Great Loop Blog - Jim & Lisa Favors

Tradition dictates that a christening ceremony be performed for new boats.

• For thousands of years, we have gone to sea. We have crafted vessels to carry us and we have called them by name. These ships will nurture and care for us through perilous seas, and so we affectionately call them “she.” To them we toast, and ask to celebrate KISMET. 
• Then everybody raises their plastic glass filled with champagne or your favorite non-alcoholic beverage and shouts, 
• To the Sailors of old… to KISMET
• Everybody takes a sip.
• The moods of the sea are many, from tranquil to violent. We ask that this ship be given the strength to carry on. The keel is strong and she keeps out the pressures of the sea. 
• Again the glasses are raised, and the assemblage shouts, 
• To the Sea…To the sailors of old… to the Sea! 
• Everybody takes another sip. 
• Today we come to name this lady KISMET, and send her to sea to be cared for, and to care for the FAVORS family. We ask the sailors of old and the mood of God that is the sea to accept KISMET as her name, to help her through her passages, and allow her to return with her crew safely.
• Again, with the raising of the glasses, 
• To the sea…To the sailors before us… to KISMET.
• A last, long sip by all. 

A christening asks the powers that be to protect a new boat along with the owners and their guests from peril at sea. With the help of our sons Skyler and Ross, two of our three sons, along with Ross’ girlfriend Brooklyn we had Kismet’s christening on Saturday July 5th. The ceremony brings us that much closer to being prepared for our September Great Loop trip.

OSCAR – Our family has its own tradition… it is the awarding of Oscar. Oscar is a goofy looking moose trophy (which has taken a lot of abuse over the years - but this has just added character in our opinion) that our immediate family members pass back and forth on an annual basis. Oscar is awarded by the current holder, in this case Skyler (for his college graduation), to a new recepient for doing something exceptional or deserving over the past year. On Saturday morning during breakfast Skyler pulled Oscar out and awarded him to Ross for his new promotion as Executive Sous Chef at his current place of employment, Pizzicato. After residing in Michigan for several years Oscar again makes his third trip out west, this time to Portland, Oregon, Ross’ home town.

Oscar comes with the responsibility of protecting him until the pass to the next recepient. Kind of like hocky’s Stanley Cup! However there are a few perks for the holder of Oscar that offset all the responsibilities. Oscar makes for a great conversation piece in the current holder’s home and we like to think that we all try a little harder at our endeavors so that we might be awarded the recognition associated with the funny looking moose.

Similar to Noah’s Ark we have two of everything and often times more, but in our case no animals. In preparing for the Great Loop we’ve been stocking up on engine pencil zincs, fuel filters, oil filters, oil, belts, impellers, tools, spare anchor and rode all in preparation for departure day. We’ve found from experience that it’s good to be prepared when the need arises. Murphy’s law would dictate that we’d not be able to purchase whatever it is we would need when we would truly need it, so the best defense is to be prepared by stocking the necessities.

Having two vehicles sit for two years doesn’t make sense financially so we’re selling Lisa’s car. This eliminates the ongoing expense of insurance, storage and depreciation. I’ve found a place to store my truck but this time I’m going to disconnect the battery. We don’t need another dead battery to replace like last time. Once the truck is in storage we’ll call the insurance company to reduce the coverage to storage only mode, a huge savings.

We have only eighty days until we cast our lines and depart Charlevoix for our new two-year adventure. Even though we have a whole northern Michigan summer season yet to enjoy, departure day is just around the corner. This past week we took care of a few items in preparation for the trip.

We had recently ordered our new gold AGLCA burgee since we have completed the Loop once already we are now “gold” members. After much thought and discussion as to how it should be mounted on the new boat Jim decided that it would look best on the upper mast area. As usual he was right. 

First after much debate over changing our boat’s signage and agonizing over shapes and colors, with the help of our friends Mike & Lynne, we finalized the design and ordered the vinyl. We decided to do the install ourselves with the help of our son Skyler. Have you ever applied this vinyl yourselves? Well we knew it would be a learning experience with some frustration… and it was. We only messed up one little logo that goes on the side of the flybridge. After that we got the hang of it. We left the large, three layered, logo that went on the stern for last and it went up without a hitch. Jim had someone install some striping on the flybridge by the name and we are good to go.

We got our Dinghy mount installed and played with pulling it up and lowering it down. We are pleased with the system we used, it’s called SoftChocks. We can remove it when we don’t have the dinghy up there for long periods to give more room on the deck if we need it. (Photos courtesy of Gary and Jean Ziegler)

Summers in northern Michigan have the same number of days as anywhere else; it just seems shorter when 35˚, May evenings linger on towards Memorial Day. Couple this with how fast time seems to march on and you realize that you had better enjoy the warm days, when they come, before it is over.

