It’s funny how adversity sometimes brings kindred spirits together.
I received a call at home from the marina manager where our boat was kept telling me that high winds were wreaking havoc with boats and lines were snapping, including ours. He said our boat had broken a stern line and the boat was now hitting against a piling. He was going to see what he could do to pull her back to the dock but I should probably get over there if I could. I told him I’d be there in thirty minutes. When I arrived, Mark from the marina had already secured our boat with extra lines and was now working on the next boat down the line. I surveyed the damage and could see the broken dock line Mark tied back together as well as additional lines he added to the bow cleat and midship cleat. I also discovered the shore power cords were off and one of them had snapped in two as well. This was some wind. The image above was what the lake looked like out at the entrance to the harbor. It was causing a storm surge inside the marina that when combined with the winds caused the boats to behave like bucking broncos. I carefully got on board the boat and got some more dock lines to add to the array holding us in the slip. I also turned on the instruments and could see that the winds were steady at 30 knots and gusting to 37. In the slip! After adding the additional lines and adjusting the entire web of lines to make sure they took the load evenly, I found Mark to see if he needed any help with the other boats.
After coming back to our boat I noticed another sailboat a couple slips away that had come in recently and she was well secured with a lot of lines. I got to meet the owners, Dave & Beth Rogers, and learned they had come in the night before. Dave had spent much of the morning adding lines and getting their Alberg 35 Mystic secured in the slip. By the end of the day they had 16 lines on her!
In talking with Beth I learned they had sailed from the western end of Lake Superior and were headed down Lake Michigan and eventually all the way south to the Gulf. They had set off in early September on a mobile lifestyle and planned to live aboard Mystic to just explore with no fixed agenda. Talk about kindred spirits. Karen and I had considered this very thing but ultimately decided to do full time travel with a motor home rather than a sailboat (I discussed the decision process in the Keels or Wheels post). Karen and I talked with Dave and Beth for quite awhile that afternoon about the mobile lifestyle, our common interests and our belief that we needed to get out there and explore while we were healthy enough to do it. They have a blog where they have documented their adventures with the boat as well as other land based activities leading up to setting sail this past September. It provides some great reading as well as inspiration to just get started with your dream, whatever that may be. Life won’t wait for everything to line up perfectly. You can see their blog here. Well worth a look.
It’s great to meet and strike up friendships with kindred spirits. It helps confirm that you’re not crazy pursuing this mobile lifestyle. Dave and Beth were having a rough couple of weeks making their way south due to weather but they kept pushing forward. If it weren’t for this latest storm our paths wouldn’t have crossed and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet a wonderful couple pursuing a similar dream as ours. Adversity does that sometimes.
