Dateline: August 16,2022 – time
to turn this boat around and start heading south! Heading out of the marina and
past the ferries and the Mackinaw Ice Breaker, we actually still had to head
northwest for a few miles to pass through the Mackinaw Straits and under the
Mackinaw Bridge that connects the “mitten” of Michigan to the Upper Peninsula
or UP as the locals call it. We then turned our nose southwest onto Lake
Michigan. Like all of the Great Lakes,
Michigan can be a fickle body of water ready to throw you squalls and waves with
hardly any notice. Just like the Lake Huron side of Michigan, the Lake Michigan
side also has harbors of refuge approximately every 30 miles for boaters to
seek shelter from storms. Fortunately, the morning was beautiful and the seas
were quite calm as we headed to our first stop in Petoskey. Along the way our
electronic compass was acting up so I had to do a couple of “Crazy Ivans”
driving the boat through a couple of 360 degree turns to re-calibrate the
compass. I got on the radio to warn the boats around us I would be doing that
lest they thought we were driving stoned. But…check out this segway…. Speaking
of stones, Petoskey is known for having unusual stones which are actually
formed from fossilized corals. These smooth stones are pebble to potato in size
and quite smooth. When wet, they have a very distinctive hexagon pattern on
their surface. When dry, the pattern disappears until the stone is polished.
The best way to find these stones is by wading in the clear waters along the
shore. We did try this but the only Petoskey stones we found were in gift
shops. Maybe next time, if there is a next time, we will be luckier in our
search.
Sunset in Petoskey
Looking for Petoskey Stones
Our good friend from home, Doug, grew up in Michigan and his brother, Gordon, still lives there. Lucky for us, Gordon loves to show off his little slice of heaven. Gordy picked Karen and me up to give us a tour around the area. Upper Michigan is absolutely beautiful in the summer. We started by driving 20 minutes south to the picturesque town of Charlevoix. Karen and I had wanted to take Off Leash there but the marinas were full. We started with a drive past the “mushroom houses.” These unique homes were built by a local designer, Earl Young, starting in the 1920’s. These homes look like they could have been built by Hobbits in the Shire. Over 30 were built, 28 of which are still standing. Many of these can be rented as vacation homes. We then walked around the cute harbor front town and the marinas. Upper Michigan is known for its cherries and Gordan led us to Cherry Republic, a store that sold everything cherry. We came away with some cherry jam, granola, salsa and even sausages. Leaving Charlevoix, Gordy drove us around Lake Charlevoix where we took a small chain driven ferry across the south arm. We had a nice dinner and then made plans to tour again with Gordy in the morning. The next morning Gordy took us to see the local ski hills, Boyne Mountain and Gordy’s favorite, Nubs Nob. The lodge at Nubs Nob reminded me of my early days of skiing in the 60s. The runs on these hills, with total verticals of only 420 or so feet were a far cry from the runs I am used to skiing at Mammoth but the resorts had their own charm. My friend Doug and many of our other friends from the Midwest grew up skiing on these little hills. I am amazed that these guys became the phenomenal skiers they are when their roots were on little ant hills. We finished the day back at the boat with potato chips and dip from Quality Dairy. This is one of Doug’s favorite comfort foods and so we documented our munchies with a photo to make Doug jealous.
Charlevoix Mushroom houses
Stop two on Lake Michigan was Leland Harbor and Fishtown. We had some conflicting weather reports that morning and some sporty conditions on the way but nothing Off Leash couldn’t handle. Our slip space was tucked into a corner and was the tightest spot yet that I had to back our floating home into. But Karen says I did it like a pro and we even impressed the dock staff – so what the heck – I’ll toot my own horn! Fishtown is a tiny waterfront village with some cute shops and a couple of restaurants. This area is known for its smoked fish so we had to stop by the fish market for some smoked white fish and a fish pate. Both were quite yummy.
