Summer 2019 Launch

Monday, June 3rd- Monday June 10

Well we finally launched the boat today. We came up to Northport on the Friday before so John could do some work before they put the boat in the water on Monday. John hoped to be able to clean and wax the boat but that didn’t happen. The boatyard did not want to power wash the bottom of Short Vacation because the ablative paint was really soft and would come off and run into the lake. The bottom does not look so good but when we get back to salt water we will do the paint the bottom and do other required service.

That week-end we stayed in a hotel in Traverse City with Steve and  Diane Koch from Aurora and Tom & Colletta from Greek’s Folly.  

After we launched at Northport Bay Boatyard on Monday we drove the boat over to the G. Marsten Dames marina about a half a mile away. We started cleaning the inside of the boat to get the winter dust out of it. The outside of the boat wasn’t quite as dirty as I thought it would be.  For the next couple of days it took us many cart trips to get everything out of the trailer and the van and loaded back onto the boat.

We went out to dinner a couple nights until we could go back to Traverse City to reprovision.  One night we went to Fischer’s Happy Hour Tavern to try their famous Broasted Chicken. We went to the Historic movie theater in Suttons Bay and saw the movie Rocketman.

After much cleaning, checking engine room things, and general preparation for the season we watched the weather and decided to leave on Tuesday the 11th.  We left our van and trailer at Northport Boatyard for the summer while we cruised.  Our plans are to head up north to re-explore the beloved North channel and go into Lake superior for a little bit.