In a Sea Scout's Own Words: The Long Cruise
October 11, 2023
by Regina Kurkowski
Regina Kurkowski, 17, is a member of Sea Scout Ship 5870, which conducted a five-day cruise for ten Scouts aboard two sailboats, Maris and Reflections, in July 2023. Here is her first-hand account of the adventure.
Day 1: We–ten Sea Scouts from Ship 5870–arrived at Burnham Harbor and loaded the two boats with food and supplies. Then we refueled and pumped out. It was a seven-hour sail to our first stop: Michigan City, Indiana. With a calm, breezy morning, it was the perfect day to go sailing, except for the flat waters, on which we had to motor-sail almost all the way.
We arrived at Michigan City and docked along the wall. We arrived right around dinner time, and cooked hamburgers for dinner. Then some of us played some intense card games before setting up the hammocks on the boats. It got pretty chaotic as we tried to put two hammocks on top of each other! We went on a walk to explore the lighthouse while it was breezy and a little chilly before going to bed.
Day 2: We set sail for St. Joseph which was a six-hour sail. The water was still pretty flat, so we had to motor-sail most of the way again, and the weather was hot and sunny. We had lunch on the boat again and arrived at St. Joseph Harbor in the early afternoon. We had fun at the beach and cooked chicken and corn for dinner.
Day 3: We set sail for South Haven–a four-hour sail. The water was not as flat as the previous two days, so we tried sailing, but only got up to three knots. After two and a half hours of on-and-off sailing, we stopped both boats and jumped into the lake. Since the boats weren’t anchored, we had to swim really hard to get back because of the current of the water, and I kind of fell behind so the boat had to come back around for me! But then we learned our lesson and attached a line from us to the boat while we were swimming so that we wouldn’t drift away again. It was pretty easy coming into South Haven, and the rest of the day was spent at the beach and in the boaters’ lounge at the Municipal Marina eating dinner. When we were at the beach, we played frisbee in the water, and I accidentally hit a seagull, but luckily, he wasn’t hurt. We had brats for dinner and some of us watched a few episodes of Psych in the boaters’ lounge.
Day 4: We stayed at South Haven to explore the town. Some of our parents came to spend the day with us. Even though it rained and we got wet, we had a lot of fun as we explored around the “pirates” side of town. Some of us rode bikes from the boaters’ lounge, and some walked. Later in the day, the sky cleared up, so we went to the lighthouse to watch the sunset over the lake. For dinner, we went to the Black Pearl Tavern and the food was excellent. We watched more Psych episodes and slept on the boats in hammocks.
Day 5: Since there was a storm the day before, we had some pretty good waters to sail on for the return trip. Our sail was only four hours to St. Joseph, and when we were about 30 minutes out, we anchored the boats and tied the lines together to swim back and forth from each boat. Two of the scouts (one of them being me) had to “walk the plank” at the front of the boat for “sleeping through” part of our watch! We were all laughing and having fun, and after 30-40 minutes, we got back on the boats and sailed into the Harbor. Since we arrived early, we were able to go to the beach and to the St. Joseph River Yacht Club for dinner. We relaxed the rest of the day and at night we slept on the boats.
Day 6: We stayed at St. Joseph for another day because there were huge swells from the previous night. We were allowed to use the bikes from the boaters’ lounge at the marina to bike into the city to visit the shops. After dinner, we went to the beach and the boaters’ lounge and just chilled there. Some of us fell asleep while watching Jaws, and part way through the night, we woke up to thunder during a storm while it was pouring rain.
Day 7: Even before we left the Harbor at St. Joseph, we could feel the boat rocking back and forth quite a bit. There were four-foot waves, so we actually got to sail the whole way back to Michigan City! Within the first 20 minutes of being on the boat, I was already feeling seasick, but looking out at the horizon helped me feel better. Overall, the sail back was really enjoyable since we were able to sail instead of motor sailing. One of the boats, Reflections, made it up to 7.3 knots! Finally, we arrived in Michigan City and docked the boats. My brothers and I couldn’t finish the whole sail back to Chicago the next day since we had to leave early, but the rest of the Sea Scouts sailed back to Chicago the next day.
The trip was really enjoyable for everyone. We learned to navigate by plotting our course on the GPS, we learned the different watches and how to helm a boat on a straight course, as well as how to raise and lower the sails. We also sung sea shanties and were able to explore so many new and different things. It was a good bonding experience for all the Sea Scouts! I hope to sail on the Long Cruise again next year!
Sea Scout Ship 5870 is housed at the Chicago Yacht Club and is supported in part by the CYC Foundation.
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