Southern Lake Michigan & Chicago

After a weekend in Frankfort we were ready to get moving again. By Monday the lake had calmed down enough to travel but not cross so we headed further down the Michigan side to Ludington. Ludington is another nice small town worth a day or two's visit. Unfortunately the weather and lake would keep us here 2 days. We did get a car for a day and get supplies and groceries. One interesting factoid is that Ludington is home to the last coal fired steam ship in the US. It crosses the lake twice a day as a car ferry.

The forecast was for good weather and calming seas so we decided this was our best chance to get across the lake. We left in lumpy seas but things really calmed down to less than a foot by mid lake and we were in Sheboygan, WI. by early afternoon. We only stayed 1 night here before moving down to Racine for the weekend. Reef Point marina was a huge 900 slip marina with a pool and hot tubs and a very nice stop. Reef Point is also home port to our sister ship Mist and friends Bobbi & Bill who completed their loop the week prior. Note the Gold burgee over Bill's shoulder in the pic bellow. It denotes someone who has completed the loop and we'll be getting ours in just a few weeks!

Monday was forecast to be a calm day with no clouds for our run down to Chicago...they were half right.

See Chicago?

How about now??

Finally!!

We were planning to spend 3 nights in Chicago and really enjoy the town but Mother Nature had other plans again. Winds began picking up last night and if we didn't get out this morning it was going to be Saturday before the lake would be calm enough for us to make the short run to the Chicago River. Yesterday we spent the morning taking down everything on top of the boat so we could clear a 17' bridge and go through downtown. If we couldn't get short enough we were going to have to take a different route that bypasses downtown...not nearly as cool a ride. After getting that done we had a Ferris Bueller day with our friends Moni & Rick from Moni Jean. We covered a bunch of town in a very short time and had a blast! All too soon it was time to get back with an early departure planned for the next morning.

We were out of the marina and heading toward the Chicago Harbor Lock before 0800 and it was a good thing. The winds had picked up sooner than forecast (do I sound like a broken record?) and waves were already crashing over the breakwater that protects Navy Pier and the harbor. Once through the lock we were back in the river systems and will be for the next few months.

It was really cool being able to pass right through town and definitely worth the work to lay everything down. After a few miles we left the skyscrapers for a more industrial setting but it is still interesting. Not too much further brought us to the 17' bridge and I was praying we had measured correctly.

And yes, I ducked....

One other bit of excitement was in a canal section that is very busy with barge traffic. We had to mill about very smartly while waiting for an opening to get through.

Oh...and there was the place where they electrify the river to keep the "invasive species" out of Lake Michigan....pssssssst...it's too late!

After that it was a pretty easy ride down to Joliet where we're enjoying a free wall to help recover from the cost of Chicago marinas!

Well. it's all down hill (river) from here and we should be back at Green Turtle Bay in just a couple of weeks. Hard to believe it's been almost a year since we've started this adventure!! We plan to be back in Cincinnati for Oktoberfest weekend before starting off again for points south and warmer winter climes.

Upper Lake Michigan

I believe we left off with our last stop in Canada at St. Joseph Island. Our return to the US and customs check in was a simple phone call while underway thanks to the Small Vessel Reporting System. It's a kind of Trusted Traveler program for boaters that we joined back in the keys. After spending a night in De Tour Michigan we headed over to Mackinac Island for a couple of nights. There we met back up with Knot Sew Easy and Moondance as well as a few other Loopers we hadn't met yet. We did the carriage ride thing with the crew of Knot Sew Easy who had picked up one of their sons and his fiance along the way. We hired a private carriage which gave us a better tour than the bigger "cattle car" tour with the canned speech along the way.  Heck, our driver even stopped so we could pick up some beer for the ride!!

Apparently open containers are OK outside the Mackinac "city limits" and, no, our driver didn't join us in a beer.

She stopped a few places to give the horses a rest and let us get out to take pictures. The smaller carriage also allowed us to go places the bigger ones couldn't. The pic below is one of those places with a nice view overlooking the harbor.

After doing the tourist thing for a couple of days we moved on to Beaver Island and then Little Traverse Bay. Our friends on Jammin' Jane and Liquid Assets had arranged a stay at Bay Harbor Yacht Club where we were hosted by fellow loopers they had met in Marathon. Bay Harbor is a true Yacht Club with some pretty fancy boat$ and houses. Needless to say Chasing 80 felt a bit out of place with our camo kayak up on the deck. Below is a bit newer Chris Craft docked next to us.

Jill and I moved on a day earlier than the rest to get ahead of the bad weather forecast for later in the week. It was a very nice reunion and hard to leave since Knot Sew Easy and Jammin' Jane are about finished with their loop and we won't likely see them again until next year. Liquid Assets is from Nashville so I imagine we'll see them again down the road.

We next stopped in Leland MI. before moving on to Frankfort. A few miles out of Leland we were hailed on the radio by a boat requesting a tow as they were almost out of gas. Once in the harbor they put 147 gallons in a 150 gallon thank....I'll say they cut it close!!

