Hello to all,
The last week or so has been the most affected by weather of the whole trip but it has still been fun. After our stay on Mackinac Island, we went to Charlevoix, Michigan which is a neat resort town. The trip there was one of the longest we’ve had since New Jersey since we did around 57 miles that day. It turned out to be the best travel day for that week as we spent the next two waiting for the weather to improve.
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| Charlevoix Marina - under construction but the docks were new |
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| Entrance to Charlevoix headed in |
During that wait, we got a good look at how rough Lake Michigan can get. The wind was very strong out of the Northwest and the waves were 4 to 5 feet. Fortunately we were in a harbor where we were well protected from the wind and waves and during that time we walked and biked around town, visited with friends and generally relaxed.
From there we went to Leland which is another resort town. We toured “Fishtown” which is the equivalent of their historic district. Fishtown consisted of a series of very old buildings which originally housed services for the local fishermen. Today they are restaurants and tourist traps. We also walked around town a bit. One of the interesting situations we now have is that there are a lot (somewhere more than 50) loopers presently on Lake Michigan. We seem to hit the marinas in groups of 8-12 and require more space than they often have. Sometimes there is a place to anchor and much of the time there is not. The solution is that we sometimes wind up rafting on the dock. In Leland, they put us across the end of the finger pier which means only 3 feet of the boat was in contact with the dock and we had a boat rafted to us as well.
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| Some people have the strangest dinghies! |
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| And unusual lawn ornaments |
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| Leland Harbor - note boats across end of dock! |
From Leland, we went to Frankfort and then Luddington. At Frankfort, we did a long beach walk as well as a short tour of the town. The beaches here are fine sand and the real treasure is when one finds stones that contain prehistoric fossils. We didn’t find any of those but I did find one that I’m pretty sure is an arrowhead. Luddington is an industrial town that was clearly in transition. We did find a good brew pub where we indulged in some of the local brews with our friends George and Marion on Time Out. After Luddington, we went to Pentwater which is another pretty resort community. We spent 2 days there waiting for the winds to drop down during which we did a beach walk, toured the town, toured the museum, shopped and socialized with friends.
The following day (Friday), we set out for Grand Haven but wound up putting into White Lake as Lake Michigan became rougher than we wanted to deal with. On White Lake are the communities of Whitehall and Montegue and we spent 2 days walking, biking and socializing there. The railroad line that runs through both towns has been turned into a bike path which is over 15 miles long and passed right outside of the marina. We also went to the Farmer’s market (our second or third this week) and went to the museum. On Saturday night we had a pot luck dinner with the crews from
Sweet Dreams, Sunrise, Gypsy Time and Just Us.
This side of Lake Michigan reminds me a lot of the New Jersey shore. There are long sandy beaches punctuated by inlets to what are often resort towns. In addition, at each inlet there are large clusters of small fishing boats. One of the loopers counted over 30 boats in front of him at one point. In addition to the fresh water and no tide, the inlets have less current in them than New Jersey and the water is generally much deeper with depths of 100 to 200 feet a mile or two offshore being common. It also seems that more fish are being caught.
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| Lake Michigan shoreline |
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| A tribute to Luddington's Lumbering history |
As I write this, we are crossing Lake Michigan to Wisconsin and are about 20 miles from White Lake and 50 from Racine. The ferry from Muskegan to Milwalkee just crossed to the south of us and we should be well south of his path by the time he comes back this way. We are planning to be in Chicago for around a week over Labor Day weekend which should be a lot of fun.
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| The last coal powered freighter on Lake Michigan leaving Luddington |
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| Some happy fishermen in Pentwater |
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| Sweet Dreams coming into Pentwater |
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| Looper happy hour in Pentwater |
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| Railway station and bike path in White Lake |
The preceding was written on Sunday (yesterday). We reached Racine about 5PM yesterday after an absolutely awesome crossing of the Lake. We had a following swell of less than a foot and very little wind which meant no chop. We are now about 70 miles from Chicago and should have some protection from the winds the rest of the trip.
Having a great time.
Steve and Jean
Aboard M/V Sun Cat
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