Sailing Meadowhawk

Time to turn around and head home

2017-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

After the north channel, our schedule was dictated by getting to the apostle Islands, near home, in time for Ethan’s annual birthday camp weekend. So it was go-go-go when the weather was good for going. We had a couple days of strong East winds and covered some serious ground. We even sailed UP most of the St. Mary’s river. Yes, we sailed up stream. It was so windy, we were still often doing 8kts with a current against us. It was amazing.

After the river, we stopped in Sault Ste Marie and happened to be there for the start of the Trans-Superior yacht race. The George Kemp marina was completely packed and it was fun to see the fancy race boats and catch up with sailor friends. I’m not a racer, but I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Time to turn around and head home was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 30, 2017.

Heather and Ethan Arrive

2017-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The rest of the cruise was very different. Until now, I’ve spent all my focus on covering miles and finding cell coverage so I can work. Heather and Ethan joined me for the sail home and it was more like a vacation…time to take it easier. While I still kept up with working, I also took some time off. Another on the want to see list for the summer was the fabled North Channel of Lake Huron in Canada. I don’t generally believe the hype when people talk up their cruising grounds. There are a lot of great places, but they can’t all be the best in the world! This place blew away even the hype. We only scratched the surface in the week or so we were there, and if we’re not for schedules and oncoming fall then winter, I’d probably never have left. It’s that good. The pictures are amazing, but don’t even begin to describe what a gem this place is.

Heather and Ethan Arrive was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 15, 2017.

On to Grandma's party

2017-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

After a few days in a favorite port of Leland, MI and then anchored under the sleeping bear sand dunes that tower 450 ft above the lake, I had a good forecast to sail to my main summer target of Grandma Carol’s 90th bday in Escanaba, MI. I don’t keep accurate records but this had to be my fastest passage to date. I was rarely below 9kts for the entire day and often peaking to 13kts. It was a rough, exhausting, and exhilarating day. The calm of being anchored in the completely protected tiny lake in Escanaba was a wildly stark contrast of the previous day and even previous weeks. It felt good to be safe and get some rest…at least after the 50kt thunderstorms stopped blowing through in the middle of the night.

On to Grandma's party was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 04, 2017.

Mackinac Straights

2017-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

This next stretch was a slog. I waited as long as I could in Les Cheneaux Islands, but i needed to be underway. I spent 70 miles slamming into headwinds and waves in the narrow mackinaw straights. I was so happy to arrive in Charlevoix, but as it turns out, this place was way to fancy for me. However, it was a well protected anchorage which are few and far between in this part of Lake Michigan, so I stayed for a few days and… You guessed it. Worked. I was badly missing my cove and the loons in Les Cheneaux.

Mackinac Straights was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on June 28, 2017.

Les Cheneaux Islands

2017-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

I was so lucky, once again, to find a secluded anchorage in the Les Cheneaux Islands with great 4G to wait out some weather. I just sat swinging on the hook for a few days keeping up with work, enjoying the quiet, and watching the Loons. They seem to love to come out on gray rainy days. Maybe the fishing is good.

At this point, I was 500 nm into the trip and still hadn’t shared an Anchorage with another boat. In fact I had only seen one other pleasure boat underway.

Les Cheneaux Islands was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on June 21, 2017.

Down the St. Mary's River

2017-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

St. Mary’s river connects lake Superior to Lake Huron which makes it a major highway for the huge lakers and salties (international ocean going ships)that transport goods across the great lakes and over-seas. The last time I transited the river it was a dark dark night and it turns out my vhf wasn’t receiving, so I had a scary crossing in a narrow cut. This time couldn’t have been more different. It was a bright-blue-sky-sunny type day. I left the Soo in the morning, under sail, screaming down wind and down current. I normally expect to motor on rivers but the wind was perfect. Lucky me.

Down the St. Mary's River was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on June 21, 2017.

Solo Sail Across Lake Superior

2017-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was early in the season (June 15) when I left, so that meant fog/cold on Lake Superior. I was in fog about 40 percent of the time while under way. The day I wanted to leave it was 40f and raining. I opted to stay at the dock and pack supplies away.

