About a month ago my boyfriend, Eric, and I embarked on a 16 day sailing adventure around Lake Michigan. To say that our trip got off to a bit of a rocky start would be an understatement… both Eric and I were exhausted going into this trip. I had been working crazy hours, trying to get as much wrapped up as possible, and Eric, in addition to wrapping up work, was spending nights and weekends leading up to the trip preparing the boat.
Our departure from Chicago on the morning of July 20 was a couple of hours delayed. This meant that there was no way we’d arrive in Holland, MI before midnight and, what was already a long day, was going to be even longer. Both the wind and the lake were calm, so we needed to motor sail to make up time. Motor sailing is just what it sounds like. You run the engine with the sails up and cruise along at about 5 or 6 knots. Ideally the sails help you out a bit, but the motor’s really doing most of the work.
About six hours into our motor sailing day, the engine suddenly sputtered and lulled. Eric immediately shut it off and all went silent.
It’s always funny to me when people, with no knowledge of the Great Lakes, think of Lake Michigan as a small body of water. It is anything but. Lake crossing days mean going hours without seeing land or having any cell signal. On past lake crossings, I’ve found this off-the-grid existence to be freeing and exciting. Suddenly, as we floated in silence and I looked at the concern on Eric’s face, it struck me how out of range we were. My eyes widened as I let a single phrase escape my lips, breaking the deafening silence.
Oh, shit.
Eric, engineer and skilled captain that he is, shifted into his problem-solving gear. I stood helplessly on the deck as he began checking gauges and troubleshooting. We still don’t fully understand what happened – Eric’s best guess is that the voltage regulator somehow failed, causing our house battery to overcharge. He turned off all unnecessary power before we fired up the engine and continued on our way.
For me, boating is a constant education in mechanics. Eric is, quite literally, a mechanical engineer, and I can think of no one I’d rather be floating in the middle of the Lake with when shit hits the fan. Of all the boat projects that Eric undertook in June and early July, building and installing a large, multi-functional arch over the stern of the boat was, by far, his most ambitious. We spent the morning of July 4th lifting two enormous solar panels onto the arch, and then over the next couple of weeks I would expertly winch Eric up in a bosun’s chair so he could drill them into place. We weren’t expecting to need to rely on the those panels so soon, but, at that moment, we were more than a little relieved to have them.
The rest of the day was long and exhausting. We took turns napping and driving as the afternoon pushed on. But, by far, the highlight of the day was a beautiful sunset that painted the entire sky pink. A sight that was only enhanced by the fact that we were still very much in the middle of the lake.
No land in sight.
Jenn Winter 