TRIP 6 LOGS
August 2 – September 5, 2000
New York City, NY Area to Chicago, IL

PART 4   Georgian Bay, North Channel, and Lake Michigan

Port Severn to Georgian Bay, Friday, August 25, 2000

     Wally convinced me to buy the small-craft charts for Georgian Bay, even though I already had the Richardson’s book, which contained the small-craft charts.  I guess I’m glad I did, because the charts put out by the government of Canada have better colors and are easier to use in many ways.  Richardson’s uses different shades of grays and a tan color – no red or green.  I think the Canadian government forces that on them so their charts are not as user-friendly, and the Richardson’s chartbook has a statement on every page that the charts are not to be used for navigation.  Why would you buy them if you couldn’t use them for navigation?  It’s probably required by Canada in order to obtain permission to reproduce them, because the information shown on both sets is identical.

     The store that sold the charts opened at 9am, so we pulled out at 9:45am.  For the next two days I was the navigator and Wally was the pilot, although I ran the boat myself at times.  There was a real need for the two positions, as there were not too many markers to begin with, and sometimes the twists and turns would make your head spin.  We felt lost immediately as we passed out of Lock 45, after dropping some 15 feet to elevation 577 (approximately, the level of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron) as the buoys changed again to red on the right.  We were at a junction in the chart, there weren’t enough buoys, and there were two marked channels leaving Port Severn.

     We had talked to one captain with local knowledge.  He was headed for Honey Harbour, a popular marina and tourist spot about 12 miles away from the lock.  He advised us not to go there, as our draft was too great, in his opinion, for the shallow water enroute.  On the chart that included Potato Island Channel, with charted depths of 6 feet and a couple of spots where the depths could have been even less that six.  We took his advice and used the other channel, called the Waubaushene Channel.

     The Canadian chart 2202 at that point is the worst we experienced on that trip.  At first there appeared to be an infinite number of ways to go from point A to point B, but I came to understand I had to follow the indicated channel because I didn’t have charts for any other routes.  When you buy the small-craft charts, you get strip maps that follow one route, and there isn’t enough chart covering the areas outside the route to allow any deviation.

     The chart seemed to not overlap at all at small “b” on page 2 at the Talbot Islands.  They used an “A” for a continuation, just a small distance; then they used an “A” to refer to another chart.  They used a “b” and a “B” for referral to different portions of the chart.  Each of those sections was turned at a different angle, making the compass rose different in every view.  And they changed scales between the area just outside the lock and the areas further away.  In the larger scale area, and nowhere else in all the Canadian charts, they left out significant numbers of buoys, and we could not tell from the chart how we were going to know when to turn.  (Because there were buoys not shown on the charts, we did know where to turn by following the buoys, but some of those turns were unbelievable.)  It was the most confusing part of the navigation.

     Once we got past Talbot Islands, we could follow the magenta route line, which was marked with mileage seemingly to Parry Sound.  We could not find the ends of the mileage marked on the chart, going into or coming out of Parry Sound, but we could follow the route except for that area.  Since we had no plans to go to Parry Sound (a town), we had to travel through a short area between the two magenta lines (one to and one from Parry Sound).  I got a little confused and let us get too close to some rocks.  Angela screamed, and we quickly slowed to a crawl over the rocks, and we just barely touched bottom in that encounter.  All those rocky islands looked alike at times.

     The charts seemed set up for three trips of about 65 miles each.  The first was from Port Severn to Parry Sound.  The second was from Parry Sound to Byng Inlet.  The third was from Byng Inlet to Killarney.  We wanted to be in Killarney at the end of two days, so we had to make our own way at the junctions of these charts.

     We were generally surrounded by islands, but they varied a lot in their sizes and shapes.  The channel sometimes was very narrow, with islands and visible rocks just outside the edges of the markers.  At other times we had a mile, or close to it, between the closest islands, and the water was so deep we could wander safely from side to side.  That situation was much more true in the North Channel.  Georgian Bay was full of rocks and islands, and the turns made by that channel would at times make you feel faint as you contemplated your course.  The course on Friday was much easier than our course on Saturday, however.

     We stopped at an anchorage near Shawanaga Island, after a run of 70 miles for the day.  The winds were strong, but we found a good mud bottom in the lee of the island and were well anchored all night.  We stopped there because there did not appear to be a good anchorage later on the route, which proved to be true as we discovered on Saturday.

