Sunday in Frankfort

The day started with a problem! We had planned to leave for Leland today, but on a routine check of the engine room Mark discovered diesel in the bilge. I had smelled it earlier- it smells like old-time floor wax to me. Shoot! After a careful examination of all possibilities, he determined there was a small leak in the vent hose for the starboard fuel tank. We remembered that the fuel dock people filled the tank to the brim back in Sturgeon Bay-- there is no automatic shut-off on these fuel pumps, so we all watch carefully. Apparently some excess fuel exited through the vent hose on our trip across the Lake yesterday- as it should. The hose, however, is not supposed to leak. Of course that particular hose is not easy to get at- it never is, right? After a lot of wiggling and scrunching, Mark used Rescue Tape to patch the tiny hole. Problem solved for now.

Then there was the issue of diesel fuel in the bilge. Fortunately (I guess) we had a similar leak last summer, so we knew what to do. We also knew that a few ounces of diesel floating on top of water can look like many gallons. It's sort of like the fat on top of gravy. (Remember when we used to love gravy??) Anyway, Mark was able to skim the diesel off the top of the bilge water and properly dispose of it. Then he squirted Dawn dish washing liquid into the bilge, and the shop vac-- that stuff really DOES absorb grease. Problem solved- in a mere 3 hours. I was the gopher in all of this, my favorite (not) role, But Mark was a champ, sweating down there in the nether regions of Mara Beel fixing the leak and cleaning up the mess. We ran the engines for awhile and did not see any further leakage. Whew!

Looking down into the engine room through the floor.

Thanks to the time difference, we finished up in time to watch our own Calvary Church worship service. With a Lightning connector and HDMI cable, we can connect our iPhones to our smart TV and stream from the Internet. It's almost like being there!

Worship has been held in a tent since a tornado damaged our church 7 weeks ago.

This afternoon we went for a bike ride on the Betsie Valley Trail. It was a beautiful ride, and our odd-looking folding bikes attracted several admirers.

When we returned to the boat, we found an extremely bold swan nosing around, probably looking for a handout, and posing for pictures.