Where WhimSea Takes Us

What a beautiful weeekend.

It was to be the first long weekend for the season and our first starting from Washburn Marina after years at Knife River. We had a few extra days and hoped to get out to the islands before the rest of the boating community and securing a dock for the night. We knew our radar was having issues and that the marina hadn't had a chance to look at it yet and looked with trepidation at the fog as we drove through to Washburn.

Friday morning dawned with a little fog, but enough we could see across the bay, so we decided to head out. Radar or no radar. The clouds looked amazing on the crossing to the island, coming across the sky like waves. Given the wind direction and speed, we motored out to Stockton and secured a place on the dock for the evening. The boys were excited to be back at the beach again and we spent time chasing sticks and throwing rocks into the water. I swear, the boy is planning to fill up the lake on his own. It was a little cool that evening, but no one minded. We were on the boat and on the water. Where we are meant to be.

Saturday morning and we saw that the new dinghy was full of water! Apparently the plug had popped out during our crossing. So we brought her ashore and emptied her out. While we were ashore, the other boats in the harbor left so we thought we would move to the other dock as it is more comfortable. No dice. The engine wouldn't start! Troy spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what was going on, but we were not able to get her started. Now we would need to formulate a plan to sail out of the harbor and back to the marina. It is very disheartening to have diesel problems so early in the season. It isn't like this is our first time without it, but this shouldn't be happening. We are bummed. But the boys made the best of it with playing around with the dinghy. Dylan got his first lesson as coxswain and was doing really well.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear which is awesome given the forecast to date! The boys decided to take out the dinghy out. First Troy with the sails up and then he and Dylan. Poor Bug got left behind and was very disappointed by it. But he got over it. They had a great time sailing about the harbor and even got yelled at by the Park Rangers for 'sailing in the harbor', even though they are the ones who honked at them and sent them in! Oh well. The wind picked up during the day and we helped a few folks to dock that day and even got a chance to meet some new people which is always good. We decided to stay another day as the weather would not be right for sailing out of the harbor anyway.

Monday and the weather is grand! Others came in throughout the day yesterday and filled up the harbor but by early morning, most folks were gone and it was just us and a couple from Washburn left at the dock. We decided to turn WhimSea around on the dock, making it easier to sail out of the harbor and avoid both the big rocks at the end of the dock and the shoaling in the bay. Given we had pulled a boat off the shoal in previous years, it was a big concern. But we sailed out without issue and soon had both sails up and were heading towards the marina.

We debated about the idea of sailing into Washburn marina. Troy being of the opinion we should, me, not so much. It is a little scary to think of having no propulsion and having to stop the boat. We called Black Warrior Marina and arranged for a tow in. We were lucky to get wind the entire way back, even though we had to beat the entire distance, the sun was shining on us at least!

Black Warrior brought us in as pretty as you please and got us to the dock on the wall. There were storms predicted for Monday evening and into Tuesday so it is good that we decided to cut our vacation a little short, especially without a running diesel. Now we can only hope that the marina finds the problem soon and resolves it without a huge bill at the end!

I have to say that I am very lucky to have Troy. Not only did he bring us back without any concern, he kept everyone's spirits up, acting as if having no diesel was no big deal, even though I knew it frustrated him to no end. The boy didn't even realize anything big was happening. There was still plenty of fun on the beach, in the forepeak wrestling and in the dinghy.

Dylans birthday weekend and we decided to make a weekend adventure of it and planned a trip to Sibley State Park to stay at a camper cabin. All week Dylan was asking if it was the weekend yet and counting down for the weekend. He was pretty excited.

We picked him up from school a little early. We had sent cookies with Dylan to school and were mobbed by the kids on the way in. All wanted to tell me what color of cookie that they got. It was great!

