I was so excited, and anxious, about our first cruise of the season to Horseshoe Island that I was awake by 03:00 hours this morning. This is the first time our boat had been out other than a short run into the Bay of Green Bay to see how she ran and handled.

Ed told me the night before that we would be lucky to leave by 11:00. I was on the boat by 7:00am getting last minute things taken care of. I moved the boat over to the fuel pump and topped off the tanks. It took 16 gallons, 9 in the starboard and and 7 in the port tank. I then washed the bugs off the cabin top and forward deck. By then it was a little after 09:00.

I went to the motorhome and Barb was still sleeping. I woke her up to get her going. She still had to load on the cold items into the fridge and we had to get ice. We went into town and got 4 blocks of ice and two 20 pound bags ice and and a fast brunch at Hardiee's and was back to the boat before 11:00.

It was after 13:00 until Ed got his boat fueled up and ready to go. We left first, then Ed and Karla followed. We hadn't got a quarter mile down the river when Ed called me on the radio saying he was having trouble with his port engine and was going to return to the yacht club. He told Karla to follow me and he would catch up in a little bit.

I had never been to Horseshoe Island so Ed showed me a couple of nights before where it was on a chart. The following day I did plot a course on my computer charts and entered waypoints into my GPS. My course wasn't quite like Ed's so I still wanted to follow Ed because I wasn't familiar with the bay.

Well here goes, a 40 mile cruise, with someone following me, and I wasn't sure just were I was going. But I had to keep cool so Barb would think that I knew what I was doing.

We got out into the bay and everything was great. You couldn't ask for a better day to cruise. I set the tacks at 2600 RMP giving us about 15 to 16 MPH on the GPS and followed the course that I had plotted the day before. About 3 hours later we came in the little bay at Horseshoe Island.

There were only three other boats here at the island when we arrive, a sail boat, a larger yacht, and a day cruiser with children onboard. Ed wanted us to tie up to the wall if it was available, and it was. As we came in, I looked at the wall and thought to myself, this was going to be tricky. As I got closer, the water got shallower. The water was so clear it was no problem seeing the bottom 20 feet down. I tied up to the wall and then helped Karla get her boat tied up in front of us. I pulled it off; we got here safely, no problems with our boat or Karla's boat, and then it was cocktail time. We called Ed on the cell phone and he was still back at the yacht club with engine problems.

Ed called later in the evening letting us know that he couldn't get the parts he needed until 07:30 the next morning. No problem. Karla, Barb and I sat on our aft deck listening to music and having a few drinks and sandwiches and chips for dinner.