This would be an easy day. Winds 5-10 and waves 1 ft. or less. Or so we thought.
Our course from Charlevoix to Leland took us across the Grand Traverse Bay. The winds were from the south/southeast and that hadn't been a problem until we got to the mouth of the bay. Then...well, we suffered. Rocking and rolling again. It only lasted for about 12 miles...but it was all we cared to have. Fortunately the water leveled out to a smooth-as-glass trip for the rest of the time.
As we were going down, we heard from radio conversations that the docking at Leland was sparse and might very well involve rafting up to another boat. With Lucy aboard, that would not be a good thing. She'd go crazy hearing anyone talk nearby, let alone having people walking across the boat! We had left Charlevoix at the same time as Golden Lily. We had started considering a run of 70 miles to Frankfort instead of Leland at about the time Golden Lily expressed the same thoughts. They have a dog, too. Within 30 minutes we had changed our course and set out to Frankfort with reservations at the Jacobson Marina. We knew it would be a long day, but we were glad to be traveling in calm seas.
Once in Frankfort we all checked the weather forecast and decided to run down to Manistee tomorrow for what would likely be a 3-4 day stay. I took a nice long walk to the local grocery store for a few things (still looking for Lucy's favorite chewies) and passed by the Frankfort Municipal Marina. Nearby, four artists had set up to paint for the evening. Darn! I wasn't ready for that tonight given our travel day. Frankfort is a nice looking little town, though, and would probably be worth a longer visit someday.
When I got back to the boat we made reservations for the next few nights at the Manistee Municipal Marina. That done, we settled into the evening.
Thursday, August 21 - Golden Lily and Segue headed out around 8:30AM and had smooth waters all the way. So smooth, in fact, that we both, independently, considered a run all the way to Ludington, MI., but decided to stick with our plans for Manistee.
The east coast of Lake Michigan is made up of lots of dunes and sandy beaches. We were traveling past the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on this segment of the trip and it was a very different landscape for us. I took a shot of some people on the dunes to give you an idea of the scale...
Manistee Municipal Marina is located right downtown Manistee with a Riverwalk that goes for miles. We're looking forward to having a few days here before we head over to the Wisconsin side.
Funny thing happened with Lucy tonight. You know we haven't had her usual chewies for her evening treat for a while now. I have these rawhide "chips" that I've substituted...until today when I bought a whole different kind of chewy and gave her one. After dinner she started doing her "chewy bark" and I relented and gave her one of the rawhide chips. She took it in her mouth, then dropped it and flipped it with her nose down onto the galley steps. When I offered it up again, she wouldn't take it in her mouth. I gave her another "new" chewy and she ran with it. What a picky dog!
1 comment:
Hi Guys,
We are docked at Ludington Marina and took the ferry to Wisconsin. Wil be leaving Ludington for South HAven on Tuesday morning. Hope we run into you and finally get to meet you.
Linda and Alan
" The Simplicity"
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