M A C K I N A C

Week 2 of boat life. We are slowly making our way around northern Michigan. Moving slowly seems to be the theme of this boat trip, and it’s also what I am struggling with the most. I’m used to working in a high school, where everything is so fast-paced and I have to try to cram as much information as possible into a 50-minute class period and I don’t stop to think or breathe between the hours of 7:30 am and 3:11 pm. Boat life is the opposite; you could say we’ve been moving ~despacito~ (Grace, I hope you appreciate this), motor-sailing at an average of five or six knots. Progress is much less evident here than it is in a classroom, which can sometimes be discouraging. I’ve had to practice being more patient, reminding myself that we’ll get to our next destination when we get there, and no amount of stressing out about it will make us go any faster.

About a week before we left, my friend Ryan asked what my goals were for the boat trip, forcing me to actually think about why I’m doing this. After further reflection, I have decided that my goals include, but are not limited to: proving that Grace and I can work through challenges and are capable of doing this trip, becoming a less-stressed human being, and getting hella tan.

A few days ago, Ryan checked in to see if I was meeting my goals. The whole “less-stressed” thing still needs some work, but my tan is coming along nicely. However, most exciting… Grace and I passed the first real test of this trip: we made it to M A C K I N A C!! We figured that if we could do this, we can do the rest of the trip. What normally takes a crew of ~10 to do, we did just the two of us. Granted, it took several days, a lot of motor-sailing, and docking or anchoring every night, but we did it. There was a brief moment of confusion when Grace started to drive the boat past the harbor toward what is typically the Port Huron- Mac finish line, and it was kind of sad to be at the island without all of our friends. However, the overall thrill of making it to Mackinac won out. Every time Grace and I impress ourselves we high-five each other, and that night we went to the Pink Pony and high-fived like 15 times.

We ended up staying at Mackinac longer than expected to avoid some weather, spending a day enjoying food that didn’t come from a can and taking a ~fun~ tandem bike ride around the island (a tradition normally reserved for Port Huron- Mackinac race in July when with a group of friends, but a good time nonetheless). Huge thank you to Dave, who kindly let us use his mooring ball the second night. After so much time feeling a little out of place or unsure of where we were each night, we were so happy to stop somewhere familiar, know exactly where to get a good breakfast, and interact with people from our sailing circles.