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"Linda Jean"
Sailing Lake
Michigan
2008
For
many years I had the dream of sailing Lake Michigan.
I came up to Muskegon for my 40th Class Reunion and at that time I
formulated a plan to come up five years later, towing my Morgan 24 sailboat
and be retired. Well I retired a little over a year ago and on the
15th of May I will be cranking up my old 1995 F250 diesel truck and
starting the long tow up to Michigan.
I will make a few stops along the way to visit friends and family, but hope
to be launched by Jun 1, 2008. The great lakes have been
dropping some so I will have to look around for a good launch site. I
hope to launch somewhere close to Muskegon/Grand Haven area. To
prepare for this trip, I have added a depth sounder, cleaned up the trailer
some, checked the bearings, improved the boats companionway lock system,
added a series drogue for heavy weather, purchased a very heavy 110 jib
with reef points, and removed the not so dependable 1996 Honda 8 outboard
and replaced with my 1975 Johnson 6 hp motor. I will have a
second motor, a 2.7hp cruise-n-carry, aboard to use on the dinghy if I get
tired of rowing my Walker Bay 8 hard dinghy. I will have my laptop with me
for this trip and hope to make regular additions to this page as the adventure
unfolds.
The long tow up
I departed Warner
Robins at 8 AM on 15 May 08. It was a cloudy
day and by the time I was past Atlanta,
the rain was starting. I was scheduled to meet with MSgt Kevin Harris
in Dayton, OH.
on the following evening. The first night found me just north
of Lexington, KY.
with only a short drive for the next day. I stayed at a rest area and
started taking an inventory of what I had forgotten to take and what still
needed to be worked on before I would be launching in Michigan.
The list grew bigger as I thought about it. I had forgotten to
check the main battery in the boat, It was flat dead, zero voltage.
One of the taillights on the trailer had no ground and would not light up,
I still needed to add a couple of sturdy cleats on the combing of the
cockpit, and I still had to work on a couple of leaks along the
toerail. I breezed into Dayton
 by 11AM the following
day, and parked in the Fairfield Commons Mall parking lot. I decided
to try out Barnes & Noble for a WIFI connection, would not connect, so
I tried the mall, I could connect but could not get to any websites.
Darn, I had hoped to have more success than that.. After visiting with MSgt
Harris, that evening, I cranked up the next day and by 9AM was on the road
again. I made it to my sisters home in Sturgis, MI. by 14:30
that day. Now I only had 150 miles to go now before I would be able
to launch. While looking thru the boat for things, I
found that one of my two solar cells had bounced so much while laying in my
main cockpit storage locker, that it had broken. Something else to
add to the list of things to fix or replace when I arrived in Muskegon.
Sunday the 18th was a day of visiting with family and of course charging
the main battery in "Linda Jean"
Michigan Summer 1
I
launched at Grand Trunk Launch Ramp in Muskegon
on 21 May, Wednesday afternoon with just enough water, and docks about 20
feet shorter than I wanted. With a slip at Torrensen Marina for the night,
I was  ready for sailing the next day. That evening I met Bob George, who
30 plus years ago, sailed a Morgan 24 from the Muskegon area to Venezuela.
He had some interesting adventures. The following three days were filled
with sailing on Muskegon Lake and hiking in the North Muskegon State Park
while I had ‘Linda Jean’ anchored near the shore.
On Saturday, the 24th
of May I pulled up the anchor and sailed out of the channel heading south
toward Grand Haven. Starting out on the cautious side, I had up a reefed
main and my heavy 110. The wind died out so I shook out the main and
drifted. Sometimes in circles! An hour later the wind filled in and I was
racing along at 5.5 knots. At noon I realized that I had miss-read the
landmarks and was nearly at Grand Haven. It really was a short sail with a
near perfect wind and only 1-ft. seas. I arrived at the waterfront at 1
p.m. but was soon offered a slip for free for the four days I expected to
be there. Grand Haven has a very nice and very busy waterfront, especially
on Memorial Weekend.
