Organization

The logistics of this boat trip are more complex than with Bob.  We are at home in Franconia, the boat is shrink wrapped in Muskegon, Michigan, we have our stash of boat stuff in a storage unit in Ohio that needs to be retrieved and the boat needs to be moved to Bert Jabin Yacht yard near Annapolis.  Plus, since Bob was a tiny boat, there are many things we didn’t have on board.  There were purchases to be made some large and some small.  We had a full cover made for the boat so when we leave her various places, she will stay clean and dry.  We were fortunate to have found a canvas maker on the East Coast that had the pattern for our boat.  It is made of a lighter weight fabric suitable for storage in warm climates.  We are adding a windlass as well.  Driving a boat from a flybridge makes anchoring a whole different game than a sailboat.

We had Bob in our driveway before we trailered down south.  We could measure her, work on stuff and put things away.  That’s not possible now so planning is a bit more complicated. Our intention is to leave Thursday morning and drive to the far side of Chicago for the night.  We will leave early the next morning and drive up the coast of Lake Michigan to Muskegon.  This is a beautiful drive!  There are many scenic, little towns along the way begging for further exploration–maybe we will get our work done early!   I hope to get to Holland, Michigan to see the tulip festival.  I did this as a young girl with my parents, grandparents and brother Kevin.  I remember the windmills and something about grandma watering down grandpa’s brandy!

In Muskegon, we need to get rj ready for the shipper.  Hopefully the shrink wrap guy got a chance to unwrap the boat.  We need rj to be under 13′ for traveling through the highway bridges on the way.  So, we will need to lower the instrument pod and remove the railing on the flybridge.  We need the radar removed or secured someway for 60 mph travel.  We need to tape the hatches.  The propellers need to be removed but we hired the yard to do that part.  We hope to get the name on the back of the boat changed.  Everything needs to be secure inside for the roadtrip.  We have a long list!!!  The shipper will be there early so we hope he will do a check for us.

We will be staying in Muskegon for 3 nights.  We are hopeful to see Ron, the former owner of our boat.  He purchased an older Chris Craft Roamer (I love those boats).  We hope to see it and spend some time with him.

We also need to unpack the stuffed Tahoe and give Coconut back her back seat!!  Poor doggie, she is used to stretching out 😉…

The boat leaves Michigan Monday morning and so do we.  We will be driving to Ohio and renting a u-haul.  Then we need to get all the items from the storage shed:  inflatable boat, outboard, bike and tubs of “boat stuff” .

We want to stop at Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl again!  Check it out:  tomsicecreambowl.com    A wonderful spot we found from a great road food website.

We will spend one night on the road and then land in Annapolis to begin putting the boat back together.  The boat yard does not put boats in the water on the weekend so we will have to see how it goes.  We reserved a room nearby.  No climbing ladders at night for this girl.

Hopefully, everything will go as scheduled and we will be rendezvousing with rj on the 16th of May!!