July 10 – Aug 5

It’s funny how life unfolds in peculiar ways. Almost a month has past since I last posted on this blog and in the mean time I’ve taught a week long boat building class at the boat school in Michigan, I’ve been offered (and accepted) a 9 month teaching job, I’ve flown back to Port Townsend to move out of my house and now I’m preparing a week long journey on Lake Michigan. I’ll tell you all about it.

When I arrived at the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville I was getting pretty low on cash. I asked Pat, the lead instructor, if he had some work for me. He said I could help him frame his house and/or teach a boat building class for a week. I ended up doing both.

 

 

For about 3 days I helped Pat putting up the first story walls on his new cottage and lay out the stairway. It was 95 degrees, no breeze and blazing sun. The nail gun and speed square where almost too hot to pick up. Pat’s wife, Lisa, supplied us with plenty iced water, lemonade and yummy lunches to keep our productivity up. Even though they own a pretty Victorian house in Port Townsend, he and his wife decided to build a small house near the school for the remainder of his term there. Located on a remote peninsula, next to a huge park, they may very likely be visited by moose, bear and less likely by wolf. The Upper Peninsula is still a wild remote place and after the summer folks migrate back south to avoid the cold winters, it gets turned back to a few hardy full time residents and ‘wild things’ trotting around in the snow (I wonder which of those two I belong to this next winter…).

 

 

 

That weekend I got Fetch in the water and sailed around for a bit. The water was remarkably clear and warm. You could see 6 feet down at the lush vegetation on the bottom. It was like sailing in an aquarium. The level of the Great Lakes was down a few feet from normal levels, so I had to kind of stick to the channels. So did millions of power boaters and yet skiers, because that’s ‘the thing’ in that area. Very few sailboats, few kayaks and no rowboats at all (while I was there at least).  We westerners love the power of gasoline! It gives us the freedom to blaze over to yonder in our limited free time and to blaze back to go to work to pay for it all. With our digital camera’s we can take a thousand pictures a day to later see what we saw and our cell phones keep us constantly connected to others who are blazing their trails at the same time (sorry for going there).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The waters of the Cheneaux Islands are lined with summer places and boathouses. Well-off folks from down state spend the summer here. Down in Detroit and Chicago they knew (know) how to make powerful engines, so a lot of classic runabouts originated here in Michigan. Those mahogany pieces of art had to be kept out of the weather and boathouses did just that. I’ve always had a weak spot for boathouses. They have a charming atmosphere about them with lots of boat gear about and their simple structure. They connect the on-shore house with the water in an inviting way. I’ve often wanted to have access to such a place through owning, sharing or renting or whatever, just to puts around in there and hop in the boat once in a while to go for a spin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday bright and early students showed up for a weeklong class. Each was going to build their own 8 foot plywood pram from a kit provided by Chesapeake Light Craft. Back in Port Townsend, when I was boat shop educator of the Maritime Center, we have hosted several of those classes. The company always provided an instructor with those classes and I was always happy to not be more closely involved, because they are quite an exhausting marathon. In retrospect I’m happy I did this one, because it’s fun to work on a project with interesting people. Mark, who just finished the first year program, was the assistant instructor and was of great help. Golf was his passion. Gary just retired from being a project manager for a school district and may use this project as a jumping board to a bigger boat. He loved to talk. Nate, 80 years of age, was a retired school super intendant and wanted a small boat to tie up to his lake cottage dock, so his family could enjoy it. Helena was, and still is, a middle school teacher and enjoys teaching 7 graders, contrary to general expectations of teaching middle school kids. She was looking forward to spend time at home painting the boat and I’m sure it will look beautiful with her attention to detail. Chad and Chelsie were a father and daughter team, building the boat that she had chosen. They stayed on a 25’ sailboat that they had hauled from Wisconsin. She was a very handy with tools the way she shaped the centerboard and rudder with spokeshave and sander (encouraged by Mark). One of the comments I remember her making was that it was less awkward than she expected to do this with her father; it actually was fun. What a great thing I thought; building their relation ship by building a boat. They often say that boats build people, as well as the other way around. By Sunday morning all students had loaded their boats and left. I spend part of Sunday sailing Fetch to get a glimpse of Lake Huron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next thing on my itinerary was to fly back to Port Townsend to move out of the rental house. My older son Theo had taken a job in Seattle and Nico, the younger one, was going to join him in an apartment in Capitol Hill. They had been living together in the rental since I left on my trip. After a 24 year marriage, Sofia and I divorced last year and sold the house we had built. Nico and I moved into this rental, Theo was travelling in Asia at the time and had returned just before my departure. Now the boys were ready to move to the big city; to the next chapter of their lives. Sofia lives with her boyfriend Gary and we all get along. We visit, have meals together and help each other out. We feel blessed not having ended up in a bitter mess, which was an effort and leaving the lawyers out helped. Life goes on with new opportunities for all of us.

I had booked a flight out of Grand Rapids and started heading down the shores of Lake Michigan with Fetch behind the camper. I was amazed how clear, blue and warm the water was. Driving along Charlevoix and Grand Traverse Bay I got the idea of sailing in those waters, which is what I was going to do after my return from Washington.  One of the students of the class, Helena and her husband Joe live in a farmhouse 20 minutes from the Grand Rapids airport and she offered to leave my rig in her yard and bring me to the airport. The house was over 100 years old and they had renovated it completely and kept everything in pristine condition. I was impressed but not surprised having seen here attention to detail and steady workmanship during the class. I enjoyed the shower and comfortable bed before I took off.