Summer here can be compared to a fourth of July fireworks celebration. The crowd slowly builds in preparation for the big event similar to how vacationers descend on their favorite destinations, as the weather gets warmer. Both events start slow and keep building until you get to the grand finale. Then things quiet down, the crowds disappear and before you know it Labor Day is knocking at your door and people are starting to put their boats away. For us in northern Michigan the height of the season is from July 1st through mid-August.

As we are enjoying summer we’ll also be preparing for our early September departure on the Great Loop. Three and a half months is plenty of time to prepare for a long voyage, however, we think that we will start to make a list of what needs to be accomplished well before we depart, so we can avoid a tension filled, anxiety ridden final month.Here’s just a partial list of what we’ll be working on over the next three and a half months. As we tackle the more important items we’ll give an update on the blog as to what we did to help make our life easier while away from home for so long and our reasons for doing so.

AGLCA- Obtain or Update Membership- Review Benefits

Consider Obtaining a Captain’s Licence

Boat Maintenance Prior to Trip

Insurance: Boat & Vehicle

Electronic & Communication Needs

Extra Equipment

Research Trip Beforehand

Electronic Bill Payments

Medical

Mail Forwarding

Car Storage

Stocking the Boat

Documenting the Trip

Arranging for Guests

Providing Space for You and Your Partner

We have been back to our homeport of Charlevoix, Michigan for three weeks already, to us it seems like time is flying, too fast. That’s how our entire five-month experience in Seattle felt, before we knew it we were heading home. While traveling east we reflected and savored our time spent in a very cosmopolitan city with diverse people, landscape and history. The icing on the cake being that we were able to watch our new boat be built.

This all began last summer when we decided to look for a new boat to do another “Loop” in. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were packing to move to Seattle, Washington for the winter while we waited for the new Kismet, a Fathom 40 fast expedition yacht to splash for the first time.

Now that we’re home it’s time to enjoy summer while making preparations for our second Great Loop Adventure.

After five days of driving across America, two days re-commissioning Kismet upon it’s arrival and launch in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and four days waiting on a good weather window to cross Lake Michigan we left the friendly folks of Wisconsin this morning for the 150 mile run across Lake Michigan to our home port of Charlevoix, Michigan.

We started out with 2 to 4 footers that eventually dropped down to 1 to 3 feet. Our new Fathom handled the run with simplistic east as we ran at 11 to 15.5 MPH, fast enough to make the eleven-and-a-half hour trip during a blue skied, crisp, spring day.

The joy of seeing the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes appear before our eyes as we pressed eastward towards the Leelanau Peninsula and the comfortable surroundings of our home state of Michigan, put smiles on our faces, mostly me because Lisa was napping at the time. We’ve been away for five months and have missed our family and friends and Kismet seemed to sense our anticipation as we drew closer.

Upon arrival into Round Lake and as we neared our slip we were surprised by a welcoming committee of Hal, our ever friendly Harbormaster, our slip mates and friends Jean and Gary as well as our friend Rick. (Photos by Jean Ziegler)

We don’t want to do it, but then again we do… We are talking about leaving Washington to go home. We’ve had such a rewarding experience while in the Pacific Northwest making new friends, reacquainting ourselves with some of Lisa’s old friends, sightseeing, watching our new boat be built, cruising the Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and a few surrounding inland lakes. Part of us would really like to just stay - This is the “don’t want to do it” part. On the other hand we are getting antsy to leave because we miss being with our family and friends back home and now that summer is just around the corner we’ll be anxious to see the familiar waters of the Great Lakes and return to our home state of Michigan with our new Kismet – This is the “want to” part.

Lisa asked me to write this final posting of our experiences during our 5-month visit to Washington State and after reflecting on our time spent here I’ve got to say that I am one lucky guy. I am lucky because Lisa loves the adventures we embark on as much as I do and often times, I think, more than I do. Spending the winter out here while having a new boat built was OUR idea, not mine and not hers, but ours and I find it very satisfying to be able to share this experience with someone who can, not only embrace a dream but, work to make it turn into a reality.

So, to our friends in Seattle, we hope to see you all again in the near future, we really do want to come back someday. To everyone back home… we’ll see you soon.

After the boat was safely secured on the truck we headed back to Seattle where we were the guests, for dinner, of Walt and Margie with whom, along with friends Patti and Eric, we celebrated our last night in Seattle. We spent the night at Patti and Eric’s home and squeezed in precious moments until we left early Friday morning.

We feel fortunate to have been able to spend some time during our stay with such fun people.

