at the base of the screening adding about 5lbs to each screen. The canvas base doesn’t breathe well or let water permeate. So, another cleaning and scrubbing of the cockpit was in order before departure. My dad also decided to tackle the cleaning of the starboard-aft locker. I wish that I would have gotten a picture of him down inside the locker. It’s big enough for where he can stand and almost close the lid on top of him. He jokes about me closing it on him and forgetting about him for a couple of weeks. I wouldn’t do that to him though 🙂
Our sail did not begin with fantastic potential. The wind felt light at only about 5 knots and the direction did not lend well to our future destination as it would force us to sail very close hauled (or close to the wind) with numerous tacks. Which was fine with us. We had a short sail on the horizon and there was a regatta going on in the bay that morning. So, it was kind of fun to poke around and watch the racing unfold. Plus, we got to take some close up photos of the local tall ships of Traverse City; which were very beautiful.
However, our fortunes changed after our 2nd tack about a mile out into the bay. All of a sudden (and after a few trims of the sail), we were making around 4.9 knots with only 5.5 knots of true wind sailing at roughly 70 degrees to the wind off our port-bow. At times were were even more efficient than that! Making close to 90-95% efficiency with whatever wind we had. It was uncanny!
Things really picked up for us as the winds built to around 10 knots the further out into the bay we went. I was really pushing the boat hard. I wanted to squeeze as much out of it as I could; as it had been the first really great sailing day that we have had in about a week. As we continued to tack back and forth across the bay, we were hitting some great speeds (upwards of 7 knots). It wasn’t until our final tack that we really brought home the bacon. And, the best thing about it was that we weren’t even trying for speed! We were actually trying to dump wind as fast as we could due to the heel of the boat. Based on our angle of sail to the wind, I had the main kicked over to spill wind to the point of luffing and eased the genoa so much that it was luffing too. Still, the boat kept on climbing. We peaked at 8.3 knots today with 9.4 knots of true wind at 70 degrees to our port-bow. The boat’s theoretical max hull speed is 8.2 knots. I am confident that if we would have kept both the sails in trim, we could have hit around 9 knots in just about 10 knots of true wind. And thats without the rails anywhere near the water. It was incredible and I loved every minute of it 🙂
Coming into Bower’s Harbor was very pretty. There is a little island called Marion Island just before the bay where all the power boaters like to raft up and party on the weekend. It’s too shallow for us to approach, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Shortly after we set the hook, we observed what looked to be a very large power boat approaching from the west. We thought that they might be coming into the bay to have dinner at The Boathouse (a very popular and pricey restaurant right on the bay). As they got closer, it appeared to be there intention to anchor. As we drank our cocktails, we watched them anchor and move about the boat. My dad says to me, “If they get ready to drop that dinghy in the water, you let me know. I’m going to get us a tour of that boat if they’re going to dinner at The Boathouse.” Sure enough, a few minutes later, activity on the large boat indicated that they were indeed going to drop their dinghy into the water from its perch on the upper deck.
So, this of course set my dad’s plan into action. We prepped our dinghy for departure (removed the rain water from the previous night and mounted the outboard engine) and dressed for dinner. Unfortunately, by the time that we had finished our prep, the dinghy from the yacht had already been to shore and back. It looked like they had just gone in to pick up a few passengers. Having gotten everything ready, we felt obligated to go into shore to check things out regardless.
Our arrival to shore did not start out of a good note. We were approached by a stern faced harbor-master who did not look very pleased that were were tying up our dinghy to his dock. We played dumb and he ended up being a pretty nice guy. I’m sure that he gets every drunk Tom, Dick, and Harry trying to tie up to his docks every weekend and it gets old. After securing our little water-taxi, we made our way up the dock to The Boathouse for a drink. We took a peek at the menu online prior to coming ashore and we were not planning on having dinner due to the astronomical prices (dinner for two at $250+ easy).
Our entrance to the restaurant did not go quite well either (0 for 2 tonight so far on entrances). We came up the back patio from the marina and just as we were entering, a waiter was trying to open the door for a server with a platter full of food. We tried to be polite by letting them through, but the waiter became very impatient with us and snapped at us to “come on” and get out of the way. Not a very good first impression and we got the feeling that we may be a little out of our league; as the clientele on the patio smelled of old money. Nevertheless, we trudged on determined to have something to drink.
Inside we found the hostess and bartender to be quite hospitable. There was even a very cute 9 week old basset hound puppy mulling around the main entrance to muse at. He wasn’t a part of the restaurant; but rather the new pet of one of the cornerstone patrons daughters. The dog’s name was Bernard. Talk about straight out of the East Coast blue-blood playbook for names! We also found out a little more information about the yacht that anchored off our stern. It apparently belongs to Augie Busch. The former CEO of Anheiser-Busch Brewing Company and the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. Pretty cool!
After browsing the menu, having something to drink, and confronting the waiter who was rude to us (YIKES!); we decided to sit down to dinner. We began with an appetizer of scallops topped with gruyere cheese, bacon, and spinach with a garlic crust. Very tasty! As an entree my dad was convinced by our waiter, Walter, to order the elk with some sort of potato hash and I had the seared yellow-fin tuna (rare) with an edamame puree. My dinner was delicious! Unfortunately, my dad was not impressed with his elk (should have gone with your gut and gotten the pork trio, dad).
It’s been another day of firsts and I’m about to pass out from exhaustion. Its going to be a long day tomorrow; as the weather sounds like it’s going to get snarly later in the day. So, we’re going to make a run for cover back to Suttons Bay (25 miles) where we’re more protected form the weather that’s coming our way (thunderstorms with gusts up to 25 knots out of the south).
Good night!