The storm hit at 2 a.m. on
Monday, May 26th. I was hammered by 40-50 mph winds, rain and
lightening. I was glad I had found the slip instead of being tied to the
seawall on the waterfront. Monday was filled with a Memorial Day Parade and
visiting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces and Nephews. Tuesday had a forecast
of 15 – 25 mph wind, so I rode my bike around town and visited with friends
in the evening. Wednesday the 28th was ‘Laundry and Grocery
Store Morning’. After recruiting 2 guys (father and son) to help crew, I
headed out at 5:45 p.m. to attend the ‘Blessing of the Fleet’ and the first
Wednesday Night Race of the season. The wind was blowing 15 – 18 and seas
were about 2 ft. After only sailing away from the channel a little I
decided the 120 jib and a reefed main would work good. The other Morgan 24
was running a full main and a 150 jib. ‘Linda Jean’ was loaded for cruising
and the other Morgan 24 (Peggy Dash II) was mostly empty inside and a crew
of four. We were lining up for the start and had about 4 minutes to go when
we heard “All Clear”. We winched in our sails and ‘started’, although the
line was still 2-3 minutes ahead of us. The Committee Boat had gotten
confused in the sequence and we were now about 3 minutes behind ‘Peggy Dash
II’. It was a fun race with us trailing our main competitor by about 2-3
minutes for the whole race. I hope to join them again in their 8+8 (out and
back) race on June 21st.
Thursday the 29th
looked like a great day to sail south but the wind did not come in as
predicted. I averaged about 2 knots and was 3 miles away from Port Sheldon
after sailing for almost 5 ½ hours. I cranked up the motor when I noticed
clouds forming about 30-40 miles to the west of me. I was anchored with my
biggest anchors down by 4:30 p.m. as the predicted storm approached Port
Sheldon. Pigeon Lake is about 3/8 of a mile wide and maybe ½ mile long. A
nice safe harbor in a storm. The rain started about 8 p.m. and lasted
through the night. It was still raining through my late breakfast. High
winds are predicted for today and tomorrow so it may be a few days before I
sail south again.
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Michigan
Summer 2
Saugatuck tides
or is my anchor dragging?
I pulled up
anchors and motored out of Pigeon
Lake on the 1st
of Jun expecting 10kts of wind and 1 ft seas. I got the 1 ft. seas
but the wind was about 4kts. from
the Northwest. I made 2kts for
much of the morning and by 13:00 I made the Holland Channel. The wind picked up a lot as I entered Lake
Macatawa and I glided
down the lake to anchor behind Superior Point for a quiet place to drop
anchor for the evening. Lots of
boat traffic in this section of the lake and It was rock and roll till late
in the evening.. The next morning I
raised sail and anchor and headed east up the lake. I found what I wanted, a way to get my
dinghy ashore at Kollen
Park. I anchored off the park for the next
couple of days enjoying trips into town, between the rain showers. It was Wednesday, 4 June, when I sailed away from Kollen
Park with an East wind
blowing 10-15kts. There was a bit
of fog and some drizzle as I sailed out of the channel and turned South
toward Saugatuck. Perhaps this was
an omen of what I would find when I got there. With a reefed main and a reefed heavy duty jib, I made the
channel at Saugatuck in exactly one hour.
I averaged 6 Mph. The dinghy
never came off plane. It was a fun
trip but as I entered the channel, I decided to not push my luck and turned
right into the little anchorage just inside of the channel. There was one other boat in the
anchorage and I joined them by dropping a couple of anchors to be sure I
did not break loose because the forecast for the next couple of days were
for winds of up to 25 mph.
It was two days later about 4PM in the
afternoon, with winds gusting to 25-30, that my 18lb Danforth with a 28lb
kellet, dragged and I was heading out into the channel. I quick pulled up the anchors, started
the 6hp Johnson and went to look for better holding. It seems the bottom where I was at was
composed of a lot of silt and it would not hold. I moved to a more shallow area but it had more sand and looked like it would hold better. With 3 anchors down, one being on the
sandy shore buried, I felt confident I would be able to rest easy that
night. The following day was forecast
for some rain in the afternoon so I dinghyed ashore and reset my 8lb
Danforth in the sand with a long line to the boat. My 18lb anchor with an 18lb kellet was
set to keep me  off the shore. I thought I was ready. About 8 PM on Saturday evening the rain
started. By 10 PM there was
lightening everywhere and by 2 AM. Sunday morning, I decided I would just go to sleep
because all my anchors seemed to be holding. I got up later in the morning and found I had left an empty
bucket in the cockpit. It had nine
inches of water in it. My dinghy
had water almost 12 inches deep.
