This month's expenses were dominated by some major Upgrades we made to Soulianis. (You can see a detailed list of most of those on our Sailboat Upgrades page.) We returned to the boat from visiting our family and set straight to work - spending money :).
We wrapped up our River Trip at the beginning of the month and then re-stepped the mast and started prep for our big electrical project. We also flew home to visit family for the holidays and took a short ski trip over the holidays with some friends.
We put the mast back up and we’re pretty dang stoked about it. The electrical is reconnected, the boom goes back on, and Kirk takes a stab at tensioning our standing rigging himself. Soulianis is finally feeling more like a sailboat again.
Ooo this has been a long time coming… We make it to SALTWATER! After leaving the freshwater of Lake Michigan and traveling 1300 miles down the rivers (Mississippi and all the rest!), we’ve made it to the Gulf of Mexico!
Many of you may be wondering "Where is your mast?!" I know this, because we've received a ton of emails, comments, and Facebook messages with that exact question ;)
We’ve become pretty comfortable with our life on the river. Each morning, once we’re underway, Kirk takes the helm and I make breakfast in the galley.
At this point, we’re about halfway into our river journey from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.
After flying down the Mississippi River at 10 knots, turning upriver onto the Ohio is a shock. It’s frothy with breaking waves, it’s running fast, and we struggle against its current.
We were apprehensive of the Mighty Mississippi. How would our boat handle in the swift 4-5 knot current? What would navigating around the commercial traffic be like?
As far as we know, we’re the last sailboat on the river. The only other watercraft are tows with barges, a couple motorboats being delivered for winter storage, and bunch of duck hunters. It’s a bit desolate, but beautiful. It feels like we have the river all to ourselves.