I may sound like I’m complaining, but especially when I’m alone and don’t have to be concerned for other’s comfort, I still enjoy my time afloat in adverse weather. I’m probably just describing it to make myself sound tough, which is pretty far from the truth. When it’s cold, I’m ususally hiding in my sleeping bag with the propane heater on full blast.

The solitary nature of solo sailing is nice, but I was working remotely at my job on non-sailing days, so I was in regular contact with other humans. I couldn’t do it without Verizon 4G.

I did it in 4 legs.

Duluth to Copper Harbor (176 nm)
Copper Harbor to Grand Marais, MI (90 nm) - tried for W.F. point, but wind shift made me redirect
Grand Marais to Whitefish Point (50 nm)
Whitefish Point to Sault Ste. Marie (35 nm)

I tend to prefer longer legs, so that I can spend more time hanging in favorite harbors keeping up with my job. I enjoy the sailing days immensely, but swinging on the hook is equally enjoyable to me. When I have to do lots of daily short hops, I have a hard time keeping up with business. All in all, the trip across Lake Superior was without major excitement, and filled with beautiful remote areas that you can only see by boat.

Solo Sail Across Lake Superior was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on June 15, 2017.

Summer Sailing

2016-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

I mysteriously lost most of the pictures from our summer circle tour. This is what I could find. Basically the sunset is from the day before we left and there are a few from the Apostle Islands just before we got home. That’s it!

Summer Sailing was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 27, 2016.

bit of spring sailing

2016-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Summer has not yet made its appearance around here, but we’ve had a few nice spring days. We’re currently keeping the boat at Barker’s Island Marina in Superior, WI. We’re going to stick around Duluth for a bit since Ethan is taking a sailing class from the Duluth Superior Sailing Association in June, but after that’s over, we’ll set off to explore this end of Lake Superior as well as enjoy the Duluth area summer festivities.

A childhood friend and his family joined us for our first sail.

I tried to get out for a quick solo sail, but just as I left the marina the weather alerts went bonkers. I anchored in a safe spot and let the brief storm packing 50kt winds pass by.

I finally was able to test out spinnaker sailing and it was amazing. The wind wasn’t strong and I was hitting 8kts. It dropped below 10 and I was still doing 5-6. I still have a lot to learn about trimming the sail, and I think it’s a bit small for my boat, but I was in bliss.

bit of spring sailing was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on June 07, 2016.

2016 launch!

2016-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

We did it! This is my 3rd launch and it gets easier every time. Everything went smoothly due entirely to the pros at Barker’s Island Marina. Ethan and I rode in the boat while they drove us the long way round to the launch ramp and then we motored over to a slip just before the rain started again. It couldn’t have gone better. You can see most of the track we followed above, but I forgot to start the tracker at the beginning, so it appears like we started in the middle of the road.

slowly driving through the parking lot

we blocked traffic for about 10 minutes, but we let cars pass a few times. We took up both lanes and were going at a slow walking speed.

Just about to hit the water.

2016 launch! was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on May 27, 2016.

Spring Projects

2016-05-13T00:00:00+00:00

After 7 years of building and last spring with a huge list of additional projects, it was a great relief to have such a short list of work to do this spring. I would’ve preferred to be launched already since we’ve had some nice days, but I have a few projects that need warm weather and must be out of the water to be done. So, I wait.

It has been a little of everything this year. I’ve been improving the interior with lots of little upgrades. After two seasons living aboard, I’ve learned what does and doesn’t work. It’s a bit of a challenge to show pictures of the interor right now because every surface is covered in tools or supplies.

I’m making some tweaks to the rigging/sail plan by adding a spinnaker and making some experimental projects from last season permanent since they worked so well. Really, I just wanted an excuse to dust off my splicing skills and do some rope work again.

