The Floating Stones

At long last, we are on our way!  Originally, this great adventure was to start on 10/05/2019.  A month beforehand, the boat was pulled out of the water for maintenance.  The boat hauler made a mistake and ended up bending the props.  EEK! Pretty important, props.  They are also pretty heavy and really large.  So Todd sent them off as stowaways on a semi to be repaired downstate.  In the meantime, it was also discovered that someone  may or may not have flushed marbles down the toilet at some unknown point in time.  The toilet on our boat runs via vacuum and pistons (don't think about it too much - it's gross).  ANYWAY, when there are marbles in there, vacuums don't seal and pistons can't move.   Also pretty important?  Toilets.  Especially when you're heading off on an 8 month excursion.  Et voila - our new departure date was 10/10.  Well, wouldn't you know it, but we have had the most bizarre and...

This year we put our boat in on May 1st.  I should say that Todd put the boat in the water;  all I did was swipe away a reminder on my calendar.  He did a wonderful job in the predictably rainy weather - he swears that not one launch day has been sunny and warm.  Our first adventure was that weekend;  after a safety check (thank goodness he thinks of such things - I was more concerned if my spices were still ok after overwintering in storage), we (us, the Littles and the dogs) were on our way for a dinner on "The Island".  Power Island is located in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay.  Our last trip there was on March 9th on our snowmobiles.  It had been one of those winters where the ice was sturdy enough for Northern Michiganders to deem it another venue for exploration.  We had a sled that Todd pulled behind his snowmobile full of firewood, hot cocoa, Tin Foil Dinner and the makings for S'mores.  We don't kid around.  After my pani...