Boat drinks

had a chance to harangue anybody into an interview. But believe you me, the those days are coming. We're going to start getting back on track. Here, but I did want to reach out and at least get something down and let you know we haven't forgotten. We've received a little bit of emails, a little bit of text messages asking you know, when are we getting back on track. So that's what we're attempting to do. You know, I do want to address that. The big thing everyone's talking

about this summer is the boat lines. And if you follow maclaland, certainly you know that the Hoffman family of Naples, the Hoffman family of companies, they bought the Schepler Ferry last year and had the Scheffler family run it for them. And then, of course it came as little surprise, at least to the locals when this summer they bought maclaland Ferry Company, also known as the star Line Ferry, the other ferry line. Again it didn't come as a huge surprise,

but what came next was a bit surprising. The star Line ferry boats apparently we're in need of some pair and the appointed president of the company from Schepler came to the city council and said they need so much repair, in fact, that we're going to have to dry dock the entire fleet and ask that only Schepler be allowed to run. And when I say asked folks, what you need to know is the Mcinland City Council, the City

of Macland actually regulates to high authority the ferryboats. Due to the island's charter, which goes back to eighteen ninety nine, the island has complete and utter control over rates, schedule and that sort of thing. Now, the city's done their best to let the boat lines be the boat lines,

but they do have regulatory authority. So the city did grant that, and which it had a little bit of irony because this was the same company ten years ago that was battling, not battling for there not to be one boat line, and now they're asking the city to go ahead and grant that. So it was kind of weird water, so to speak. But anyway, the Scheffler Ferry

kind of handled everything for the island. But I can tell you that it was a little crowded, and no, it was a lot crowded, and getting folks out and off the dock, particularly on weekends was kind of tough. There really was no interruption in service. Boats were coming over every fifteen minutes and there were some lines of course to get here, but some folks in the media portrayed it as the island being closed down, and that

just wasn't the case. Now, many of you have reached out to this city and to me and just on the street, and you know, wondering about the monopoly effect now that the Hoffman family owns both well basically all ferry lines to mac and Island, and yes, that would be a monopoly by the definition. But what folks need to know is you can in fact have a monopoly as long as there's some sort of governmental control, whether

it's federal, state, or local. And in this case, the city of mcland does have regulatory control, and I expect the city will exercise that control. So some of these articles, you know, I read on various news outlets, were quite erroneous that you know, there's going to be fifty dollars tickets and one hundred dollars tickets and mcn Island's going to price itself out and it's just going to become a resort for the one percenters. That I just don't

see happening. With the city having utter control over the prices in the schedule, I don't think that's a realistic concern. Now, I'm sure many of you sit back and say, oh, just you wait, and I'm going to sit back and say no, just you wait. And I'm pretty confident in the city's ability and ambition to that regard in holding

the line on fairy prices in schedules. So interesting enough, what the Hoffman family did recently was they hired Veronica Dabravovsky, who the CEO of Arnold Freight, the freight provider to Mcaniland. They brought her in to kind of shore up star Line and get the ship right at no pun intended. And I think she's doing that, and I think she's doing a pretty good job with that. And time will tell. But they have a lot of projects are working on.

Some of them are somewhat ambitious. But we're looking back, we're looking ahead and hoping that everything is going to work out. So that's the big news. So, you know, fret not, fear not. While I know you know some of the news articles that are somewhat driven by our tourism competitors. I mean, I don't think it's any secret that there's a few other towns in Michigan that compete for tourism dollars with Mcina Island, and some of them have promulgated some of this bad press. Rest fear not.

