Lake Michigan

07.29.2010

Lake Michigan greeted us with a light chop. Thirty minutes before we entered the channel to Lake Charlevoix the winds picked up. Boats seemed to come out of nowhere scrambling to get a slip in Charlevoix City Marina. Many of the vessels were sail boats returning to Chicago from last week’s race, (Chicago to Mackinac Island).

Charlevoix is a tourist town. T-shirts, ice cream and fudge are easy to find. The most interesting store is The Cherry Republic. I didn’t know you could make so many things from cherries.

07.30.2010 we left at 0600 to get ahead of the sail boats. If we stayed in Charlevoix I would have shop with intentions to buy at The Cherry Republic. Thank goodness for the .com industry.

Lake Michigan was kind this morning. The waves were at our stern all the way to Leland. I was grateful.

Leland Township Harbor Marina turned out to be crowded overnight stay. Boats were rafted 3 deep on their beams and on the sterns of the boats in slips. WIFi was only available in the boaters’ lounge where your thoughts had to compete with volume of the TV.

The marina building is new and premises are well maintained. This is a hot spot for local cruisers and tourist. The town was a fishing village. The old buildings and sheds are now retail shops.

07.31.2010

There were no slips available at the three marinas in Frankfort. We anchored in the harbor and were rocked by anglers going out at 1900 hours and returning at 0100, and going out at 0500 the next day.

Frankfort is known for its 480 foot sand dunes. The town was small but good for provisioning. It has a waterfront park with a large bike path. There is a smoked fish shop and the biggest supermarket we’d seen since Albany NY.

There are many sand dunes on the eastern shore.

A marina on Round Lake near Chalesvoix Municipal Marina

Trails on the dunes

Sunset in frankfort

Fog

Golf Course in the fog

Crossing our wake celebration

08.01.2010 – 08.03.2010

We met up with Tom and Diana, Noah Agenda, at Ludington Marina. It is good to reunite with friends and share loop adventures. Of course having others to discuss the next leg of the trip with is a bonus.

Ludington, MI is a good place to spend a few days. The marina facilities were clean and our phones and broadband worked adequately, (most of the time).

Manitowoc Wisconsin, where we brought Freedom, is across Lake Michigan from Ludington MI. So we crossed our wake but this time we’re taking the east side route down to Chicago. We’ll celebrate closing the loop as purest (one continuous voyage) in Grand Rivers Kentucky where we resumed the loop in October, 2009.