We left Roche Harbor to go whale watching in Haro Strait, the water was glassy smooth. It would be the last chance for a whale sighting this trip to the PNW – unfortunately, it was not meant to be, but we had fun looking.

Our next stop was Garrison Bay and a long-planned rendezvous, by boat, with fellow members of Grand Traverse Yacht Club, our boating club in Michigan. Richard and Diane, Steve and Deb, Jim and Geri, Fred and Lisa, and Mike and Carol had all flown out to the PNW to charter two sailboats to cruise the San Juan Islands. We arrived mid-day at different times to anchor in the well-protected bay just off Mosquito Pass.

Garrison Bay is home to English Camp Historical Park, where British soldiers set up camp during the boundary dispute that was settled in 1872.

Today, one can tour the restored buildings and grounds, visit the cemetery and hike to one of the highest vantage points on the island. We joined friends, Lisa, Diane, and Richard, to walk almost to the top, although it was steeper and farther than we thought it would be, we were rewarded with unencumbered views of the harbor, Haro Straits, and Vancouver Island sitting clearly visible off in the distance. First, we explored English Camp and the original garden site.

After we got back to our boat and had dinner, we were famished, everyone gathered for an after-dinner happy hour in the cockpit of one of the sailboats. Who’d ever thought we could be 2,600 miles from home sharing boating stories and laughing with friends from our hometown? When we’re away from home cruising, especially in new territory, we’re usually actively making new friends, so this time, cruising time in the beautiful San Juan Islands with friends from home was special for us.

The Wandering Eye (above) appears to be a long way from home.

The next morning we all departed the anchorage and went our separate ways, we were headed back to the mainland while the GTYC sailors were going to spend a few more days sailing and exploring the islands.

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After spending this past winter holed up at home in northern Michigan remodeling our kitchen, we feel we’re more than ready for some new cruising adventure. We are preparing, planning, and packing to head west soon to begin another fun boating season. First, we’ll visit the Flaming Gorge  Reservoir on the Green River in Northeast Utah/Southern Wyoming. Then we’ll continue on to Puget Sound in Washington State, there we’ll put in at Anacortes and cruise north into Canada’s Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, and more. Check back often, the fun is soon to start.

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Kismet is heading back to the Torch Lake Bridge after a nice time at anchor during our Torch Lake weekend, we just barely squeaked under the bridge with only inches to spare (below).

As we made our way through Torch River we were reminded once again how beautiful this stretch of water is. The river is fairly shallow with lots of dead-headed logs, so paying full attention while cruising through this area is well worth the effort.

By the time we ended our Torch Lake weekend and reached Skegemog Lake the wind had picked up.

We were fighting whitecaps as we approached the boat ramp at Whitewater Township Park where we left our truck and trailer a few days ago. We got the boat out of the water before the wind really kicked up, thankful for good timing.

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Torch Lake has lots of fond memories for Lisa and me. We each boated here before we were married and began our boating adventures together on this lake. We used to trailer our 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner to Torch Lake to spend long weekends on the hook, but since our mode of boating has changed over the last fifteen years it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to bring one of our boats to any inland lake. We kind of like the flexibility we are now enjoying with our Ranger Tug, Kismet.

Torch Lake is named, not for its shape, but for the practice of local native Americas, from the Ojibwa Tribe, who used torches at night to attract fish

Torch Lake, Michigan – A Boating Paradise

After we squeaked under the Torch River Bridge and entered the lake we did a slow cruise around the lower perimeter of the lake passing by our friend Gene’s house on the east side of the lake not far from Clam River. We called ahead of time to see if he was home and since he doesn’t have a dock, we said we’d just buzz by so that he could have a glimpse of the new Kismet.

After seeing Gene we headed back across the lake to the west shoreline where we used to anchor many years ago. There used to be a little point adjacent to a large farm and we remembered how it stretched out along the water and made the perfect secluded place for us to anchor. It was just as we remembered, but now has more cottages lining the shoreline. We threw the hook out and settled in for a peaceful night on perfectly still water.

We’ve boated in a lot of water, all over the United States, Canada, and even the Bahamas, but the crystal clear water in Torch Lake continues to amaze us to this day. There aren’t many anchorages where you can actually see your anchor stuck into the lakebed under your boat.