I suspect by spring, when the new tourist season starts,

everything will be fine. I hate to, you know, sprinkle pixie dusts and everything like that and say it like that, but I think things are gonna be fine, and I'm looking forward to looking forward to what Veronica we'll do with the former starlne One other big announcement when they hired Veronica to take over Starline, they also are basically abandoning or retiring the star Line moniker, the star Line name, or the mcin Island Ferry Company name, and they are

resurrecting from I think eighteen seventy eight was when it started. They are resurrecting Arnold, transit the Arnold Line to Mackin Island, and they're bringing back the boats are gonna be painted green and white again. And in fact, they've already started painting the main pier downtown. So that's kind of exciting. But anyway, so we're back. We're gonna try to bring him, Like I said, more up to date news. I was

looking at the website today. We've now been listened to in over thirty four different countries, which kind of blows my mind. And I didn't know I had that many relatives. But we're gonna try to be more upbeat. I did want to talk about, you know, summer is busy, but the one fun thing I got to do this summer, and it's you know, it's very applicable to the island, of course, is you all know about the yacht races that take place in July. There's the Chicago to Mackinaw,

then the Bayview Yacht Club Port Huron to Mackinaw. And this year the Port Huron to Macinaw was turning one hundred years old. The races, it was a one hundredth running, and about a year ago I had the idea, I said, you know what, we got to put together an all island crew, a group of guys from the island or ties to the island to get in that race. And if it's the hundredth running, this is the year to do it. And so over a year ago this this

idea was hatched. And and you know I used to have about he used to have a twenty two Catalina kept it right here on the straight Stock, or some people call it the Yoder Dock, the new monikers the East Dock, but I'm a big fan of call it's the straight Stock. And I know Tom kat is too. But I had a twenty two Catalina and I loved that boat, and I love ceiling around the streets. I wasn't very good at it, but I sure enjoyed it. But I was fortunate enough that at an early age

I learned you don't own boats. You have friends that own boats, because owning a boat is it's a pain in the butt. And as some people describe it, a boat as a big hole in the water that you throw thousands of dollars down. Some people said boat stands for bring on another thousand. So anyway, I was fairly young. I was in my twenties when I said, you know what, I don't need to own a bout anymore. And I was sorry to see it go, But anyway, I came

up with the idea. And you know, and I do know a couple of great sailboat captains, Kevin Lwan from the East Bluff and Bart Hathwaite, who's my neighbor down the street. They've been in many Macinaw races. That's what they're called, the Chicago to Mac Babu Mac. They call them the Max. Those guys have done plenty of them. In fact, I know Bart was on a crew that won one. One year. We started talking to those guys

about putting this together. They were both a little skeptical, little hesitant at first, and unfortunately Kevin ran into some health issues and had to drop out. So Bart kind of became the de facto nominated and voted in captain without much of us say, and then he embraced the idea and he tuned up his boaty as a thirty four Catalina. It's beautiful, it's a lot of fun, and you know those aren't racing boats. Those are more cruising boats. But we rounded out the crew with Mike Gidley who

has a condo down on the mission. And Mike is a world class sailor. He's been in many many of the Max and he sailed all over the world in fact, and he has a tremendous amount of experience. Mike Haggerty from the East Bluff one of my buddies. He's been in many races as well, and he jumped at the idea, and Bart decided, you know what, we got to have my son. He's eighteen, just graduated high school, starting at

the University Michigan. Of course, you know, I'm a Michigan man, so I'm like, hey, more Michigan men, the better, and so Chaz Bart's son. He rounded out the crew. And then lastly it was going to be Dan Musser, who was recently retired from the sale of the Grand Hotel, and he'd signed up for the mission, so to speak, but earlier in the summer he found out he had some family obligations he had to attend to, and so we tapped Andrew Dowd, the owner of Dowd's Market, who

actually sold me my twenty two Catalina. And Dowd said it took him half of the second to say yes, and he said, yeah, let's do it. So we head down to a port here on. Now. I got to tell you, I've never been in one of the big races. I've never been able to take three or four days

off of life in July. And I got to tell you, luckily, my wife is my wife, and she afforded me this opportunity by stepping up and taking care of the family and kind of rolling her eyes a little bit as and she may have muttered Peter Pan syndrome under her breath once or twice, but anyway, she made this happen for me, and having never been in the race before, I was. I was kind of shocked when you get down to Port Huron because it's it's a total different vibe.