I’ve got lots of “like-to-have” projects on the backlog, but I’m taking it easy. Things were pretty good on the boat, so I’m not going to knock myself out this spring to make it that much better. I’ll get to them in time. The funny thing is that this spring feels like nothing, but it’s probably more hours than I ever spent prepping previous boats for the water. Maybe someday I’ll just be able to clean a few things up and launch. Someday.

Without pictures there is no post…

I had to make a few trips up the mast because Selden messed up the VHF cable when they assembled the mast. I couldn’t figure why I had such terrible reception last year…now I know.

A spinnaker from a previous boat seems like it will fit close enough for learning on.

patching up another old sail

tools tools everywhere

projects aren’t the only thing holding me back from sleeping aboard. It’s cold!

Spring Projects was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on May 13, 2016.

Fall sailing

2015-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

After the summer fun in August, the weather turned to fall, but the sailing was still excellent. We decided the boat would winter at Barker’s Island and we would winter in Duluth, so there was still some time for fun day sails and a quick trip to Grand Marais for a music festival and then on to Isle Royale. I had been dreaming of sailing to Isle Royale for years and wasn’t disappointed. It truned out to be a quick trip due to cold and wet weather, but I’m glad we went. We were there for a couple days and a few hikes. It was also our longest passage yet at 140nm. In addition to that, we had a blast taking numerous guests out for day sails around Duluth.

Leaving the Superior, WI entry en route to Isle Royale

Rock Of Ages Lighthouse Lake Superior

Crew atop an overlook on Isle Royle

We hiked out of Windigo ranger station for a few days.

View of Washington harbor just before we sailed off to take advantage of the NE winds to push us back to duluth.

Day sails out of Duluth

Finally the season ends, like it always has before, with a haulout.

Fall sailing was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on September 01, 2015.

onwards

2015-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

After Heather left, we had about 3 weeks to sail to Grand Marais, MN where I had a work commitment. Yeah, schedules no good with boating, but I do still have a full time job and business is business. As a backup, I could have left the boat somewhere and drove back. So we embarked on a whirlwind tour of Lake Michigan, the St. Mary’s River, and the south shore of Lake Superior before we crossed to Grand Marais, MN with a few days to spare. It turned out to be a leisurely trip. We sailed every few days and while in harbor we swam, worked, swam, worked, made food, and slept. It was an ideal relaxing great lakes break in period. We did some exploring ashore, but mostly kept to business aboard.

A big storm passed over us our first day out after Heather left

Mackinaw bridge

entry to the St. Mary’s River

we’re hiding well outside the channel so these 1000 foot long boats could cross.

Sault Ste. Marie is an ideal place for ship watching. Everything in or out of Lake Superior passes the marina.

Finally back in my home waters of Lake Superior and its vast expanses.

Every stop was my favorite stop, but this really was. The Whitefish point harbor of refuge is in a beautiful and remote location. We even had friends drive all the way from Muskegon to see us and we visited the nearby shipwreck museum together.

The Edmund Fitzgerald rests on the bottom near here. The bell was recovered and brought to the museum. A replica etched with the names of the lost sailors was returned to the wreck, at the bottom of the lake, and put in its place.

Pictured Rocks is one of those spots we must return to.

We also spent a few days in Munising where my Aunt, Uncle, and Grandmother met us for a day sail. Having them aboard was a treat for me.

After Munising, we sailed all the way to Copper Harbor which, like Whitefish Point, is also my favorite harbor. I have a lot of memories of family vacations when I was a kid. The town has changed very little since then.

view from above in Copper Harbor, MI

After lots of swimming in the 70 degree water of Copper Harbor, we sailed to the north shore and Grand Marais, MN with 45 degree water. Oh what a difference 100 miles makes. The sawtooth mountains are in the distance.

The mooring a friend let us use. We’ll be back here as a home base in 2016.

After some shore side travel and work, I moved the boat to the Apostles back on the warm south shore for Ethan’s 14th birthday party. Friends came from home and took the ferry to camp on the island. We spent amazing days hiking, swiming and swimming more. I think the kids were in the water 10 hours a day.

