Milestones

There is a plan behind my meandering port to port through the lakes and not looking for shortcuts.  I’ve gone through waterways, lots of waterways and I love them.  They are always interesting to me, but it’s out on the lakes that I learn those things I need to know about the boat.  Remember, until I sailed from Two Harbors in April, I had only been under sail in the CAP’N once for the sea trials before buying her.  That was for just a couple of hours in very light airs.   This is my learning time.  Learning the boat, how to sail alone, how to sail a multihull, learning how to be alone without being lonely.  My learning style is repetition. 

Each day is a banquet table filled with delicious discoveries.  Waking with the morning wind in a  direction that says “go now”, the exhilaration when a five footer slings the CAP’N LEM  into the teens, the wind changes  at noon and sunset, the self congratulations that comes with the end of the day at anchorage. (“Ya didn’t hit anything, ya didn’t break anything and ya didn’t fall in the water. Oh, Tommy, you’re so amazing!”)

And there are the milestones that encourage, too.  There were two this leg.  The first occurred when I crossed Latitude 45° at Longitude 083° 22.738N heading south.  At that moment I was exactly half way between the equator and the North Pole heading the wrong direction or so it may seem.  This serves to remind me, on the oceans of the world the shortest distance between two points is never a straight line, but a Great Circle.

Then, while sailing from Oscoda to Port Austin, at 1423 position Lat 44° 13.455’N ~ Long 083° 03.339’W, THE CAP’N LEM sailed her 1000th nautical mile since launching in Two Harbors MN on April 6th 2009.  This reminds me to never live in dread of how far I have to go but joy at how far I have come!  And my dear friend, in life, as in sailing, I have come a very, very long ways. 

At 1528 on May 18, 2009, I anchored the CAP’N LEM in Port Austin MI at Position Lat 44° 03.005’N ~Long 082° 59.565’W, in 4 feet of water.  It is warm, sunny and buggy. (No, not muggy, buggy!  Little buggies flying everywhere, in everything, my hair, my coffee, my sail cover.  Like me they just love the CAP’N LEM.)

1000-nm-resize

6 Responses to “Milestones”

  1. Gene Trentham says:

    Capt. Tommy
    The love of your craft and your love of sailing. Makes perfect sence not to do the Trent-Severn. We too have expierenced the little bugs on Lake Huron. Mighty annoying. Makes it even more enjoyable when the wind picks up. Sail on, we’re listening.

  2. Gene Trentham says:

    Capt. Tommy
    Me again, sorry. Just a note about someone else doing something extraordinary. Loreen Niewenhuis is walking the beach, or as close to it as legal, around Lake Michigan. She started on March 16, 2009 in Chicago. She does it in segments. She will soon be near where I live and hope to see her and maybe take her sailing to see the shore from a different perspective. In case your interested. http://www.laketrek.blogspot.com

  3. Roger Larson says:

    Belated Bon Voyage from Bellevue, WA. It is perfect timing or “luck” that I had just made reference to a “time to harbor” and proceeded to change tack when your brochure for your journey sailed out of my paperwork. It is unclear when you made it out of Rogers City, but for me it was just yesterday. I’ll remind our local sailors of your bearings.

  4. tommy says:

    Hello Roger! Glad you found the brochure. Tell the guys at the Saturday Coffee hello for me. This is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

    Tommy

  5. MikeinAppalachia says:

    What Gene said at 2:01PM!

  6. Sailing & Yachting…

    […] Learning the boat, how to sail alone, how to sail a multihull, learning how to be alone without being lonely. My learning style is repetition. Each day is a banquet table filled with delicious discoveries. Waking with the morning wind … […]…