Blind River, Ont

We sailed 49 miles today.  We thought we'd check out this place called Pilot's Cove but we got inside the entrance (only about 30 ft wide..............we need 24)  but once we were inside it felt way too close so we opted for Blind River.  It's worked out just great since we have internet here.  Once again great docks and really nice people............the marina let us call a local restaurant (Eldo's) and the owner came and picked us up and we went to dinner.  We got back for dinner and this is the best sunset shot we could get............more to follow..............

Harbor Island, Mi

Just a short sail on Friday 7/25, only 9 mile from De Tour and still in US waters...........we stayed here 3 nights.  The crew from Nelda Ray came in and we had a great time visiting with them.  Grey Hound and Nelda Ray were built at the factory in Oz at the same time...........they are true sisterships..............How about our 6 hull raft up?

De Tour, Mi.

 We're 40 miles further east and De Tour

is a great harbor.  Population 350 and 

the locals are great!  Great dock hands

and beautiful facility at only $34 per 

night..........had cofffee at the Garage

with some of the locals and found 

the "Ancient Mariner" on the way 

home

We returned to Mackinac Is one more time because some celebrity burned out the pump-out at St Ignace..........what a pretty setting........... Good Bye, Mackinac Is.  Grey Hound is moving EAST!!

Mackinac Island

Wednesday, July 23 was spent on the island doing  a little riding......yep, that's me. and Anne finally got back into the saddle.  A good dinner at the Irish Pub and it's off to new places the following day.

Right now we are in De Tour Marina on the Upper Peninsula heading for Harbor Island for a get together with Nelda Ray.  The forecast is for a little rain today and tomorrow but then we should have a good weather window.

We are now finished with racing for our trip.  We had a lot of fun and both Anne & I thank Jason, Bob and Tom for all the help.  We couldn't have done it without all the family.......a total of 349 miles was traveled over the course of the race.  Now it's off to cruising!

To start the cruise I got a little "luck" dropped on me....yep, just take a good look at the shoulder.

The finish is in sight!!!

The finish is right around the corner.  Over all the race took us 54 hours and we saw a little bit of all sorts of weather.  A little more wind in the right direction would have been preferred but you can't have it all.  We did finish ahead of Earth Voyager and the Gunboat and missed Nelda Ray by 2 minutes on corrected time!

It was an unbelievable experience and both Anne and I are very happy to get Tom's, Bob's and Jason's wet and smelly boat shoes on shore!  The party the next day at the Grand Hotel was fun and we finally met up with Jeff and Cathy from Otium.

At last....Grey's Reef Lighthouse....

We have been sailing hard all day and it looks like we can make it to the island before dark.  We had one little "no wind" period but it came back and we are just passing the lighthouse.  A very welcome sight for everyone.  Now all we need to do is to go up the channel and take a right to head for the "bridge" 20 miles away.

Monday AM

At dawn we finally came out of unbelievable fog.  We all spent the night looking out for boats coming out of the fog.  The wind just started building and Grey Hound started booking!  NOW....we started passing boats in the gray of the morning.  It is 5am and we can see land and over 100 boats are around us.  An awesome sight and we are on the second part of the race.  From the Manitou Islands up to Grey's Reef is approximately 70 mile run of passing all those monohulls.

Our one sunset!

It is now Sunday and we finally get to see the sun.  The first night was FOG, fog and more fog.  Oh yes, did I mention we had no wind for 4 hours?  Jason and Dick sat in the cockpit and watched the water not move for hours......yuck!  But we weren't alone so we decided to be patient and wait it out.  Eventually a little breeze came up and north bound once again.

We were off at the correct time.  We crossed Earth Voyager on starboard and things were looking good for a short while.........then the wind decided to stop blowing.  In came the rain and we sat for way too long.  Finally we started moving north.........329 miles to go!

The Race has started!

It's Saturday, July 19 and we are just about ready to get under way.  The rain is coming down and the forecast is all over the place so we will try to stay near the rhumbline and see what happens.  The "i-boat" tracker is working as it's showing Grey Hound at the dock moving at 0 knots.  With luck that will change in a couple of hours.

Our starting time is 2:30pm central time pending no delays.

We've made it to Chi-town!

right now we are rafted up to Nelda Ray in front of the Chicago Yacht club.  We have a great spot and it's amazing how small we look next to the Gunboat 62.  Oh well.....we'll just try harder

Launching was fun......the ramp was 11 feet wide so that meant we had 9 inches on both sides and the walls were very high. 

we are on the road again!

Tom,  Anne and I are now in Elkhart, Indiana.....just had a good meal at the Texas Roadhouse (yes, ate in Texas but we're in IN) so tomorrow we are off to the Chi-town........

here we go.......

The GHP (Grey Hound Puller) is packed and we head to Fair Point in the morning

Anne and I spent most of the day getting ready for the road trip.  we have the Tundra packed and now we have to hussle to get Grey Hound on the trailer......tuesday is coming at us fast!

Chicago....here we come!

It is now t-minus 9 days and counting until the start of the 100th running of the Chicago-Mac race.  We are all getting ready and are really exciting about seeing all the boats together!