A huge thank you to our family for taking the trip to Kenosha to help us honor the Gods and mighty rulers of the wind and rain, the North, South, East, and West and, most importantly, Poseidon as we raised our glasses and poured some bubbly into the waters. Scott officiated over the ‘naming ceremony’, tossing the ignet with the old name along with the old keys into the lake to purge the old name from the Ledger of the Deep. We unveiled the new name: Sea C Rider and prayed for safe travels with fair winds and smooth seas as we traverse the wild and faceless deep….’for this you need more champagne’…..7 bottles should do the trick! 😉
Category: Planning
SURPRISE!!
August 10th, 2019 ~ Our wonderful children organized a surprise going away party, complete with some super cute themed cookies with our new boat name on them! It was very moving to see the special people in our lives come out to wish us a Bon Voyage! Love every one of them!
Shake out Voyage..
Here we go!! We hung our AGLCA burgee on our bow in preparation for ‘beginning our loop’! Since, wherever you cross your wake is when you complete your loop, our wake will be complete when we return to Lake Charlevoix in a year…(or so ~ “won’t be back ’til fall” ?!) Went to bed knowing Monday weather window looked good for a clear departure day! Skies were blue and clear…until we were halfway across the 13 miles of Lake Charlevoix, where we encountered our first obstacle (of many more to come) heavy, thick FOG with less than 15 feet of visibility. Slow and steady – sound the horn – navigation lights are on – stay in the middle. We made it through Charlevoix and entered the infamous “Washing Machine” aka Lake Michigan. Our float plan called for Leland as our first destination but the weather was so cooperative that we decided to go on to Frankfurt, MI. We covered about 80 nautical miles which is more than we will typically average. All in all, a good day on the water!
The remainder of our shakeout voyage consisted of crossing Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay, WI then to Manitowoc, followed by Port Washington, and finally our new home port of Southport Marina in Kenosha, WI. We learned a ton: including handling 15mph following seas, surfing 5 foot waves, auto pilot limitations, staying out of the shipping lanes especially during fog, fine tuning our docking skills, learning all navigation systems including Navionics, preparing meals in the galley, 30 & 50 AMP electrical systems, hailing on VHF radio, how to use (and NOT USE!) our ‘marriage saver 2 way radios, strapping down things/clearing all chairs off outside decks in high seas AND keeping toilet lid closed and back fill the hoses to lessen the odor, keep cash on hand to tip the many people who assist along the way….and much more. One of the most anticipated moments was crossing Lake Michigan, which happened in water more than 900 ft. deep, although…. we were fortunate that it was as calm as Lake Geneva on a Wednesday morning.
Finally…. it’s time to get the boat!!
On June 9th we rented a one-way Dodge Caravan with fold-n-go seating and packed it from top to bottom with supplies to paint the bottom, move aboard and live for two weeks while we get to know her. After we splashed and loaded her up (is she listing to port?!) we returned the Dodge and took the Ironton Ferry back across! Instead of paying BBY to commission our boat we wanted to do some of this work ourselves – how else do you learn?! We erected our Flybridge frame and affixed the canvas panels (not unlike a puzzle without a picture) JUST before the heavy rains came! Spent the first night on the boat at BBY’s dock listening to the rain and feeling dry!
Truck full from Prospect Hts to Boyne City MI 
Practice…Practice…Practice….. 
Diesel Maintenance Training, Mack Boring, NJ
Sea C Rider carries three Yanmar diesel engines on board (one as the generator). While diesel engines are highly reliable, they do best with ongoing maintenance and care. Yanmar’s Rep, Mack Boring, offers an outstanding two day owner maintenance program which I attended this week.
The valuable hands on experience has helped me gain tons of confidence in maintaining, or at least understanding, what is happening with our power packs…. Great class.
http://mackboring.com/training/cat-4-yanmar/
During initial introductions I learned that one of my fellow training classmates is also planning to tackle the loop adventure. Gordon Baille, from Northern California, is retiring in 30 days and staring the trip from Chicago. He bought and is trucking a Nordic Ranger Tug from Salem, MA to a yet-to-be-determined marina in Chicago. He’ll begin the journey in July and plans to complete most of the trip single handed aboard “Sunny Tug”. We exchanged cards and plan to get together when he and Sunny Tug arrive in Chicago.
Hands on with a Yanmar 4LHA 
Gordon explaining the loop route to fellow Diesel classmates
Loopin' with Mike n Pam 