Dylan

Charlie has been found by the National Park Service! She washed up on Bear Island and is waiting for us to pick her up. I am so excited, knowing that Charlie hasn't been lost. Hopefully this weekend we'll get over there and can bring her home.

Last weekend we got the opportunity to head to the Apostle's for the first time all season. Our engine finally working, we were very anxious to be underway. As a matter of fact, if Troy had his way, we probably would have left on Friday night. But I prevailed on him to wait until morning.

The morning dawned somewhat steamier then I expected it to. We had a couple of things to accomplish. Items to offload from the boat, things to stow, the dinghy to move around to the stern, breakfast to tend to, before we could head out on our adventure. We were looking forward to seeing how Dylan handled his first long sail as well as his first overnight on the hook. We were also looking forward to rowing him ashore to touch on Sand Island.

The wind, though it existed, wasn't that great for our destination. Given that the previous night it had blown in the opposite direction and the fact that the wind was now off our starboard stern, we had a bit of confused seas as well as sort of a corkscrew motion to contend with.

Dylan handled it like a trooper. He watched the waves and the water, took naps, sat with Dad at the helm station all without issue. As we closed with Sand Island, the waves had increased to 7 feet (reported by Devil's Island light) and the wind to 15 knots. That's when we lost the dinghy. One minute Charlie was there, riding behind us, the next, the line parted with a snap and she stayed behind us as we roared down the next wave. Troy immediately brought us around and we tried to catch her. With the amount of sail we had up, we were going to fast. We had to reduce sail if we had any hope of picking up the line. So, Troy dropped the mainsheet (I was holding Dylan during most of this) and he came around, looking hard for Charlie. He spotted her in the distance, it was amazing how far she got, and we headed that way.

Time and again we came around and tried to catch her with no luck. Keep in mind, we didn't have a hoop to attach to, just the end of a broken line dragging in the water.

Then she turned turtle and everything became twice as hard. We continued to try and catch her. A number of times, Troy had a hold of the line. But he just couldn't keep hold of it. We were still traveling fast and Charlie is still over 100 lbs (without being upside down). We had to call it a loss and leave her behind.

I'm surprised how difficult that was. To sail away from Charlie. Who'd been with us since our first boat, Bucephalus. Who'd shared most of our adventures and travels along the lake. But we did. We had to.

We continued on to our anchorage in Swallow Bay and had a nice dinner and relaxed looking at the island we had hoped to visit with Dylan. The next morning, we pulled up the anchor and headed home. The trip home was pretty uneventful if not a little sad as we thought of Charlie, drifting someone alone. I guess everything happens for a reason. We weren't meant to make the island that day. I know we'll be back with Dylan, this year even, and we'll find a way to make it ashore. Of that I am certain.

Mothers day weekend and our first weekend aboard WhimSea for the 2012 season. Also, our first weekend with our now one year old little guy.

We decided to head up on Saturday, mostly to save us all the hassle of trying to put beds together while praying we didn't wake up the boy. We felt coming up on Saturday would give us time to load things onto the boat, set up beds, and put the safety netting in place in the V Berth. You see, we needed to find some method of protecting Dylan while he slept. Last year, he slept in a Moses Basket in the aft berth with us. Since he wasn't mobile, it worked well. This year, everything will change.

Troy had a plan that involved securing netting across part of the Vberth so if he rolled in the night, he wouldn't hit the floor. We would place it forward so we would still be able to use some of the berth as a changing table. It sounded great when we spoke about it at home. Of course, it wasn't until we arrived that we realized that the netting, without something to tie it to periodically, would simply slide up and down on the bars. So, I slept in the aft berth with Dylan and Troy ended up in the salon for the night. Not the most comfortable for him, but it worked. We're back to the drawing board and hope this coming weekend, we'll find a solution.

Dylan, Troy and I visited Lake Superior this weekend to get the boat ready for splash down. As you can see, Dylan spent most of the day in his stroller watching Dad work on the hull (waxing, touching up the bottom paint).

Troy just couldn't resist getting this rocking boat for Dylan. It'll be a little while before he's big enough to rock in it on his own, but he sure does look cute, doesn't he? Besides, it counts towards 'Sea Time', right?!?