Three Score ( & Jupiter Shine) - August, 2021

It is nothing but an arbitrary number. Just an integer, mildly interesting in that it is evenly divisible by every whole number up to 6. Today it is the total of my trips around the sun since my mother (nearly) bore me in a taxicab in Sioux Falls, SD while my dad was working out of town. Dad had used up all his vacation painting the house and waiting for me, but since I wouldn’t come on time, he had to go back to work and the cab driver’s wife knitted me a nice pair of booties. Just today, Mom told me Dad was even later to the hospital than he should have been because he needed to stop someplace in Minnesota to watch a AAA league baseball game.

At exactly half my current age, Lori and I were at 38,000 feet aboard one of the very last flights of the famed Pan Am airlines, bound for Helsinki on our first trip abroad together. I was a grad student, STILL playing catch-up with my math and slogging through research. Lori was supporting us by being underemployed at a moderately misogynistic computer company. We didn’t have the money, but we went anyway because our friends Erkki and Arja Niskanen had invited us, and they had a boat.

That trip to the Nordic lands was pretty magical. We were about to have to fully transition into adulting mode and embark on long-term career and parenting campaigns that we knew were going to span decades. I recall feeling pleased when I told my boss (I was also working part-time) how much time I needed off, and he mused “I wish I could have done that back before kids and work ate my life.”

Three cats and a bird later, I today find myself in the future and slightly disbelievingly, typing onboard a boat that we own. Last evening, Lori and I were hiking the perimeter of a heart-stoppingly beautiful little peninsula within Big Bay De-Noc (at the north end of Lake Michigan’s Green Bay). The shoreline was shaded with tall cedar, centuries old, but with slim trunks. The skies were clear, and from the water’s edge we could see cliffs to our north, and looking to the west across the bay we could make out distant parts of Michigan’s upper peninsula. We were just soaking it all in when Lori’s phone rang.

Weirdly enough, we were happy with the interruption. It was my niece Ella calling from on-board the U.S.C.G.’s training ship, the 295’ three masted Barque Eagle. It was a damn video call from a seaport in New England to us in a remote-as-heck tiny harbor in the north woods. We ooh’ed and ahh’ed at the rigging that she’d already climbed part-way up, and she got to see our stunning dolomite cliffs and fresh-water horizon. She’s now past all but the good parts of her U.S.C.G. “boot camp,” and will be continuing her training at the academy in New London, CT. Despite the often-discouraging onslaught of negative news forced into our brains, living in the future isn’t all bad.

We have my entire immediate family on-board. Plus a cat. Kent and Hannah flew in from Manhattan, while Davi and Lauren drove down from Hancock. This is something we hoped would happen (well, not the cat part), and was a major reason we acquired the Perseverance, despite the admonitions from our accountant. The boat with its three cabins and two heads has sufficient accommodations for this many people, though we’re not yet sure for how long.

We took a little shake-down cruise with everyone aboard a couple days back, just around Escanaba, after the weather calmed down a bit. I retrieved our outboard from the repair shop, installed it on our RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat), and concluded that ol’ Dave really knows how to fix a motor. The dinghy handles beautifully and is quick once getting up on a plane. We hung around town for a day of biking and “Marina Fest” where we enjoyed the Yooper bands (one with a wicked-good Tuba instead of bass guitar) playing on a ramshackle portable stage covered with repurposed sailboat jibs.

Yesterday, Lori decreed that we set out for Fayette after the completion of the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Kent has sucked both Hannah (and her sister, Maddie) into F1 drama. It’s about a 4-hour cruise from Escanaba, south through some shoals, and northeast up into Big Bay De Noc. Fayette is a Michigan Historic State Park, on the site of a once-bustling industrial community that smelted UP iron ore into ingots destined for Detroit and Chicago. It last operated in 1891, but its charcoal fueled furnaces produced pig iron for a half-century. It is remote as heck, but was viable due to abundant hardwood (for making charcoal), towering dolomitic limestone cliffs to quarry for building materials & cook into lime and a little jewel of a deep harbor to receive a steady supply of Negaunee range ore shipped by barge from Escanaba. The state has been slowly restoring the site since 1959, and by now, it has up-to-date facilities and open buildings to complement the surrounding natural beauty.

The water was rough enough that we saw very few other boats. The Perseverance shrugged off the wind and chop with little concern, but the boat’s yaw due to the following seas did make the cat puke again. No problem, he was in his box – part of the “Leaving Port Check List,” item 8: “secure all portholes and crate the cat.”

Working off some internet aerial photos and harbor guides, Lori brought us into the harbor, keeping the red bell buoy to starboard, and lined us up with slip #8 for her preferred starboard docking. She had to crab a bit into the wind and had us close enough to the finger pier to step off and tie up. I opened the starboard side-deck door a bit earlier than I probably should have, and the boat’s door jamb hung up briefly on the pier’s 1st 6x6 piling, but after docking, everything looked good but for another tiny bit of cosmetic damage. I continue being impressed at how much momentum the Perseverance possesses, even at trifling speeds. A quick calculation reveals that at ¼ mph, the Perseverance will exert a force of 800 pounds on something for 1 second before halting. Or, you would have to push with 100 pounds for 8 seconds to arrest that motion. The previous owner correctly warned us about the Perseverance that “she’ll snap off 6” x 6” pilings like matchsticks.”

We had a quick on-board lunch, then everybody (but the sulking cat) went out to explore. It’s so nice to have self-sufficient family around, we just all agreed on dinner at 7ish, and did our own exploring. It was too windy for the dinghy, but there were trails galore with amazing views. After a nice dinner-aboard, we strolled, played cards, read and talked till bedtime. Then we remembered Fayette’s super-power… due to its remoteness, it is a dark skies park. At midnight, all the clouds were gone, so we went out on the aft deck. Our neighbor boats all had considerately pulled their blinds. The moon had set, and the milky way was brilliant. Davi pointed out the string of satellites on polar orbit, and we spotted several shooting stars. Just now, both Jupiter and Saturn happen to be in opposition to earth, and at their most visible. Jupiter was high enough in the sky to clear the cliffs across the harbor to the north and was dazzlingly bright. Kent pointed out that we could actually see Jupiter’s reflection on the rippling surface of Snail Shell harbor.

Pretty Magical. I’m glad we didn’t do the sensible thing and wait to get our boat.

I’ve had a Happy Birthday.