We left Charlevoix on Tuesday 8/21 for Traverse City. The whole group we had dinner with the night before was scattering to different parts of the region. Bob and Sally, and Ron and Diana were gone when we got up at 7am. The Zone with Ross and Laura left about 7:45 just before we were ready to throw off the lines. Darryl and Julie were staying for a few days to make some repairs. I guess people will move in and out of our paths throughout this trip. After a gas up and pump out, we were off at about 8:30am.

We took the trip at about 9mph. For you  non-boaters, that is the equivilent of Chinese water torture. It seems like you could walk faster. There are a few advantages though. 1) It is very civilized and not rushed at all. 2) You can do all sorts of work. I write, even use my computer, and read... a lot. 3) Rusty doesn't feel the need to grab the carpet with desparation. 4)You can sleep. This is a shot of sleeping beauty and his trusty companion snoozing away while Auto and I drive. I like to listen to my iPod while driving because it is like a private concert while looking at the water pass slowly away.

It was a perfect day for a ride, too. Calm and sunny. Just a touch nippy, which is why Kermit is wearing a jacket. We don't often bring out the Ohio State gear while in Michigan since we are out numbered but we thought it would be ok in the privacy of our boat!

A lot of people don't go to Traverse City (we think) because you leave Lake Michigan and turn east for about 30 miles into a long bay that divides into two bays - East and West. It is out of the way. Traverse City straddles both bays but the main municipal marina is in the West Bay.  We HAD to go because Dan and Marilyn are from west central Michigan. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

As usual, the municipal marina is nice. I suspect we won't find marinas like this down the river. I know Ohio has nothing like this for municipal marinas. I bet these pictures look all the same to you readers. I know they are starting to look all the same to me. Anyway this is Traverse City Municipal Marina.

 

 

This marina is built right along a green stretch that extends the length of the West Bay. In the later part of the 20th Century, the city fathers had the foresight to demolish lots of old buildings to reclaim the green space. There are historical markers all along the way showing pictures and history of industry that built Traverse City. Lots of lumber, apples, and cherries. Lots of cherries everywhere.

Dan Lipka recommended a favorite restaurant, Red Mesa, a little out of town. This meant taking down the bikes and figuring out the TART bike path about 4 miles East to the state park. I had creole whitefish with a spicy fruit salsa. Boy was it good! Kermit was happy with his fajitas. But the best part was the salsa, made fresh right on site, like everything else. It had this really thick texture but I couldn't figure out the secret. The margaritas hit the spot but made it a little uncomfortable going home! Maybe not uncomfortable but certainly interesting!

Every town has something different. Traverse City has a space exhibit which starts downtown with the sun (we didn't see that) and has planets hung around the community representing the relative distance away from the sun. Isn't that interesting? This is a picture of Saturn. We saw Saturn, Jupiture, and Uranus. Uranus had a fun explanation of the pronounciation - Ur-ANUS for high school students and UR-anus for everyone else!!

On Wednesday we took the bikes to the post office and picked up some package. We ordered Rusty's food from Petco and some supplies from Amazon. There is just no reason to settle for anything less than what we want when you can have everything sent to a Post Office!! Gotta love it. So we tested the new basket Kermit installed on his bike and toted home 20 pound bag of dog food, a business card holder for all the boat cards we are collecting, and a new 50 amp to 30 amp splitter we just had to have. It worked!! YEAH!!

Dinner at Mackinaw Brew Company was simpler, salads and meatloaf. Then early to bed for a big trip on Thursday.

We need to be in Chicago in 3 weeks and we have a lot of ground to cover. And the trip in and out of Traverse City is at least 30 miles. At 10 miles an hour, it is a 3 hour trip and there is nothing much on Lake Michigan near the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay so we hightailed it out early Thursday AM.

We have been asked about our early morning routine. Early is kind of a euphemism for us. Kermit sets the coffee pot for 7am. We drag ourselves out of bed, change clothes and feed the dog. Rusty has to have a walk. We load the bikes after bathroom stops for everyone. One of us lifts the bike and the other grabs it and moves it into place on the front deck. The assignment varies depending on how high we have to lift the bikes. Kermit uses bungie cords to fasten the bikes to the railing. He has an intricate ritual I don't pretend to understand. Then I make lunches and a snack bag with lots of fruits, nuts, and stuff to drink in a cooler. Dog, charts, reading materials, telephones, computers, shoes, and cooler move up to the top level. Kermit disappears who knows where, I get frustrated, and we get back to work. I close up everything below deck then Kermit follows around to make sure I didn't miss anything. I am not being snarky. Sometimes I miss things. I guess we are ready. Oh, yeah, did we secure the dinghy? Nope, forgot that. So let's secure the dinghy...