After the birthday party, it was westward to Duluth for an unceremonious return to my home town. 7 years boat building and 2400 miles sailing. We’re home!

onwards was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 18, 2015.

Joined by the crew

2015-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

I pulled into the marina in Leland, MI in the morning. Heather and Ethan arrived late that night. We explored town a bit and eventually sailed off for the islands near Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. It was an excitement filled couple days where we sailed in big waves, climbed giant sand dunes, and saw some shipwrecks. Sadly, it didn’t last long and Heather left for home and Ethan stayed with me to sail on.

To give an idea of the scale of the dune, the trail that runs down the face has a group of dots about 3/4 up. Those are people and this is one of the smaller dunes in the area. The waves were not favorable to stop near the big one.

Heather’s favorite spot

Joined by the crew was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 13, 2015.

I'm sailing!

2015-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

With the mast raised and the boat not quite ready to go, I was planning on taking my sweet time putting the finishing touches on the running rigging, but as it turns out going slow wasn’t in the cards. A couple marina friends, who were scheduled to depart in the morning on their own long distance adventure, stumbled by after their local good-bye party. It was late in the evening and I was just hanging out on the dock looking up at the universe. They easily convinced me I should be ready to go by mid morning and we would sail north together. They wandered back to their boat and I jumped into action with the excited thought that I could actually sail in the morning. I don’t remember what I still had to do, but I stayed up until 4am doing it. Another marina friend with a car took pity on me and drove me to the grocery store so I could avoid the 10 miles of bike ride with a heavy load. I dropped the bags in the cabin, hollered over at the other boat, and we shoved off our respective docks. Getting out of the harbor onto the big lake was comically crowded with 4th of July boaters, but I pulled the head-sail up anyway. I wasn’t going to wait another minute to sail instead of motoring. That lasted about 10 minutes and due to the congestion I dropped the sail and motored through the busy canal.

After that, it was game on. I solo sailed from Muskegon to Leland with a few stops between and had some wicked good times. I only used the motor to get in and out of harbors and was able to make great time with excellent conditions. I couldn’t believe how much fun it was to be under sail. When I hit speeds around 10knots, the boat makes this amazing sound like the engines of a strafing TIE fighter. Later, the designer reassured me it’s likely coming from the aft end of the keels under water and it’s normal. I was, and am still convinced it’s just Meadowhawk giving a big scream of woo-hoo!

I'm sailing! was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 04, 2015.

getting the mast up

2015-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

After motoring over 1000 miles to get to Michigan, Meadowhawk was ready for a mast and some sails. It turns out to be somewhat complicated for someone who hasn’t procured these items before. Some key ingredients to making a sailboat sail are

a mast. it sounds obvious, but something has to hold the sails up.
line (stanging rigging) to keep the mast upright.
Chainplates. Some strong hunks of, in my case, titanium to attach aforementioned line to the boat.
Lots of little bits and brackets that hold it all together. Think huge plumbing project where all the parts have to fit together and come from many different vendors. Some had to be custom manufactured.
even more line to hold the sails in place. (running rigging)
even more hardware to keep the running rigging in the right spot.

Every boat I’ve sailed on or owned came with all these parts. When it came time to replace one, just replace it with something similar. Not too hard. The challenge comes when one doesn’t know which parts to start with. I had some very qualified people helping me and the biggest challenges I faced were project management issues. The parts from vendor A had to fit the parts from vendor B, C, and D. And they all had to be made in time or I was going to have to continue living on a boat in a parking lot. no fun. Ok, it was right next to the water and still better than living in a house.

I did eventually get everything I needed and after months of planning and begging for parts, a crane pulled up, set the mast in place and was gone 45 minutes later. I had a sailboat!

Martingale stay bracket (1of2) made by John Koon @ Tradewinds Marine Services

Selden mast with design/consulting by Brion Toss

Big pile o running rigging. Spliced by yours truly.

Standing rigging and hardware from Colligo Marine. I did the splicing.