It's called boat night down there. In fact, it's kind of turned into boat week, but they call it boat night and it's very chill, and they really embrace the race. You know, I don't think they do a pile of tourism and port hereon it's not there, you know, Tourism isn't there number one thing like it is around here. But I couldn't believe it. They were people going up and down the docks giving out bags of ice. More

on that later. They had courtesy golf carts that would, you know, give you a ride to whatever, you know, restaurant or bar you wanted to go to. And they really embraced having everyone in town. And and in fact, when you head down the river towards Lake Huron, they actually had a bagpiper playing tunes as you went by the port hereon yacht club and that was kind of neat. You know, we have plenty of bagpipers here to play on the island, but it was kind of neat, and

so we headed out. We headed out to the starting line and all the boats were there, and since this was the one hundredth running, they had just a pile of boats north of four hundred. I think it was close to five hundred. I think, I'm not sure. And there was no wind, and I mean no wind. We're all just sitting there. Guys were jumping off various boats to take a dip cool off, and the race was

delayed almost two hours because there was no wind. And finally they let us go and we got started, and we were making a whopping one point six knots, I believe. And I remember just looking back and seeing the bridge, the Blue Water Bridge, and I thought, geez, when when we finally can't see that we're getting somewhere. And we saw that bridge the rest of the day and well into the evening, and we just we weren't. We weren't making any way, but nobody else was, so it wasn't

that that big of a deal. We decided to do four hour watches. You're on for four, you're off for four. And now I'm not gonna lie. We were a wet boat. There's dry boats and there's wet boats. We were a wet boat. I don't think I need to explain the difference. But it's not like we We were out there partying.

You know, Andrew owns the grocery store, of course, so he provided three cases of beer, which sounds like a lot until you divide it six ways, and then that's only a twelve pack of beer, which still sounds like a lot until you soon realize you're going to be on the lake for sixty six hours. So we had it out when we're having a grand old time, and finally near evening, a little bit of wind came up and we started kind of racing this non such that's a sailboat that has the masses and the bow, and

they don't really have a head sail. It's just one just a mass with one big mainsill, and we're going back and forth. We'd be ahead of him, then they'd be ahead of us, and it was a little bit of fun. Nighttime came I was on the I came on at midnight. I was on the midnight watch, which was kind of ironic because we were listening to Crosby Steels and Nash and the sound system. We weren't one of those boats, folks. People weren't yelling and the captain wasn't,

you know, giving these orders do this and do that. Granted, we probably weren't the most capable. I know, I'm not one of the most capable sailors on a boat that big and a race like that, but uh, you know, Bart is as fine as captain as you'll find, and he knew he didn't need to yell at us and didn't need to be that way, and so we decided we're going to enjoy ourselves a little bit. And uh, you know, going up lake here on with the moon it was almost a full moon, or maybe it was

a full moon. We had Gordon Lightfoot playing on the on the sound system and it was it was it was almost surreal coming up the lake and listening to Gordon Lightfoot sing about sailing songs. It was. It was a fine moment, no question. And uh, in the morning we picked up some wind and what I didn't know, Bart warned us, thankfully because he'd been on this race he said, listen, around four am, it's going to be

cold out in the middle of Lake Huron. And I kind of blew it off because I live in the middle of Lake Huron and in the middle of July. I don't remember it being cold. I mean, we've had cold days and cold nights here and there. But Bart said, trust me, it's going to be cold cold, You're going to need a winter hat. Pardon me, folks for getting a run. Sorry about that. Everybody had just had a fire run, had to take off for That's one of the reasons this podcast has been delinquent is we've just

just been so busy. Fire runs are off the charts this year. EMS is off the charts as well. Everybody's just been busy, So I apologize for that. So anyway, you know, Bart was so right that it gets incredibly cold around four am out in the middle of Lake Huron, despite it being the middle of July. And had Andrew Dowd not brought those winter hats, I'd have been shivering. We had all of our gear on, and I do want to mention and we were sponsored. The boat had sponsorships,

