Small Craft Advisory, Day 5

The first lesson in boating is safety, the second lesson is safety and the third..... well you get the point.  Boating really is about safety first and fun only after you ensure you are having fun safely.  I learned a great lesson on Day 5 of our trip, make sure that you check the forecast for wave heights BEFORE you leave to your next destination. 

We were scheduled to leave to go to Elk Rapids, where a slip reservation was awaiting.  It was windy in the morning and we knew the waves would be building and thought we would be ok if we left early enough.  And needless to say, we were ok, but WOW, did I gain more respect for this lake.  When leaving Suttons Bay I checked out the wave forecast on my phone and saw that the Grand Traverse Bay was under a small craft advisory, with 4-6 foot waves.  Paul assured me that there was no need to worry, as the waves would be at our back once we rounded the center.  I thought, how bad could they be after all, we were in the bay not in the middle of the lake, and we have hit some pretty bad waves on Lake Winnebago (our home lake) so I felt we could handle it.  Well, in the end we were able to handle it, thanks to Paul's patience and skill driving the boat, but oh man I will say I was praying along the way.  Once we reached Elk Rapids and was comfortably in our slip, Paul learned from the Harbormaster that they were watching us come in to the harbor through binoculars.  They said that at some points while coming in the hull of our boat was at a 45 degree angle, and that they were surprised to "see the captain smiling."   All, I can say to that is ugh!!!

Once situated we walked around the town and stopped for lunch at the Liquor Club, which actually does serve food.  It was a fairly interesting place with an old fashioned bowling game. Throughout our walk around town Peyton was taking pictures with his camera (thank you Grandma and Grandpa) and I let Pierce take pictures with mine.  The shot to the left is from Pierce.  Once we were back to the boat we took a look at all the kids pictures and they are actually pretty good and interesting.  Their perspective definitely gives you appreciation for what they see.  We continued our trek through downtown just to check it out and then went back to the boat.   The day was exceptionally windy and cool, so we took the opportunity to do some laundry, clean the boat and just hang out.   Paul took the boys fishing and made some very interesting catches. 

For dinner we grilled out and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.  Tomorrow is scheduled to be less windy.... thank you Jesus!