Loop day 100 and the $h1! hits the fan.

Today was Loop Day 100 and by far the “crappiest” day we have ever had! Cruising wasn’t terrible- it was the mess we had to deal with once we got to South Haven. I accidentally flushed a washcloth down the head with other unmentionable material and of course it would not flush. My wonderful, knight-in-shining armor husband took the entire system apart and literally cleaned the entire mess out. If any of you ever doubted my love and admiration for him before- after today there would never be a question. WHAT A MESS! It took nearly two hours to take it all apart and clean it up. I took over the decon process after re-assembly. I just feel so bad for our boat neighbors who must have thought we were really beyond rude. And believe me- Dave and I felt the same way. In the end (literally)  all Dave can say is “I feel much better knowing that my Tecma toilet didn’t let me down!” Seriously- the man loves his heads! But we made it- Day 100 and we are closer now than ever!

We left Muskegon around 7:00 after waiting until it was light enough. The first part of the trip wasn’t bad- we had following seas off our back starboard quarter. It was kind of like surfing in our boat. Our fall-back plan was to go to Saugatuck but we were feeling confident we could do another 20. About 10 miles before the turn into South Haven- the seas became confused and we were taking the waves on our side and the winds had shifted back to the left. It wasn’t too terribly awful- just had to deal with a very short entrance into their harbor and had to rush to get fenders down and lines ready. All in all- it was wonderful to be back on the water!

I am excited because the authors of two of the books that I read faithfully for cruising information are in our marina. George and Pat Hospodar are Gold Loopers who wrote the books: Reflection On America’s Great Loop and The Great Loop Experience: from Concept to Completion. They are on their second loop and will be speakers at the fall rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama. I am hoping to go over and say hello after I get cleaned up and smell better. :-)  Enough with the jokes- and in all seriousness we are very happy to have done 100 days of this wonderful journey. Here’s to 300 more!

 SS Silversides at dawn coming out the channel

 Muskegon lighthouse and NOAA station

 Most of the big clean up is done here. It was not a pretty sight when the hoses came off!

"There is nothing- absolutely nothing-
half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."

Frankfort, Manistee, Ludington, Muskegon

Hello All! We have been enjoying some "stay" days along the Michigan coast. Before we started The Loop- the books and others we had talked to said the worse part of the Loop was Lake Michigan. We were determined to make this different for us. Our plans were to cruise close to the coast and only go when it was comfortable for cruising. Well, we have fulfilled most of those ideas but have had to stay in ports more frequently and for longer than we anticipated. We never thought it would have taken almost a month to make it down the Michigan Coast! 

We left Leland for Frankfort which we made a quick overnight and then Manistee for 3 days. The winds just howled from the west. Even the canal behind our boat had waves on it! It was so bad that even the fisherman stayed in port! We made the best of Manistee by biking, walking and even taking in a movie in their famous movie theater. The theater was taken over by the town and volunteers and was completely redone by grants and donations from Michael Moore (the controversial film producer). We saw Mission Impossible 3 for $16 including large popcorn and bottle of water- can't beat that! According to NOAA- we probably should have stayed in Manistee until Monday but fortunately boater peer pressure had us leaving the dock on Saturday and cruising to Ludington. I wish we could have stayed at least another day in Ludington, but the weather windows didn't support it. What a great town- beautiful Farmer's Market and at least 2 restaurants/bars per block! 

The next day we got up early and started our trip to Muskegon. We usually don't cruise 60 miles in a day but we knew the winds would be returning and needed to get as far south as we could. We also heard about the fabulous Submarine Museum close to the marina. The marina we are in are condominium slips and it was very busy when we arrived on Saturday. Boats in and out all day- and then Sunday came AND NO ONE! It was very overcast and drizzly so everyone was gone. Literally we have been on the dock by ourselves! Yesterday, we walked to the Silversides Submarine Museum and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon. We lucked into a tour group with a fabulous guide and over course it was further enhanced by Dave's knowledge and past experience in a nuclear sub. The Silversides is the most famous surviving submarine of World War II. She sank more ships (30 Japanese vessels and damaged 14) and took down more tonnage than any other surviving WWII submarine. So cool- it was even the prop used in the movie Below. Understand it wasn't that great of a movie but the volunteers take great care of this boat and it showed! I redeemed myself from a previous submarine trip in Norfolk with the USS Sunfish reunion. The reunion had setup a tour of a 688 fast attack boat. I chickened out when it came time to climb down a ladder to get three decks down into the boat. Dave said I missed an opportunity of a life time.
We hope to get back on the water tomorrow heading as far as we comfortably can tomorrow. We have reservations in Michigan City, Indiana on Friday to leave our boat and head to PA.

The sand dunes along the Michigan coast are amazing and we saw so many. This one is 460' high!

We hugged  the coast to see the interesting scenery.

Another beautiful lighthouse leading into Pentwater

Lighthouse leading into Ludington

Incredibly long steps leading up to a farm near Frankfort

Angry Lake Michigan at Manistee

Dave standing near a unique sign that told how many strokes getting to the Wisconsin side!