Yesterday they took off the fly bridge to prepare it for shipping. Today we got up early drove the boat over to the lift where it was lifted out of the water and onto the truck for the long ride east.

Today is our last day, touring the islands. We left Friday Harbor this morning to head to Hunter Bay, off Lopez Island. This is quite a large bay located on the southeast side of the island. We made our way into the crook of the bay and found only one other trawler and an old fishing boat already anchored close by.

We settled in to enjoy a warm, sunny afternoon - time now for us to celebrate our time in the San Juans with drinks and a game of Sequence on the fly bridge until just before sunset when the wind picked up, just for half an hour or so, and we headed below for dinner and more games.

Tomorrow we will head back to the mainland and secure a slip in LaConner where the boat will stay a few days so that we can have the factory go over the boat with a few changes we need to make and then we will get her ready for the truck that will pick it up this Thursday morning to haul it across country to the Great Lakes. 

Friday morning finds us leaving Fisherman Bay and Lopez Island at high tide and cruising the short distance back to Friday Harbor. We found more liveliness in this harbor this trip since the weekend is approaching and there are more boat and people activity.The weather cooperated with a warm afternoon for us to sit on the fly bridge to watch the comings and goings of all the boats, float planes and ferries. The sunset was amazing as it cast a glow on nearby vessels and made the calm water shimmer with the reflections of the puffy clouds overhead.

As we were passing by the Fish Market just off the docks we met Popeye the harbor’s pet seal. They were feeding him fresh salmon and he was practically doing tricks to get them to throw more to him. He did not seem to mind being so close to people like the other seals we have seen.

Thursday morning we rose to a gentle rainfall. We took time with our showers and preparations to leave not wanting to vacate the peace and quiet of Reid Harbor. We find that most days include rain of some sort accompanied by ever changing skies, which open and close to expose the blue sky and rays of sun on and off all day long. We have noticed that the skies here are often dark and menacing looking, but quite harmless unless accompanied by strong wind. We have picked a good week to tour the San Juans since the winds we experienced earlier in the month have departed and all of our days here, so far, (knock on wood) have been extremely calm and inviting.

Today we head to Lopez Island to meet up with our friends David and Judy one last time before we end our stay in the Pacific Northwest. After we left Reid Harbor, we cruised near Orca Island and took the long way round to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island.

We approached the harbor at low tide and were sorry we had not come earlier in the day since it was quite shallow going in. We made a mental note to make sure we leave at high tide Friday morning. 

David and Judy picked us up at the marina and took us out to dinner. Later we returned to the boat for tea and cookies and none of us wanted the night to end. Then it was time to say goodbye with promises to keep in touch and plan future get-togethers.

One thing you can’t help but notice out here in Puget Sound, and surrounding waters, is the continually changing character of the water. With the rise and fall of the water, which constantly and rhythmically comes in and out on a predetermined schedule, Mother Nature is right in your face reminding you of forces greater than yourself.

While out whale watching, in Haro Straits we thought the 900 foot depth water seemed more alive with an amazing rush of disturbed water from the receding tide, the dramatic, swirling whirlpools and spontaneous waves that seemed to come out of no where.

Today’s destination was Stuart Island’s Reid Harbor and a secluded, well-protected anchorage within three miles of Canada’s Vancouver Island.

It was optimistic but, our mission today was to try to spot a rare (this time of year) whale sighting in the 800-foot water of Haro Straits on the Canadian / United States border. We had no such luck, however, we did see dolphins, sea lions and some of the most turbulent and large whirlpools, we had ever seen, as the currents of low tide swept out of the Straits.

Our anchorage was very peaceful and the only wildlife we saw close up was a seal who came over to check out our boat. Now we are on the lookout for eagles.

We left our protected dockage in Anacortes for a five-day tour of the San Juan Islands, which is located in the northwest corner of Washington State. First stop was Friday Harbor - this is one of those boating towns we’ve all heard of. Most wonder where it is and even fewer, east of the great Pacific Northwest, have ever been there.

It is little known that the San Juan Islands enjoy an average of 247 days with sunshine a year and about half the rain, that Seattle receives. It is often referred to as the Banana Belt since it has such a temperate climate. About 90 orca whales (the official Washington State marine mammal - who are on the Endangered Species List), make their home here where many tourists come to view them each season.

After our serpentine eighteen-mile passage to Friday Harbor, we walked the town, enjoyed the sights, and had Happy Hour beer and soft tacos at the oldest Tavern in town. We returned to our boat in a light rain. The combinations of rain and sunshine produced a fabulous 180˚ multicolored rainbow and we could actually see the bottom of the rainbow setting on the dock. Isn’t Mother Nature great? 

