28 August 2014

We’ve completed 120 days on the loop, we’ve used about one third of our year and gone slightly over 1,500 miles about one quarter of the estimated distance. So from a project management view we are behind in the amount of work completed.

But we are way ahead in the experiences department. The last 30 days were filled with our favorite anchorage, Baie Fine, the North Channel with other great places, the two Soo’s, Mackinac Island and we’ve sailed the length of Lake Michigan.

While we were in the Soo we saw one of the best engineering works, the Soo Canal system. It’s just amazing how big it is, how simple it operates and how much cargo and water goes through it every day.

Once we entered Lake Michigan I was able to claim “Boated in All the Great Lakes”. (I boated in Lake Erie when I lived in Fredonia). So that’s another item off of my bucket list. Not sure how I’ll put it on my resume, but next chance I get I’ll add it to my LinkedIn status.

Our visit to Mackinac Island was another item off of Susan’s bucket list. It was very cool and we both enjoyed it (even with all the horse poop).

Belle is very comfortable with the boat. She comes out often to sit with us on the fly bridge and the pilot house. For some reason she likes to nap on the pile of shoes in the salon. I can’t tell if she likes laying on them, or they are in her favorite nap spot and she just endures them.

We continued to meet very nice people in the form of Loopers, other boaters and people in the towns we’ve visited. We’ve really liked seeing the small towns on the way, but are excited about some of the upcoming cities.

Our trip to date stats: 120 days, 1519 miles, 63 days of travel but only 232 actual travel hours. We’ve burned 1127 gallons of fuel at a cost just under $5,000, getting about 1.35 miles per gallon at 6.5 miles per hour.

The number of travel days will start going up as we head down the west shoreline of Lake Michigan. We have planned stops in Green Bay (to see the home of the Packers), Chicago and St. Louis. By day 150 we should be deep in the second set of locks in the trip south to the Gulf.

I’m writing this in an out of the way corner of Lake Michigan, Ognotz Bay. Last night was a great sunset, overnight there was a sky full of stars and this morning was a very pretty sunrise. It’s things like this that makes the trip all the more special.