The next morning we were like little kids on Christmas morning getting up early to have coffee on the back deck to enjoy our million-dollar view. Our friends, Jim and Cindy were out for a boat ride and knowing we were anchored out here this weekend found us and stopped to say hi and to also extend an invitation for dinner at their cottage that night.

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We launched the boat at Whitewater Township Park in Skegemog Lake and quickly pointed the boat in the direction of Torch River.

Jim and I started our boating adventures in the early 90s on a 21-foot Four Winns Sundowner. On many weekends during our short Michigan summers, we’d trailer it to Torch Lake for a relaxing few days on the hook. Jim was studying for tests at the time and I’d catch up on reading, we’d fill up a cooler of mostly finger food and we’d be happy campers for a long weekend away from the rat race.

This weekend we could hardly contain our joy as we were packing up to head off to our all-time favorite inland lake. We launched the boat at Whitewater Township Park in Skegemog Lake and quickly pointed the boat in the direction of Torch River which connects the two lakes.

We followed the boats in front of us all the way through Torch River taking our time to enjoy the pristine waters and wildlife around us.

Torch Lake boasts a nineteen-mile length (about a two-mile width) of beautiful turquoise waters. It is Michigan’s second-largest lake with a maximum depth of 285 feet making it Michigan’s deepest inland lake. The lake gets its name, not from its shape but, from the Ojibwa name Was-wa-gon-ong, meaning “Place of the Torches.” The name refers to the practice of the local native American population who once used torches at night to attract fish for harvesting with spears and nets. For a while, it was called, by local European settlers, “Torch Light Lake” and eventually shortened to Torch Lake.

“My name is Franny, the River Dog” (above). We think Franny keeps track of everyone cruising the river.

Here is our first sighting of the Torch River Bridge (below); we need to get under this bridge to enter Torch Lake. Jim researched the height of the bridge ahead of time (the clearance is about 10 feet), so we were fairly confident we’d make it through. We dropped our mast so that our profile would be only about 8 feet 8 inches.

Made it through (above).

Looking back at the bridge it sure looks low. We’re glad it worked out and we are on our way to a very fun weekend.

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After three grueling days camping out on Kismet in the boatyard, putting bottom paint on, we arrived at our most southern destination for our winter 2012 boating season, Key West – Stock Island actually, one island up from Key West. We’ll be docked for a month at Key West Harbour. Stock Island is close enough to Key West to have fun in the popular tourist town when desired and far enough away to enjoy a relaxed marina setting with beach and pool amenities.

This year we procured a slip in the outer basin which is lined with mangroves. We are nestled into our big slip, with a bathhouse and boater’s “tiki hut” lounge nearby, we are happy captain and crew during our stay at Key West Harbour.

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Dinner in the marina tonight with friends Scott and Cyndi Perkins, on Chip Ahoy. It’s always a pleasure to bump into this couple whom we met on our first Great Loop boat trip in 2006. Also from Michigan, Scott and Cyndi sail down Florida’s West Coast to the Keys every winter. Cyndi is a talented writer/editor (Cyndi has also written chapter’s in both of our books When the Water Calls and Women On Board Cruising). Scott is a gifted musician and performer.

Click on the CD covers below to read more about and listen to some of Scott’s excellent boating music.

Ships & Giggles

Tiller Dreams

Palm Trees in Da Keweenaw

Bits & Pieces

Long-time guitarist, singer, songwriter, sound man, and sailor Scott Perkins took inspiration for “Ships & Giggles,” (above-left) his fourth CD, from the sea, specifically his freshwater to saltwater travels aboard the 32-foot DownEast sailing vessel Chip Ahoy.

All of the songs are original tunes. Some arrived organically, during travels on the Gulf of Mexico down to Key West. Other songs were “born” some time ago and now arrive fully evolved on “Ships & Giggles.” “Check out when you’re through” was written 30 years ago in a Milwaukee hotel room; recently rediscovered in one of Scott’s blue composition notebooks aboard Chip Ahoy, it became one of his favorites on the CD, thanks to the addition of keyboards by Paul “Fergie” Keranen.

As he makes his way through Jimmy Buffett country, performing in southern Florida and the Keys, Scott is quite frequently compared to Buffett. “The comparison is flattering, but when people ask me who I sound like or play like, I have to say that I mostly sound like – myself,” says Scott.

