Mackinac Island

Currently tied up at the marina in this touristy island village.  Freshly showered and enjoying a beer whilst listening to classical music, life couldn't get much better.  I take that back it could be a bit better had we not lost our only winch handle overboard in Lake Huron today!  After I emerged from the V-berth to take over for Lance, I thought he was playing a trick on me by hiding the winch handle and telling me it went overboard.  However it was not a cruel joke we actually had to sail the second half of the day without being able to properly trim our sails.  We made it safely to Mackinac Island and went in search of a new winch handle which should be easy to find in this sailing mecca, the finish line of two of the biggest sailing races in the country.  We were privately let into the ships store which had been closed for the season and were surprised that they also were lacking one of the most basic items needed on a sailboat.  Tomorrow we will pick one up on the mainland in Mackinac City and continue in the direction of Chi-town where we will have to lower our mast to fit under the bridges in downtown Chicago and continue down the barge canal toward the Mississippi River.

Something that is amazing to lance and I is the amount of interest and support people have been giving us.  Everyone we meet along the way, wants to know more about our trip and can't believe how far we've already come even though we're only five days from home.  Even as I type we have two yoopers aboard, they are both named Richard and their 26 ft sailboat is one of the only others in the marina tonight.  Today we even printed out some business cards with our blog/contact info to hand out to people because we are so tired of writing it down all the time.  Even more flattering has been all the help we've had preparing for this adventure.  The support we've had from our friends and family has been absolutely phenomenal.  We would like to give a special thanks to all of our new friends from this summer.  Without their wisdom, advice, and gifts our asses wouldn't have made it past Madeline Island!  Thank you to Jim and B.J. Collier, Cynthia, Diane, Captain Dave, and Scott and Jeniffer Brigham.  We can only hope to find a way to repay you all and hopefully someday we shall be mentors to others who are new to the sailing community.  The Brigham couple, pictured above, has been planning to sail their beautiful vessel "Pendragon" to the southern latitudes and they are so prepared I think they have 10 spares onboard for every part of their boat.  They have helped us in a multitude of ways and have gifted us with their friendship and many other sailing items.  On the day we departed from our marina they played a trick on us and taped a new boat name to our stern, "Yo Hoe".  We knew it was them because they also left a bag of gifts and books that we have already begun to indulge in.  Soon we will apply the new decals to our stern with the official name Y O L O.

Cheers