Since I had all that fresh clean water available, I decided to put on my swim suit and take
a bath. It was a little cool but
felt nice to be clean.
It was Sunday the 8th
of Jun and there was another storm forecast. It hit about 2:30 and this one had lots of wind. In our little 2 football field
anchorage, we saw clouds forming in the West. As it got closer, I could see the really darkness of the clouds
as they moved in. I suddenly
noticed the temp drop almost 15 degrees and  the wind start to pick
up. I quickly put away anything I
did not want to get wet and closed myself in the cabin. The rain started just as I slid the
hatch closed. I watched out the
windows as the waves built up and the wind whistled thru the rigging. Darn, I hope my anchors hold! As I watched thru my boats windows I
noticed it looked like I was drifting very close to the shore and decided
to put on my rain gear and pull in some of my  anchor line. With the lightning flashing all
around I cranked up the Johnson 6
hp and put it in forward at low throttle and went forward to pull in the
anchor line. I thought I would be
able to pull the boat forward some but it did not seem to be moving. I turned around and then heard the
motor changing pitch. Going back
to check, I found the motor was no longer deep enough in the water and the
exhaust was out of the water. I
quickly shut if off realizing I was aground. Then a curious thing happened. The boat started heeling over as if there was less water to
float in. It heeled to about 20
degrees before it stopped. This was
in a matter of about 2 minutes. As
I stood there looking at the shore and  seeing a lot of the
sand and beach showing and trying to figure this out, the boat started to
straighten back up again and within 2 minutes it was standing straight up
again. I went forward again and was soon able to pull in some
of the anchor line to move the boat forward. “Linda Jean” was floating free again. I looked at the beach again and there
was no sand showing and the water level had risen almost 2.5 ft in a matter
of about 5 minutes. Saugatuck has a
2.5ft tide in only 5 Minutes?????
There were more than 3 more of these ‘tides’ throughout the rest of
the afternoon.
I had one more rain day while
anchored before I sailed out from Saugatuck on Tuesday the 10th
with a reefed main and my HD 110 jib.
The wind was Southwest 10-15kts and I made 4kts. heading into the Holland Channel. I anchored again in front of Kollen
Park so I could dinghy
in to visit the library, grocery store and the public library. I spent some nice quiet days visiting
downtown Holland,
taking in evening concerts in the park and street entertainers
downtown. On Friday the 13th.
at about 2AM I woke to find the wind had picked up some but my anchors
seemed to be doing fine. I went
back to sleep but woke again about 4PM. To find the waves in Lake
Macatawa were running
at least 2 ft and the wind was gusting over 30. I told my crew it was time to set an anchor watch. I quickly put on my foul weather suit,
tied down my sail cover, checked my anchors, and sat in the cockpit
watching for moving landmarks. By
5:20 AM the wind had dropped below 10mph and I went back to my bunk to
sleep late.
Michigan Summer 3
Are these storms
ever going to end?!!
Brian and Dorthy arrived in
their Bucanneer 24, the following afternoon. I watched as they slowly made there way up the lake. The wind was very light and it took
them almost an hour to make the last mile and a half. When their anchor was down enough to
hold them, I dinghyed over to suggest that they may want to tie to the dock
on the east side of Kollen Park so that they would be able to go ashore at
their leisure. I helped them tie
up and within a minute, the storm that had been following them in, was on
us. We ran to the park pavilion
and watched the rain come down and my boat rock at anchor. The storm only lasted a half hour or so
and then we were back on the dock.
