Lake Michigan

• Today is Tuesday, August 14, we want to go home for two weeks on August 28, Tuesday. The plan was to be past Chicago by Labor Day. First because the weather is supposed to change very quickly and second because we can't leave the boat in Chicago, it's just too expensive. We have 14 days to get to Alton, Illinois. The pressure is on.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana border Lake Michigan. It's maximum depth is 923 feet, it's 307 miles long and 118 miles wide.

We got up at 6:00 a.m. with every intention of pulling right out of Mackinac Island and heading south about 50 miles to Harbor Springs. I went on the computer to check the weather. All along it was telling me the waves were going to be 2 to 4 foot waves. After last week, I did not want to go in anything more then 3 foot waves. I checked with 4 other boats that were going in the same direction and they were leaving. (I asked the dockmaster at Mackinac Island Marina to put us on a waiting list to stay at the marina. My way of thinking, if I can't get out no boats can come in.) Gladys and Wright have a 41 foot Lagoon Catamaran, like the one we had in Tortola, only this is a sail boat. They were leaving for Beaver Island, an anchorage, which is also about 50 miles and starting out in the same direction as we were going. They decided to leave and would call us in a few minutes and let us know how good or bad it is out there. We started to put everything away, took the kids off the wall, (a 12x30 glass framed picture of our grandchildren), so it wouldn't be broken in case it was rough. When Wright called we just untied the boat and were on our way. We passed under Mackinac Bridge into the Strait of Mackinac and our journey began. As soon as we were out of the protection of land the water changed. We got another call from Wright saying he hoped we weren't mad at him. Forty-three years ago when we were married I was 118 lbs. I could understand being knocked off a seat in a rolling sea. Today, I'm a few...okay, a lot heavier - you'd think this butt would stay put. I was knocked off twice; the second time, I stayed on the floor with my life jacket on. At one point Mike was off his chair. Good thing he grabbed onto the railing or he would be down the stairs on the deck and probably hurt. We could not go to Harbor Springs, instead we went to Petoskey in Little Traverse Bay. A 3 hour ride took us 6 hours. The first thing we noticed was a steeple from the Catholic Church, tomorrow is a Holy Day, think it's a sign. We went to Mass, came home, even I had a cocktail and went to bed. The next day was clear and a little calmer, it was not windy. Since every day counts on getting to Alton by the 28th we decided to go a little extra distance . We went to Northport. A real nice town with tree lined neighborhoods, houses with white picket fences and beautiful green lawns. We have not gone to a grocery store since Little Current, I needed quite a few things, Northport had a supermarket. We ate at a pub in town and were ready to leave early the next morning. The winds were howling and the weather was bad. We could not see the Lake from Northport and again I did not want to go out in rough water. We decided to stay one more day. We took a ride to Bellows Island. The locals say a man called Ustick built a house there in the early 1900 and was driven off the island by feathered neighbors. There are thousands of gulls and black cormorants there, I wouldn't want to live there.

• Friday, August 17 and we are on our way again. We are going to Leland and its only 27 miles. We start off with 2 to 4 feet and as we get near Lighthouse Point I swear the waves went to 4 to 6 feet. We're committed just keep going. The breakwall runs straight across the beach. You have to go to the beach make a quick left and the entrance to the harbor is very narrow with a following sea. The water was so rough there were surfers at the entrance. We were very happy to be docked and safe. We watched others boats come in behind us. They looked like they were going to tip over. I know that's what we looked like, I felt if I put my hand on the side of the boat I could touch the water. I've learned that the boat handles the rough water great, I don't!

Leland is a real fun town. There are ancient ice and fish shanties that are now stores. This section is called Fish Town. You can shop till you drop. There are commercial and charter boats here also. Mike brought some smoked white fish and stunk out the refrigerator. Several good restaurants. We took the bus to church , the bus driver drove us right to the church and told us he would pick us up right after church. When we came out...he was there. There's a water fall coming from another small lake that adds to the charm of the town. We found out that you cannot take an inflatable or any fishing equipment from Lake Michigan to this small lake. The Zebra Mussels are destroying the ecological balance in the lake. The state is doing all that it can to prevent the mussels from contaminating other lakes.

• The next day, Sunday, we couldn't leave Leland. Again, it was just too rough. More boats came in and you had to raft off. The good thing about the State of Michigan is that they have ports of refuge every 20 miles providing protected harbors with anchorages and inexpensive marinas all the way to Chicago. We were in a slip, behind us were 2 boats tied off. The entire marina had boats tied 2 and 3 deep.

• The next day it was a mad exodus. Everyone was taking advantage of a more tranquil sea. Our next stop was Frankfort, it's the 19th of August. We stayed at a place called Jacobson, a private marina because it had a laundromat. After we docked we realized there were at least 10 other loopers there. We had plenty of company. This town has a 480 foot tall sand dune and is part of the Sleeping Bear National Park. We ate at a great pub call Dinghy's and had enough left over for lunch and dinner the next day. We stayed here 2 days again because the weather was bad. So far Lake Michigan has not been good to us.

• August 21, we went to Ludington. Again, all that is on our minds is to get out of Lake Michigan. We took a long walk and went to a really nice restaurant and had a very romantic dinner.
• On August 22 we went to Grand Haven and stayed at North Shore Marina. We were both getting anxious about heading home. We actually were thinking of nothing else to the point of spoiling our days in port. We wanted to see our children and our grandchildren and we promised Karen and Rich that we would be home for the Labor Day Auction at the club. Then it dawned on us...Why don't we just take our chances and go home now? Mike went to the dockmaster to find out what it would cost. It was in our budget. Then I called Enterprise Car Rental and had them deliver an American car. The only one they had was a PT Cruiser. They delivered the car at 4 on Thursday the 23rd and we left at 5:30. We drove straight through and were home in our own bed by 6:30 Friday morning. Turns out the grandchildren were going to surprise us with signs and posters, we spoiled their fun.

• While at home we did a lot of visiting. We had a wonderful time seeing our relatives and friends. We had an especially good time seeing everyone at the club. Our thanks to Gregg and Nancy for letting us stay on their boat for 3 days.

• We left home at 5:45 A.M. and arrived at the boat at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, Sept 5th. The electric on the boat had been turned off due to a storm. The refrigerator was off and wore down the battery. We lost all the food in the freezer and I didn't want to take a chance on the condiments so I threw them out too. We went shopping to restock, returned the car and were ready to go. Thursday, here we go again, the weather is bad, thunder storms and waves 3 to 5 feet. When is this going to stop, I HATE LAKE MICHIGAN! Friday it's even worse waves 8 to 12ft. Everyone at the marina is going crazy. We met Tom and Paula from Texas, they weren't happy either. We spent the night talking with them.

• Finally, Friday the Lake was what it should be, less than 2 feet. We fueled up and were on our way at last. We were going about 60 miles to St. Joseph, Benton Harbor. What a beautiful harbor with a brightly lit nuclear power plant at its entrance. There's a restaurant called Clementine's that's very popular and we can understand why. We stayed at Pier 33 Marina. The current on the river was very strong and docking was tricky. In town on every corner there are brightly painted carousel size little cars, any kid would have a ball here. There's a store that is like a dollar store for men. It has all kinds of weird stuff for boats, little boys like Mike think they're in a candy store. To Mass on our bikes and back to the boat to get ready for a long ride tomorrow to Chicago.