We are now in Frankfort MI and have been for 3 days. The weather is windy and the lake forecast is for 7-10 foot waves through today. We are in a marina protected from the lake by 2 breakwaters and still got beat up all night. Most of the owners here were up till well after midnight adjusting dock lines as best we could. The short video below was taken this morning after things calmed down a bit.

And another one we took after walking out to the beach this morning.

Things are supposed to improve throughout the day today and we may be able to travel tomorrow before getting weathered in again. The long range "forecast" has things improving by the end of the week...we'll see. The hope is to get across the lake and see some of the Wisconsin side but things will have to improve pretty dramatically for that to happen. For now we'll just keep moving down the Michigan side as conditions allow,

One thing we did find in Frankfort took me back to my childhood....yeah, we found a brewery too, Till next time....

Georgian Bay & North Channel

Last post was from the southern end of the Georgian Bay and this one is being written at De Tour Michigan upon our return to the US of A. We have a lot of ground to cover and a bunch of pictures in this installment so lets get started...

We were in Midland ON during a Canadian "Civil Holiday". Not quite sure what that is other than boaters don't have to act civil over a long weekend so we decided to stay in port until Tuesday when everyone was back at work (we thought). First order of business was a haircut which was long overdue and not to be found over a holiday weekend. Lucky for me I had a set of clippers and a wife who is willing to try....what's the worst that could happen??

Well, Tuesday morning we got underway up the Georgian Bay. We were very excited since we've heard so many stories about how beautiful it is. The protected channel up the bay twists and turns it's way through narrow passes lined with granite boulders and you have to keep on your toes. Things are well marked along the way and started out easy enough.

There are always interesting sights along the way. Below is a helicopter delivering a log somewhere...did you see the one in the above pic?

Just a few hours into our trip up the bay I realized we were still too close to the holiday weekend. There were boats everywhere zooming past at full speed just a few yards between us and the edge of the channel. I thought all rude boaters resided in south Florida but maybe they come to Canada for the summer?

During this stretch I realized why gun laws are so strict in Canada...you can have a gun or a boat but not both!!

By the end of the first day I realized that I hate Georgian Bay!! There...I said it...I feel better. It's really not much fun to boat when you can't enjoy the sights and this was one of those places. To top it off we pulled into a secluded (sarcasm) anchorage for the evening only to find our windlass was acting up and we couldn't get the chain out. This was completely my fault since I didn't check it earlier and we hadn't used it since Georgia (the state, not the bay). We told our friends to enjoy the stay and pushed on to a dock in Parry Sound. The only thing that made it better was the fact that Parry Sound was a very nice town and they had a car show too.

It's always interesting to have to time your approach to a dock with the taxi pattern of the local float plane delivering fresh fish.

Next day our friends caught up and we spent another day exploring town before moving further up north. We passed through Pointe au Baril along the way and I wondered where the name came from. It was very nice of them to post a sign for us!

Pointe au Baril

Next stop was the small town of Britt where we got weathered in for an extra day when the winds picked up on the bay. It was here that another question was answered for me. Where to the construction workers go when they are building a house on one of these remote islands???

Island Honey Dipper

As we got further up the bay the boat traffic thinned out and the scenery changed to more rugged. This was what we had been hoping for all along! Turns out we just had to endure Georgian Bay to get to the beauty of the North Channel.

After a night in the little town of Killarney we spent an afternoon exploring Baie Fine before going to Little Current for a couple of nights. Baie Fine (Bay Fin) is spectacular and you feel like you're in a fjord in Norway. At the upper end we took a hike up to Topaz Lake which reminded Jill & I of a mini Lake Tahoe.

The Batan Death March

The Reward

Happy Hikers

Everyone slept well at Little Current that evening!! I hiked up one more hill to get some sunset shots before turning in early.

Next morning a cruise ship pulled into port. A good thing we didn't meet him in a small channel!!

While in Little Current we met up with friend and fellow retired firefighter Bill Browne and his family, who have a place up here and have summered here for many years. We were invited to enjoy a nice birthday dinner with the family as Bill's wife and mother share the day. It was a great visit and for once we traveled to friends...not the other way around.

They even let the new pup try driving the boat....maybe next time it'll be tall enough.

After Little Current our little flotilla split up and Knot Sew Easy and Moondance returned to the US while we continued a bit further north to visit more friends, this time at Hilton Beach on St. Josephs Island. Unfortunately we let them get away before we were able to get a nice shot of the family. I did get one candid shot of Greg making killer margaritas...Casey's shoulder is there too...Glad the next day wasn't a travel day after those drinks!

So that's about it for now. We are back in the US and back to our regular cell phone numbers. The plan from here is to spend some time traveling down Lake Michigan toward Chicago. Should be in the Windy City sometime before Labor Day. We'll keep you posted.

On a sad note, our friends on Knot Sew Easy had to put their first mate down while in Little Current. It it always hard to loose a beloved pet and they had really hoped she was going to make it home to Michigan. We've followed Knot Sew Easy for many miles during this trip and I'll leave you with a picture of Brandy as we got used to seeing her.