Stuck In Port Huron

      It was a hot morning and all was busy as we made ourselves ready for the next journey. The girls and I rolled out of bed, ate breakfast and dressed quickly as mom and dad began getting everything in place for our departure. We packed everything up and off we went! We started off pretty slow. (We had to wait for two bridges to lift up before we could go through.) Everything was fine and dandy. Everyone was settled into their place and was looking forward to our arrival in Lexington, MI. We had stopped right before exiting the river we were in and filled up on some fluid that we hoped would stop the little bit of smoke that we were praying was just a remnant of yesterday's mechanical work. We were gathered up on the flybridge talking and carrying on when all of the sudden, we saw it. And our hearts dropped. A HUGE mass of disgusting grey fog was billowing out the backside of our beautiful La Cigale. We instantly stopped, internally crying as the smoke surrounded our faces making us cough and plug our noses. It smelled of burning rubber times ten, and it was very unkind of the wind to blow it all directly into our faces.
      My father looked down in frustration, remembering the work that had been done on the boat the day before, knowing that we would not be able to carry on like this and would need to turn around. Just as we began to make our way back we heard a faint siren and turned to find the U.S. Coast Guard looking up at us as if we were crazy. But, we did not stop, we already knew what they were going to say and sure enough we were right. "Hey! You've got a lot of smoke coming from your engine." They cried. "Thanks," my mother replied, "we've noticed and we're making our way back to the marina now! You can follow us if you want." My mother made her way down to the lower cabin to investigate a low buzzing sound that we had heard. We found out a few minutes later that the buzzing was not buzzing, it was instead an alarm. Notifying us that our engine was overheating. We slowly made our way back and pulled up to the same dock we had used to put the fluid into our engine system.
      By this point it was around lunch time and the girls and I were getting hungry, so my mom and I took them over to the Maritime Center for some lunch while my dad hung back and worked on the boat. We were all sitting and eating when some friends walked into our view. We chatted for a while and they invited to take the girls and me back to their lakeside cottage for some jet skiing and tubing. We thankfully said yes and the girls and I set off for a fun evening on the lake!
      Meanwhile, mom and Mia stayed behind with dad as he continued his work on our boat. He worked until he thought it was good enough to test and then worked some more. They then took the boat out for a test drive and unfortunately saw some smoke still. Not as much as before, but it was still present. That's when reality hit. The part that was malfunctioning was a part that would need taken out, ordered and replaced. Our 3 day trip to Port Huron was now going to be a bit longer. We knew at that moment, we were stuck in Port Huron.

((Hope you enjoyed this little blog post about our events from today! I thought I would make it a little fun and create a story out of it. Not to worry though, hopefully within a few days we'll be back on our route. Until then we will just continue to adventure around this great place! We praise God that we aren't stuck someplace boring and that none of this happened while we were out in the middle of the lake.))

Welcome Aboard

So far traveling on our boat has had it's ups and downs. The ups being the wonderful people we're meeting, the wonderful food we're eating and of course the wonderful sights we're seeing. The downs being the sometimes nauseating waves, the storms and of course that one time that I was smacked in the face with a pole. Ahhhh this is the life!

We have traveled to three different marinas so far. One in Toledo, OH, another in Grosse Pointe, MI and the one we are staying at over the weekend in Port Huron, MI. All have been very nice and at each place we were able to hook up to both electricity and water. This helps keep our A/C running as well as other things such as chargers, lights, the fridge, our sinks and the toilet. Although, each marina provides a bathroom and a shower house, so our little bathroom on the boat is mainly used for storage, nighttime teeth brushings, and clothes changing.

Some of the people we have met along the way have been very welcoming and have had quite an interest in our trip. We are known as "loopers." It's funny because anywhere outside of a marina no one seems to know what The Great Loop is, but say the word "loop" just once in a marina and everyone flashes you an encouraging smile and tells you stories of their own trip or a friend's trip.  We used to say, "oh, there's just something about the people who live on the water, they're all so nice." And we have yet to take back that sentence!

It has been a great trip so far and I can't wait to continue adventuring with the family! Mom has put me in charge of the blog, but don't be too surprised if you see something from someone else in the family on here soon! Don't forget to follow us on FaceBook at Wilsons On The Water and if you have any questions feel free to send us a message! I hope you enjoy the blog and reading the adventures of the great La Cigale!


Love,
 Nina (The First Mate)