And So It Begins…or rather, “Has Begun”

“The difference between an adventure and ordeal is attitude” – Bob Bitchen

If a would-be “Traveler” with wonderlust and a magnetic draw to the sea were reaching for a book to further inspire the “get out there” urge, Sterling Hayden’s Wanderer would certainly be amongst the quintessential classics, even if just for the introduction.  With regard to the writing of that book, Sterling Hayden notes that it “…was much like the making of a long voyage. You had good times when all was well and the wind was fair and the pages rolled out just as, at sea, the long blue miles rolled into the wake. You had hard times when, try as you would, not a usable word was written or a mile made good with a vessel.”

The trip has begun; Albion has started her “wake,” a wake that will stretch potentially in excess of 6,000 miles through the diverse waterways of America – from the Great Lakes, through the rivers, to the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, up the East Coast, into Canada, and back to Albion’s home of Pentwater, Michigan – with hopefully some slightly more distant ports-o-call outside of the traditional America’s Great Loop.

As I write this, we are in Peoria, Illinois at a “free” marina with no facilities, after having traveled over 40 miles from an anchorage behind an island, where we also had no facilities, and after having spent nearly 9 hours traveling under the hot sun to arrive at an anchorage that at first glance seemed too shallow to enter and occupied by barges. However, with the advice of the extremely helpful Jeremy from Heritage Harbor Marina, we finally settled into a comfortable spot anchored ahead of the tows in 8-11’ of water. This was an anchorage I was looking forward to, being at anchor would force me to sit and read or write, and the island behind which we were nestled would offer a place to explore off-leash with Ziggy. However, when I pulled back on the throttle, the handle had little resistance and moved far beyond its normal range. After opening up the engine access, it was evident that the bracket which secures the throttle cable had come loose and fallen off the engine, leaving the throttle cable hanging out of place. Thankfully, I was able to find the screw and nut to refasten the bracket and secure the throttle cable – all while wedged against a motor that was hot from having been run for 9 hours down the river, on an already hot and humid day. With what would have been a relatively simple fix seemingly completed, it should have just been a matter of shutting down the engine, and moving on with the evening. To the contrary—the engine would not idle down below 1100 rpms, even when manually moving the throttle arm on the motor. I called a knowledgeable source, but he didn’t know what would be the cause other than to adjust the screw on the throttle cable. After playing around with the throttle cable and the throttle arm and stuck with the high rpm’s, I simply decided on loosening the idle screw slightly, which allowed the throttle arm to move a bit further forward and idle down the motor. Is that the correct fix? I don’t know – and to be honest, I doubt it, but it accomplished what needed to be accomplished, and the fact that we are in Peoria tonight demonstrates that, even if only temporarily, it worked. Hopefully ahead we can find someone who is actually qualified to poke around diesel engines to inspect the throttle system. After a long day tolling down the river and with the delay from working on the motor, Ziggy was well overdue for a much needed and earned “shore leave.” The shady “beach” of the island looked intriguing, but after dingying to its shores, the leaves of three and seeming paradise for ticks and other less than desirable bugs led us to venture down river to the nearby town’s boat launch where we found a shady spot of grass and a dingy public restroom with a door that wouldn’t lock. But, it was shade, and a bathroom. Upon returning to the boat, with the chartplotter dimmed to reduce the thriving colony of mosquitos encircling its glow, we settled in, dirty, sticky, and hot, for some much needed sleep, with only the humidity and smell of the nearby feed elevator wafting through our windows. Thankfully, during the night it did cool down, and we slept well at our little anchorage. Needless to say though, another day passed without writing in my journal, let alone composing something worthy of posting to the blog. But therein lies the problem, we are roughly three weeks and 300 miles into this “dream” adventure and I am yet to post any updates to the blog. Not out of laziness or apathy, but sheer exhaustion – many times I have tried to squeak out a post, but the quality just was not there. I went into this trip exhausted –from studying for and taking the LSAT, to all the research and time that went into the systems upgrades, to provisioning the boat etc. And now that we are underway, the portion of the trip where we should have been able to sail and enjoy the small towns of Lake Michigan was characterized by stormy weather, rough seas, wind in the wrong direction, and rain. From there, it has been pushing to accomplish roughly 40 miles daily on the rivers, which rather than being cold as nearly everyone told me they would be, have been hot and sticky. Add to that, nearly every day has been plagued with some sort of project requiring attention, be it changing the oil as a result of the last mechanic putting on an oil filter that didn’t fit correctly, the water system springing a leak, the newly installed AIS needing the antenna replaced, the engine running slightly hotter than normal, the AC not wanting to prime, days like yesterday, and the constant petulant hour meter that doesn’t want to roll over – plus, trying to plan ahead our travels and figure places to stop with the uncertainty of how long it will take to get though each lock all while knowing we can only travel 6 knots and are therefore unable to make up any lost time due to lock delays – thus far, we have made decent travel progress, but at the expense, as Sterling Hayden so eloquently put it, “not a usable word was written.”