Now we are ready to start engines and debate which lines to take off in which order. Naturally we selected wrong and we have to reattach the boat so we don't slam into the boat next to us. Softly of course, wouldn't want to wake the neighbors. Lines off. A little arguing over the need for Kermit to be at the helm, and we are off! See that didn't take too long and very little arguing. Shocking.

The water was great when we started out from Traverse City. We were on our guard because the weather reports were conflicted and talked about increasing chances of storms. About half way through the 3 hour bay trip, Kermit decided to pick up the pace. Our target was Leland, around the corner, but if the water was good and we were not too tired. We would scoot down to Frankfort MI just to make more distance. Turns out Leland was easy so we kept going. This is a picture of Manitou Island, near Leland.

We passed Sleeping Bear Dunes along the way. We were close enough so we could see the dunes. Really high and white cliffs. I wish we could have stopped. Mariilyn Lipka says they are great fun.

 The fun part started after Leland. Turns out the islands mean the water between the Manitou Islands and the dunes between Leland and Frankfort is sort of like the water between Kellys and South Bass Island and Marblehead. There is a LOT of turbulence. In the pictures above you can see the waves are about 2 foot. That is doable. We perked it up to about 18 mph so we could take the waves coming off our front starboard quarter a little better. That was when the waves grew. In the photo below you can see the waves are a lot bigger, closer to 3 to 4 foot waves with 5 or 6 foot rogue waves every 3rd or 4th. It got a little wild. We were holding on.

About 2miles from the entrance to Frankfort MI, Kermit noticed a 46 foot Bertrum ( a very nice boat) that appeared to be anchored in this mess. That was odd so Kermit called to see what was up. Evidently the anchor dropped unexpectedly and they were anchored in 40 feet of water in 3-4 foot seas - NOT a good thing. We slowed down to about 10 mph and watched carefully as the guy crawled out on the nose and fiddled with the chain. He did not have a windlass to electronically pull up the anchor so he had to do it by hand on his belly in the rolling seas. I was very glad to not be on his boat. I can just hear his wife! He fixed the anchor and proceeded to limp into Frankfort behind us. They pulled into a different marina so we didn't see them again.

We used our Lake Erie experience and passed the entrance to Frankfort, made a quick turn, and surfed in with the waves off our tail. Much smoother for the last few minutes as we entered the channel.

This is what our back deck looked like when we got into calmer waters! Actually this is sort of cleaned up - the couch was all the way in front of the steps! The little garbage can broke free from its ties and was on the swim platform held on only by the trusty dinghy. We put everything back glad to have such a sturdy boat.

Frankfort is a small town. The library is right opposite our boat slip. It is big enough to fit into the lobby of the Canton main library! There is apparently one main street about 4 blocks long. I didn't see a stop light. The homes are really well taken care of. Lots of pretty painted Victorian homes. I don't get it. The home prices in the real estate office windows show similar looking houses that vary in price from 100k to 2 million. Seems odd for a small town.



The main street ends at Lake Michigan in the sweetest sand beaches we have seen yet. Something about of the Caribbean. Really beautiful. I guess that accounts for the property value ranges.

We had the single best meal of the entire trip at a little restaurant called Coho with the best, most reasonable prices so far. I had a fantastic duck breast with red chili sauce fruit sauce with citrus risotto so perfectly cooked it melted in my mouth. And fresh (not frozen) green beans and carrots. I savored every bite. A lovely screened porch overlooking the harbor with a light breeze. And the nicest people worked there - nice, friendly, and clearly foodies. So there is something very special about this small town.

There is a salmon fish tournament in town - lots of fishing boats of different shapes and sizes were thwarted in their attempt to win a big prize for the best salmon by the small craft warnings today. They will go out tomorrow as will Good Karma. We leave in the morning for Luddington, assuming we get good water.