Following the fleet out of Manistee- we were so excited as we thought we would have to stay through the weekend!

The Badger is the last remaining coal fired passenger and car carrier. http://www.ssbadger.com/about/facts.html. During the summer she makes two round trips daily to Manitowoc Wisconsin. The docking manuver in Ludington is impressive. She steams in the harbor and drop an anchor about two boat lengths from the dock. Then the ship spins on the anchor 180 degrees and slides up to the dock. If the anchor would fail it would be a big mess.

 

 

Beautiful metal sculptures all through the town of Ludington. I was just so impressed how beautiful all the towns along Michigan Coast are!

Coast Guard stations are in most of the ports along the Michigan Coast.

Heading into Muskegon on Saturday

The waterway into Muskegon looked like the entrance into some areas in New Jersey! I think everyone was anticipating the horrible winds on Lake Michigan in the upcoming days!

USS Silversides SS-236

On the decks of the sub! Hard to see but they are actually 2' rollers coming in the entrance to Lake Muskegon!

Control Room on sub

Up periscope!

This was in the museum. They had the helm station of the nuke sub Silversides. Admiral Rickover the Father of Naval Nuclear Power. If any of you nukes out there are letting your high standard drop, remember he is still watching!

Engine Room, good old Fairbanks-Morse Diesels. They still start two of them up once a month.

Dave at the dive station. I was driving him nuts with "Dive, dive". Pretty funny but the have the 0-200 foot depth gauge exposed and the "other one" covered up just like we did on the boat in port.

They are everywhere!

Sailors quarters in the Aft torpedo room! Something else!

This is a 5 day chart of the winds. They have been in the 20 knot range with gust to 25 knots ( that about 28 mph). With constant west winds the waves build across the lake. They have reported occasional waves of 9-11 feet over the last few days. Tomorrow the winds will drop and shift to the NE. We will have following seas to our next stop.

Viewers from around the world!

I recently found a statistics link to the Fryedaze blogger page. It has data on where people are viewing from. Its amazing that folks around the world are reading about our little adventure. Please let us know where you are from in the comments section. We would love to here from you.
Here are the statistic on blog reviews.

United States	7275
Canada	261
Ukraine	49
France	38
Greece	31
Australia	27
Ireland	11
United Arab Emirates	7
Mexico	7
Netherlands	7

Manitou island, Leland

We left Charlevoix at the 8:30 bridge opening. We followed the Beaver Island Ferry and six other boats out of the channel. Everybody seemed anxious to get moving after spending 3 days at the docks. We went to South Manitou Island- a beautiful anchorage in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Parks.
When we got there and settled we lowered the dinghy and went to the Visitor's Center and Lighthouse. We walked around the island which had a lot of campers arriving for the night or weekend. They are brought to the island by ferry from Leland. Some of the people were serious hikers/campers. I of course showed up in flip-flops and looked very out of place! There are four ship wrecks that you can dive/explore around the island. We didn't see anyone actually diving them but Dave went exploring in the dinghy on Saturday morning before we left. I wasn't feeling too well- so I stayed on the boat. We got going shortly after 10:00 for our 11 mile trip across Lake Michigan to Leland. Once again we were struck by the beauty of the state run Marina and the waters surrounding it.
This morning we walked to breakfast and did a little grocery shopping. Tonight we are going to dinner with a group of five Looper boats. We met one of the boats at the Rendezvous in Norfolk last May. It will be nice to catch up and see where all of the boats have gone/and where they are heading. Dave and I spent the morning trying to find a secure place to keep FRYEDAZE the week we go back to PA for Ben's birthday. Being that the week we are going home is week before Labor Day many of the marinas are already booked full. We think we found a slip in Michigan City, MI. When we return back we will make the jump over the Chicago.
 
 

Leaving Charlevoix following the Beaver Island Ferry

FRYEDAZE on anchor at South Manitou Island. It amazed us that there was 30 feet of water right up against the shoreline. We managed to find a shallower spot in a shelf.

 

Last beautiful home leaving Charlevoix

 

The Lighthouse on South Manitou Island circa 1857. Not manned any more but the light at night is very bright

 

Another shot of the lighthouse when we were leaving for Leland

 

This was the fog we awoke to on Saturday morning. We waited to leave until after it burnt off

 

This is for Cinda Haas- wasn't sure if this was your husbands' family? Saw this in the small museum on the island

 

 

 

 


Little garter snake along the path to the Lighthouse

 


Lighthouse at dusk

 

And the spiders just keep working!

 

Sunset on Manitou- sun still doesn't set until after 9:00

 

 

 


More of the fog bank

 

 

Sunset from Leland. Absolutely gorgeous!

 

Another lighthouse that guided us into the channel on the way to Leland

Tomorrow we leave for Frankfort. We want to say congratulations to Principal Bob and Sharon who crossed their wake to complete the Loop in New Buffalo, MI yesterday afternoon at 3:00. When we talked to them they had already uncorked their champagne! They shared their bittersweet feelings about completing. I am sure that Dave and I will share many of those same feelings.