{"id":7938,"date":"2018-09-10T18:19:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T18:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=7938"},"modified":"2018-09-10T19:14:31","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:14:31","slug":"where-was-i-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/?p=7938","title":{"rendered":"Where Was I Last Year?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"<\/a>Where was I last year? Yeah. I know. The XO and I were doing The Great Loop. But here’s the thing: there were so many ports, and so much stuff going on, that I can’t help thinking of it as a single entity, as just “The Great Loop.” It’s like my brain hasn’t yet processed and organized all the little bits of information. I want to remember everything. To assist my brain in that formidable task, I started consulting our ships log on a daily basis. Between the log and our old calendar–which the XO faithfully marked every day–I know exactly where I was one year ago.
\nAs the memories came flooding back, I quickly realized that in each and every port there was a memorable event. All I need to do is tie that memory with the place.\"\"<\/a>
\nFor instance: one year ago, in the second week of September 2017, we docked in Lexington, Michigan. At the marina restaurant the XO found twenty dollars on the floor. Free Lunch!
\nXO: “Remember Lexington?”
\nRick: “No. Not really.”
\nXO: “The place where I found Twenty bucks.”
\nRick: “Oh yeah. Paid for lunch. You had a reuben, I had a cheeseburger. We docked near the breakwater. There was awesome people watching.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Free lunch.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lexington Harbor breakwater.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the port of Lexington we limped into Port Sanilac with a broken belt. Also memorable because they actually had a replacement belt.
\nFrom there we cruised to Harbor Beach, Mi. The log book says simply: “Futile attempt to anchor in weeds.” I remember a four-foot ball of weeds clinging to our Mantus anchor. It was the first and only time it failed to set.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Harbor Beach lighthouse.<\/p><\/div>\n

After four tries we gave up and pulled into the Harbor Beach Marina. Turns out it was a good move because the weather really kicked up and we had to stay three days. It’s so much better to be tied up in a protected marina.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Twilight in Harbor Beach.<\/p><\/div>\n

Next was Port Austin. Our assigned slip was next to a floating duck blind. Duck hunting is very popular here. Hunters will camouflage a skiff and float it to the area they wish to get the ducks. This particular skiff was huge. It was like a clubhouse with a kitchen,TV, running water, barbecue, and a full bar. It was fairly obvious this craft didn’t leave the dock. Several guys were drinking beer and cooking brats on a smokey charcoal grill. The XO and I were starved half to death after our 6 hour trip and it smelled so wonderful. Jeez! My stomach was rumbling. Suddenly there was a knock on our hull. It was one of the “hunters”. A big burly man with a round face and ruddy cheeks. Like Alan Hale dressed in camo.
\n“Thought you guys might be hungry,” he said with a smile bigger than lake Huron. In his large hands he held two of the biggest, most beautiful bratwurst sandwiches I have ever seen. Cooked perfectly and slathered in mustard. We were speechless. It was my first taste of bratwurst. From then on brats were a staple on Ginger Lee<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Port Austin morning.<\/p><\/div>\n

And that’s only some of what happened in the second week of September 2017. It was one hell of a week I tell ya. It seemed as if fate had intervened for our safety, happiness, or simply for our amusement.
\nBut wait! There’s more! There are 52 weeks in a year. It will be difficult to absorb and organize so much, but I will enjoy doing it.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where was I last year? Yeah. I know. The XO and I were doing The Great Loop. But here’s the thing: there were so many ports, and so much stuff going on, that I can’t help thinking of it as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/DSCN0101.jpg?fit=2592%2C1944","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2TWzP-242","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7938"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7963,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938\/revisions\/7963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rickcoraccio.com\/boat\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}