The following day, I spent some time in town at the library,
shopping, etc. By the time I got
back to the boat the wind was up to probably 15 and I told Brian and
Dorthy, that I was rowing back out and would not be coming back in unless
the wind died. The wind stayed
nearly 20mph while I ate supper but by 9PM the clouds moved in and we had
another storm coming thru. The
wind kicked up again to well over
30mph and this time, the seas were up
to 3ft. I put on my foul weather
gear and sat in the cockpit as the boat danced and pulled on the
anchor. I put a float on the
anchor I had astern and got ready to let it go if the bow anchor started
dragging. I knew I would be in
trouble if it pulled. I doubted I
would be able to pull it up and crank up the motor in time to keep the boat
off the sea wall behind me. I heard
a loud bang and looked forward to find that the forward hatch had popped
up. Quickly, I climbed inside and
locked it down. Back out side I
wondered "Why didn't I move to the protected shore by Superior Point
when I had the chance"? I
watched the shoreline and waited as "Linda Jean" threw spray over
the bow. An hour later, the wind
let up, the rain stopped, and shortly the storm was gone. By 10:30 the water was nearly calm and
it was time to go to sleep. What a
day! I would be packing up early
in the morning and sailing North,
It was definitely time to move from this anchorage.
There was supposed to be a south
wind of 10 to 15 in the morning but Lake Macatawa was pretty calm as I
sailed away from the anchorage about 7:45.
I put up a reefed main and decided on a reefed HD 110 jib. As I cruised out the channel, I started
have trouble with the wind too close to the West, and with a large two
masted ketch close behind, I started up the motor. Less than 20 seconds later the wind
shifted to the South and bumped up to almost 20. I started flying out the channel. Shutting off the motor and kicking it up, I turned North and
started a fast run toward Port Sheldon.
The ketch by the way, motored out a short ways and then  turned around and
headed back in. Maybe a little
bumpy for her crew. The seas were
running about 4ft and I was making 6-7kts.
The wind died down some as I approached Port Sheldon near 10:30AM.
and by the time I arrived at
11:20AM. I was down to about 3kts.
I knew it would pickup again later in the day. I was firmly anchored and settled in
when Brian and Dorthy arrived at 17:00.
They had had a bumpy ride later in the afternoon. Later Brian and I discussed reefing and
on Tuesday the 16th, I helped him install a reefing system on his Bucanneer
24. We used a combination of what
he had aboard and some parts I had in my stash 40 year old stuff that came
with my boat. Not much happened for
the next couple of days other than taking the dinghy ashore to walk or to
visit with Brian and Dorthy. On
Thursday I did try a little creative baking aboard and when I dinghyed over
to play cards with Brian and Dorthy that evening I brought along some fresh
baked blueberry cake for desert that I had baked on my single burner
stove. The weather forecast for
Friday the 20th of June looked good, and I wanted to be in Grand Haven for
the 8 + 8 race on Saturday afternoon, so I sailed out of Port Sheldon about
08:00. The wind was light and with
Brian and Dorthy following me, I sailed North with a full main and my HD
110 jib. It was slow going and
maybe halfway there, I decided I would try to hoist my spinnaker, I had
gotten from George Sollows off his Bristol 24, a month ago. This would be the first time I had
hoisted it on my Morgan and only the second time I had ever used it. I arrived at the seawall in Grand Haven
about 13:00. It was pretty bumpy on
the seawall and while I was out walking Brian and Dorthy came in and tied
up near my boat. That night on the
Wall, was pretty rough. We had
another storm come thru with lots of rain and wind. I did not get a full night of
sleep.
 I walked to the Wharf Marina about 10:30
to talk with John Campbell and Pattie Edwards about the 8 + 8 race. I learned the start would be sometime
around 11:30. I would have to hurry. I invited Brian and Dorthy to join me
as crew and after an initial no, they changed their mind and came
aboard. We quickly untied and
motored out the channel. We did
not know our start time but hoped to just follow close to John's
"Peggy Dash II" Well,
since the wind seemed to be blowing near 20, and my crew was not comfortable
with the amount of heel we were experiencing, we reefed the main and did
some practice tacks. Let me inject
here that both Brian and Dorthy had never raced before and this was all new
them. In the process of
practicing, we strayed some from the other M24. When we saw Peggy Dash II go thru the starting line, we
realized we would be a little behind him but it was time to start
racing. We headed up wind
following John and for a while we were catching up some. John had up a full main and a 150 genoa.
