Death on the Docks

The docks at the State Harbor in Tawas were a sea of intrigue on Sunday morning.

Yup, while I was on my sailing trip this weekend, there was a death on the boat in the slip next to us. It was a dreary and rainy morning, and we were on the boat making coffee, I was curled up with my book, and I heard a woman screaming for someone (I thought a child and it turned out to be an adult, which I thought weird) and then I didn't see anything for a while. Then I was going to take out the trash when I saw that EMS was there. I put the trash out and headed up to the facilities. When I came back, a police officer was walking away with the two women, which I thought was strange and EMS was still at the boat, but they weren't doing anything. Now I was curious. So I crawled back into my spot on the boat and was watching out the window, and we realized that someone had died on the boat. We watched the police take pictures of the boat and a person that looked like a detective showed up, along with the harbor master. Well, it finally cleared up enough for me to head up to the showers. When I was coming back, I saw that the coroner had showed up and when I was walking back to the boat, finally having blue skies, they were wheeling the body down the dock and the cop had a box of something in his hand.

Mysteries abound.

Our sailing trip had started on Friday. I was on my aunt's boat with my other aunt and a friend of theirs. It was a long hot sail up to Tawas where I was the only one that Aunt Colleen would let take the helm on the way up. As the day wore on and I got hotter, I changed into swimwear and slathered up in sunblock. SPF 30 started it out, but as I noticed that I was changing colors (aka becoming pink) I switched to SPF 50. I'm still bright red and trying to stick to tube tops, and going to work tonight is going to be fun.

Saturday I played the "stay out of the sun" game. After breakfast, Aunt Colleen and I headed to town for a bit and I got a t-shirt to wear that covered all of my sunburned areas and a swimsuit cover up, sarong style. When we got back to the boat, I enjoyed the nice weather, by hanging out under the awning with a book and my iPod, it was totally relaxing. After a while, got some ice cream in town and did a bit more shopping, I took a nap on the beach, that was awesome.

Sunday started out with the death. We wandered around town a little more and then mom came up for the day. I was glad to see her and enjoy her company, plus she was bringing me back home since I had to be back to work today. We headed up into town and when we stopped by the kite store at the head of the harbor. The lady behind the counter asked what the heck had happened on the docks that morning. It was the talk of the harbor. Mom and I shopped around a bit, and I found a couple of things to buy, including a birthday gift for my grandma. We headed back to the kite store one more time and I bought a postcard with a picture of Jackson State Prison that said "Having a great time, wish you were here." I found out some gossip about the guy that died. It wasn't his boat and he was alone on it during the night. It turned out that the people that owned the boat stayed the night up in Oscoda and found the guy that had spent the day with them dead on the boat. It appears that things weren't all that they seemed.

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend that I totally needed. Though in a way, I would have preferred to sail on up, and then camp at the State Park because once it gets dark, the harbor was silent, and it was just eerie because there was nothing to do. No where to have a campfire or anything like that. And that's just part of the fun of going up north. That and my aunt's version of vacation includes a television and never cooking anything on your own, but instead having a $30 bottle of wine with a prime rib dinner.

But I had lots of fun with my camera. I took almost 200 pictures this weekend, just getting to learn my new camera. I can't wait to really learn how to use it. More vacation will be needed.