We arrived in time to get unpacked and watch the snow flurries from the cabin. Dylan picked out his bunk for sleeping and his bunk for his toys. We didn't arrive in time to buy any firewood from the Park so we decided on a dinner inside and played card games together before turning in for the night.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, though with an inch or two of snow on the ground (surprise!). From the moment Dylan was up, he was asking if it was his birthday yet and time for presents. We brought his gift and one his Aunt Theresa had sent to him, so we agreed to presents with coffee.

We ran into the Park Ranger out by the bathrooms and he told us where we could pick up firewood for a fire later in the day. We visited with him a little bit and decided to collect some firewood at the Visitors Center. After picking up the wood for our fire, we stopped at the Ranger station and visited a bit more. Dylan got himself a homemade cinnamon roll for his birthday as well as a new game for us all to play together. We checked out the campground and boat launch in case we wanted to bring the new boat for a weekend adventure some time.

We returned to the cabin and built a nice bonfire. Dylan had some adventure walks where he found more bathrooms, unoccupied campsites and tons of piles of Deer Poo! We cooked hot dogs over the bonfire (Dylans new favorite meal) and had Dylans birthday cake of hostess cupcakes and snoballs with candles.

We finished the night with family card games. I love that he is getting old enough to enjoy playing games with us.

I can't believe that he is five already. It seems to have flown by.

Arrived home today to find to find the new boat in the driveway! How exciting to be starting on a new sailing adventure. Of course it's for when the WhimSea boat isn't in the water yet, so spring and fall and maybe a little in between.

We are all excited, Dylan most of all as he climbs up and down the ladder repeatedly to see inside, sit in her, sit at the helm with the tiller in hand. He is pretty excited too.

What an amazing thing it is to have friends in the sailing world. We asked friends of ours for an opinion on a boat type, since we were thinking of getting an offer season trailer sailord and lo and behold, we find out there's is for sale! Sounds like we will soon be the proud owners of Blueberry!

The boys picked me up at work just after lunch. Troy had dropped Bug off for his weekend adventure at Doggie Daycare, packed the truck and picked up the boy. We were heading out to our adventure to celebrate Troy's birthday and our 22 year anniversary.

We headed out to Glacial Lakes State Park amidst snow flurries excited for our adventure to begin.

We arrived at the campsite and found our cabin for the night. We were very pleased to find bunkbeds (Dylan especially), a table, screened in porch and deck. We unpacked the truck and set up our beds and camp before Troy and I walked around a little bit, since Dylan was so enamored by the cabin he didn't want to leave.

There was a deck overlooking the lake and gorgeous rolling hills due to the glacial formations. We cooked hot dogs over a wood fire and had baked beans and Troy's homemade potato salad. Though it was a day early, Dylan and I took the opportunity to surprise Troy with his birthday cards and cake of cupcakes and candles. He came into the cabin and we yelled surprise and blew horns at him. He was very surprised.

Dylan had too much fun with Troy's cards since they sang songs at him.

Saturday morning and we were all up early. We explored the area and cleaned up all the garbage we could find before searching for cool rocks and artifacts for Dylan to bring to the Science Museum for their exchange program. One of the rocks we found was slate and Troy had an experiment for Dylan to break off a piece of slate. He thought it was awesome the way it broke off and it could fit back together again.

We needed to meet the naturalist to get our Mn Parks Passport and join them for a walk. We weren't sure how far we would go since it was a good five mile hike to the top. We learned quite a bit about the glacier formations and the eskers as well as the erratics (which is a rock dropped randomly by the glacier). It was so cool just to see them. The hike was difficult given the terrain. The path was also very muddy in some spots and icy in others. So icy in fact that Troy fell a few times before we were back to our cabin.

We relaxed, had martinis and dinner before we enjoyed a fire and a little stargazing before heading to bed, a little early after that long hike.

Sunday we all slept in then packed among a beautifully sunny day. We got our DNR stamp in the passport and headed home. On the way we saw a sign for the Lake Maria State Park and detoured there for a stamp for that park as well. What a great adventure, we would definitely do that again.