While navigating the Erie Canal, Dave and I heard a loud thud under our boat. It knocked us out of our enjoyment of quietly cruising down the canal. We had hit something submerged, typically it’s a log, which can cause substantial damage to a boat. Unfortunately, our boat’s design has both props entirely exposed behind the keel. Prop damage can be devastating to the boats ability to maneuver or worse. Dave immediately put the boat in neutral, opened the engine compartment and checked the engine room, to ensure no water was coming in if the hit knocked a prop shaft strut or rudder loose. Seeing no water entering (whew!), Dave slowly increased the speed on the engines, one at a time, and we seemed to be good, with no vibration. Double Whew. Crisis averted, so we thought.
Fast forward about a month later, while going up current in the Detroit River, we needed to increase our speed above our normal cruising speed. We felt a definite vibration, more so on the starboard engine. Dratz. We must have had prop damage when we hit the submerged log. Since when don’t often cruise at higher than 7 or 8 knots, this wasn’t an immediate need to address. When we saw one of our looper friends post how great his experience was by the service yard in Manitowoc, WI, we decided to wait until we reached Manitowoc to haul out to check out the props and swap out if needed (luckily, we had two spare props on board).
As Slo Pace sat in the sling of the travel lift, Dave and the service technician saw some damage to the props, much more pronounced on the starboard prop. The tech expertly swapped the props and within 90 minutes Slo Pace was back in the water. We took Slo Pace out for a test ride in Lake Michigan to ensure the new props were appropriately pitched, and the engines performed to spec. No vibrations, smooth as butter all the way to max RPM. SUCCESS!!!
We’ve spent most of the week in Manitowoc, WI. Did you know Manitowoc is where a piece of Sputnik IV crashed? In May 1960, Russian scientists launched Sputnik IV spaceship, with a mannequin onboard, to run a series of tests. After four days of flight, a bug in the guidance system pointed the capsule in the wrong direction and moved into higher orbit. The satellite continued in space transmitting data until September 1962, where is began a slow plunge to earth. On September 5, 1962, an 8 cm piece hit in Manitowoc, WI. Sputnikfest was created to celebrate this momentous event. Sputnikfest has been named one of the Top Five Funkiest Festivals by Readers Digest. Unfortunately, we missed it by 10 days.
We had heard weather on Lake Michigan can be unpredictable and to be very watchful of changes. They weren’t kidding. Here we thought we were on the “quieter” Wisconsin side, but we have had to modify our travel plans several times just the day before. So much for long term forecasts! For example, we had planned to spend Labor Day weekend in Port Washington, traveling from Manitowoc to Sheboygan, then to Port Washington. We already had to delay our trip to Sheboygan by one day and now it looks like we will extend a day in Sheboygan (thru Saturday) and then leave a day early in Port Washington to travel with “reasonable” wind/waves. So, our planned 3 day stay in Port Washington is now down to just Sunday. One thing I’ve learned while on the loop – you need to be flexible!
We hope to arrive in Chicago on Thursday. It’s up to the weather gods.
Thanks for joining along on our adventure. Until the next update….
Brenda, with Captain Dave & the mighty Murphy.