A Very Exciting First Day (to say the least)

A beautiful morning when we left Muskegon in the morning on our first day away.  Beautiful sunshine, cool temperatures, kind of a mist rising off the water in the still pond.  

We were promised by the weatherman that we would have winds out of the southwest.  HA!  I can count on one hand how many times he has correctly forecast the weather on the lakes.  The wind was out of the northeast, and we were going directly into it.  It slowly shifted to the west. 

The flies started congregating on deck, mainly in the cockpit, shortly after leaving Muskegon.  By the time we got a few miles out, they were horrendous!  They were the biting kind.  Staying on deck in the breeze helped a bit, but we were constantly swatting.  The flies must have attracted the two bats that showed up shortly after.  They flew around the boat and sometimes lit on the sails.  Then one flew into the cockpit, and directly into one of the line bags.  He probably would have still been in there but Andy shooshed him out.  I stayed down below each time the bats came swooping by to visit us again!

The wind changed enough to put up the spinnaker sail.  Andy was at the bow getting it all organized (we sometimes call this sail "The Beast," aptly named by a couple we met who also had one), while I was in the cockpit manning the lines.  Then, as sometimes happens when I'm in a rush, listening to Andy, trying to maintain my footing and my mind: BRAIN FREEZE.  Rule: always put the line on the winch in a clockwise direction.  I forgot that rule, and by the time I realized it and tried to fix it, Andy had launched the spinnaker.  My hands both got tangled in the line and got pulled through the winch.  Just some bruises and a little cut, no broken bones, thank goodness.  Line gloves save my life, fo sho!!

So I went below with ice, and the guys were in the cockpit enjoying the sail with the spinnaker.  Then, a loud POP!  And Andy shouted "OH NO!!"  and the spinnaker was in the water.  Our halyard failed.  Deja vu, because it did the same thing, almost in the same place on the Lake, two years ago!!  So we hauled it on deck.  Ugh!! 

By this time, the flies had commandeered the boat.  We were washing the dead ones down with the cockpit sprayer.  You guys should thank us.  I think we eliminated half the flies in the State of Michigan.

We had planned to go to Leland overnight.  But with all the excitement, we decided to put in in Ludington.  I cooked up some comfort food, BACON and lots of it, and ham, and sauerkraut, and more BACON.  I went to bed early.  What a day!