We woke up Wednesday morning to the sounds of foghorns from the ferryboats that traverse the islands. There was a thick blanket of fog over the whole harbor. Since we found ourselves socked in, we decided to have a slow cup of coffee while watching the fog steadily dissipate and again reveal the most charming of harbors in the San Juans.

What can we say?  How about… a photo is worth a thousand words.

This was home for a few days while Ross and Brooklyn visited with us.

Our son Ross and girlfriend Brooklyn came from Portland, by train, to Anacortes for a short, but very sweet, two day visit. They came to visit with us one more time before we head back to Michigan. We packed a lot in during the short visit. We had really wanted to cruise over to Friday Harbor but weather prevented us from leaving the dock. We had lots of fun though being together, which is the best part of family anyway.

We visited Deception Pass in our truck to take photos, played some games, went to Whidbey Island for lunch and laughed a lot. We feel fortunate to have had this one on one time with both of them, as it may be a while before they visit Michigan, or us on our future travels.

Today we went through Deception Pass. This pass was discovered and named by Vancouver’s exploration team a couple hundred years ago and is revered today, as it was then, as one of North America’s most treacherous passes, with currents that can run as fast as 8 knots. It is recommended that you run the pass at slack tide to reduce your exposure to the whirlpools created by the narrow passage and to have more control of your vessel.

We left from our secluded anchorage at said time and proceeded through with relative ease through the narrow passage traveled by Vancouver, Baker and Whidbey 200 years earlier. A short time after we had traveled through the pass a boat that was coming in as we were heading out radioed the Coat Guard that they had run a ground, so even at slack tide there are no guarantees.

We didn’t get many photos going through so after we got settled in Anacortes we made a road trip over on land to take some incredible photos of the bridge that spans the pass and the pass itself.

Again the weather provided us with a calm partly sunny day to cruise north toward the San Juan Islands. We lowered the hook, just before Deception Pass, at Kiket Bay for the night. Quiet, peaceful with lots of birds and little jumping fish at sunset.

We moved the short distance from Elliot Bay Marina to Bell Harbor Marina right downtown Seattle. Just one night here, our last night on the boat in Seattle. See Mount Rainer on the right only it looks a lot smaller in the photo.

We spent the day walking around town. We visited the Pike Place Market one last time. It was busy on this warm, beautiful day lots of people were out taking advantage of the spring weather. 

Below:  This is BUBBLE GUM art.

Later in the afternoon we walked along the waterfront. 

Our view of Seattle at night from Elliott Bay Marina.

 Whenever we arrive or depart Elliot Bay Marina we have been greeted by these cute seals.

The welcoming “First Sight” of familiar smiling faces from home. Our friends and boating buddies, Gary and Jean flew into Seattle to spend some time with us. Even though the weather could have been better, we still had lots of fun touring downtown, eating, drinking wine and playing games.The time went by so quickly but I guess it always does when you’re having fun and sharing good times with friends and making memories.

On Sunday, we had a mostly dry day and took advantage of the good weather by taking a cruise through the locks and into the ship’s canal and Lake Union. This area is a boater’s visual paradise and we thought Jean and Gary would enjoy the sights. Our friend Tom joined us for the ride, we will make a boater out of him yet.

We took Gary and Jean to the world famous Pike Place market. It started in 1909 and is still located in the same downtown location.

The flowers were in full force, tulips daffodils and much more. Between the colors of the flowers, produce and seafood, the aromas of the lavender, Market Spice Tea and food vendors it is all a bit overwhelming.

The big thing here is to watch the workers at the fish market toss the fish you just bought over to the counter to where another worker catches, weighs and wraps it up. It is fun entertainment because these guys are all “hams.”

Time to get the two hundred and fifty feet of chain wet. We didn’t need it all but we wanted to try out our new boat at anchorage so we headed out during a one-day weather window. We went through the Hiram Chittenden Lock to the eighteen-mile long Lake Washington. We toured over to Bellevue, around Mercer Island and buzzed by Bill Gates estate before we settled into Cozy Cove, on the east side of the lake for a quiet evening.

Anchoring out, for us, is one of boating’s great pleasures, especially when its peaceful, the waters are calm and there is little or no wind. After spending our first night “on the hook”, we took a leisurely morning enjoying the quiet cove.

On the way back across Lake Washington, we noticed a floatplane in front of the Gates estate picking up a few passengers. The plane took off, made a sharp banked turn to head north over the lake and in doing so proceeded to buzz us… probably really liked the boat.

After negotiating the locks we headed out into Puget Sound towards our marina only to find the sky’s starting to look rather menacing. The winds were starting to pick up and the southern sky was getting very dark. We made it back to the dock safely just before the heavy rain and strong winds started. Some times, you just get lucky.