Sunset at Geneva on the Lake marina. We had a very good day sailing from Geneva on the Lake to Cleveland. We started with no wind but that changed quickly. At first we had a nice breeze coming over the stern pushing us along. We had full sails up. The winds picked up to the way they were previously when we struggled tacking into the wind with high waves and strong winds. The difference was today the wind was coming from behind us and the waves were pushing us along. This time the bull ride was more like body surfing. The 4 foot waves would come up behind the boat and the back would rise and the boat would slide down the slope until the wave passed. It was a bit rocky when they didn't come straight on. There was quite a bit of rocking side-to-side. We had the foresight to keep the reef in the mainsail so when the wind picked up it was no problem to reduce the size of the sail. We went faster with the reduced mainsail and no foresail than with both fully deployed in the morning. Thi...
Our marina in Whitehall was at the end of White Lake, about 6 miles from Lake Michigan. so we had a long cruise even though, for all intents and purposes we were there. Despite the long trip, we got there in plenty of time. The marina seemed to favor sailboats as most of the slips had sailboats in them, in contrast to Ludington, where the marina was half empty by 6 AM as all the fisherman had left. The decommissioned lighthouse, now museum, at White Lake We had a short trip to our final destination, Muskegon, so despite unfavorable wind conditions again, we sailed about one third the distance before motoring. The winds had good speed but again were headwinds, and the waves were quite high, with occasional whitecaps. We saw several other sailboats going north, with the wind. I hope those were one way trips or they'd be motoring back. In reading documentation about boating Lake Michigan, we had read about long nets strung out along parts of the lake that you need to avoid. They are ...
Due to the prediction of lightning for today, we reserved our slip for 2 nights. We planned to do a much needed oil change, refuel, do laundry and get groceries. We did accomplish those but at the expense of missing out on what turned out to be a day with favorable winds and no lightning. We also got to sleep in real beds at my cousin's house and do laundry. We are three days behind our original schedule but that did not include any planned down days.
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