In a Sea Scout’s Own Words: The Long Cruise 2021
July 31, 2021
by Thomas Corter
We left the Mackinac Island harbor aboard Taipan around 11:00, long after most of the racers had either taken the ferry back to a car or set sail earlier that morning to make it home for work later in the week. It was pretty sunny and a relatively cool day. I can’t really shake my memory of the water in that harbor being so crystal clear and inviting despite seeing high voltage electrical lines running across the bottom. Although we had only spent a day on the island, we were more than ready to leave at that point and start the real part of our trip after the long car ride up north.
By the time we got to the Mackinac Bridge, the weather was already starting to turn. Winds kicked up just a little bit and the bright blue sky turned damp with clouds until it was just the overcast sky pale against the blueish-gray waters. Despite this, it was still warm, and morale was high. The watches ran smooth for the rest of the evening, and we enjoyed sitting on the railings in our off time and staring out at the shores of northern Lake Michigan.
The whole time we were sure that our destination was Charlevoix but due to a miscommunication we were unaware of Charlevoix’s full harbor and wouldn’t find out until long after dark when we were an hour from the shore and more than ready to sleep in the safety of Round Lake. When we heard that we had to change course and head to Petoskey, a general feeling of disbelief coupled with exhaustion was shared among us. I don’t specifically remember what time we made it to Petoskey, but it was late, and we didn’t feel like talking or exploring the city much. We went to sleep late only to get up a few hours later at 6 to sit in a coffee shop before we left the harbor and continued our journey south.
When we left Petoskey, our morale was once again high, and our ship began running smoothly down to Frankfort. Double checking our harbor availability and keeping a close eye on our navigation paid off because the trip was generally uneventful. By this time, we were within good viewing range of the shipping lanes and about every half an hour we’d see a laker or some other large commercial vessel pass by. It was a strange sight for many of the crew as we were only used to sailing around Chicago where nothing larger than 50 feet was a common sight (except for the boats on Navy Pier) during our day sailing trips. We’d settled into our working routine and slipped into the harbor with ease, making our preparations for the night and having a nice meal at a restaurant which didn’t make Captain Karzen angry about an unprecedented wait time for such a small town. Again, being too tired to really explore, we ended up sleeping early that night to make up for the (welcomed) stress of sailing.
We woke up the next morning to a crappy weather forecast for the day, at the very least hindering our crossing to Manitowoc and giving us an extra day to hang out in Frankfort. We tried fishing and walking around the small downtown area, and some of us skated on boards we had tucked away in our gear so we could get a better look at the area. A relaxing and uneventful day led into a relaxing and uneventful night where we all sat around in various places around Frankfort from the beach to the harbor picnic tables, enjoying the feeling of solid ground beneath our feet.
The next morning, we set sail across Lake Michigan to make it to Frankfort. Most of the trip was smooth sailing as far as I can remember until I woke up from a short nap while I was off watch to a weird sound coming from the sailboat’s small engine that, up to that point, had carried
us to the middle of Lake Michigan. Stepping on deck it was a bright sunny afternoon with not a cloud in the sky and no sign of land or other boats around us. We made jokes about being trapped in Davy Jones’s locker with a slowly failing engine and all the other nonsense that a group of teenagers from Chicago could come up with in that situation. At some point, the engine did officially die. Listening to the sound of a dying diesel followed by the high shrill of the engine alarm was somewhat surreal given our location. While a somewhat experienced engine mechanic went to work on getting the engine running again, we threw up the sails and caught a nice wind that carried us the rest of the way to Manitowoc faster than our engine was capable of, even maxed out. We had a few close calls with wind gusts and nearly rounded up a few times (I’m sure we jostled Captain Karzen a few times while he was trying to sleep below deck) but overall, the run we did was enjoyable, especially with the portable speaker we hung up on the boom to play us some sea shanties.
Luckily, we made it to Manitowoc with no trouble and managed to get the engine to work just long enough to get into the harbor. Given the engine troubles, the ship was bound for the Manitowoc shipyard for a little engine work, which was coincidentally the harbor where it was stored anyway. With our trip cut short, we were dismissed, and we headed back to Chicago by car for the best night of sleep we’d get all we