Bringing Zeke E Boy Home (Leg 3)

Wakey, Wakey

Well, 3:30 in the morning came way too early Saturday morning – especially for Kyle who had little sleep the previous night. But we hit our goal and by 4:30, the sun was rising and it was starting to be light enough that we could leave the harbor. Remember, we had no navigation lights, and although it was very early, we were surprised to see a few fishing boats leaving the harbor.

🚨 Stop using electricity 🚨

I mentioned that Kyle was being the electricity police last night, but it turns out that it was actually for good reason. We weren’t connected to shore power and when we went to start the engine, it wouldn’t start. Ugh! Oh no, what were we to do? Luckily, Kyle and Scott are pretty handy, so they were switching between the 3 different options for using the battery banks (1 vs. 2 vs. both) … and eventually got the engine to start, whew! Dealing with the batteries and making sure that we can turn the engine off and sail is critical, so this quickly became our #1 project to research and tackle, but it wouldn’t stay that way by the end of the day …

Where did all these boats come from?

It was now around 4:45 am on Saturday, May 28th, and there was a steady stream of fishing boats joining together from the two branches of the Grand River and leaving the harbor. We just needed to join in. Even though we weren’t as fast or nimble as the fishing boats, for the most part we were bigger, and they wanted to avoid us anyway. We saw every type of power boat from large commercial charter fishing boats to pontoon boats heading out on Lake Michigan the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend!

God is so good

Our religious experience continued from the previous night, and God was painting a masterpiece. It was a beautiful sunrise! (I’m not as experienced taking pictures as I’d like to be just yet, so the pictures don’t do it justice.) This was also the weather that we were waiting for the whole trip and why we pushed so hard at the beginning. I’m not exactly sure if it was worth the craziness we went through, but we were sure grateful for it! It was sunny, calm with wind under 5 knots, and clear skies with very little fog (although it did come and go … we learned that the lake wants to be foggy!).

What else could go wrong?

For the first hour or so out on the lake, we dodged the fishing boats and their lines. But after that, we barely saw another boat all day! Because Kyle didn’t sleep much the night before, he went down below and took a nap for another hour or so. Unfortunately, during this time, the engine bogged down, and started sounding like it was going to shut off. Our target cruising speed was 2650 rpm but it would rev down to about 2000 rpm.

This definitely put a damper on the mood and the pit in my stomach came back.  What would we do if the engine quit?  Well, we’d just need to sail it home … oh, duh, we do have a sailboat! 

It’s your call, captain

But sailing it home at now 2 knots (of course the wind died down even further!) would take a looong time, and it would be hard work. And we didn’t have any nav lights so we were up against a decision window that needed to be made. We discussed options to bail to South Haven or St. Joe vs. to keep going until the engine quit and then sail to New Buffalo, but ultimately, Kyle was the captain so he had to make the decision.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I kept on praying, and God came through of course! Zeke E Boy just kept chugging along, and it never went below 2000 rpm. Occasionally it would rev back up to 2200 – 2300 rpm, so we were making decent time, and only lost about 30 minutes on the morning’s timed calculations.

The end is the hardest

At last the end was in sight! We could see Michigan City’s power plant from a long way off, and then we started seeing more familiar sights – D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant in Stevensville meant that we were past St. Joe. It felt like it took forever to pass Warren Dunes State Park but it was really only 2 more hours to get to New Buffalo’s harbor entrance.

Watch out, here she comes ⛵

The harbor entrance was very busy (of course it was a Saturday and the 1st holiday weekend of the summer – plus it was a gorgeous day!) and we are big! Kyle navigated the channel and the traffic really well – especially because we were nervous about it.

We were tired, overdressed, we had a crooked “nose” (bow pulpit) and we were now entering a new harbor – our home harbor – for the 1st time. Once again, I truly believe we had divine intervention with us. God was guiding our boat – possibly even digging out the sand in front of us so we wouldn’t run aground. After we did our depth readings in the New Buffalo harbor entrance a few weeks later, that is the only explanation I could come up with. I still don’t know how we avoided the shallow bottom based on the route that we took through the channel …

Here we are!

Kyle was motoring as slow as possible, but it still felt like we were speeding through the marina. We eventually made it to our slip, but Kyle turned a little too short to get to our dock and we came in pretty hot the first time! I also think that I blacked out a bit when docking the boat – something that needs to be remedied before we take her out alone!

Finally, we were safely tied up and we were still alive! I was initially overwhelmed by all of the new people we were meeting at our new home. It felt like being circled by sharks and we were fresh blood in the water! Everyone was very nice and friendly. After all, it was a beautiful summer Saturday around 5:30 pm CT. The weather was perfect and folks were having a great time! I was just tired, hungry, relieved to be alive and emotionally spent; extremely grateful to be home safely with no more damage to the boat.

Home Sweet Home

We came home to our ‘cottage-in-the-woods’ so thankful for showers, food and a non-moving king-sized bed! Even though I still felt the rocking sensation for several days after being on land. After a good night’s rest, we went back to the boat the next morning. While we weren’t quite ready to take her out again, we were eager to start tackling all of the projects to get her ready to go out again!

We did it! 💪👊 🙌

It was 19 days after we made it home and turned off the engine on May 28th that we left the safety of the dock and took SV Zeke E Boy out again!

We are incredibly grateful to Scott for helping us on our trip home and Mary for her much needed land support. We learned a lot about our skills as a captain and first mate on this memorable, inaugural trip home. Based on the experience, we’re scaling back some of our expectations for this year but we’re not stopping. We need time to learn, fix and trust the boat. We need time to learn and trust each other in our new roles. We have goals and milestones to reach, and we’re getting better each time we take Zeke E Boy out. This is an exciting new adventure for us!

What are your thoughts?

And we’re glad you’re here to encourage and support us along the way! Let us know what you think of our exciting sailing adventure of bringing SV Zeke E Boy home from Cheboygan to New Buffalo, Michigan!

– Kara from Zeke Life

Live like Zeke
You’re such a good boy!