We had a reefed main and my short HD 110 jib. Then the wind started fading. Peggy Dash II started pulling away and
the fast boats behind us started catching up. It was time for lunch while the wind was dead and then we
decided what the heck, lets take the penalty and put up the spinnaker. No sooner did we have the spinnaker set
when the wind started filling in and we were starting to pull away from
Monkey Wrench ( an S2 7.9) that had been steadily catching up to us. We sailed around the committee boat
that was acting as the turning mark and headed back to the finish. Monkey Wrench was still behind us. We pinched the cruising spinnaker as
much as we could , but with maybe 2 miles to go, we had to take it down and
go back to the HD 110. Monkey
Wrench sailed past us as we fought to pull the spinnaker down. We finished last and headed in. When Jack Kelly asked for my time for
the finished, I told him I would just volunteer to take last place. He said he usually did not have someone
just volunteer for that position.
The potluck supper at the Grand River Sailing Club was great with
lots of interesting stories from their members. By 8:30 Pm. it was time to head back to the boat and I had
to hurry because it was going to rain again. Once again sleeping while tied to the Wall was difficult.
 The next day, Sunday the 22nd of
June, with waves still bouncing
both of our boats and banging our fenders on the Wall, Brian and I decided
we had had enough. I followed him into
the Sag that is maybe a half mile up the river. We had a quiet night and the following morning, I prepared
to lower my mast to motor and then sail up Spring Lake. I lowered the mast to about 45 degrees
and then cleared the highway M104 Bridge with maybe 4ft of clearance. Anchored up at the end of Spring Lake
only a 150 ft from Pomona Park, I spent almost the next two weeks visiting
family, and attending my 45th class reunion. I sailed a couple of days with family and friends for crew
and as always, it seems everywhere I sail, the storms follow. On the 27th we had an evening storm come
thru and then on the 28th, a big storm came thru with lots of wind and
heavy rain. My anchors held good
for that, so when on the 2nd of July when the 2:30PM afternoon storm came
thru with 60 mph winds, I had a lot of confidence that I would be OK. At 16:00 that same day, a second storm
came thru with near 50mph wind and another one arrived by 9PM that night. I am getting kind of tired of all this
bad weather!
Michigan
Summer 4
It is time to
sail North.
In the evening on
Monday the 7th of July, I sailed back down Spring Lake to anchor
just North of the M104 bridge to be ready to lower the mast of “Linda Jean”
in the morning so I could catch the 08:30 bridge opening of US 31 over the
Grand River. The morning was gray
and windy. I decided to get thru
the bridges and then anchor in the Sag
to get the rigging tightened back up. After anchoring, and listening to the weather, I decided to
wait one more day before sailing North.
Larry Frazine called later and we went out touring in his vintage
Corvette. The following day, the
wind was pretty strong so I put off sailing North. I got a call from Mary Trumpfheller in
the middle of the afternoon and we reminisced about our high school
days. I motored out on the morning
of 9 July early and headed for White Lake. The wind was from the Northwest and by the time I was near Muskegon,
the seas were up to 6ft and I decided I would hide behind the dunes of Muskegon
State Park. It was a good decision. The following day, my sister Dolores,
met me at Hartshorn Marina to sail with me to White
Lake. The winds was supposed to be 5-10 and
they ranged from 5-15. It was a
great sailing day. We arrived in
White Lake at 14:30 and sailed up the lake on the Southern shore. We miscalculated our location and found
ourselves hard aground in about 2.5 ft of water and “Linda Jean” draws 2ft
9”. We tried a lot of things including running the motor, heeling the
boat, then using the dinghy, setting out my largest anchor to try to pull
us off. We made some progress and
even more when Dolores leaned out on the low side of the boat as I was on
the bow pulling on the anchor line.
Shortly a nice family on a pontoon boat with a 25hp motor, came
along, grabbed a line and easily pulled us the last 10-15 ft we needed to
get free. I had never been aground
that hard before, and hopefully never again. We continued sailing up the lake and after passing the
marinas, we turned around and anchored just West of Whitehall Landing. It was now past 5PM and time to get
started on supper. We were doing
the dishes when the clouds rolled in.