Shawanaga Island to Killarney, Ontario, Saturday, August 26, 2000

     None of slept well at anchor, due to worrying about dragging.  At 5am I was up and seemed unable to go back to sleep.  We pulled up the anchor at 6:30am, and we began an unbelievable day of twisting and turning narrow channels.

     After 6 miles we came to the first narrow section, called Haggart Narrows.  It just did not look like our boat could pass through such a narrow channel that close to an island.

     South of Pointe Au Baril, we went towards the bay and made a 100 degree turn around a Red-Green-Red marker (why not a red marker?) with rocks and shoals all around us.  Then the channel led us, via range markers on two large rocks, back inland to a place called Shoal Narrows.  It was memorable.

     Then we proceeded back towards Georgian Bay again, by Hangdog Reef, where we made a 120 or so degree turn around two red markers.  As we came back inland, the rocks and shoals on either side of us were only a few feet high.  Everything looked the same, and you could not get a sense of where the channel would go next.  That channel was named Hangdog Channel, and someone later asked us if we had found enough water there.  Georgian Bay and North Channel were about 3 feet lower than when we were there in 1997.

     We ran inland for a couple of miles, and then the channel turned and we headed towards the bay again.  After five miles of “offshore” conditions, we made a hard right and then a hard left.  Two miles later we did the same thing.  These course changes were necessary to avoid an island, or a reef, or just a collection of rocks.

     The next narrow section was called Mile 56, and it had an enlarged detail on the chart.  We were then approaching Byng Inlet, so we found a turn that would take us over to the route out of Byng Inlet and on towards Killarney.  That junction of the charts was easier than the first one, and we hit no rocks making the transition. 

     Cunninghams Channel was a piece of cake, or were we just getting used to these narrow channels?  Next was Rogers Gut, and it was scary.  Riprap was piled up on both sides of the channel, presumably to prevent shoaling.  The chart promised depths down to 6 feet, and we knew the lakes were low.  What if we found the six-foot spot and it was 3 feet instead of 6?  The adjacent Free Drinks Passage looked wider and deeper, but without buoys I would not attempt it.  Experimenting with rocks around the props was not much fun.

     We ran north and then west, through Dead Island Channel; and then we turned towards the bay again.  We traveled a few miles in open water, which was well marked; and when we again turned inland again, we found that a marker shown on our charts was missing.  As we rounded the Bustard Islands, we once again found ourselves in open water.  There were three lights on the largest of the Bustard Rocks-not one, but three, all together, as if to provide back-up if one or two went out.

     The next run offshore was scary because there weren’t many markers and we missed the first one.  We went too far offshore and made our turn, trying to parallel the course shown on the chart.  We used the GPS to help us find the next buoy, which was 8 miles away from the one we had missed (or was missing).  We made a course change there and ran another 4 miles, wherein we found our markers and two markers not shown on the chart.

     Then we approached the entrance to Beaverstone Bay at an island called Toad Island.  There we thought we might have a problem, because the Canadian chart and the Richardson’s chartbook used different channels.  Richardson’s actually showed two ways to get through the area, and it was a more recent book than the Canadian chart.  When we reached marker D88 we could see the Richardson’s book was correct and the Canadian chart was wrong.  D88 had been moved, and the buoyed channel now ran to the north and west of its former route.

     Beaverstone Bay was attractive, but the pay-off was the upper end of the bay.  Of course, we had to go through a section of narrow, shallow channel which the chart said had 6 and 7 foot depths, but we made it without hitting anything hard.  Then we turned to the west and saw Collins Inlet.  The beauty of that place had us speechless for many minutes. 

     Collins Inlet was a long and narrow fiord between rocky sidewalls that ranged up to 125 feet above the water.  The edges of the channel had light green grass next to the clear but dark water.  Some places had a small beach, but more typical were vertical rock bluffs of granite of different colors and shapes.  Trees grew out of impossible spots on the rocky face, and the shapes and colors of the rock formations were endlessly fascinating.   There was no sign of mankind, and that was a completely natural place.  We idled throughout the trip down Collins Inlet, as if we were in a spiritual place. 
              

     After 3 miles of straight and narrow channel, we came to Mill Lake, which was a typical lake with islands and a few buildings here and there.  Half way down Mill Lake we turned into Collins Inlet again, which was a narrow channel for another 7 or more miles.  It was just as beautiful as the first section.  There were a few camps and buildings on the shores, hunting and fishing clubs, and a few private residences.  They all looked old, like they had been there a long time.