A ceramic knife is required to cut it, because it is so tough.

13 mm dux martingale stay with a breaking strength of 49,000 lbs. (sized for stretch not strength. Yes, it’s over strong)

light weight is aloft is important. I can hold all my standing rigging in one hand.

Pre-stretching the stays after splicing

titanium chain plates are light and will never rust. They will outlive me.

and just like that. it was up.

getting the mast up was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on July 01, 2015.

From Chicago to Muskegon

2014-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

After passing through the last lock on the Illinois River, there weren’t many good places to stop before Chicago, so we decided to go for a night run. There was no current and by dusk we were past the section where commercial traffic was a problem. It turned out to be a lot of fun to pass through the city at night and see the lights. We went through the last lock around 10pm and anchored inside the breakwall in Lake Michigan. In the morning, we pulled into a marina right next to the Navy Pier and we spent a week seeing the sights in Chicago.

We left mid morning when the north wind, that had been blowing for days, finally calmed down. There were a lot of left over swells, but we had a reasonably comfortable ride. After 110 miles in Lake Michigan, we anchored in Muskegon which ended up being our home for the next 8 months. We called it our mastquest. The first thing we did when docked at Torresen Marine was to take a walk to the storage building to see our shiny new mast, that was waiting for us.

Night view of the skyline from the Chicago River

Going through the last lock into Lake Michigan

View from our anchorage inside the breakwall in Chicago

Tourist stuff

Heading out onto the big lake for the first time.

Leaving Chicago behind

A tired hitch hiker

We anchored here late at night and woke up to this view

Mastquest achieved!!!

On the shores of Lake Michigan

Offically done for the season. The staff at Torresen Marine was top notch. They pulled over with the crane and we were ashore 30 minutes later. We left St. Paul on September 15th. 1100 miles later this was taken on October 23rd. We made it!

From Chicago to Muskegon was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on October 01, 2014.

The good parts

2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

we saw lots of pretty stuff

Our inflatable kayak would haul a surprisingly large amount of gear. Here we’re anchored in Lake Peppin which is a wide spot in the Mississippi River.

a friend from college met us along the way. We had a nice visit and some local breakfast.

stop off a the national eagle center.

Heather’s last stop before she turned for home via the road.

Typical back water anchorage on the upper Mississippi. Seclusion at its best.

We liked having a rest in the trampolines after a long day on the river.

We normally used a trip line attached to the anchor and a fender if you see it there in the background.

We took a day trip down to the arch in St. Louis

We had a strong tail wind, so we had fun holding up a big towel to see if it made us go faster. I’m not sure it mattered, but Meadowhawk seemed excited by the prospect and was flying down wind.

We were expecting power at this municipal dock, but our power pole was out. We were bummed because it was cold and we hoped to run our electric heater. So the next morning, I brought out the bike and rode around to find a small propane heater. We took a day off and hid under the blankets eating pop-corn and watching movies while the new heater was keeping us warm.

The Illinois River wasn’t all industrial.

The longer the trip the longer the beard and the messier the hair.

The catamaran ahead of us with the mast down on deck was from Australia.

The good parts was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on September 15, 2014.

Locks and barges

2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

While there are many pleasure boats on the Mississippi river, it is a busy industrial highway. Barges the size of football fields run 24 hours a day and there are places where only one at a time can fit through the channel. The rule of the road is stay out of their way. I found the tug boat captains and lock tenders to be patient, friendly, and professional. They were never in a hurry and wanted to be sure everyone around them was safe and clear about what was going on. I spent more time on the VHF radio daily than I did seasonally sailing on the great lakes. In fact, when I left I thought I would be fine with just a handled VHF since I didn’t have the mast up to install the antenna. After the second day, I stayed up late into the night wiring up the main radio and splicing a temporary coax cable to run to a temporary antenna. Life was much easier after that.