While I am, as one Looper we met along the wall in Jolliet said about himself, “still looking for that bucket of Kool-Aid,” we have met some wonderful people and seen parts of the country we otherwise would not experience. We have left behind the “knowns” – our beautiful quant Michigan lakeside towns with their unique charm, and venture on into the “unknowns” of the rivers, including the Mighty Mississippi which has been described as the worst part of the whole trip, and the Ohio river with her currents against which we will have to traverse at a snail’s pace. Holding the Latitudes & Attitudes (now Cruising Outpost) motto, which is vividly displayed above my ice box, “Attitude = the difference between ordeal and adventure” as our theme, we press on, through whatever inevitably breaks tomorrow, in search of that elusive bucket of “oh this Great Loop was the best experience of our lives” Kool-Aid.

Even though we have the AC running to cut the edge off of another hot and humid day as I sit down to crank out this update, which may not be the most eloquent of pieces, yet will hopefully suffice for those who seem to think this trip has so far consisted of sipping umbrella drinks at various yacht clubs while I sit and write blog posts from the comfort of a shaded table with a view of the ocean. In reality, I am tired, hot, in need of a shower, hoping the nearby public bathrooms will open before we head out in the morning, and concerned that the sign at the ramp leading to the docks stating, “CAUTION COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW Diluted Sewage May Flow Into The River Here During And After Storms. Avoid Bodily Contact” may mean I am sucking Illini poo through my air conditioner – the permeating smell of sewage only adds to the ambiance of my view and umbrella drink – oh wait…the umbrella drinks are someone else’s trip.

For more frequent updates of our progress and pictures from along the way, request to follow @JTandZiggy on Instagram and check back at www.apiratelooksatthirty.com for more reflections from along the journey when, creatively speaking, “…the wind was fair and the pages rolled out just as, at sea, the long blue miles rolled into the wake.”

**UPDATE: Since I initially drafted this piece, a few developments of interest have occurred. After Peoria, we headed to Tall Timbers Marina, where were were informed the marina entrance should have enough depth for our just shy of 4′ draft – three attempts each resulting in needing to be towed out of the mud proved to the contrary. However, the marina owner felt so bad about our predicament that he allowed us to dinghy from our nearby anchorage to use his facilities and have dinner with our “adopted parents” from “Knight’s Kingdom” in the little town of Havana. From there, we moved onto the iconic Logsdon Tug Service in Beardstown, Illinois. Needing to squeeze ahead of a pontoon boat docked most inconveniently in the middle of the barge on which we were instructed to tie, and with the current being fairly strong, I powered Albion up into the small space available only to have our throttle issue flare up again causing her to die as we, coming in “hot,” careened into the side of the barge – thankfully, our Rocna took most of the blow, though the mahogany bow pulpit now has some gouges from the anchor shank and I had to have a new bow light to replace the now shattered one overnighted to Grafton Harbor where, we are currently residing while we wait for the currents to calm on the Ohio River. Some of you may be wondering why so few pictures of quality accompanying this blog post and silence on Instagram – well, in keeping with what has become the constant story of this trip, while walking up to get ice-cream, my phone went black and will not turn back on, taking with it two years worth of photos, including hundreds from this trip – so, another, and this one far more expensive, package being overnighted to the wonderful Grafton Harbor where we sit waiting to eventually head down the Mighty Mississippi to Hoppi’s – and somehow I am supposed to make an “adventure” out of that development too, or so the saying goes.