8/19/18: Sunday – We’re making our way down the coast line of Michigan, about 30 miles at a time. It was a cool and cloudy – almost foggy – day on the water today. The weather reminded me of boating in Seattle. And there were dozens and dozens of boats out fishing today! You can’t see them all, but there are at least 8 boats on the horizon in this random shot. The water was a little wavey, blowing in our face from the south, so it was a day to wear our fuzzies. And it felt damp, but the clouds did not settle down on us, thank goodness.
Our next stop was Manistee. It’s another little town where Lake Michigan has been joined together to a smaller lake with a canal, providing a safe harbor. This is the lighthouse and breakwater marking the entrance. The clouds were just starting to break up when we arrived at 11:30.
There were some Coast Guard buildings as we came in…
And how do you like this? You can activate the fog horn by keying up your VHF radio! “To energize the fog signal, key your microphone five times on channel 22A”
The Municipal marina is along the canal, and the docks had some really severe damage in a storm earlier this year. But the marina building that has the boaters lounge, bathrooms, showers, and laundry is very nice. And they have a wall that can accommodate 4-6 large boats, so we are docked on the wall rather than in a slip, which is fine.
Gypsy is here, too – they came in right behind us. She is a PDQ power cat, just like our friends Kent & Jane’s Rising Tide. (On a side note – Rising Tide is our friends that we were cruising with way back in March in our first week on the loop, that found a rock in the Caloosahatchee River and got a big gash in the hull. I just got a report that she is all fixed up and back in business. YAY!)
We have some bad weather coming on Tuesday, so we’re only staying here one night, then we’ll move down another 30 miles or so to Ludington for a couple-three nights while the wind blows and the waves rage. Right after we got tied up, Bob & Linda from Corkscrew came strolling by on the walkway. They are in another marina around the corner. It’s so fun to bump into people we know!
Here’s Island Girl & Gypsy hanging on the wall together.
Manistee is small, but it does have a brewery, and Captain was in the mood for a beer with lunch. So we walked just a couple of blocks up to the North Channel Brewing Co. It was a pretty big place, and they had a good selection of beer and even a couple of ciders!
I had a nice blueberry cider with a smoked gouda, turkey and asparagus wrap. Yum! Then we walked around town to see what was here. It appears to be an older town than Frankfort, with several empty buildings, and some places that weren’t open since it is Sunday. There wasn’t much activity going on, so it seems like a sleepy little town. Not much touristy stuff. I did not see a single fudge or ice cream shop! WHAT?! But there is a nice Riverwalk that goes all along the channel out to the lake, and there were several people out strolling along, enjoying the day.
We headed back down the riverwalk and just hung out in the boat for awhile. Then I got a text message from Herb on Phanthom, that we’d have porchtales at 5:00. (That’s looper docktails on the ‘porch’ of his boat.). WHAT?! He was in Petoskey this morning. That’s 113 miles! YIKES! And we all thought he was going to stop in Frankfort. In fact, Elizabeth and Craig were looking forward to seeing him there. Well, when they found out that he wasn’t stopping there, they hopped in their car and came here to hunt him down! He got here about 4:30, and sure enough, we had porchtales on Phanthom!
And then we saw Fred from Compass Rose cruise up in his dinghy. We haven’t seen them since Mackinac Island, I think. Apparently they are in the other marina around the corner with Corkscrew, too! He joined us for porchtales. So here we have representatives from Phanthom, Gypsy, Compass Rose, Contentment, and Island Girl. You just never know who you’re going to run into, or when you’ll see them next, on this crazy loop journey! It is so darn much fun!
It was a low key day, and the weather turned out really nice after the sunshine finally popped out. Manistee is a quiet little place (at least on a Sunday), but they have the best price on diesel fuel anywhere! $3.02/gallon!
Hello again from smoggy Seattle. BC fire smoke drifting south creating air quality alerts. Trying to figure where you going on Lake MI. Going to Chicago? What is the general routing from Manistee? (Whatever, am jealous.)