              

     We came out of the narrow channel and eased into Killarney.  It was an interesting village of a few hundred people, which we had visited in 1997.  It had not changed much that we could see, except the fish-and-chips place was no longer called “Mr. Perch”, because, we were told, they couldn’t catch perch any more.  The fish they processed and sold there was usually whitefish.

              

     Sportsman’s Inn was our marina for the night, and they remembered our Texas friends who had been there a few weeks earlier.  They had no diesel, and their slip price and fuel price were the highest we had seen (except for Montebello, that is).  The dock help were not too friendly, either (were we ready to go home?).  We checked out the restaurant and found they had did not have a “no smoking” area.  They had high prices and a live band scheduled in the open-air dining room, and Angela noticed a cigar stand near the restaurant.  We gave it a miss and ate fish-and-chips.  We also bought a few food items at the local grocery store.

       We spoke to some interesting folks who were our neighbors for the night.  One was there for the summer; he lived in Canada near Lake Ontario.  His boat was custom made for him out on the west coast in 1989.  It was very clean and well cared for.  The other boat was a trawler operated by two couples from California.  They were fixing up the boat as they slowly moved towards the Caribbean. 

Killarney to Baie Fine, Ontario, Sunday, August 27, 2000

     Our neighbor said to pronounce it “Bay Fin”.  I guess it’s spelled in the French way.  Anyway it was the big attraction thereabouts, except for Killarney Provincial Park, near the village of Killarney.  The park offered campsites for hikers and canoeists and poets and artists.  A number of books were for sale in the area which attempted to describe the beauty of the area. 

     The beauty of “Bay Fin” was very much enjoyed by us, and we anchored and spent the night.  Being unsure about the more narrow section, we anchored at the east end and dropped the dinghy for exploring “The Pool”.  After running the dinghy through the narrow entrance, we could see our big boat would have done fine, but we were really spooked by the rocks we had encountered up to that point.

        

     At the end of the narrow section, we found a boat, either 98 or 110 or some great length (we heard several stories) with a home port in Florida painted on the transom.  The lady who owned it was heir to the Evinrude name and fortune, and she kept the boat there in the summer and in Florida in the winter.  That was truly a beautiful area, and the serenity we felt there made the whole trip worthwhile.  We took quite a few pictures of the place to try and capture its essence, but that is impossible.  

     It would not do to be cruising around that area without charts.  In fact, I believe you would always miss something if you didn’t have the charts, and that something could cost big money.  The inlet was not straightforward in entering or in negotiating shallows and rocks; charts were a necessity to avoid a calamity. 

Baie Fine to Croker Island, Ontario, Monday, August 28, 2000

     We left Baie Fine and motored into Little Current, which was just west of the only bridge from the mainland onto Manitoulin Island, the largest fresh-water inland in the world.  The bridge only opened on the hour, but we found we could go under it with our antennas down.  So, we tied up in Little Current at 10:30am.  We bought film, charts, groceries, and gifts.  The chart store there was excellent – Turner’s, a family-run place open for several generations.

     We had passed through Little Current in our 1997 cruise, but we had not stopped and gone into the town.  Now that we were in the town, I found I liked it as much or more than Killarney.  Little Current was more of a town, with more shops and stores, really more of everything than Killarney.  The main street was all we saw, and there was more to see; but it was well painted and looked good.  We used the pay phone at the town dock, since our cell phones did not work in that area.  Water was also available, free, at the town dock.  We had lunch on the boat and headed west for Croker Island.

     We had anchored in that cove in 1997, and we wanted to show it to Wally.  We motored 2.5 hours back to the same place and anchored.  The watermarks on the rocks indicated the water was down about three feet!  We could not get over that, but it caused us no problems.  We dropped the dinghy and motored around the area, talking to people on a few of the other boats there.  We also walked up some of the pink granite hills, to see the sights and to experience the hiking.  The weather was great – cool breeze, warm sun, a few clouds. 

     No one should be out there without charts.  It’s scary enough to work your way through those rocks with charts; it would be dangerous to try it without them.

Croker Island to Little Current, Ontario, Tuesday, August 29, 2000

     On Tuesday we experienced rain and strong winds from the south.  It was humid and hazy, hard to see where the water met the land.  I used our GPS extensively to make the return trip to Little Current.  I went back a different way than the way we had come to Croker Island, so not much was familiar.  After we got back into town, people told us about a 40-foot sailboat going up on the rocks the previous week in the area we came through.  The area was very pretty, but potentially dangerous if you were not very careful.

     We stopped at the west end of town and had lunch at the Anchor Inn.  Angela bought a few more groceries and made a stop at the post office.  We pumped out and filled up with diesel at Wally’s on the town dock.  It was humid and about 75 degrees F.

