Inspiration has been sold to Bob Trotter of New Zealand. Bob intends taking her down to the Gulf of Mexico next Fall after shaking her down on Lake Michigan in the summer of 2012. Thence, he plans on a Panama Canal passage and then on to NZ via a whole series of adventures. This will be the last entry by myself. I will offer the blog to Bob but he may not want to maintain a blog. I have several and it is a lot of work. Facebook seems to be the new blog of sorts and takes my time too. Thanks for participating and reading the blog. The Young Sun Website will continue until we run out of funds or someone wants to take it over for the group.

We left Saugatuck 8/15 about 0900 bound for Manistee. Arrival and trip were beautiful with about 12kt winds. Three of us anchored on the lee shore of Muskegon Lake near the park. This year we were not harassed by fishermen but the fishing boat traffice was intense in the early AM and PM about dark. The anchoring was good and we held well. The First Mate cooked a great dinner of Chicken a la King plus some fresh veggies we bought before departure.

The next morning we weighed anchor at 0900 headding for Pentwater. After another great day of 1′ seas or less with limited winds we arrived about 1500 hrs and dropped anchor. There were three transients total so there was not crowding. We stayed three days. The very last day we were crowded by a newly arrived sailboat and I stated such to the indignant Captain who told me to go below and he knew what he was doing (even though it took three time to set his anchor). Eventually he moved to a more equidistant location which allowed another sailboat to anchor as well.

Friday morning we departed at 0900 for Manistee and had a really uneventful run to the harbor pierhead under power and sail. There were lots of fishing boats at Big Sable Point fishing in about 60′ of water. We remained in Manistee for three days and plan on departing Tuesday 22 August for Frankfort.

Tying the Monkey Fist has been on my list of things to do for sometime. A couple of nights ago while sleepless with a pinched nerve and the associated phantom pains in by buttox and leg, I managed to tie the knot with amazing clarity and deftness. The loose knot is reasonably easy to make but the tightening of the knot is the tricky part. SAM does a better job of it. I made one this morning and posted to facebook and I will add it here in a couple of minutes.

An early mornings work using slipery nylon line

This sailing season has to go down as the least activity yet. Family, friends, conditions and events have conspired to reduce our sailing to a few days this year. We look forward to an active August and September.

Inspiration is still for sale and we have lowered the price to $59K. Our sailing plans have changed with age and retirement so it is time for to look for a new home.

We have lowered the price of Inspiration drastically so we can adapt to our new retired life style of winters in the south and summers at our Indiana homestead. We love the Great Lakes but they are incompatible with our “zones of stability” so we will have to be satisfied with being visitors instead of six month residents. The new plans are for a sailboat suitable for the west coast of Florida that we can cruise and live-aboard.

We are back on the boat for the next week or so. We will leave for a while to attend our family 4th of July celebrations and then about the 3td week of July when our son comes up from down south with his family. After that we plan a little cruise for 3 weeks or so but we are not sure where we would be going except across the lake – probably.

I still have some summer maintenance items to complete and the dingy outboard failed to run last week. I probably should have fixed it myself but I took it to a repair shop and it still is not back. I still need to change out the Racor fuel filters. After that we should be in pretty good shape. Man, I hate changing the fuel filters – besides being smelly, I can barely exert sufficient strength to lift the canisters against the internal springs.

Our intention is to keep www.youngsun.org alive as long as Webmaster can see to maintain and add content. After that, it will be up to a new webmaster and any volunteers that may wish to contribute time and $$$.

Today is Father’s Day so congratulations to all you fathers. I left the boat to come back to Indiana to be with family and immediate family. We had a great time this afternoon doing some old fashion talking around the table at my sister’s house.

I was glad to get back home from the boat because I had some problems with the dingy motor that failed to keep running. The phenomena was that it would run at idle and a just above idle. However, when the throttle was advance it would die in seconds – sort of like it was running out of air. Except for the last time, it would start if left alone for a few minutes. I was disgusted so I just took it to the repair shop and drove to Indiana.

I am still absolutely not positive that the radio is working properly as I cannot get a response to the radio check test calls. I do insert a watt meter in series wit the transmitter and antenna – 23 Watts forward and 1.5 watts reverse. It seems power is getting is getting to the antenna. I would feel better if I could get the power meter to the top of the mast and measure it there.

I need to figure out how to make a DSC radio call the the USCG. I know each area has a dedicated MMSI number so I could try to make a DSC call direct. I have to find the rules and read them.

Due to the cold rainy weather teak brightwork has suffered a bit to-date. I gave a list of items to refinish and those that need only a Cetol Gloss re-coat. I cannot wait for those dry, warm days. Well, the list is big enought to keep me busy for a while so I am going to say goodnight.

We have been on the boat since the end of April but I have yet to update the blog. Why? Well, it is software technology called social media: Facebook. I have been using FB a lot and for some reason it feels comfortable but I am becoming uncomfortable with the intrusion FB is making into my life and that of my families. This is the only way we talk anymore!

This has been the coldest, most rainy, longest Spring we have had since we bought the boat. I have been doing a lot of reading – 4 books about Afghanistan, 1 on China, a few about sailing. By far, the most time has been spent on websites. Pro bono, of course, as who has money to spend on a mediocre website administered by the retired professional?

We lowered the price of the boat to make it attractive to a wider spectrum of buyers. Hopefully this will do it because we cannot go too much lower. Otherwise, it may become a Florida boat and I hate to take her into saltwater but what the hey. We will eventually need someplace to live down there so why not?

We are in the water. After some Spring time delays we finally launched last Wednesday in a driving rain. Water levels are precariously low but we are floating, with 5.7′ water, and in the temporary slip at Tower Marine. So far, promises of a deeper water slip remain unfulfilled. If the water does not come up it will be a bad year for Tower.

We performed some house keeping duties, like cleaning, and have been on-board since. We have not put on the sails yet but intend to do so the first day with reasonable winds. We purchased a Honda EU2000i generator to use as an emergency charging unit, via the Xantrex 2500 inverter/charger, and to provide a few hours of airconditioned comfort while at anchor this summer.

The blog will be updated as we can this summer. The intention is to do some cruising this summer but I do not know if we will get to the North Channel or not.

I have had to cut off new user registration and delete the 100′s of spammers who registered.  Sorry to all of those legitimate people that have been deleted or who were in the registration queue.  This blog did not have that many active commenter contributors so it should not cause too much of a problem.  If for some reason you would like to become part of this blog just email me and I will manually add you to the roles.  Thanks for reading S/V Inspiration who is now on the hard in heated storage for the winter.  Launch is expected for mid-April 2011.