It looked to be a bad storm, but I had my largest anchor set out and
we were hiding behind the peninsula where the Leather Factory used to be,
and it looked to be a good location for a storm with a South or West
wind. The storm started coming in
about 8:30 PM and it did not seem to be too bad, but by 9:30, when the rain
really started falling, the sky was very dark. In a short time the wind was whistling thru the rigging and the boat was rocking and
rolling. We both could not go to
bed but just looked out the windows watching the water and the
lightening. By something close to
11PM, we both knew we had drug the anchor quite a little and it was time to
go out on deck in rain gear and see what we could do. We were dangerously close to the pilings
that was originally 150 feet behind us.
My biggest anchor had drug more than 100 feet. I dug into my anchor locker and pulled
out my smaller 8lb anchor. I loaded
it into the dinghy, donned a lifejacket and rowed it out to help us hold
our present position. Dolores was
not too keen on this idea because the water was still pretty rough and the
dinghy looked pretty small for the waves.
By 11:30, I had set the anchor and felt a lot better, but by then, I
noticed the wind had dropped to below 10mph and the storm was fading. We both hit our bunks by midnight with the wind almost still and
the boat not rocking at all. The
big storm was over. This was a new
experience for Dolores, to spend the night on a boat and to go thru a
serious storm as we had. The
following day, Dolores departed and shortly afterward, I pulled up all the
anchors, pulled the boat close to shore and tied the bow to a tall piling
with 100 ft of line , then set a second anchor to the North to keep me off
the shore if the wind shifted and settled in for a couple of days to visit
family and explore Whitehall & Montague.
Michigan Summer 5
Did we go too
far? Can we stay ahead of this
storm?
It was Monday,
the 14th of Jul and I had enjoyed
being anchored in White Lake for a couple of days visiting with family but
it was time to be on the move again.
I had recruited my nephew, Ron Mumby, to come on as crew for 5-6
days to sail North. He arrived
about 09:30 and by 10:00 we were sailing down White Lake, headed
North. Ron had never been sailing
before and was unfamiliar with all the vocabulary we sailors use when
sailing, but he is a quick learner and was soon at ease with being on the
tiller or handling the sheets as we made our way north. We had a  Northwest wind, so we
tacked West until almost Noon, then sailed North in a 10-15kt wind. As we rounded Little Sable Pt, the wind
was now out of the Southwest, so we put up the spinnaker and sailed to the
channel for Pentwater. The
spinnaker had a little problem going up so when were anchored and had
finished supper, we looked at the spinnaker sock and found a worn block at
the top of the sock. I replaced
the block so we could try it again soon to see if replacing the block
solved all the problems raising the spinnaker.
The following
day, Tuesday, we got an early start and by 0815 we were motoring out of
Pentwater Lake. With a Southwest wind
and 1-3 ft seas we sailed North again, making about 5kts. We were almost to Ludington when a dark
cloud formed to the North. We
shortened sail and shortly after, the wind hit us and we picked up speed. A very short time later the wind died,
so we took out the reefs and tried to get our speed up. It was not long before we were passing
Bib Sable Pt, and we noticed on the GPS that we were making 7.3kts. Time to reef again. With just a  reefed main now our
speed was still over 7kts and we decided to pass by Manistee and Portage
Lake with the seas about 6ft. It
looked like we would make Arcadia before six PM. We passed Portage lake and
the dinghy was now surfing down the waves behind us and after a
couple of times of bumping the stern of "Linda Jean" I added 50
feet of line to the painter and now the dinghy was more than a wave behind
us and could not bump us. When we
approached Arcadia, the seas were now up to 8ft, and they was pushing the
boat around quite a bit. We did a
270 turn to get on the starboard tack and then surfed into the very narrow
channel. We had made it without any
disasters with the wind blowing now close to 25mph. Timing on any maneuvers was now very
important and I talked over each one so we both would know the plan before
we did anything. I  don't think Ron wanted
to be out there much longer.
Arcadia is a very small town with a very small lake, but that is
what made it such a nice port of refuge from the high winds we had just
experienced. We sailed up to a
sheltered cove for a quiet night at
anchor after making a record 52 miles.
I did not come close to that record for the rest of the trip. That was also the fastest I would have
the boat sailing during my trip. We
met a skipper of a Catalina 30 that evening who decided to sail out at 8PM
that night to sail North. We warned
him about the 8ft sees but he wanted to go anyway. We later found him in Leland a few days
later and asked how that night sail went, and he responded that he had
barely cleared the channel before he turned around and came back in to
anchor just inside the channel for the night because the seas were still to
much.