     Our propellers were to be delivered the following morning, so we were waiting for them.  We made the bridge opening at 3pm, and we got a slip at Harbor Vue Marina on the east side of town.  I took the laptop to the marina office and tried to check email, but had no luck.  Their phone system just wouldn’t handle it.  I put the cover on the dinghy and prepared the boat for the return to the United States.

     One of those duties involved finding a place for our boat to stay while we returned to Houston on September 5.  We had already secured plane tickets for the fifth, as they were cheapest on that date.  We had found that some yards will not charge for the time the boat is in the yard if they are doing maintenance on the boat.  I called Carver and identified the Carver dealer nearest Chicago.  I called the dealer and began developing a work order of items to be repaired.  I wrote out a list to be faxed the following morning.

Little Current, Ontario, Canada to DeTour Village, MI, USA, Wednesday, August 30, 2000

     We were up and ready for the props well before they arrived.  I sent the fax to Amy at Great Lakes Yacht Sales in Kenosha, WI.  Wally and I opened the wooden boxes we carry the spare props in, and made ready to receive the reconditioned props.  We unplugged shore water and power and moved to another dock where the van could drive up and unload. We were ready when the props arrived at 10:30am.  By 11am we made the bridge at Little Current and headed west.

     We took the same initial route we had used to get to Croker Island, but then changed course to go through the McBean Channel.  From that we went through the Whalesback Channel and Turnbull Passage.  We were basically going west, and north, and west. That was a very pretty area, and it became less scary and more comfortable for us.  There were areas, though, where both a helmsman and a navigator were a good idea.

     About 3pm we had passed the south side of Grant Islands and Sulphur Island in the North Channel.  We had been in open waters for a few hours, and now that was to change.  We had to find the opening into our path through the islands to DeTour Village.  We finally did, after a few stops and starts; and we made our way into St Mary’s River and down to DeTour Village Marina.  On the way we cleared US Customs and Immigration by radio with Ft Drummond Marina on Channel 68.  They wanted to know our Canadian Report Number and our US decal number, and some entry date information, and that was it.

     We filled up with fuel at $1.549 US (which was about our average for the trip so far), and got a slip for the night for $37.  We walked over to the village and ate dinner at the Mainsail Restaurant.  It was pretty good, and we were tired and glad to be back into the USA.

DeTour Village, MI to Washington Island, WI, Thursday, August 31, 2000

       Thursday was the worst day of Trip 6, but it started out like any other.  It was a little windy in the marina, but the weather forecast was benign, nothing to worry about.  The weatherman called for 10 – 15 mph winds from the south.  A south wind blowing the length of Lake Michigan could make steep waves.

      We left DeTour Village Marina at 7:30am and motored over to Mackinac Island.  Someday we’ll stop and spend some time there, but that time we wanted to be in Kenosha to meet Amy on Saturday to go over the work list.  We did pull into the harbor and circle around, take a few pictures, and look the place over.  That was around 10am. 



            

     We moved west and went under the five-mile bridge connecting Upper and Lower Michigan.  The wind picked up, eventually to 15 – 25 mph strength, almost gale force.  We were not as well prepared for Lake Michigan: our charts were adequate for the route we planned but had insufficient details for alternative routes.

     We wanted to go south, and the waves were coming from the south.  We would go up a wave and then fall into the trough on the other side.  I tried slowing at the top of the trough, and that helped sometimes.  I tried using the throttles independently, to turn us slightly off the direction of the wave, and that helped somewhat.  The main thing that helped, though, was to go west and southwest instead of south.  Eventually we would run out of Lake Michigan, though; so sometimes we could pick smaller waves and turn south.

     Those waves must have been six feet high and sometimes eight.  We needed seat belts on the bridge.  The disorder in the salon and staterooms was hard to believe.  It looked like the boat had been vandalized.  We tried not to go below, for many reasons.  Every time we did, we found water streaming in around the windows and the few other places where we had leaks before.  Carpets, towels, rugs, etc were all wet: and we knew there was more to come.

     We needed to get off Lake Michigan and into Green Bay.  Beaver Island would have been an alternative, but we didn't know it at the time.  We didn't have charts that would show us how to get into a harbor there.  There weren’t any attractive alternatives in the northern reaches of Lake Michigan.

