Many folks missing due to Hook and Mac races and personal boat trips. Carol came to see Pat and I off and visit her boat friends. Steve and Sharon, Rick and Nancy, Steve and Gayle were there. Steve and Gayle are contemplating following my tracks in a few years when they retire, so I am blazing the trail for them. Just as others have blazed the trail before me. The next post will be Monday as I start the Great Lakes part of my journey.

The time to leave is coming. One leak fixed, another leak still unresolved. The critical leak from one of the solar arch legs was fixed. That leaked water into the storage area shown in the blog photo. Down below, hold contents were rearranged and things stored for the trip. Below deck, I can finally walk and sit down, but some areas are still crowded.

Some equipment on deck was rearranged, two of the four jerry jugs (hold extra diesel fuel) were secured to the deck, even though they are empty right now. No room for them down below. Both water tanks are filled. Sailing books and clothes are moved aboard. I was supposed to read the books before I left. Still time before I get to the ocean.

Pat is starting the trip with me. We leave Monday morning. First stop - Milwaukee.

My dock mates, Steve and Betsy Lazerow on my port, Steve and Sharon Scheff on my starboard, took Pat and I out to dinner as a way to say farewell. Steve Lazerow will be doing the Hook Race again this year, so he will be gone the weekend before Pat and I leave for Milwaukee to start my journey, so they took us out this weekend. Pat is doing the first ten days of the trip up to Door County and Green Bay.

Well, it was bound to happen, and I guess there will be more issues like this in the journey to come. Pat brought the dinghy motor to the boat Saturday, since I brought the raft and propane tank, but forgot the motor. We then tried to mount the motor on the engine mount built into the solar arch. The mount is too high up in the arch, making it nearly impossible for one, or even two people to get the motor on the mount. You have to rotate the 35 pound motor sideways to get it to fit under the solar panels and onto the mount. Doing it from the dinghy would be impossible. So the motor will have to go back to the stern pulpit like last year. And I have to find a new place for the grill currently mounted there.

I am at Larsen Marine today. I have finished the last four major projects. The ocean genoa is hoisted and furled, ready to go. I replaced the CNG tank for the stove. Got the last one before the Mac racers, even though I made sure two weeks ago there would for sure be a tank for me. I cleaned out the hold where the tank goes, throwing out the last styrofoam lining the hull. In this case it blocked the drainage access to the bilge. So it was wet. Removed the wet filth and lined the bottom with DriDek. Got a topping lift installed. This was a new item. It is needed to protect the solar arch. It keeps the boom from drooping too low while sailing and therefore when the boom swings across, it clobbers and destroys the arch. Yesterday, the boom tent was dropped off (see photo for this blog). This is critical to keeping the sun off the deck so one doesn't bake down below. It will also be used to collect rain water. So all my critical items are now checked off. What is left is checking out the dinghy and organizing/removing what is currently on the boat and stowing provisions.

It is the middle of the night and I am off Milwaukee. There is always one ship I look out for here: Lake Express. Sure enough, the AIS picks it up about 10 miles away coming from across the lake. So at midnight it passes .3 miles right in front of me. At night, lights look a lot closer than they really are, so I unnecessarily slow down right before it crosses. After traveling 11 hours, if I had been three minutes further south, someone would have had to alter course.