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The Historic Village of Boca Grande, on the island of Gasparilla, is located at the southern tip of the Cape Haze Peninsula on Florida’s Southwest Coast midway between Sarasota and Ft. Myers. Nature has blessed this lush barrier island with seven miles of powdery white beaches stretching the entire Gulf side.

Downtown is just a short walk from the marina and the beach, on the Gulf side, not much farther. We spent the afternoon of the day we arrived, and the morning of the day we departed, exploring the town and stopping in a few shops on our way to the beach. The residents on this island zip around on golf carts and seem to be very happy about spending their winters in paradise.

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Before dinner, we got in the dinghy and cruised a nearby canal, this is where we found this very unusual (to us) tree (below). No leaves on the tree just these beautiful bright red, orchid-like, flowers sitting next to some closed-up, brown pods.

Do you know what kind of tree this is?

Please let us know if you do. We haven’t seen another like it, so we think it’s somewhat unusual, but hey, we’re from northern Michigan and a little unfamiliar with tropical plants.

This is the sun (below) just about to set over the houses on the beach. Can you see the halo around it? We’ve seen this a couple of nights on this trip and are not sure what it is. We have seen this around the moon before but not the sun. Could it have something to do with solar storms? We want to call it a solar halo. Beautiful!

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When we’ve been anchoring out a lot we look forward to getting into a big city marina and we can’t think of a better place along this beautiful Gulf Coast than Sarasota. It has everything here to satisfy a cruising boater. Nice marina facilities (Marina Jack), restaurants right on the dock, music to serenade you to sleep, a newer downtown area with shops and more restaurants, and if you happen to be there on a weekend – an amazing farmer’s market and art fair. We love Sarasota!

The Sarasota Farmer’s Market is a visual treat. The quality of produce available is exceptional, we didn’t need a lot since we recently provisioned but we had to buy some fresh corn and watermelon.

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A quiet night and calm waters greeted us at DeSoto Point on the Manatee River (above and below). A few other boats were already anchored for the night when we arrived late afternoon. It was late so we stayed on the boat, made dinner, and enjoyed the sunset.

Longboat Key, a Favorite Anchorage

We are loving the nice January weather, it makes anchoring out a real treat.
We had company tonight when Captain Kathe and a group of women came by to say hi.

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On our way to Gulfport today. Great cruising weather, calm as could be, and not too many boat wakes to contend with and we were happy about that. We’ve heard lots of good reports from other boaters about this little community near St. Petersburg. We made arrangements to stay one night at the Gulfport Marina, just about a mile from the downtown area.

Here’s an artsy idea for your car when it needs a new paint job. Tribal art! This is just a little representation of this little community. Many restaurants along the beach area but lots of art galleries and gift stores dot this small town. Charming.

If you’ve been reading our blogs, you’ll know that sometimes we pass the time playing Liverpool. A fun game and keeps us entertained when there’s not much else to do.

Here is a cute little restaurant, we liked the chalkboard on the door. Instant, directional signage to display specials or to tell you to go around the back.

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Anchoring in Florida is a real treat. Lots of options available, and we decide to try a few new spots (new to us anyways). Instead of anchoring in St. Pete Beach, which we’ve done a couple of times before, we stopped a little earlier and tried this spot off Redington Beach. It turned out to be a picture-perfect spot in a well-protected cove, a good choice for our first night at anchor during this winter trip to Florida.

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We enjoyed using our iPad with the Navionics app to navigate Lake Powell. Great tool, way outperformed our expectations.

This (below) was our carefully saved garbage from our ten-day trip.

We also stowed the extra anchor and line we used while on Lake Powell, we won’t need it again for a while.

We spent one more night at Wahweap Marine getting the boat organized to put back on the trailer to continue our trek east. Rogersville, Alabama (Tennesee River) for the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous, is our next stop before we put Kismet in storage for a few months while we go home for the holidays.

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Jim is an old pro at burying the anchor now. It seems like it only takes a few minutes now to get settled versus the 45 min. we started out with.

Here (above) you can see how our back was protected from wind and wakes off our aft deck.

Our bow headed into this hill, it had the most sand we’ve seen in one spot on the trip at an anchorage.

Morning light on Kismet (above).

Time to leave. We stalled as long as we could pulling up and stowing the anchors. Time to return to Wahweap Marina and civilization once again.

