Adventures of S/V Allez!: Overnight Trip to Muskegon.

On Friday I had it in my mind to head to Saugatuck and actually make a passage in Allez!. After doing some research I found that Saugatuck although charming, is not the best place to spend the night "on the hook". I'm cheap, and I didn't want to pay for a set of 4 traveling dock lines, along with paying the transient rate at a marina there, so I decided to trek up to Muskegon which is excellent for anchoring out.

I left at noon on Saturday, with following seas and great winds on a beam reach to Muskegon. The seas were fairly large, with 4-6 foot waves. Allez! loves being driven downwind, and Saturday was no exception. I had the jib up, along with an unreefed main all day in 15-18 knot winds. The theoretical hull speed of Allez!, with a 19.6 foot waterline is 5.8 knots and I spent all 6 hours between 5.2 and 6.5 knots on the GPS. This really moving for a 25 foot boat with little to no planing areas and a crew of one. I set up a sheet to tiller steering system running a messenger line from the jib sheet through a turning block and to the windward side of the tiller. The leeward side of the tiller got a few bungees and it was off to the races. On a broad reach, Allez! does a great job steering herself, even in biggish seas The run up to Muskegon took just over 4 and a half hours from breakwater to breakwater, which is pretty damn fast for a 25 mile run in a 25 foot boat.

The Muskegon breakwater was a bit of a challenge for the outboard, big seas were kicking at the entrance, and keeping the prop in the water was a challenge. I think sailing in such a way to depend on auxiliary is reasonably short sighted. There was more then enough room to tack up the channel with just the main up. The quick run up the lake about a mile to Snug Harbor was quite nice - Dunes and scrubby scenery along with a cadre of drunken rafted powerboats was about all there was to see.

Setting the anchor was a bit interesting. Allez! being a racer, sits a bit weird at anchor. She wants to work upwind, even under bare poles and little wind. So I was typically pointed a different direction than the traditional looking sloops who were also anchored out. The main casualty of the anchoring was my little shortwave radio. As I let the anchor line out, a strand of rope grabbed the radio and chucked it overboard. If the bitter end of the anchor line was secured, I would've jumped in after it, but I rather lose a radio than an anchor.

The trip back to Holland was a bit more trying than the trip up. Although the seas were much smaller, the wind required me to run Allez! straight downwind. I tried a number of combinations of sails, including the main, and jib - the main and jib and poled out drifter - and the poled out drifter and jib with a furled main. The winds were flakey, so I made a bunch of sail changes along with poling/depoling the headsails. Eventually a good wind came up, and a poled out drifter and a full main took me back to Holland at 5+ knots. The return trip took about 9 hours, and was a much bigger challenge than the trip up.

All in all it was a fun weekend. I need a dinghy or kayak so I can get out and about when I get to where I'm headed. Also, an autopilot and an extra long shaft outboard would make life a ton easier.