The journey begins... (Actually, it began 38 days ago)

posted by Annie

Most of you reading this blog will already know the basics:  We (the Rogge-Wilson family) decided to live on a boat for a year.  We packed up our house, rented it out, and moved to our sailboat with the intent to sail from Lake Michigan to the Caribbean.  We decided to do this for numerous reasons, but first and foremost, to have a long adventure.

We started out in the middle of June.  Day #1 was either June 20th, when we arrived at the boat, or June 24th, when we initially set sail.  We started in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.  Roughly, we sailed up through Door County to Washington Island, crossed Lake Michigan on a LONG day, landing on Beaver Island, then sailed to Mackinac Island.  After that, we were in Lake Huron - initially Les Cheneaux Islands, then through the North Channel, and most recently sailing through the 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay.  As of today, July 31, 2019, we are in Victoria Harbour, Ontario, Canada.  

For the most part, the kids are going to write this blog.  However, Rogge and I will also post occasionally.

Our boat is the Endeavor, a 34' sailing catamaran.  

Below we are sailing with the spinnaker out.  Another boater took this pic, and offered to email it to us in passing.  They thought the spinnaker looked nice on the gray day - I agree. 

So far, the most striking places (to me) have been Beaver Island (north Lake Michigan), and South Benjamin and Fox Island in the north channel of Lake Huron.  Additionally, sailing under the Mackinac bridge was really spectacular - this was a long sail for us, about 8 hours, but done in fair weather and it was really amazing to look up at this bridge.  

Some details on those favorites:

Beaver Island: Beaver Island had a large harbor that was fairly shallow, easy to anchor in, and the water was a gorgeous aquamarine.  Beaver Island has an odd history (there was a Mormon king there! - google it), but the current residents are some of the nicest people I have met anywhere ever.  It was a great place to recuperate after the long sail across Lake Michigan.  Lots of fun things to do too - we rented a car and checked out sand dunes, and also visited the maritime museum, and talked to a senior man there who was part of the fishing heyday.  They also have a real Fresnel lens in their town hall.  Again, incredibly friendly people.  I highly recommend a visit there to anyone who is ever in the area.  

This is not photo-shopped - the water really was this clear.

Mackinac bridge:  It remains the longest suspension bridge between two anchorages in the Western Hemisphere (Golden Gate is longer between the towers).  Sailing under it was really interesting because the bottom is a grate, so you can actually look up and see cars driving above you.  

Note the two rectangles you can see through the bottom of the bridge - those are cars!

South Benjamin Island:  This island in the north channel of Lake Huron was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous.  The entire north channel is populated by rocky islands that are windswept and beautiful, and it is all very wild and remote.  However, South Benjamin took my breath away.  There is a long low rocky island when you are entering the main harbor that was at least 1/4 mile in length, and the actual South Benjamin island where we anchored has a dramatic height increase.  Pictures don't do it justice.  It felt like we were in some sort of rocky playground.  We had been a bit cooped up the few days prior (due to poison ivy covered beaches, not a lot of good hiking spots), and so when we got there, the kids just sort of went crazy with swimming and running in this gorgeous wide-open rocky space.  I did laps around the long low island to get a jog in (I pretended it was Parkour since none of it was level).  The water was warm and lovely to swim in.  We ran up the tallest rock to see the view.  There were numerous great jumping rocks for the kids.  And we met an incredibly nice family (thank you Ben, Jody, Avery, and Carter!) who taught the boys about fishing, gave us recommendations on north channel anchorages, and also shared their fish fry and smores. 

View from the top of South Benjamin island into the harbor.

Fox Island in the north channel:  This was a little less dramatic than South Benjamin island, but was an a beautiful and peaceful anchorage.  Fun to explore the channel leading to the harbor, and lots of good jumping rocks.  We had an amazing sunset there as well.  There were so many blueberries that I finally did not feel like we were stealing from the local birds and mammals, and we collected enough to make a small batch of blueberry jam.  The day we spent there was HOT HOT HOT, and so we made "boat drinks" to help in the heat of the day - these are made up of sparkling water, orange juice, and frozen lime and lemon wedges, pictured below. 

Exploring the channels to Fox Island on the dinghy and paddle board.  (The boat in the background is not ours.)

Finally, I will share one last thing before I end this first entry.  Sadly, the entire year started with a tragedy.  Our beloved dog Ringo unexpectedly attacked me, requiring an ER visit for stitches and antibiotics.  We had planned for him to go on this adventure with us.  Due to this high level of aggression, we made the very hard but necessary decision to surrender him to the humane society.  The kids were devastated.  Although both Rogge and I knew that it would be a challenge, we finally agreed to adopt a puppy for the kids.  We found her before we left, and a few weeks into the trip rented a car to drive back to pick her up in Wisconsin.  She is doing really very well on the boat, and in many respects, this was a great time to get a puppy since we are not working and can be with her virtually all of the time.  Her name is Daisy (full name Daisy Doughnut), and she is pictured below.  She has been a great pup so far, and although we all feel sadness about Ringo still, she has helped us heal somewhat. 

The next few posts will likely be the kids uploading their notes on the first 1+ months.  We hope you are enjoying reading about our journey.