Sault Ste. Marie, MI !!!

We crossed the whole of lake superior from Bayfield to Whitefish Bay in just under 51 hrs of straight sailing (and a little motoring during lulls of wind), taking 4-hr shifts at the helm and either sleeping, eating, or just relaxing during off shifts. Other than a couple sailboats in the Apostles shortly after our departure, we were the only pleasure vessel on the whole lake for the 2+ days. We did, however see several 1000' lake ships traversing both west and east.

We set foot on dry land for the 1st time last night at the Whitefish Point Harbor of Refuge after safe passage of the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" (if you don't know what I'm talking about, google it). We found a free place to dock and after a brief exploration of the surrounding area, and obligatory calls to our mothers, we quickly succumbed to an overwhelming exhaustion. Alarms set for 6AM sharp, we hit the racks on still water to get a good 8 hrs of sleep. This morning We guided YOLO through the channel leading up to the Soo locks, sharing it with 3 other 1000' ships waiting to get through. Pretty intense! those things are HUGE and pictures don't really give it justice. These things are 4x wider than we are long. Tonight we're holed up at a harbor just on the east side of the locks. I'm currently writing this blog entry from a diner in town enjoying what Andy insisted was the best dish of the U.P., Pasties (pretty much a chicken pot pie) not bad, the fact this place has internet is what I'm really excited about. Until next time...

Time to set sail!

To all our dedicated followers, the time has finally come! This afternoon, Sunday the 26th of September at approximately 4:30PM we will cast our lines for the final time at Pikes Bay Marina. Stay tuned to this blog (especially the tracker) to follow our progress.

Thanks to all of you who came to the Bon Voyage party in Superior. Also thanks for all the help this summer from those who emparted their knowledge and skills. Thanks to everyone for all the support and gifts this last week as we prepared to depart.

Lance and Andy

Final preparations are complete!

Lance and I finally finished the installation of the solar panels and refrigeration with the help of a friend visiting from India.  Whilst we worked on mounting the panels atop the bimini, Titli spent her first 2 days of vacation helping us organize and make space for everything.  It was quite difficult to fit everything needed, but we did it and are now liveaboards on a 30 foot boat!  Without much space left we decided to provision for the first part of the trip.  With a heaping shopping cart full of non-perishables at checkout we had doubts wether it would all fit in the galley.  Somehow we made it work, hopefully Lance will be happy with the menu choices.  Our vessel is now fully dressed in it's canvas, creating its own electricity, and provisioned for at least a month.  The time has come to point our rudder north and begin our voyage on Sunday!

GPS Tracking

Good news for everyone who wants to keep tabs on our location. We just got a satellite tracking system for the boat! Look towards the top of the page where it says "Where in the world is YOLO". Click that link and it will bring you to our public tracking page. Just disregard the fact that it says we're in North Carolina. I was just here for work, bought it and couldn't resist trying it out. Enjoy!

Bon Voyage Party Update...

To those attending:

Bring whoever you want. All are welcome. It will be held at the Duluth Power and Sail Squadron dock in Superior, WI... There will be ample space for all to camp out if you wish to stay the night (we recommend it, it will be fun!). There's a big picnic shelter ( approx 80' x 140'), BBQ for grillin, playground for the kiddos, and a big fire pit for later. If you are a fellow mariner you can sail/motor to the party. There's plenty of free space to dock for the night as well. Also, there's a boat launch right there that you can use to launch your boat if you want to trailer it over.

If you feel like bringing food, please do... but it's not required. BYO Booze tho.

It's a tricky place to find so follow these instructions...

From the Twin Cities:

I-35 North towards Duluth

Hwy 2 East to Superior, WI

Keep following the signs to stay on Hwy 2

Turn left on 39th Ave E (at Grumpy's Tavern)

Turn right on E Itasca St

Turn left on 44th Ave E

Continue down the gravel past the yellow gate

drive in until you see parked cars and find a place to park.

From Westbound Hwy 2 coming from Bayfield, or elsewhere in Northern WI, just turn right on 39th Ave E and follow those instructions from there.

Work Work Work...

Andy and I busted out 5 straight days of work aboard YOLO last week. We are fixing her up for the epic journey to come. We got some serious work done, but still have some serious work ahead of us to get her ready. Our biggest success.... got the fridge installed and already enjoyed the fruits of our labor on that one. we had rum and coke (WITH ICE!!!) followed by a couple cold beers! I'm really gonna dig this fridge. You can see a "during photo of hte fridge, we forgot to snap an "after" pic. We also finally figured out the problem with the autopilot and got that fixed too. Andy figured out the tachometer and we got the oil pressure light working again as well. Good instruments to have if we're gonna be motoring for almost a month straight to get to the gulf. We changed the fuel filter (see andy under the sink). We got the solar charge controller mounted and I've been bustin my noggin trying to learn how to wire everything up with the solar panels, batteries, and house electrical (see me in the locker). I think I've got it figured out, but we'll see. Andy slipped on his climing harness and I hoisted him up to the top of the mast to check out our lights (hoping we had an LED anchor light up there. :( we don't.) we'll have to get one and put it up there.

We did all kinds of stuff but this is just some highlights of our efforts. Unfortunately, the one project we did not get to complete was the mounting of the solar panels. This is proving to be a pain in my ass. I think I've got all the materials we need now, but i'm stuck at work and cannot get to the boat until the 12th or so. It will be a happy day for me to post the "after pictures" of the solar panels on here!

Hope to see you all at the bon voyage party!