On Wednesday, Ron and I departed Arcadia
about 7:30 on a West tack for about 2 miles then turned North again. After a couple of miles the wind really
dropped off and we decided to motor some because our destination for the
day was South Manitou Island and it was nearly 35 miles away. We motor some, then sailed some, then
back to the motor. We watched a
large storm form in the West as we made slow progress on the now nearly
calm Lake Michigan. It was getting
to mid  afternoon when we
thought we might get caught in the storm but with some progress sailing
then motoring we seemed to be staying North of the storm. I got a couple of calls from Muskegon
from my two sisters asking if we were anywhere near the storm because there
were severe weather warnings out and expected winds of 50-60mph. We continued to make slow but steady
progress and finally make the harbor in South Manitou Island by 7:30 and
was anchored by 8PM. We had used up more 3/4ths of the gas we had aboard to
stay ahead of the storm. As
predicted, there were high winds and heavy rain from Frankfort all the way
South to Grand Haven. We had been
able to stay just enough North of it to out of danger. We got some rain and some wind that
night but nothing too bad, although there were some big boats in the
anchorage that came in to escape the storm. One of them was a 50 some foot
yacht which had 3 roller furling head sails and a roller furling mainsail
with no boom. Very different
configuration. I am not sure how
well it would sail with no boom.
The following day was filled with 2 rain showers and lots of walking
on the island. It is part of the
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and with no private motor vehicles
allowed, walking is the only transportation except for special tours the
park rangers sometimes schedule. We
had planned to sail out on the 18th and with a light wind it seemed to be a
good day to go. There was some fog
and we were heading to Leland.
After only sailing about a mile or two, we were completely
surrounded by fog and for the next 10  miles, we steered by
the compass, seeing only one navigation aid to assure us that we were on
course. We were less than a mile
away when the masts of the sailboats in the harbor at Leland came into
sight. We anchored next to the
breakwater in the small harbor using two anchors and a line tied to a recovered
2X4 wedged in the rocks to keep us in place. Ron left me the next day to go back home and that evening I
had a very pleasant surprise as I dinghed out to my boat about 6:30PM. I could see some heads of something in
the water as I climbed aboard and quickly decided I needed my camera. It was a family of otters with m5 pups
and two adults. The pups just
wanted to  play on the rocks and
adults wanted to catch some fish to eat.
They swam around the harbor for about 10-15 minutes, and then
started back out catching fish and eating them near the rocks before
swimming out. The pictures did not
turn out because I do not have a zoom lens on my digital camera. I stayed in Leland for a few days catching up on e-mail at
the Leland library, restocking my
galley and refilling my water & gas tanks. I took some pictures around town including a section called
Fish town. Lots of tourists come to
Leland to visit the shops in Fishtown.
Michigan Summer 6
Where did all this wind come from?
It was time to leave Leland and I decided to sail to
Charlevoix, instead of sailing into Grand Traverse Bay. The wind was from the North and with a
minimum of tacks, I should be able to make good time. I wanted to leave early but at 5AM there
were lots of dark clouds to the North with a pretty strong wind. I went back to bed and got up at 8:30
to find still some clouds but with daylight, it did not seem so bad. I had to untie the boat from the rocks
of the breakwater, then pull up the anchors. as I prepared to get under way, I had untied from the rocks
of the breakwater and then pulled up my stern anchor. The boat was swinging around on the bow
anchor and it looked like I had lost control. A fishing boat heading out
came by to ask if I needed any help, because I already had the mainsail up
and it was a small harbor. I had
only one anchor to pull up then and with it up, I just motored out of the
harbor. I tacked out from Leland
with reefed main and reefed jib.
The seas were at least 4ft and the wind more than 15mph. I was busy sailing for the first 5
miles, then the wind slacked some and I took out the reefs in both
sails. I pinched past the tip of
Leelanau Peninsula and by then could see the stacks and structures of the
cement company near Charlevoix.
They were at least 15miles away but were a good land mark to sail
toward. by the time I sailed near
the cement company, the wind was really getting light and progress was
slow. I motored the final mile to
Charlevoix Harbor Channel, and made the 7:30 PM. bridge opening. I anchored in Round Lake for the evening
near Park Island.
