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!

Suttons Bay, Day 4

After getting our friends in Frankfort situated it was time to move on to Suttons Bay. We had a brisk south wind which created a nice following sea and was able to run at a good rate even though it was a bit rough out. We ran very close to sleeping bear dunes national park and Susan was able to get some nice pictures.

Point Betsy light house

Once we turned the corner after the sleeping bear dunes things flattened out. It was beautiful! We were able to take many pictures while running and passed many boats through this area before reaching Grand Traverse Bay.

This was the Yacht Tresor that parked behind us the night before



The trail on Sleeping Bear Dunes (look closely you can see people)

We headed south into the bay and were expecting some rough water considering we had south winds at the start of the day, but everything was great. There is nothing like the water up here. We just love it! As soon as we got situated in the bay it took everything we had in keeping Peyton from just jumping in right away. I wanted to get the dingy down so we could get to the ladder before anyone got off the boat.

This little gem of a town is great. The marina is a municipal with limited amenities. No pool or cable, but we did not miss that. We really did have a wonderful day swimming and playing on the beach. The only downside is the town is not very pedestrian friendly. It has no traffic controlled intersections and cars really zoom through. It is hard with little ones to get across the street. The other downer is the sunset is not the traditional Lake MI sunset were you watch the sun disappear into the lake. The bay is on the west shore so the trees and bluff block the sunset we have become accustomed to.


Our view of the beach from our slip

Picnic tables and grills

 

There was one thing we wanted to do while here, but did not due to spending so much time at the beach; this area is known for its wine. There are many wineries very near by. Oh well possibly next time. Tomorrow we move on to Elk Rapids. Looking forward to it, but forecast is for more wind tomorrow, however, we are fairly protected traversing throughout Grand Traverse Bay.

We had one other surprise here in Sutton's, Greg and Sue from our home dock were here and we shared stories in the evening of our trips past and present.