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.