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We found Dungeon Canyon to be quite impressive. It’s another wide open area with lots of sites to beach anchor, and plenty of space between boats for added privacy. As the day progressed, we enjoyed watching the way the light changed on the different rock faces surrounding us as the sun set and the warm, gold glow in the canyon turned more to a pinkish yellow before it cooled off and finally set just before the canyon turned dark.

The view at dusk off the stern of Kismet. (Above)

Jim is giving a demonstration (above and below) on how we embark and disembark the boat when we beach anchored in Lake Powell.

The view at dusk off the starboard side of Kismet. (Above)

You can barely see Kismet here (above and to the left), just a tiny speck in this vast canyon.

Lots of opportunities for beach anchoring in this canyon.

Jim is checking to see if he could get an internet signal (above), using our Liverpool cards as an iPad stand (ingenious). We found that we had to be within sight of Navajo Mountain to get any kind of signal, which made staying in touch a little challenging but we actually welcomed the time to be “unavailable.”

We walked all around our anchorage in search of these Moki (Moqui) Steps (above – left), carved out of the rock by ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Peoples between 700 and 1,700 years ago. After almost two hours of searching, we had given up and turned to go back to the boat but then, in an area, we hadn’t even considered looking, they just kind of popped out at us when we made our way around this big rock.

This is how the light changes at dusk. First, just a less intense gold/orange (above) to finally a cooler pinkish green (below).

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Lisa and I have talked for a long time about our mutual interest in cruising Lake Powell on a houseboat, it’s been on our to-do list for quite some time. For one reason or another, it never worked out until now, although it won’t be on a houseboat but on our very own tug boat, Kismet.

Prior to the building of the Glen Canyon Dam, which was completed in 1963, Lake Powell did not exist and boating was nothing like it is today. It took 17 years to fill the canyons up to their full pool level, which gives you an idea of how much real estate the lake covers. Although the lake is 186 miles long and travels from Arizona to Utah it has over 2,000 miles of shoreline and covers 1932 square miles. Ninety-six major canyons were flooded. The reason it took so long to fill with water is that at full pool the lake rose a total of 440 feet above the average depth of 20 feet of the original river bed.

The reason for our long-time interest in cruising Lake Powell is because of its remarkable natural beauty, colorful canyons, peaks, buttes, and spectacular sunsets.

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Above are photos of a Ranger Tug Rendezvous, courtesy of Herb Stark.

When I was a child, our family would drive to Lake Chemung (Howell, Michigan) to spend summer weekends, a family event I always enjoyed. Like many things children look forward to, like getting to the lake, it never seemed to happen soon enough. If I said it once I’d bet I said it a hundred times, “Are we there yet?” and I’m beginning to feel the same way about heading out west to get back to boating. This time with our Ranger Tug R27 trailerable trawler.

Later this summer we plan to drive 2,400 miles to Kent, Washington, and pick up the R27. We’d like to get onto the water just as soon as we can get the boat into Puget Sound. Gig Harbor will be our first stop, we’ll spend three days getting familiar with our new boat while exploring a port we’ve not visited before. As it worked out MTOA (Marine Trawlers Owners Association) is having a Rendezvous that weekend in Gig Harbor. As members, we’ve only attended one other MTOA Rendezvous, Crisfield, Maryland 2009, and it was a lot of fun.

Hoping to have a bit of the new boat learning curve behind us quickly we’ll cruise north and return to the San Juan Islands, a wonderful cruising area we had the pleasure of exploring in 2007 – it will be great to get some more cruising time in this area. Before we leave Washington State, we’ll also attend the Ranger Tugs Pacific Northwest Rendezvous in Bremerton, Washington. This will be a great opportunity to meet over 40 fellow Ranger Tug owners and learn about their favorite boating experiences. We’ll then trailer our new Kismet south, visiting our son, Ross, in Portland, Oregon where he’s suggested we cruise up the Columbia River, through the beautiful Gorge. After that, it’s on to Lake Tahoe and then over to Lake Powell for more new cruising experiences before we head east for a return to the Tennessee River cruising grounds and another AGLCA Fall Rendezvous.

We find ourselves spending a lot of our free time going over charts and planning routes. Lisa’s also itching to get back on the water. She’d been on a little bit of a hiatus from photography and is now itching to get her gear ready to record all the new adventures and boaters we’ll encounter.

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