We arrived home from the Cleveland/Case Western Reserve Graduation jaunt about dinner time on Sunday, reloaded the car and were on the road again by noon Monday. With launch scheduled for first thing Wednesday, we made a last minute decision to skip Illinois and its traffic nightmares and take the northern route over the bridge instead to ensure we'd have time to do boat work before launch. (Apple maps says it's about the same time either way. It isn't.)
While we were hugging the Lake Michigan north shore, Davi and Lauren were simultaneously closing in on Marinette from the south. They decided to make a one day dash (13 hours) from their East Tennessee vacation paradise. I found a cheap place us all to stay in Marinette; Budget Inn was the big winner at $69/room/night. I admit I was won over by the innkeeper's snarky reply to a lousy review (among many favorable ones) that the complaining lady must've brought her pet cockroach with her. It wasn't fancy but it wasn't bad. You really can't go wrong at a place that features a fish cleaning station as it's leading amenity.
Tuesday was all about finish carpentry for the new navigation system and radio. The old radio would receive Coast Guard broadcasts all the way from Lake Superior but it wouldn't transmit to the bridge operator 100 yards in front of us. The new radio features an AIS transceiver which, when properly programmed with our MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) should allow friend and family to track our whereabouts on the web. There was nothing exactly wrong with the 12 year-old navigation system except that it was badly in need of updated maps and had an absolutely hostile user interface. The new touch screen system seems to be more intuitive. The guys at Nestegg Marine tried to sell us a new radar unit but the ca. 1992 Raytheon green CRT is just too cool...and we know how to use it.
The other 'must do' task before launch was touching up the bottom paint. The hull was in much better shape than Jim remembered so we were able to use some paint from a can they had in the shop instead of shelling out $200 for a gallon of our own. Jim was just finishing up that job when our buddy Mark drove his 70 ton travel lift into the barn and positioned it to hoist us first thing in the morning.
Dinner was at "Brothers Three," a decent pizza and bar food place on the main drag, where we learned that you have to answer a lot of questions if you want to order an Old Fashioned in Wisconsin. 1) Whiskey or Brandy? 2) Sweet, sour, pressed or water? 3) Cherries, mushrooms or olives? (Collectively called "fruit.") Anyhow, you have to answer the questions correctly or they will know you're from Chicago. The pizza was Thai Sweet Chili Chicken and it was delicious. Everyone agreed that shredded carrots, while unusual, are a pretty good topping in that context.
Davi and Lauren retired back to the Budget Inn. Jim went back to the boat where he planned to work an all-nighter on the carpentry projects but kinda fell asleep in the middle of it for a bit. I headed an hour south to Green Bay's Austin Straubel Airport (GRB) to pick up Kent. It's worth digressing to say that Austin Straubel was not a Green Bay Packer as Kent and I guessed, rather he was the first aviator from the area to perish in World War II. Anyhow, Kent's flight was right on time and we quickly checked into the lovely Fairfield Inn at the airport where I did not sleep as well as I had at the Budget Inn...but at least there was breakfast. By the way, Kent says to be sure and catch the amazing display of snow removal equipment at GRB if you happen to be transiting there.
I let Kent drive us back to the marina since he doesn't get much practice in NYC. We pulled into the marina just in time to see the Perseverance emerge from the barn a few minutes ahead of schedule. They must have had a full day of launches lined up. I opened the car door and almost got it wrenched out of my hand by the wind. I began to feel a little tingle of trepidation but I know Mark does not like to launch big boats like ours when there's too much wind, and I have a lot of faith in his judgement.
Mark's part of the dance went fine. The boat splashed gently and precisely into the center of the launch well. I noticed it was kind of straining at its mooring lines on the windward side but we huddled with the marina crew and made a plan to back her out, jog to miss the dock behind us and tie her up on the wall across the way (Shown below as "Plan A.")
"Plan A" didn't happen. Neither did "Plan B." Despite able-bodied dockhands on every line, there was no way Perseverance was going to point her stern upwind, at least not in the limited space available. After several tries, we aborted the maneuver before any damage was done, and Jim kept his fingers WELL away from all tensioned docking lines. We were trapped in the well until the wind died down...and no other boats could launch. I was completely wrung out and napped so hard I barely flinched when Jim started up the diesel right below me. On the plus side, getting the oil change and filter maintenance performed was far easier from this location.
Late in the afternoon, we noticed the wind was not whistling quite as loudly and Mark asked if we wanted to have another go at it. Since I was rested up...and really wanted the ordeal behind me...I agreed to give it a shot. Kent suggested a fairly brilliant plan ("Plan C") that let me turn the bow into the wind and though we had only a couple feet of clearance, it worked like a charm! Jim still had to row the dinghy back over to the sheds to get the outboard installed and a new 6 gallon tank to replace the one he punctured, but was able to motor back. Safely tied off to the end of the dock, we are well and truly launched for 2023.
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