which was great. We all matching gear and Arnold Freight Mission, Point Resort, Cannonball Oasis and Dowd's Market were our sponsors, and it was great to have a sponsorship and actually all look alike, and at least we gave the appearance of sailors at some point. But so Sunday morning, you know, there was some good win and we were making our

way up the lake. We kept going back and forth with that non such and as the day went on, the wind really died, and then it died died, and then it died died, and pretty soon we were doing nothing. Sailing is a game of chance. And the guys said, some of the guys said, who are on watch, Let's go to the east and look for some wind, because the forecast looks like the doldrums all the way up the lake. And so they did. I went off watch it at I think midnight that night. I went off

at four am. When I came back up topside, we'd gone looking for wind. It was a gamble, a gamble didn't pay. And there we sat and now we're in the doldrums. And I've been in doldrums before, you know, out here fishing, but I've never seen anything like this in my life. We sat and we sat. At one point the boat was facing the wrong direction. We couldn't. You can't steer if there's no propulsion whatsoever. One of the crewmen, Chaz, he got off to he jumped into

cool off. Not a lot of shade on a sailboat, folks, And he jumped off and he started pushing the boat and he actually pushed us enough to make it register. It showed us a point zero zero one knot. We all kind of laughed. So there we sat, and around this time we each finished off our twelfth beer, which left us out of beer, and we checked on our stores. We're looking okay, but it might be a lengthy race, but we're looking like we have enough food and water.

So all of a sudden we're in last place, and our goal along was not to be the pickle boat. The pickle boat's a boat that finishes last. Well, here we are. We're in last place and we're not moving. And so around you know, eight or nine am, we said maybe we should we should drop out as well and head north. And well, let's take a vote at ten and then ten o'clock rolled around, ten am rolled around, let's take a vote. Well, we still weren't moving, and

nobody wanted to take a vote at ten either. Well, let's take a vote at eleven am. So eleven am rolls around and okay, we'll take the vote at eleven And it sounded like it was just a ormality. We were in content to drop out and head north. We did the math. If we start the engines, we should be able to have dinner on the island that night around eight thirty nine o'clock that night. That'd be okay. We're out of beer, barts, out of cigarettes, we're out

of ice, and the water is broke down. We have a little bit more food, so we'll be all right. So let's shut her down and let's head north. We'll do the actual vote at noon, though let's vote at noon, and that'll be it. We'll do the vote at noon. Everybody agreed, okay. Between eleven and noon, we didn't move an inch. In fact, I took a can, an empty beer can, and I said, you guys, I'm not a litter. I just want to see something. I set the can in the water and I said, let's see if we

get any separation due to current at least. And forty minutes later that beer can was right next to us. And if you've ever done any boating and seen a can in the water, you know exactly just how dead in the water we were. So noon rolls around and we're going to take the vote, and it's a foregone conclusion. We're heading home, and I said, okay, I'll take the

roll call. And I called on Mike Haggerty to vote first, and I figured he was going to say, you know, yes, let's quit, and then everybody else was going to say yes. And we head north and I said okay, Haggerty and he said no, and there was a pause and everybody looked at each other and I said, well that's that, and I'm going to finish taking the role. Let's finish this. So without even really voting. Haggarty he put an end to this talk of dropping out, and in a retrospect,

I'm so glad he did. And I do have to mention, are our whole trip at this point we've been communicating by quoting movies, our favorite movies. Now you have six guys in the vote, so it's a lot of Caddyshack, a lot of Animal House, you know that sort of stuff. So of course Haggarty followed up his no vote with was it over when the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor, which of course is a line right an animal House? So

here we sit, we're going to finish it out. We finally saw a little ripple on the water and we started catching some wind. And you know, this is late Monday. This is probably by the time we actually start sailing again. We were able to run the shoot, you know, the spinnaker. It's probably two o'clock in the afternoon. We are in dead Last and we're finally heading up the lake and we're passing LPN at this point and heading towards Roger City. And I couldn't believe the amount of people that were

following us on the race. Apps at home, I was getting text messages from a ton of people on the island. We were in and out of cell phone range, so when we were in you could hear everybody's phone chirping, you know, you could tell that we'd caught a tower. And I couldn't believe the amount of people that were following us. And you know, I knew my dad was, but I didn't think many others were, you know, paying

much attention to us. So we're starting to make a foot a little bit, and we get up to the lake and gosh, we're making about six knots, which at the time felt like about seventy miles an hour after what we just did, and we're into the South Channel.