     We finally came to the Rock Island Passage, a channel that would take us into Green Bay and behind the shelter of Washington Island.  I called on the radio and found a marina on the south side of the island, Shipyard Island Marina.  We pulled into the cove and experienced very shallow waters.  The marina owner sent his son in a small boat to lead us in.  Our depth indicator said 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, etc feet deep.  We were afraid we would hit more rocks, but we didn’t.  The only place he could put us was in their well for the travel lift; nothing else was deep enough.  It was barely wide enough.  The wind was howling, and we had our hands full getting into there and getting tied up.

     It was 7pm, and we were tired.  The marina could loan us a car the next day to go to a laundry, but they had neither a car nor a laundry on site.  They did have a restaurant, however; so we ate dinner there.  We had run the generator and air conditioners all day to try and remove as much moisture as possible from the air in the boat.  Next we used heat, as it was chilly, and air conditioning, plus more dry towels on the carpets to soak up water and dry them out.

     We covered 160 miles in 12 hours.  The door to the microwave broke and had to be held in place with duct tape.  One plate and two coffee cups fell and broke in the crossing.  A section of counter top, which had a pull-out section for a garbage pail, came unglued and fell inwards.  Ditto for a one-foot square cover under the dinette cushion.  The chairs had turned over, and drawers had come out and turned over.  We had a mess on our hands, but it started to come together.  Our list for the Carver dealer got longer.

Washington Island to Sheboygan, WI, Friday, September 1, 2000

       We were overcharged by the marina at Washington Island, but it was a port badly needed in a storm.  We did not want to use daylight hours to wash clothes, so we pulled out at 8:30am, Central Time.  We had forgotten to change our watches when we crossed the time zone, so the 7pm arrival the previous day was on Eastern Time.  It was my daughter’s birthday, so we called her and sent our best wishes.

     We cruised down Green Bay, and the day was windy but better than the previous day.  I had left the marina without checking to see if they sold diesel; I guess I assumed they didn’t since most of the boats there were small.  There was a small marina on the way out to Green Bay, and I tried to get in there, but went aground.  A boater on the radio told me I couldn’t get in there; there wasn’t enough water.  We had watched a sailboat get ungrounded on our way out of Shipyard Island Marina.

     Anyway, we would need fuel soon; running up and down waves sure uses up the fuel.  We got on the radio and got some advice that proved to be incorrect.  Then we were told about Sister Bay and Yacht Works, which had diesel at $1.54 per gallon (plus sales tax, or $1.625 effective rate).  Yacht Works seemed to be more than the small marina which it appeared to be; there were some good charts and knowledgeable people there.  We still had to back out of the marina due to its small size.

     We cruised down to Sturgeon Bay, home of one of the Palmer Johnson boat yards.  It was located on the north side of the Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michigan Ship Canal that connected Green Bay with Lake Michigan, just east of a swing bridge that delayed us 40 minutes.  We had covered 35 miles to that point, 12:20pm.


     At 1pm we passed through the bridge and motored on through the canal and out into Lake Michigan.  The lake was much calmer, though not smooth at all.  We ran a mile or so offshore, in 30 or so feet of water.  We arrived in Sheboygen at 5pm, and fueled up, pumped out, and got a slip at Harbor Center Marina.  Fuel there was $1.865 per gallon.  Several people told us the price of fuel always went up on the first day of September.

     We covered 110 miles for the day with running hours of 9.  The aft shower sump pump quit working; another item for Amy at the Carver dealer.

     The marina was one of the nicest ones I’ve ever seen or been in.  The people were nice, too.  Half a dozen were waiting for us when we backed into our slip, which was the last one in an “L” dock arrangement.  When we backed in and didn’t hit anybody, I noticed a lady on a Carver next to us.  She apparently had been holding her breath, hoping we wouldn’t hit her boat.  Upon our successful arrival, she clapped her hands together and said, “We Carver people really know how to drive a boat, don’t we!”  I didn’t want to tell her that Carver hadn’t taught me a thing, but I couldn’t think of anything else, so I said nothing.

     That marina had wide decks, floating docks, and the widest fairways I’ve ever seen.  There must have been 100 feet or more between docks.  We wanted to do laundry, of course; and they had nice facilities.  It was raining on and off, but they had good carts and we had umbrellas and slicker suits.  We ate on board and walked to the main building from time to time to check on the laundry and start new loads.

     The marina had a lounge on the top floor that was large enough for a party of fifty people.  They had one dedicated phone line connection to get on the Internet, so we checked our email that night.  Angela asked a group of rowdy teenagers to be quite, and they obliged promptly.  They were playing cards, with their brand of loud music playing on their boom box.

