I think it must be a part of this adventure that no two days are alike. Yesterday I did my normal check down of things - mechanical and weather - and everything looked good. We got up early, had our coffee, and then began the process of shutting things down in preparation of departing. I noticed, however, that our 12 v lights seemed awfully dim. Hmmmm, better check the volt meter for house and engine batteries. Engine batteries - 14.5 v - ok. House batteries: 10 v! Yikes, something is wrong with the house battery group! The on-board battery charger is supposed to simultaneously charge each battery group but with priority to the weaker group. Makes sense. But why are the house batteries 4.5 volts less than the engine batteries? I got ahold of Dave Lesh, service manager at Walstrom and together we ran down a systems check - everything okay. Now Mike, the tech for the radar issue comes by and together we start back checking the electrical supplies. Power supply - good. Battery charger - good. Oh, I have two chargers! The second is in the inverter which provides the 110 volt throughout the boat. Checked the inverter - good. But wait, what about the “on-off” switch from the batteries to the inverter? OMG - during the decommissioning of the boat someone “disabled” the inverter which prevented the charger to charge the house batteries! A simple push of the switch to “enable” had the voltmeter pegging 14.5 volts and our 12v lighting suddenly went to surgery center wattage! Problem solved!

Oh, but what about the fog that was supposed to lift? Weather forecast said it was to lift by mid- morning. At 1100 hrs we could make out the Point but not the bay. Question: do we move on (without radar) or stay put. We decided to head out and see what the conditions were in open water. Initially conditions were clear enough to run at cruising speed. Slowly but surely a curtain of fog descended upon us so that I had to cut our speed to 8.5 knots and keep a constant 360’ lookout. We traveled about 2 hours in a never thinning fog. The Admiral called ahead to Mackinac Island to check their conditions - 7 miles visibility! Okay, let’s push on. Sure enough the fog began to dissipate and by the time we neared Gray’s reef (the point from which you turn eastward into the Straits of Mackinac), we were running at cruising speed and ran that way to Mackinac Island.

We’re on Mackinac Island right in the heart of town. Temp is 53’ and the wind is blowing from the east at 20 mph. It feels like it’s about to snow!! We have three layers of clothing on, all of the heaters on in the boat and now, after a large toddy, am I able to regain feeling in my toes! We must be above the arctic circle!! BTW - last night it wasn’t dark until after 2200 hrs!

Now the challenge is to find a nice place for dinner.

It was fun to be on Meant To Be. She run runs like a thoroughbred.