The South Channels is between Boise Blank, Bablo and the Lower Peninsula, and I remember it was by the time we passed them mouth of the Sheboygan River, it was almost midnight, and we're back down to the doldrums again, and I look in the charts and we have at one point four point eight miles to finish, and that was at one am. We would cross the finish line at seven point thirty in the morning. It took us six and a half hours to go another four point

eight miles or four point five miles. It was on Godly and the only respite we had really was right near the finish line. A little east wind came up and we're able to sail across with their sales full. And just before we did, you know, Bart took a moment and he'd brought the remnants of his father's ashes with him. And his dad, Bart Senior was a sailing enthusiast like no other, and he really really promoted the sport, particularly here in the Straits of Macinon. Everybody knew Barty

was a larger than life character. And just as we approached the finish line, Bart scattered the remains of his ashes in the straits and it was a nice moment. I was proud to be there and proud to be part of it. So we came into the dock. We figured we'd come into the dock be nobody around, hopefully we could catch breakfast. And to our surprise, we couldn't believe there was twenty people on the dock that got out of bed early to come down and watch these

hobos finish this race. And it was a great feeling. And then, as it turns out, we were the pickle boat. And then we went to the party. There's, you know, a big party at mission point that day to celebrate the end of the race. And we got on stage to take our trophy, our banner, I should say, and you and O party is like, ah, geez, I don't want to go show up for this. But it was

almost serendipitous that we ended up the pickle boat. And I'm glad we finished, and I'm glad we got a lot of people cheered us on, and you know, a lot of folks said, and I think they're right. Nobody will remember who finished two hundred and sixty seventh. Everybody will remember who finished dead last. So there we have it.

We finished dead last with a pickle boat. And I can't see enough about the guys and bart our captain who kept us on track, and Mike for voting no, and Mike Gidley for really being probably the most serious sailor out there for sixty six hours. Sixty six hours is a long time to spend with six people on a boat that size, folks, And you know, people said, what did you talk about? And I said, well, we just tried to remain friends. There was not much left

to say. I'll say this, though we did eat good. You know, Andrew sent a prime rib down and he had the chef from the Island house cook it. We bagged it up into portions and we had prime rib sandwiches at dinner. You mostly just snacked on Eminem's and nuts for breakfast and lunch, and maybe a granola bar. But dinner we'd have a sit down dinners, I called it where Andrew would pass out prime rib sandwiches. And he did bring a bottle of Camis cabernets. It's a

wine local favorite. And after we drank that, I took the bottle and I skinned all the labels off and I went down in the cockpit and I got a piece of paper and a pen, and I wrote down what we were doing, who was all on board, what year it was, the date, how fast we're going. And I put that note in that bottle of Camas and I corked it and I threw it overboard. And hopefully someday someone will find that. Bart did make a funny

when we were doing point zero one knots. At one point he said, I think that bottle is going to pass us. But fortunately we didn't see it again. So that's been my summer. It's been a great, great summer. You know, I turned fifty this year, and nobody likes to get older. I've never had a problem with it. I have too many friends that never got the privilege to get older. And what a great year at fifty thus far. We got to sail in the race of races, and we got to be locally famous for i'ming in

dead lass and wouldn't have any any other way. So, folks, we're back. We're going to try to keep this thing going a little bit more regularly than three months, So hopefully we'll be back with another one in about a week or ten days, and we'll do some interviews as well. Just want to get you folks caught up. This is the Mackinaw Island Moments podcast