The locks were generally easy. When I was within radio range, I’d call them up and let them know I was coming. There were two typical responses: we’ll have the door open just come right in or I’ve got a barge going down and one waiting up and it’ll be 4 hours. We never knew which it would be until we got there. It made it hard to know how many miles we’d make each day due to the amount of waiting. At best, I’d be able anchor nearby, but often I’d have to stay at the helm slowly motoring in place into the current.

At night, we would find a place out of the navigation channel and anchor. Normally, I’d start looking for a good place around 5pm. There are too many obstructions in the river for me to safely run at night, but I wanted to push as close to dark as possible to make more miles. There were only a couple close calls where we were anchoring just as the sun went down. If we needed gas or food, we would stay at a marina for the night or stop at the many free municipal docks in the small river towns. We preferred anchoring because it was more secluded and less stressful than pulling into a dock with our wide boat.

A slightly scary lock entry. We had to scoot between the tug and the lock wall with a 2 knot following current. There was no room for mistakes.

I would’ve been better off with bigger fenders, but we managed with Ethan running the boat hook and me at the helm.

huge

We would start at the top and hold onto lines while the water drained from the lock compartment to bring us to the lower pool.

Entering another lock

A long wait. The combined barges were often longer than the locks, so they would untie and take multiple trips. It was a long process.

We had some fun playing leap frog with the American Queen. She would pass us nightly while we were anchored and we would pass them in port the next day while the passengers walked around the small river towns. Ethan enjoyed exchanging photos with them on twitter. This was a blast from the past for me as I played trombone aboard while I was in college. Black tie dinning room with immaculately restored woodwork throughout. It was quite the experience for a poor collage musician.

The flood had recently passed through this stretch. Look how high the driftwood was snagged by this power pole.

we had a busy day navigating the leftover mess of the flood.

After we turned north on the Illinois River, things calmed down. Everything felt…smaller. The scenery, the current, the river, the bridges, and the stress were all smaller. I missed the grand scenery of the upper Mississippi but was relieved for the low key passage upstream through this industrial stretch.

There were fewer bridges, so there were many car ferries zipping back and forth. I was amazed how quickly they could unload, load, and head the other direction.

Industrial Illinois.

The last lock before we entered the Chicago sanitary canal. They crammed us in with a barge and two tugs. The 20kt tail wind made for a scary entrance. The lock wall took the first ding out of the hull sides, but it was an easy fix once we reached Muskegon, MI.

In an effort to keep the Asian Carp from reaching the great lakes, they have an electrical current running through the water. They warn you not to touch the water and stay away from the edges of the boat. A local sheriff’s boat cruised by to make sure we were wearing PFDs and followed us through.

more ugly

Locks and barges was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on September 15, 2014.

Many Firsts

2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

At this point in the build and launch, I had become so accustomed to unexpected delays that I rarely even thought about what was going to happen beyond a few days out. I just take it one day at a time with what is in front of me. It turns out that alleviated some stress in taking on a 1000 mile trip on an untested boat. I told Ethan that we’d just go to the gas dock. If it didn’t go well, we’d turn around and go back. After that, we’d get to the first anchorage on the outside of town about 10 miles away. If that didn’t go well, we’d turn around. etc etc. So, with that attitude we confronted a lot of new experiences.

There were a few bugs in the boat that needed working out as we went, but I had all my tools and many scraps and spares, so we had no problems we couldn’t deal with. As an unplanned treat, Heather followed us all the way to Iowa. We left her at the gas dock in St. Paul and thought we wouldn’t see her again for a month. Well, it turned out we saw her a few miles down river at an overlook and from there she kept following us for the first week. We talked via phone during the day to plan out a place we could meet and we were usually able to pick her up from shore so she could sleep aboard. It was often a challenge to find a place she could leave the car and have access to the river, but we managed.

our first bridge

first time seeing Heather on the banks following along

first (of many) barge staging areas

first tug

Ethan’s first time steering

First anchorage

First Bald Eagle carrying off a fish

First misty morning at anchor

First time overtaking a barge

First lock (of many x many)

Many Firsts was originally published by Jeff Ilse at Sailing Meadowhawk on September 15, 2014.