Another 40 miles south we docked
in Frankfort. On our voyage that day we passed Sleeping Bear Dunes National
Lakeshore. According to legend, a massive wildfire on the western shore of Lake
Michigan drove a mother bear to lead her two cubs into the lake for shelter,
determined to reach the opposite shore. The mother bear reached the shore but
the exhausted cubs lagged behind and eventually drowned. The mother continued
to lay by the shore in hopes the cubs would reappear. Impressed by the bears
determination and faith, the Great Spirit created two islands to commemorate
the cubs, and the winds buried the sleeping bear under sands where she
continues to wait to this day. The seas
had again been sporty and, arriving in Frankfort, we were glad to be tied up as
the skies turned quite threatening. A little later a very nice Canadian couple,
Bernie and Connie came in on their small houseboat… a boat many would say is
too small for the loop. They had gotten caught in some weather and seas that
came behind us and really got beat up that day. All of their dishes were broken
and their dinghy broke loose and damaged its prop. We have since run into this
couple many times and they are hanging in there and doing well on their loop.
That afternoon we relaxed by the pool where there was a great band playing and
after dinner went out for the obligatory ice cream. The next day we packed a
picnic lunch and together with Chrissy and Roger from “Egret” and Pam and Mike
from “Carolina Can” we took a bike ride to Crystal Lake.
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Chrissy and Roger (Egret) do a
lot of anchoring and we arranged for our next stop to be anchoring with them in Portage
Lake. This ended up being a simple and safe anchorage and we had a pleasant
night on the hook. This was only our fourth overnight anchorage and our first
since Lake Erie.
Our next stop was Ludington. The big thrill here was The Badger. A National Historic Landmark, The SS Badger is the last coal-fired passenger steamship/ferry in operation in the US. This 410 foot ship, first commissioned in 1953 can carry 600 passengers and 180 vehicles across Lake Michigan from Ludington to Milwaukee. Ferries had been in use to transport goods across the lake since the late 1800s. Originally cargo was unloaded from rail cars at the dock, transported across the lake on the ferries and reloaded onto rail cars on the other side. In the early 1900s car ferries went into operation and by the 50’s 7 ships were in operation transporting full rail cars, freight and passengers. As railroad efficiency around the lakes improved it was no longer profitable to transport rail cars by ship. In 1990, the SS Badger and her sister ship the SS Spartan ceased operation. In 1992 a local Ludington entrepreneur bought the ships and brought the Badger back to life transporting passengers, cars and trucks. We were docked very close to the Badger’s terminal. She is amazing to watch. With no modern thrusters she has limited maneuverability. It was amazing watching her come into port. As she nears her dock, she drops her starboard anchor which catches on the bottom and allows her to pivot around so her stern slides perfectly into the dock. AMAZING. She also keeps her coal fired boilers operating 24 hours a day. It would take too long to shut them down and fire them up between trips and I imagine the constant stress of cooling and heating would damage the boilers…. So they stay alive and hot and, unfortunately, spew soot through the smokestacks 24/7. I guess that’s the price to pay for keeping history alive.
Encouraged by our nice night on
the hook a few days ago, we set out to anchor again the next night at White
Lake. Unfortunately, a new dock was being built right next to the anchorage we
had picked leaving very little space for us to swing on an anchor so we aborted
the attempt and tied up for the night further back in the lake. We met Lyle and
Susan on “Change of Pace” and were invited to a “Crossing the Wake” party for
Ron and Cathy who had just completed their loop on “Third Swan”
Our next port, Grand Haven was one of the largest cities we had been to since Detroit. It would prove to be a great stop but not without its share of issues. The entrance to the harbor is a long channel between two large concrete piers. Being a weekend, the channel was full of sailboats tacking back and forth that we had to avoid. And worse than that were the myriad of fishing boats trolling lines in and out of the channel. Dodging all of this in a 50 ft boat kept us on our toes. We tied up our first night there on a free wall adjacent to a crowded park and river walk. Grand Haven is known for its Musical Fountain and this weekend was the 60th birthday celebration for the fountain.
With its inaugural show in 1962, the Musical Fountain was the largest musical, light and water display in the world and it held this title until 1998 when the fountains at the Las Vegas Bellagio Casino went on display. The shows are 25-30 minutes in length and are put on every night from Memorial day through Labor day drawing large crowds of spectators on foot and in boats. Being the birthday celebration, there was a live band and festivities and the harbor was packed with boaters that night.
