Week 9: August 1-August 7

Week Nine has us in a slip in Port Sanilac Marina. We already know that we will be here a week. The reconditioning of our shaft will not be ready until next Wednesday.

The town is only a few blocks away so the first thing we did on Thursday was to take a walk into town and go to the library. Peter had finished reading his book and we figured this would be a big reading week. We have not come across any library that does not have a small section of books for sale. Unfortunately, there was nothing there for him to read so I searched my ebook files and identified a number of non-fiction and some fiction that he would read. In addiion to the library, we found a dollar store and picked up a few things. Most of the towns we have visited have some dollar store (even though everything is not $1 like the Dollar Tree) and have been a good source of some staples such as milk, bread, eggs and some boxed or canned goods. Some stores are better than others but here in Michigan we tend to find Dollar General closest to the marinas. We decided not to walk in the other direction to check out the grocery store until the next day. We needed to plan our days so that we had something to do.

Friday morning we were advised the the prop/shaft repair changed – the prop could still be rebalanced but the shaft could not be reconditioned so we needed a new shaft – target day is still next Wednesday.

We walked in the other direction on Friday and went to the supermarket (the local IGA) to provision. Store was better than some but still not a full-fledged supermarket.

Friday and Saturday were spent reading and listening to the music from the Blues Festival. On Sunday, the local museum was having a Civil War reenactment and a number of tents with Civil War memorabilia. Since Peter is a history lover, I suggested he go to the event. While he did this, I ventured into town to do laundry.

In the afternoon, we met future loopers. They currently have a 30′ sailboat that is for sale and want to purchase a Mainship. Their plan is to leave next year since he will be joining his wife in retirement in February. They were interested in our journey so far and when they were leaving, she offered to take me to a real supermarket to provision before we left. She felt that she would be paying it forward. After consideration, I agreed that this would be a good idea since I don’t know what awaits me at the next few stops. The plan was to go shopping on Thursday when I needed to be off the boat because of the repairs.

Peter spent Monday cleaning the boat just to do something different. Port Sanilac is a nice town but too small to occupy time for a week+. On Tuesday, one of our buddy boats, Selah Way, came to the Port Sanilac Municipal Marina. They had a number of family events that sidetracked their trip but they are now ready to move forward. We were advised that they were told that they must go to Blue Water for their thin crust pizza – the place is known for it. So it looked like that took care of our dinner plans. Must say, the pizza was good.

Wednesday finally arrived and our parts were delivered. However, only the shaft and prop arrived as the box with the coupler, etc. was not put on the van. Fortunately, one of the employees was at a meeting near the shop and would stop by to pick it up on his way home otherwise, we would have been delayed even another day. We are anxiously awaiting Thursday – repair day!

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