I called my
sister Rita that night and arranged to have Mark Douglas meet me at the
Municipal Marina Gas Dock to go sailing the next day. I picked up Mark at about 10AM. and we
sailed up Round Lake and into Lake Charlevoix. We had a great sail down wind making it almost to Boyne City
before we turned around to head back.
The wind had picked up some and we had a spirited upwind sail to
Ironton. At one point, a gust of
wind hit us that had shifted about 40-50 degrees and we had the rail buried
for what seemed like a couple of minutes although it was only 10-20 seconds
until I could get the boat pointed into the gust to take the pressure off
the sails. I was sitting in some
water before it was all over. We
made a little more effort to be ready for wind gusts after that as we made
very good speed going to the boat ramp at Ironton.
I found a good anchorage  near the Cable Car
Ferry for the night and the following day I sailed to East Jordan and
back. Late in the evening the wind
changed and I went looking for a quieter place on the North side of the
Cable Car Ferry this time. On
Friday the 25th of Jul, I sailed away from my quiet anchorage, and decided
to sail to Boyne City. The trip
downwind was quite fast and I was hugging the shore looking for a boat ramp
that was marked on the chart. I
wanted to located it so I could meet my brother Eugene, for a daysail on Saturday. I did not find an open boat ramp but when I turned around at
Boyne City, and I soon realized the
wind had really picked up. I had
been sailing with a reefed main and HD 110 jib and quickly realized as I
headed upwind that I had way too much sail up. The wind must have been blowing 25 mph plus. I confirmed that on the radio, and
headed for a point that I could hide behind enough to reef some more. I put in the 2nd reef in the main and
reefed the jib. This was the first
time I had used my 2nd reef in the mainsail. This was to be the most wind that I had to sail into for my
entire cruise. As I sailed up wind
again, I still had to work at not burying the rail from time to time. I finally made it up near the Cable Car
Ferry to drop anchor. I set my
anchors in a V shape off the bow and added 18 lb kellets to each of
them. By 7PM there were storm
clouds approaching and it got windy and rained for nearly 2 hours. The next morning, I found that I had
ripped off some skin on my right hand and had strained my left shoulder. A little spray of "new skin"
fixed the hand and after listening to the weather report, I called to
cancel the daysailing scheduled for the following day with my brother
because the wind was again to be blowing over 20mph. On Sunday the 27th of July, I made last
minute purchases of gasoline, groceries, and ice and sailed to Round Lake
to get ready to sail out of Charlevoix the next morning.
I was ready
for the 7:30 AM bridge opening and headed out of Charlevoix channel to find
3-5 ft seas and winds around 15MPH.
I had to tack Northeast and then WNW. I was sailing with a reefed mainsail and my HD 110 jib. After about 2 hours the wind slackened
and I pulled out the reef in the mainsail and really started to make some
good time. I still could not sail
directly toward the North end Beaver Island but was by 14:00 I was getting
close to the southern tip. With
full sail up, I had a great time sailing, pushing the boat as fast as I
could, well into the late afternoon.
The wind changed again coming out of the West and I was able to sail down wind going North, but not very
fast. Soon the wind died out completely and I had to motor the last 1.5
miles to get into St James Harbor in Beaver Island. I arrived at 7:30 PM and anchored in the
middle of the harbor in a shallow section of the harbor thinking not many boats
would want to get in the thin water.
I was right but there were still many boats around creating wakes
that rock the boat. It seemed that
I had just gotten to sleep before I heard a tap, tap , tap on the
hull. No what, had I anchored in
the wrong place, was the Harbormaster wanting me to move? I looked out to find the stars out
bright, but no boats around me and no sign of anyone. Very strange. I went back to bed.
It was 4AM when I was again awakened by tapping on the hull. This time when I looked out I found out
who was doing the tapping. A duck
was taping on the hull trying to get some of the seaweed or something that
had attached to the hull near the waterline. It swam off and I ignored any further tapping while I was
anchored at St James Harbor in Beaver Island. I toured the island, walked some, visited the museums, and
restocked my galley again. This
would be the Northern most point I would sail on my Michigan Summer
Vacation.
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