My daily routine changed last summer towards the end of July, when Russ put in a very low bid on a 1997 Avanti Bayliner located in Spring Lake, Michigan and the bank accepted our offer. Suddenly Russ and I were going to put a hold on work and travel 867 miles on Sunday, August 9th, to Spring Lake, Michigan and drive a used 40’ Bayliner 745 miles up Lake Michigan and down Lake Superior to Superior, Wisconsin.
We would then have it hauled out and transported to Lake of the Woods Marine in Baudette, Mn. and have it put in the lake in time for Fall Escape. The plan was to make this trip on the water in four days so we could be back in Warroad on Saturday, August 15th, for the weekend as we had relatives from far away coming to visit us. A trip of a lifetime, as Russ put it, or possibly a trip from hell if the lakes were rough and the repo boat didn't run right. Big Traverse Bay on Lake of the Woods is one thing. Lake Michigan and Lake Superior can be very dangerous in comparison. Small craft warnings are routinely aired on the radio in towns around Lake Michigan and Superior during the boating season every year. Our good friend, Al Halfaker, thought we were crazy to try this long trip in so few days.
Sunday morning, August 9th , at 6:30 a.m. Russ and John Webb, our good neighbor, left for Spring Lake, Michigan in our truck. They left the truck at Barker’s Island Marina in Superior, Wisconsin, which was the pull-out location for the boat transport company to truck the 40’ Bayliner to Baudette. I drove our car down to Barker's Island Marina. We all drove in our car to Spring Lake, Michigan. We arrived late and got a motel. We had traveled 867 miles.
Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. it was time to get up and see for the first time what we bought...very exciting. The boat was repossessed out of Milwaukee a few weeks before and driven across Lake Michigan. According to the broker it ran just fine. Upon our arrival Monday morning the boat was in the water and ready for our inspection and test cruise.
One engine would not run right. The carburetor was dirty and plugged up probably due to old gas. The carburetor was removed, the jets cleaned and reinstalled. Sound familiar, Alain Mathiew? Both motors now worked just fine. The salesman said a new generator battery was installed and all the rest of the batteries were OK. We later found out the house battery was no good. After paying for the boat and buying some missing safety equipment for the boat along with a new 30 amp power cord, we were ready to head out. The GPS was old and just showed a general picture of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. The broker found us some old maps of the lakes and that was going to be “good enough.”
The temperature was in the 80’s and the wind was calm. Our “trip of a lifetime” started at 2:00 p.m. Monday afternoon. John Webb waited until we actually left. I hugged him good by and told him I very excited and nervous about the "Trip of a Lifetime". John drove our car all the way back to Warroad as our truck would be waiting for us at Barker's Island Marina upon our arrival back in Superior, Wisconsin at the end of a "trip of a lifetime".
It should be noted that our good friend, Al Halfaker, kept calling us before our trip to Spring Lake and after we arrived suggesting that it would be safer and much cheaper to cruise back across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee and have the boat hauled from there to Baudette. We could save $2,000.00. Russ kept telling him this is a “trip of a lifetime.” Al finally concluded that all he could do was say, “good luck.” Al called us once or twice everyday to see where we were and how we were doing for the next four days.
The water was very calm and a pretty blue color. No golden water like Lake of the Woods. I took some good scenic pictures of our voyage.
We arrived at Frankfort, Michigan at 7:15 p.m. Monday and put on 140 gal. of gas so we could leave early the next morning. They didn’t have any docks left so we just stayed at the fuel dock. It was raining when we pulled in. We had traveled about 120 miles at 25 mph. We hoped it was nice Tuesday morning. I decided the new boat's name would be Dragonfly.
Tuesday morning when the sun came up we were ready to put on some serious miles on Lake Michigan. It was 5:30 a.m. our time and 6:30 a.m. Michigan time. We walked over to a convenience store and picked up some orange juice, pop tarts, coffee, and a 24 pack of water. We thought we would leave by 6:00 a.m. our time. WRONG! We had connected our new 30 amp power cord to power, but the switch on the power panel was not set to put the battery charger on! The refrigerator had run down the batteries! With the batteries now charging we were on our way by 7:00 a.m.
