Week 9

Sep 8-14

Monday
We were off the dock at 7 am to catch the best weather possible. We headed 35 nautical miles to Frankfort MI. It was the bumpiest ride we've had yet! We will probably have to stay here until Thurs. Due to high winds and waves.

Our fresh water pump broke. It flushes the toilet provides water for sinks and the shower. Ed spent hours working on that. It's so great that other boaters jump in with ideas and help. We were able to hook up to the city water for now. Ed ordered a new pump. Ours is discontinued so hopefully the new one fits! Ed glued ours together and wired it to hold the glue down and it worked.

We went to our first docktails. There were 6 couples. Two of them are crossing their wake and the rest of us are very new. It's so fun meeting new people, hearing their stories, and learning new things.

Frankfort is known for its maritime history and was a lumber town.

Tuesday
We went in the morning with Jeff and Shelly for a walk to the beach and the Betsie lighthouse. The beaches here are so nice. The temperature is rising a little, but it was still really windy.
We ate lunch on the boat, since most of the places here are closed on Mon. and Tues.

In the afternoon Ed and I went for a long scooter ride following a bike path around this Betsie bay and up the river. The scenery was beautiful and the leaves are just starting to turn.
Ed fixed the water pump. Woot woot! I cleaned the teak wood on the bow and railings. It took several times of scrubbing rinsing repeat to get them clean. I had to let them completely dry before applying the oil. The oiling will have to wait till tomorrow. There's still the swim deck and stairs to do.

We grabbed dinner in town.
We had a missionary training meeting but it wasn't until 10:30 out time. We were just too tired to stay up for it. Luckily it was recorded.

Wednesday
We spent the morning doing boat projects. I oiled the teak and cleaned more off. It looks so much better. Ed did engine stuff.

After our institute class, we rented scooters with Jeff and Shelly and went exploring. We were gone for a couple of hours and saw some beautiful beaches, a lighthouse, and the darling town of Beaulah.

We received the Amazon packages that Ed had ordered. Went to dinner with Jeff and Shelly and talked to E J. for 2 hours. He was so upset about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It's such a devastating tragedy and shocking that it occurred 20 miles from our house in little Orem Utah. Unbelievable!

Thursday
We said good bye to Jeff and Shelly LaViolette. They're headed across the lake to Wisconsin to cross their wake. It's been such a pleasure getting to know them and spend time with them. They've been so kind and super helpful.
We went to play tennis. We finally found a tennis court about a mile away. The tennis and pickle ball courts looked brand new. It was so great to get my tennis fix!

We left the marina and headed south. We thought the water would be a lot smoother. It was pretty roly poly. We traveled 45 nautical miles to Ludington, MI. This town is bigger with several marinas. It has a state park near by, Hamlin lake a land a maritime museum. There's plenty to do.

We had a bit of a snafu at the marina! Right after we got fuel, we were heading to our slip when Ed lost all capability for propulsion. Luckily the winds were blowing a little and pushed us right to a slip. I could throw the lines to the dock hands and Ed used the thrusters and we got in the slip. Ed figured out we lost our prop!!! Ed walked over to the finger dock across from us and he could see the prop on the bottom about 10 ft down. He called to hire a $250 dollar per hour diver to come in the morning, but a neighbor boater offered to go over in his dingy and dive down. He hooked a line to the prop and pulled it up. He put it on his dingy and brought it over to the boat. What a life saver. People are just so kind and willing to help!!! The prop is worth $4000. We scheduled to have the boat pulled out tomorrow so hopefully we'll get the prop put back on. Ludington is a great place to be stuck for a few days. We feel so blessed that we were in the marina and a great place to get parts and get it fixed. The prop nut just fell off. The prop was probably loose for our entire 45 mile journey on a rough lake Michigan and had it fallen off out there it could have been dangerous. The forward thrust held it on until we finally put it in reverse at the marina. Unbelievably lucky. What a blessing for us.

Friday
First thing this morning we were towed to the boat yard. We are so blessed that it's a beautiful day. It could've been cold and rainy and miserable. But it's warm and sunny.

The boat was lifted out of the water. We needed a special metric piece to put the prop back on with. The yard man didn't have one. He hopped in his van and went looking. Then he called everywhere close by. No one has this part. It's from France! Ughh. Then Ed thought he remembered seeing a part the previous owner had. He pulled it out. Sure enough he had one! While the boat was out of the water, Ed was able to scrape off the barnacles. There were surprisingly few.

We worked on the boat the rest of the day. I cleaned the swim deck to get it ready to oil. We both worked on the white decking. Ed replaced the hatch seal. Hopefully he's fixed the leak for good.

We went out to dinner and were pooped for the rest of the night.

Saturday
I oiled the swim deck this morning. Now all of the teak is oiled. It looks really nice. We trawled 12 nautical miles down to Pentwater MI. The water was pretty good till the end. Then the fetch was reaching us with 2-3 footers.

We went on a 4 mile walk around town, up to the museum, and out to the end of the canal. In the 1800s a man dug out the canal making a passage from the lake Pentwater to lake Michigan. This opened up the industry of logging and Pentwater grew from this industry. Now it's a big charter fishing industry. It's a darling town!

Sunday
Our prayers were answered today as we found a ride to church!!! We have been surprised at how difficult it has been to get to church. We counted on Uber only to learn that these small communities don't have Uber and our scooters can't go more than 10 miles away. We're not comfortable riding them on major highways either. Ed was able to find the bishop's phone number and texted that we were in Pentwater and hoping there was a member nearby that could give us a ride. The bishop reached out to a man who was willing to come get us. Turns out he doesn't even live here in Pentwater. He's about 20-25 min away from us! We're so grateful he was willing to come get us and bring us back. He said the ward's boundaries are 40 x 70 miles. He said there are members who spend almost 2 hours every Sunday morning going around to pick people up for church. He also said it's a poor community and many people don't have cars. It's a huge service for these people just to give rides to church and the other activities. The building itself is one of the smaller designs. The chapel also doubled as the cultural hall. They have chairs instead of pews. The organ was electronic. The organist doesn't play the organ she just programed in the song, but today it was someone who didn't really know how to do it. Each verse the tempo got faster and faster or sometimes between verses it went to another song and she was scrambling to get back to the right song. One verse was so fast the music leader was really swinging her arm and most people started laughing. It was an interesting experience. We love visiting all these small wards and branches. Before church started a man came to introduce himself and said welcome to the heart of the church. He then explained we were in Hart Michigan! The meetings were great and the spirit was strong. Nice to get the sacrament!

These last couple of days have been gorgeous- low 80s!!!
We met another looping couple from Bountiful Utah. Their boat name is Bad Parents. Ha ha! Brad and Julie Nelson. Super nice couple. We spent a couple of hours chatting with. It turns out their grandson was serving in Guayaquil South mission at the same time we were there in Ecuador serving. Small world!