Left a little late this morning - 11:00 am. However the lake was relatively good and the waves were about 2 feet. We thought we would head to Pentwater. The journey was uneventful for the most part, except that Brenda noticed a couple of fenders floating in the water, but they were too small to pick up. At the same time we noticed a couple of flags floating about 500 feet on the other side of the boat. We thought they were just marking a sailing route. Wrong. When we arrived in port, we learned that they marked the outer edges of an underwater fishing net and we ran right between them. Fortunately the net was deeper than my draft so we did not catch anything, but there eno notifications on the charts or anywhere else prior to leaving Manistee. We were lucky that we did not get hung up.
Anyway, we continue on our journey and the waves started building. Around Ludington they were running about 5 feet, so we decided to go in for the night.
Ludington, like so many other towns on Lake Michigan was developed as a port to ship timber and as a vacation home for the wealthy. It is a nice little town with lots of crafty type stores and a beautiful park that runs along the waterfront.The park ahs all sorts of statues that commemorate something that has happened in the past. Good restaurants also. The marina was far better than that in Manistee and it appears that they have spent quite a bit of money developing it and the park.
Ludington also has the last car ferry on Lake Michigan and runs over to Wisconsin every day. The ferry is coal fired. I didn't think that they allowed them these days.
It looks like we may be here for another day as the winds are forecasted to go to 25 kts tomorrow, but at least we made some progress with two good weather days.
Glad you were able to miss those nets! We got our boat running up to Niagara on the Lake on Saturday and had to come back very slowly on one engine in 3 footers as one of the exhaust hoses blew again. The part is on order. No end of frustration with an older boat! And it was so great until recently!
ReplyDeleteHi Brenda and David!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are having a fun trip! I hope the weather shapes up for you. I'm enjoying the posts and the photos. Until now I have been reading over Alex's shoulder, but now I am an official blog follower myself, hurray!
Hi to both of you.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at what you have experienced so far. You are brave souls. I lost your blog address and had it forwarded to me by Alex. It was nice chatting with him by email. When you come back from this trip, you will have to publish a book.
Have fun, keep safe and David don't buy so much wine next time, especially if it takes your back out!!
Jane C.