We had been planning the “big” cruise for sometime and we departed Saugatuck Harbor on 26 July bound for Ludington, MI – about 82 miles away.\u00a0 This segment started in the nice sunshine with fair winds and we were under sail with SW winds going NNW.\u00a0 Our flotilla – Moon Dance, Southern Cross and Inspiration – passed by Holland quite nicely but quickly encountered overcast skies, 22kt winds and confused 4- 6 waves.\u00a0 As we were approaching Grand Haven after sailing in following seas for 4 hours the flotilla leader called it a day and we made for the harbor.\u00a0 With the First Mate and the autopilot in the cockpit the Deck Monkey (me) struggled to tame the sails at the mast amid severly rolling and pitching deck.\u00a0 My cardiovascular rate far exceeded the recommended rates by the time this was accomplished.\u00a0 We finally secured transient slips at the Holiday Inn Grand Haven and spent the night.<\/p>\n
On day two we made for Pentwater about 40 miles away and as I recall it was a reasonably pleasent sail for day 2.\u00a0 We had slips at Snug Harbor – which is a pleasent private marina for $ 68\/day.\u00a0 The next morning we left at 0800 for the Lake Michigan crossing to Sturgeon Bay 82 miles away.\u00a0 Fortunately the winds were fair and pushed us along at 7+ knots with engine running at idle.\u00a0 I was afraid to shut the engine off as we were having trouble with the start battery.<\/p>\n
On day three, we lead the flotilla all the way across but slowed down so they could catch up and we all entered the cut into Sturgeon Bay just after dark.\u00a0 We had no accomodations so we dropped the anchor and it held first try for us (Inspiration).\u00a0 Our shipmates were not so lucky and after a few hours trying to get a set they found moorings and attached to them.\u00a0 First Mate and Myself took turns on watch all night because we were anchored very near the main channel.\u00a0 We found out at first light that we were just at the edge of the green channel markers and that is why the traffic was so close to us.<\/p>\n
Day four dawned and we crossed the river to CenterPointe Marina which had slips for us.\u00a0 CenterPointe is a very nice upscale marina with floating piers and all the accommodations of a luxury hotel.\u00a0 We enjoyed our two days here and First Mate was all over the town shopping, much later I joined her and we walked the Main Street.\u00a0 We had a group meal during this time and it was much fun and comradry.<\/p>\n
On day 6 we left CenterPointe bound for Fish Creek (pronounced locally as Fish Crick).\u00a0 We arrived but there was no space at the Municipal Marina so we set the hook once again facing a 14 knot wind. Moon Dance was experiecing over temperature alarms and had to shutdown the engine and brought the boat in using the dingy. \u00a0 After a bit we did find a spot on the wall at Alibi Marina so we weighed anchor and docked at Alibi where we spent day 6 & 7.\u00a0 We had a lot of fun in this small quaint town when we attended a Fish Boil (White fish, potatoes, onions and spices boiled over an open fire).\u00a0 SAM and I walked the town.\u00a0 The rest of the group had bicycles so they ranged farther.\u00a0 Moon Dance was repaired with a new impeller and removing all the seaweed collected in the strainer.<\/p>\n
As day 8 dawned we had a choice to make – go to South Manitou Island via Deaths Door passage or go back to Sturgeon Bay.\u00a0 The forcast was for rough water on the lake and we all did not relish a long passage across the lake with large seas and high winds.\u00a0 The alternative was to motor back to Sturgeon Bay punching through 3 foot and more waves.\u00a0 It was a rough day and the going was slow – 5 hours – but we made it back.\u00a0 Later in the day the seas calmed and it was quite pleasent.<\/p>\n
Day 9 was spent at the CenterPointe Marina and as day dawned on day 10 we started our passage across Lake Michigan bound for Ludington.\u00a0 Our passage took 8 hours and we motored and used sails to best advantage to make Frankfort, MI.\u00a0 We slipped at Jacobson Marina Resort and celebrated with an anniversery dinner at a bistro which was our most expensive meal of the trip ($100+).\u00a0 SAM was happy with her meal gift.<\/p>\n
Inspiration was the fist on the water of day 10 as we made for Luddington, MI.\u00a0 We arrived at Harbor View Marina’s Wall in good time.\u00a0 This was the cheapest slip fees of the journey at $58\/day.\u00a0 SAM & I ate onboard and retired early.\u00a0 They next day saw our flotilla seperate as Inspiration remained behind so we could visit some old college buddies.\u00a0 We met them on day 11 and had a great time reminiscing about TSC.\u00a0 The two ladies got along very well too.\u00a0 We might meet them in Saugatuck next week, schedules permitting.<\/p>\n
Next day Inspiration was off to Pentwater or farther but we decided on Pentwater because of the wind and thought we would have better weather the next day.\u00a0 Not. Nor the next – Not.\u00a0 Nor the next.\u00a0 On day 15 we headed out into stormy seas and headed for Saugatuck 66 miles away.\u00a0 As the day progressed the waves were good at 1-2′ but the wind backed from SW to SSE and we had to motor from Grand Haven onward.\u00a0 The day was very nice and lots of sun – we spent the day chasing flies with the swatter to counteract the boredom.\u00a0 We made the harbor at Saugatuck at 2000 hrs local time and we all ready for bed by 2100hrs and were very tired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had been planning the “big” cruise for sometime and we departed Saugatuck Harbor on 26 July bound for Ludington, MI – about 82 miles away.\u00a0 This segment started in the nice sunshine with fair winds and we were under sail with SW winds going NNW.\u00a0 Our flotilla – Moon Dance, Southern Cross and Inspiration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charleswmoore.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}