July 31 – We are still in Thunder Bay. Our short list of boat issues we had when we got back from Isle Royale unfortunately grew a bit. The biggest issue now is the fact that, for insurance needs, we need another survey done. This means we had to be pulled out of the water today. The surveyor comes tomorrow and we should be floating again by noonish on Wednesday. At the moment we are still hoping and planning to finally set sail for Sault Ste. Marie by this Saturday. The only other big issue at the moment is the VHF radio. On Saturday, I went up the mast and installed our new AIS antenna hoping that would resolve our issues. It didn’t. A new friend, Paul, (he and his wife, Julie own Oasis 3) kindly brought over a spare radio for us to install and test this morning. That allowed us to diagnose that our radio has completely died out on us. Jason already has the radio in town getting looked at in hopes it just needs repairs. We are expecting we will need a new one and, if that’s the case, we hope we can get our hands on one this week still. So, we may not get off the dock this Saturday as planned but we will just stay optimistic and keep pushing forward, that’s all we can do.

This last week has been a bit of a blur. Knowing we were needing to stay here for the survey, we were able to slow down a bit. We took the dingy down the channel to walk up to get groceries (and beer) one day, puttered on the boat and kept Dylan entertained with cards, board games and playing pool. We have also allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in until 8 each morning (I am lying, we’ve actually been sleeping until 9). That is a treat we did not get much in our regular life.

There was one day this past week that was very hot. At the time we had rented a vehicle for two days so we drove over to Prince Arthur’s Landing Marina that evening to cool down. It’s a much livelier marina with a splash pad and lots of kids. Dylan enjoyed smooth surfaces to ride his longboard and spent a bit of time with people more his age…and ice cream too of course.

Our new friends here at Thunder Bay Marina sure are living up to reputation of sailors helping sailors. Another friend, Ron, (who sails Steel Away) gave us a huge surprise Friday night. Up at the club he put his vehicle key on the table in front of Jason at dinner. Ron set sail for a week and while he is gone, he told us we can freely use his truck. That is so kind of him! Yesterday we drove into town to visit with our new friend Lanna and her kiddos (her and husband, Kyle, sail Whiskey Jack out of Prince Arthur’s Landing Marina). It was a weird feeling going into a house and sitting on an actual sofa for the first time since July 3! She kindly welcomed me to do a load of laundry which was lovely. We all really enjoyed our visit and it’s important that we prioritize connecting Dylan with kids at every opportunity we can. Dylan enjoyed playing with their two adorable children, Pia and Cohen. We really hope to see them again before we depart but at the same time we will need to get used to saying goodbyes to the many wonderful people we will be connecting with along the way.

The three of us are getting so anxious to get back out on the water and get going. It’s just such a different experience than being at a marina. Here, to save on propane, we have been using the awesome clubhouse for dinner every night. That’s been great but we are craving being self sufficient on the boat again. We just love being at anchor and enjoying our suppers in the cockpit. We also need to be on the move soon to line up with our travel plans. None of that can begin until we feel comfortable that Starship is ready. I sometimes get a knot in my stomach worrying that the next issue to come up will be one that will dramatically set us back. I try hard to push those feelings away but it’s tough. We are getting there but it just seems that issues keep popping up. It also feels like we are hemorrhaging money lately with unexpected expenses. It’s discouraging but we are doing a good job of keeping each other positive, optimistic and motivated.

Once we finally get started, we will be taking the northern route along Lake Superior. We are told there should be cell service a good part of the way. As I sit here right now in the clubhouse I am looking at Starship sitting in the slings of the blue travel lift in the distance. Jason is taking this opportunity to reseal the through hulls for the drive shaft and Dylan is again trying to catch us dinner! He happily landed many the last few days but none big enough to keep.

My hope, looking at our home sitting out of the water, is that by the next time I do my weekly blog I will be writing from somewhere heading towards the north shore finally. Please tell me we won’t still be here dealing with boat issues. We did expect some of the unexpected to pop up but haven’t we paid our dues yet? We really do need to get going. We need to be sailing into Chicago by the end of September before we get too deep into unfavourable fall weather on the Great Lakes. At the moment we just don’t have a Plan B – all our cards are on the table so to speak.