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice to return to Port Townsend. While I had been in the sun for over two months, they had endured lots of rain and gray days. Fortunately I had brought the sun with me. There was a lot to do, but Theo and I made a schedule that proved to be very workable, because everything went quite smooth. Off course one still ends up putting 80% of the details in the last 20% of allotted time, but so be it (sorry Nico). I borrowed a horse trailer with truck (thank you Ole) to move my stuff in storage and a van with trailer (thank you Laingdon) for the ride to Seattle. Between those runs and trips to Goodwill, the dump and recycling we got done just in time. It felt good to spend time together with Sofia, Gary and the boys. Nico finally decided to cut his hair after letting it grow to his lower back for 7 years. I had dinner with Josh (publisher of Small Craft Advisor magazine), his wife Annika and their two kids. I got to visit my old buddies at Haven Boatworks, the Maritime Center and had a wonderful visit with Marcelle, who I would have liked to spend more time with, but I ran out of time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting back on the plane I felt a bit down. It’s hard to leave people we cherish and the area we’re familiar with. I had no idea what I was going to do in Michigan for 5 weeks, in fact I didn’t even wanted to go at all. It didn’t make sense to me to continue to Maine at this time while starting the teaching job in mid September. I opted to do more exploring in Michigan instead.

I saw the green woods of the western Washington disappear to make room for the dry eastern side. The dry neighboring states reminded me of my drive through there only week’s prior and it didn’t make me feel good. To top of my mood we shortly flew into the night, which looked like a dark looming empty space ahead. Deeper down however I knew I just had to continue my trip. I would come up with an itinerary, as the journey would unfold. I would meet new people with each their own stories. All along I was reading a great book by A.J. Mackinnon, called ‘The unlikely voyage of Jack the Crow’. Mackinnon describes his journey from north Wales to the Black Sea in a 12’ Mirror dinghy, 4,900 km over salt and fresh water. His adventures and mood fluctuations, excellently described in this book inspired me to continue mine.

 

 

 

I had a stop-over of a whole day in Minneapolis and arrived around 12:30 at night. I hadn’t taken the time to arrange for a hotel, so I had to improvise. I had a heavy suitcase with me with winter clothes and wanted to leave it somewhere on the airport till my next day. No sign for luggage storage anywhere. After inquiring I found a place, but if was all locked up, figures since it was night time. Just as I left, I noticed a guy open up the storage place; I was in luck. Next thing was finding a hotel and a ride. Information desk was shut, but I found a courtesy phone for hotels. In spite of my sleepy head and bad connections I managed to find a hotel for $145 after rejecting two $200 ones. I jotted the address down and went over to the taxi stand. After paying him $35, I was seriously regretting not having researched this ahead of time. However my stay in the Crown Plaza was a comfortable one. I whished I’d ever owned a shower head like that and the royal desk made catching up with emails and such almost a pleasure. Another thing I hadn’t found time for was to disconnect utility services to the house we just moved out of, so since I now had time on my hand I took care of all of that comfortably. After checking out of the room at noon, I spend another 5 hours relaxing, reading and writing in the lobby where it was nice and cool as supposed to outside being 95 degrees. I had been worried about spending a whole day in Minneapolis, but staying put ended up just fine. This time the shuttle was running (free) and after collecting my suitcase, it took almost another two hours to Grand Rapids. Shortly after arriving, Joe and Helena picked me up and I was back at the farmhouse.

A glass of wine, a shower and a good night of rest did wonders and at around 9 in the morning I was on the road again with my van and Fetch. I stopped by a West Marine store to buy a chart of the area and decided I was going to sail from Grand Traverse Bay up to the school in the Cheneaux Islands, about 140 miles by water. While driving up there I heard on the news that severe thunderstorms were expected with high winds and heavy hail, so I planned to wait a day and catch up with blogging.

After finding a campsite in Traverse City and getting my emails I learned that Pat was supposedly in the same town attending a boat show. I called him on his cell, but didn’t get him. After trying a few more times I decided I would just drive in town in the hope to find him. As I drove into town I tried one more time and was in luck this time. After he talked me through traffic for a few minutes I saw him on the sidewalk. He was accompanied by Bud and Ed, both from the boat school. Coincidence? Who knows. They had just finished dinner, but had no problem joining me for another beer and watch me eat. Pat showed me a place to park my van during my trip up north and took off.

In driving through Traverse City I noticed an outdoor movie about to get started. I had landed in the middle of a film festival. I joined the crowd and enjoyed watching Wall-e, which was shown with remarkable quality of image and sound on a huge inflatable screen looming over the lakeside park. It was warm and pleasant to sit there in my folding chair among hundreds of people. The sky was threatening to burst out in thunder and hail, but never did.

After getting to the campsite late, I spent all of the next day relaxing and writing for this post. Tomorrow I might leave for a 140 mile sail up north. I’ll leave my van at the Maritime Heritage Alliance and pick it up after arriving at the school.