The next morning we moved from the free wall into the municipal marina which was already loaded with many Looper boats – many we already knew and some we met for the first time there. As windy weather and rough seas were predicted, we would end up staying here for 5 days. On the positive side of this stop, we had a lot of fun mingling with other Loopers, there was a local farmer’s market, a free shuttle to take us into town for supplies, many restaurants and nice paths to walk out onto the jetties/piers. One of the restaurants, The Paisley Pig, was unique in that it had robots to help support the waiters.
On the not so nice side, there were very strong winds and waves much of the time we were there and the layout of the harbor channel was situated such that the waves and swells poured right in through the channel and into the harbor. Our first night at the marina was so rough I was up much of the night monitoring our lines and fenders as we were being rocked and slammed into the docks. It was a long night. The rough seas did make for some good sight-seeing walks along the jetty and beach. Who knew you could surf on a lake?
And watching boats head in and out of the channel was like watching youtube videos of boats at Haulover Inlet near Miami. We continued to be entertained by the Musical Fountain each night and also got to watch large cargo ships as they made their way into and out of the harbor. Being a narrow channel, there was no room for the ships to turn around so they had to back out the same way they came in. Watching large ships back out of a harbor is not something you commonly get to see. (No-the video of this is not being played backwards!)It was almost as impressive as watching the Badger come into port. We also had a nice visit in Grand Haven with Marie and Steve Botchie, friends from home who moved back to Michigan.
With the weather finally settling down it was time to move on down the coast to Saugatuck and tie up for the Labor Day weekend. Unlike Grand Haven, this picturesque town located on the shore of Lake Kalamazoo is very protected from Lake Michigan by a two mile, narrow and windy river. This artsy resort town is known for its shops, galleries, restaurants and is also home to Karen’s ex-sister-in-law and Delta Gamma Sister, Nancy, and Karen’s niece, Courtney, and her family live close by as well. Nancy is a kick. She picked us up daily, toured us around and kept us entertained with near non-stop banter. She loves her beautiful town and enjoyed showing it off. Nancy loves the beach and loves to swim so naturally, that was our destination for one day. It was nice to relax on the beach, swim in the admittedly chilly water and listen to Nancy’s stories. The other highlight of our time in Saugatuck was spending time with Courtney and her family. They invited us over for dinner, probably not even realizing how enticing a home cooked meal is after living on a boat for 5 months. Gary fired up his grill (egg) for some perfectly cooked filets and we all enjoyed having an extended family meal.
With the Labor Day weekend winding down and all the crazy boaters heading off the lake, we continued on south to St. Joseph, our last port in Michigan. Linda and Ron, from Gypsy Soul were already at the marina and it was great to catch up with them. This would be the last time we would see them for a couple of months as they were heading south down the rivers ahead of us. While here, we also met Heather and Cam on Sea Clef. We invited them to our boat to go over trip planning notes. If I have not mentioned this before, Karen is quite the planner. Cam was thoroughly impressed with her Excel spreadsheets with all of the harbors, anchorages and mileages plotted out. Although newer to the loop, Heather and Cam have many years of experience boating and anchoring in large cruisers. We hit it off right away and figured that with their boating skills, Karen’s attention to planning details and our common goals in our travels, we would make good buddy boats. We arranged to meet up in Chicago and head down the rivers together. We had not had a buddy boat for a few months. We were very happy to have made these new friends….and, as I’m writing this very belatedly, it proved to be a great relationship that kept us buddied up through the rest of our loop. I know that Cam and Heather, and Ron and Linda are two couples we will continue to remain friends with.
Said goodbye to Ron and Linda
Cam and Heather and Sea Clef (Not taken at St Joseph)
Our last stop before Chicago was
Michigan City, Indiana. Not much to say here other than the combination of
their unprotected metal docks and gusty winds left Off Leash with a small boo-boo we will need to repair. Our one and only boo-boo of the trip.
You must be tired of reading this
by now and my fingers are tired of typing.
Time to add a few pictures and post this baby!