I took lots of pictures all day.
Tuesday evening we made it to De Tour Village, Michigan by 8:30 p.m., just before dark. We were 45 miles before the locks that take boats to the Lake Superior water level. The dock hand said to just pick a dock and pay $43.00 in the morning. We put lots more gas in the tank for big bucks. It cost more on the water. We are averaging about .53 miles per gallon at 25 mph. No big waves so far.
Wednesday morning we left De Tour Village marina at 7:00 a.m. We ran into some real thick fog which lasted some time, but the lake was smooth as glass all day. We arrived at Saute Ste Marie around 11:00 a.m. It was very interesting. After entering the lock they raised the level of the lock 21’ to match Lake Superior. They opened up the Lake Superior side doors and we were on Lake Superior. There was no waiting at all to go through the locks.
We were running low on fuel so we thought we could stop at Whitefish Point for fuel. It was not available so we had to run all the way to Grand Marais, Michigan, which was 145 miles from De Tour Village. We topped off our 330 gal. gas tank with 275 gallons of gas for $915.00. That comes out to .53 miles per gallon. The Dragonfly loves gas at 25 mph!!! We couldn’t stop now! We were back on Lake Superior heading for Big Bay Marina for the evening. The total miles for the day came to 222. I was very tired. We arrived just before dark and got a ride into town. I had lemonade and pizza. Russ had a burger and fries and lemonade. Had a 1.5 mile or so walk back to the boat. Went to bed at 10:00 p.m.
Waking up in Big Bay Marina on Thursday day four. We got up at 5:30 a.m., walked up and took a shower. Not a very good shower place. Two guys and a little boy 9 yrs. old stayed overnight in their sailboat. They were from Marquette, Michigan. We were back on Lake Superior by 6:30 a.m. heading for Houghton, Michigan and a marina with gas.
We met a father and his 7 kids in a small boat waiting for gas. I took two pictures of the kids, ages 14 to 3.
It was interesting to watch them lift a bridge so a big 3-level cruise ship could go under. They didn’t need to raise the bridge for our boat. After we We got out on the open water again by noon. We had 60 miles to go to the Apostle Islands and gas. Beautiful clear water around the Apostle Islands makes traveling feel like you are elevated above the bottom of the lake. It is so clear you can see 30’ down in the shallow water around the Islands.
You can see the bottom of the lake go by. After gassing up we cruised the last 50 miles to Superior, Wisconsin and Barker’s Island Marina. We arrived about 8:30 p.m. This had truly been a trip of a lifetime for Russ and me.
Al Halfaker came down from Grand Rapids to help Russ take the radar arch down so the boat was ready for transporting to Baudette the next day. The bilge pump was working every minute pumping out a lot of water. We were all concerned. We were plugged into 30 amp power to charge our batteries so the pump could keep up with the water. We left the marina about 10:00 p.m. and went to Burger King for some quality food and then traveled the 80 miles to Grand Rapids and stayed overnight at the Halfaker’s.
As it turned out, the next morning the marina pulled the boat out of the water right away. They were also worried about the amount of water coming out of the boat. When the travel lift pulled the boat out of the water it was plain to see why we were leaking so much. The drive shaft strut was completely disconnected from the boat and was hanging down from the shaft. Three of the strut bolts were missing and it appeared the other three bolts had broken off. Unbelievable! Where and when this happened we are not sure. Russ and I felt only a vibration when we were up on step. We were lucky we got into Barker’s Island Marina on Thursday night without having major problems on cold Lake Superior.
Three weeks later Dragonfly took her first trip across Big Traverse Bay to Fall Escape.
Our voyages on Dragonlfy have only just begun. We plan on making every Escape event in the future a “trip of a lifetime!” on Lake of the Woods.
