The most important thing that most Loopers told us was that the auxiliary craft had to be quickly accessible and able to be deployed by all crew in case of an emergency. There are about a gazillion different dinghy/davit systems out there to choose from and we read the literature on just about all of them. Only one system seemed to meet our needs and that was the Sea Wise System http://www.seawisemarine.com AND just like everything I else I seem to like, desire and have to have, it was one of the most expensive systems around. Each of these units is custom made to order to the specifications of the main vessel and dinghy. Oh, did I forget to mention that the closest dealer who sells the system is Trawler’s Midwest http://www.trawlersmidwest.com in Manitowoc, Wisconsin which means a two day trip up to Manitowoc and a two day trip back. But that is okay because we really like to travel the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan and since we had not been to Port Washington or Racine, this gave us an excuse to visit these two ports.
I am sure that I am going to totally jinx us by saying this but we had the very best weather possible while traveling on this trip. The seas were calm and the most beautiful blue sky imaginable. Since the last time we traveled to Manitowoc we were traveling in a fog soup, it was nice to be able to see where we were going this time. As one never to miss an opportunity to loll about, especially in such great seas, I spent every moment on the bow of the boat unless it was knitting time. I probably could knit while lolling about but I really do think that these two favorite pastimes of mine should not be combined. Each activity is to be savored and enjoyed just for itself.
During the installation of the davit system the part that took the longest was allowing the adhesives to set. So while the stuff was curing, Mark and I rode the public transit system all around Manitowoc in search of the Piggy Wiggly. This is a really cleverly designed system with six different routes that are all 30 minutes long so that all of the buses can meet back at the transit station at the same time. Then everyone can switch to another bus if they wish or they can do what we did... We made the mistake of thinking that Bus 2 would stay Bus 2 so we just stayed on the bus, but when it left the transit center it became Bus 3, so we got to see a whole other part of Manitowoc. We just rode back to the transit center to catch Bus 4 that then became Bus 2. It took us a couple of trips around Manitowoc, but we finally grasped the logic of the system. After thinking about it, this too seemed really clever because the bus drivers never get bored by always driving the same route. The bus drivers are really friendly also and we soon became known to all of them as “the people who want to get back to the marina but keep getting on the wrong bus”.
Finally Geno has the davit system installed. He instructs us both on the mechanics of the system and makes me raise and lower the dinghy multiple times to make sure that I can easily use the hand crank. It is very easy for me to deploy as well as raise the dinghy and we are both glad that we spent the extra money for this system. If any problems arise during our trip I will be sure to whine about them.
We are ready to head back to Chicago after having spent three sightseeing days in Manitowoc. We lucked out again with perfect weather and calm seas allowing us to get back to Chicago without any delays. This was a good thing because we had BIG SOCIAL PLANS for the Labor Day Weekend. I will be sure to tell you all about the Reunion Reunion in the next post.
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