Days Events:

Up before sunrise and walked about; really nice time of day [see photos], peaceful, almost no one about. Chatted with the two other loopers - they both leave today heading northward about 30 miles to anchor out. Wx should be good for them, although they can tolerate much heavier seas than we can - their DeFevers weigh about 55,000 lbs and have a draft of 5', so the wind and waves don't effect them as much [relatively]. Also have stabilizers.

Walked 3/4 mile to get a few groceries that Marg needs, via the City's Crossings Mall [a neat outdoor walkabout place, mostly with fudge/sweets/clothing - see photo]. Store had most of what we needed, especially yeast; alas, no turkey burgers and they were out of small vanilla Greek yogurt; but, had a reasonable frozen veggie/meats section, produce, fresh fruit.

Walked to the USCG Icebreaker Mackinaw next door and spent an hour touring it. They have most decks open and 1 of the 3 engine rooms; 2 engines in each of 3 rooms [i.e. 6 diesels, with 10,000 hp total]; really a neat experience on what was the largest icebreaker in the world. Built in 1944 to keep the Great Lakes open to important wartime shipping, it is 290' long, beam 74', draft 19'6"; has 2 props aft [each 14' dia.] and 1 in the bow [12' dia.] - the bow one was used to suck out the water under the ice, weakening the ice and making it easier to break. She had a crew of 75; women began serving on her in 2000. She was decommissioned in 2006. I have a lot of photos but may not be able to load them until tomorrow a.m. when the wifi is better; I'll comment on them tomorrow.

Maintenance: hosed the port side, bow, stern to get rid of the mayflies that were attracted to our nicely washed boat.

I changed the three zincs on each diesel - they definitely were needing to be done - see photo. Zincs help stop normal galvanic corrosion - any two metals connected via a wire and then also linked through the water will essentially form a 'battery' . All metals are rated galvanically, based on their electrons and attraction to one another compared to silver; the further apart they are on the galvanic scale, the more they will be attracted, causing one to give up protons to stay in electrical balance - as the one to 'sacrifice' itself, it erodes, which is what it is supposed to do to protect other metals in the engine/boat.

The 'zincs' look like a small solid core cylinder [see the photo] and all engines have them. Our Cummins diesels have 3 each and as you can see all six are eaten away completely for a few and 50% +/- for the others; the new/normal one is a silver, clean cylinder beside the others; they should be replaced when the pencil zinc is 50% gone. Guess I missed the boat on this year then.

Photos:

Another one of the old ferry terminal elevator, from the watery side, with the Mackinac Bridge in the background; and sunrise today with a sailboat outlined with the windmills behind it. Also caught one of the competing ferry lines 'showy' fantail ferry passing our pier - the fantails are strictly for show and apparently are unrelated or unneeded to engine/boat power!

A photo of the Parks warning about Gr.Lakes invasive species - they have a new boating law about cleaning off a boat/trailer/truck after taking ones boat out of the water.

From the Desk of the Admiral:

An unremarkable day. I didn't go to tour the ice breaker. Wasn't high on my interest list. So I spent some time doing month end banking. We have much faster internet in the morning. Even though we use our own hotspot/network, everything gets slower later in the day. Our Verizon is generally better than our T-Mobile here. It varies at each location.

We contemplated going out for dinner but decided to try a late lunch tomorrow at the place we want. The wait time by 5pm can be an hour or more and there are no reservations.

Several boats arrived today, but the marina still has empty slips. It's supposed to be full for the weekend so I guess tomorrow will be busy.

I had hoped to see some good fireworks this weekend but it seems we are going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The display here is on Sunday evening, we are leaving Sunday morning, the display at the next stop is Saturday evening and we arrive Sunday!! Phooey. I like fireworks!.

This area is certainly not suffering thru the heatwave baking other parts of the country and Canada, many without AC. The temp here struggles to get to 70, and the breeze is very cool. Not great for the holiday weekend. But the hardy locals are still in tank tops! Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer. A nice day for a late lunch overlooking the water. Why that seems appealing when we are sitting here surrounded by the same water is beyond me!😅

Plans:

Have confirmed a slip reservation at Bay Harbor Lake for Sat/Sun July 4th,5th; and for Northport Th.July 8; hopefully find something for the 6th and 7th - we are on a couple of marina waiting lists.

Comments:

Ernie R  •  03 Jul, 2021 - Good relaxing day and super pictures of icebreaker!

Ann R  •  03 Jul, 2021 - I’d love to tour the icebreaker as well as the Island and surrounding area. Enjoyed your tour - thanks! It’s pleasant here in AL today as well!