     On the main floor they had a small grocery store, which also served ice cream, so we had some after dinner.  The serving size was huge, and I saved part of mine for the next night.  Also, at check-in, the marina personnel gave out a package of information on the marina and the town.  It was very professional and very well done.  When we were finished with laundry, we checked out with security and turned in our key.  We wanted to cancel our key deposit and not have to walk back up there the next morning.

Sheboygen to Kenosha, WI, Saturday, September 2, 2000

      We left Sheboygen at 8:45am after a night of rain and lightning. The weather was humid and overcast, but the seas were still calmer than our rough day on Thursday.  Waves were 1 – 3 feet in height.  Winds were NE at 10 – 15 mph, and it was somewhat rougher as we approached the end of the ride.

    Great Lakes Yacht Sales did not sell fuel, so we pulled into the marina on the lake, Southport Marina, to fill up with diesel.  Their pump was so slow they started a second pump on the other side.  Later, they shut down both pumps and required us to pay the total to that point.  Then they began fueling again, very slowly.  Finally we called a halt, paid up, and went into the city channel.  We had four receipts for the purchase of fuel, because that was “their system”.

     I wanted to meet with Amy and go over our list and prepare the work order while she was there and we could show her things on the boat.  That worked out fine.  They also asked one of their customers who lived in Milwaukee to drop us at the airport on their way home.  We needed a car to drop in Chicago on the fifth, and we could not rent one in Kenosha.

     We got back to the boat about 7pm, and we all three walked over the bridge to a restaurant called The Boathouse to have dinner.

Lay Days in Kenosha, WI and Return to Houston, Sunday – Tuesday, September 3 – 5, 2000

      Over the next two days we washed clothes at a local laundromat, where someone stole some of Angela’s clothes.  We tried to install the shift cables Amy had obtained for us, but they were the wrong kind.  I changed the oil and filters on all three engines, but could not buy replacement oil in gallon bottles anywhere in the area.

     Saturday night we drove to Hammond, IN to see the TMCA members who were spending a night or two there before continuing on with their “Great Loop” cruises.  Ed and Marion, Tom and Ann, Frank and Sue, Mike and Ginny, and the three of us made 11 for dinner at the Empress Casino buffet.  It was a nice evening and very good to see our friends.  It took two hours and a few minutes to get there, and somewhat less going back on a different route into Chicago.

     The video camera had quit about the time we reached Mackinac Island.  It seemed to want a cleaning cassette, which we did not have.  We checked several places in Kenosha and Racine, but could not locate one.  Best Buy in Racine said they were temporarily out of stock.

     It rained on and off, lightly; and it got colder.  Some boats were already out of the water, “on the hard”, and wrapped in plastic for the winter.  The high for the day on Sunday was 65 degrees F.  We packed our clothes and ate the food still remaining on board.

     Our flight was 8:35am on Tuesday, so we got up at 4am and drove to Chicago.  We planned to return on September 23 to take the boat back to Houston.

Statistics for Year 2000 Cruise, Trips 1,2,3,4, 5, & 6:

               Engine     Generator                  Fuel        Fuel         Run       Lay     Travel  Total
                Hours        Hours    Miles     Gallons    Costs       Days      Days    Days   Days

Trip 1         39              11           500          940       $1542            7           4           2          13
        
Trip 2         59              44           815        1127         1476          10           1           2          13

Trip 3         43              13           530          844         1106            7           2           2          11
 
Trip 4         11              17           135          186           241            2           0           2            4

Trip 5         27              33           270          456           606            5           9           2           16

Trip 6        183            229         1780        2528         4087         30           3           2           35

Totals        362           347          4216        6081       $9058         61         19         12          92

Average fuel price was $1.49 (high in Bahamas and Canada)
Average gallons per mile was1.44
Average gallons per hour was 16.8
Average fuel price per mile was $2.15
Average speed was 11.6 mph

For all six trips, changed both main engine fuel filters once and Racor filters five times and the port engine Racor once, plus five changes of the Racor and the fuel filters on the generator, plus four complete oil and filter change for all three engines, plus changed the oil filter twice and the fuel filter once on the port engine only (during repairs to the turbocharger on the port engine), plus a complete oil and filter change on the port engine during overhaul in NJ.

Replaced the turbocharger on the port engine (April).  Bored out cylinder number 5 on the port engine and installed new sleeve, piston, rings, etc; replaced all engine bearings and exhaust manifold at the same time (July).  Also, repaired the sea strainer on the port intake and replaced the raw water impeller; acid washed and flushed the heat exchanger (July).