Sailing partners

We have a great crew lined up. Keith Bruch and Darrell Friesen are joining me on the Superior leg. Keith is the fellow I sailed with to Hawaii in 2010 and to St. Martin in 2014. Joann , Andrew and I are lined up for Lake Huron and the Trent-Severn Waterway. All of us own boats and have lots of experience and took the Safety at Sea course this past winter. We picked Duluth as a starting point over Thunder Bay because the roads are flatter and better. As well, there are more places to stop on the south shore compared to the north shore of Superior. Bozidar Modrcin (Bob) is lined up for part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and is going to help me put the boat to rest somewhere (TBD) on the east coast for the winter. Doug

Trailer Test

We hauled Summer Wine into the city on Friday. It towed wonderful - no problems at all. I'm hoping Darrell and Keith can come over to my place on Thursday to look over the sail plan and discuss the Superior leg of the trip. Andrew has the new radio and is coming over on Saturday to install it . So things are coming together. Our boat is now officially Canadian registered and has a new name " Summer Wine II". Doug

Silver Harbour Plunge

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Andrew and I are going to put the boat in the water at Silver Harbour and I have arranged to have my friend Albert make a trailer modification which will allow the boat to come forward a few inches to increase the tongue weight a bit. He has a welder and can do it at his place just one block north of the Silver Harbour. Andrew is lining up his neighbour Frank 's F250 to haul Summer Wine into Winnipeg on May 8th. We are heading out again Thursday night to get the welding done and see if the alternator wants to work this year. It's been intermittent lately and I want it 100% for the trip. I have asked our friend Stephen if he would have a look at it. He said he would and he asked if we could help him launch his boat Friday. Geoff Penner will help pull out our boat on Friday as well. Doug

Planning Trip

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Joann, Andrew and myself are on a mission to check out harbours in Duluth this weekend. So I am typing this out in the car on our way home. We drove down Friday and met up with Amy and two other sailors, Robin and Ian. Robin & Ian hosted dinner at their home on the shore of Lake Superior where we watched big freighters come and go from the port of Duluth. We had a lovely visit and learned lots of things about Duluth, it's harbours and sailing east. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and stopped in at the bar for a night cap before calling it a day. Now here is the funny part. About 2 A.M. when I got up for a pee, I picked the wrong door and ended up in the hallway in my underwear. When I heard the click of the door I knew I was in trouble. I pounded on the door but Joann was sound asleep. So, I had to go down the stairs, cross the road and get another key from the receptionist in the hotel tower across the street, all in my underwear. I reminded myself of the Travelocity commercial on TV. Good thing I don't sleep in the nude. We had a good laugh about that in the morning. We spent Saturday checking out marinas, going as far as Knife River and enjoying the city. Went down to the Canal Park area for a bite to eat in the evening. Doug

Great Lakes Adventure Blog

Great Lakes Adventure Blog "Wouldn't it be fun to ........." It started the same way many great adventures do - as a little seed of an idea. In our case, it was Doug giving voice to the dream of sailing from Lake Superior to the East Coast. Over the years the dream kept niggling away, becoming more insistent. I must admit I was not quite as enthusiastic about this dream as Doug was. For many years the dream remained just that. The reasons not to go were endless. We didn't have an adequate boat, we had teenagers, we couldn't get that much time off work etc..... In 2013 we purchased "Long Tail Kat", a Beneteau First 285, from our good friend Don Gustafson. We knew the boat had been well-maintained and Doug was quite familiar with it, having raced and sailed with Don on many Lake Winnipeg adventures. So now we had an adequate boat. The teenagers grew up and became independent and Doug became self -employed. The excuses were dwindling. In the summer of 2014 we renamed the boat "Summer Wine" and spent the summer familiarizing ourselves with her idiosyncrasies and doing a little bit of tweaking of our own. Doug had found a kindred spirit named Andrew Meyer who was totally excited about the adventure and quickly became Doug's willing "partner in crime" .... And so it was the Great Lakes Adventure entered into the planning phase..... Joann

It's good to have Friends

Just got some exciting news, Darrell Friesen has said he would like to join Keith Bruch and I to sail the Superior leg. With three of us, we can sail a night leg if the weather permits. Received the cruising guide for Superior this week in the mail. I'm meeting with Keith on Wednesday. He is going to review the guide and help formulate the sail plan for this leg. Doug

Plan Plan Plan

I thought I would fill you in on some of the Great Lake Adventure prep I have been working on. I emailed the commodore of the Duluth Yacht Club and told him of our plans and asked if he knew of anyone that could share some local knowledge with us. He put me in touch with Dale and Amy whom we have emailed back and forth a few times. We are going to try and get together with them when we drive down to check out the roads and marinas in the Duluth area, near the end of April. I have got all the U.S. paper charts for Lake Superior and the Canadian paper charts for half of Canada. I think they weigh 30 lbs! I have been busy jumping through hoops with boat registration and radio station licensing but I believe I have it in order now. Andrew is ordering the new AIS/VHS radio. I just received the cruising guides I ordered for the North Channel all the way to Kingston. Doug