Rovinj the Great Lakes

It is with mixed emotions that we have completed the journey. In some respects, I didn't want it to end since there is so much to see. The winds would have to turn in our favor too, so that we could do more pure sailing. But it was also time to be done and get home. Even when I'm in Florida in Winter or visiting Europe with my wife, I get tired of living out of a suitcase and eventually want to get home. This was the longest trip I've taken and that feeling certainly set in. Also, in this case, I was away from family, making it worse. Add to that, living in the tight quarters or a 28 foot boat. I've been asked several times whether I enjoyed this adventure. It is a resounding yes. Not only was the sailing enjoyable, but we saw many new places, had new experiences and met many new people. During the first half of the trip we stayed mostly at yacht clubs. On Lake Ontario, this was often cheaper since the yacht clubs have an association and since Greg was a member of an as

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

Ludington looks like it has a good sized port. We saw a docked freighter. Ludington also has a ferry to Wisconsin. We saw two ferries named Spartan and Badger after the MSU and Wisconsin Universities. We had passed several fishing boats on the way in. The municipal marina that we were in was near the festivities. As we walked to dinner we heard them announcing the winners. We heard 4th place was 90 pounds for 2 fish. We didn't stay to hear the winning weight. We did see some guys at the cleaning station with some pretty big steelhead and salmon. Right side channel marker with the ever present sand dunes in the background. The lighthouse on the opposite side of the channel. The municipal marina with ferry in the background Lighthouse from the bottom Ferry from the front Ferry from the back, this is where cars go in Ludington downtown is near the marina and the beach borders the town. It is a nice big beach with volleyball, playground, concessions and benches to watch sunsets. We did

The marina in Manistee that we stayed at was on Lake Manistee. The channel to the lake ran through town then when we got to the lake we took a hard right and then another hard right into the marina. The marina looks like it is far from town but those two hard rights put us pretty much behind all of the buildings on the channel, so getting to town was a short walk. We didn't have time to check out the beach but we could see as we were coming in that it was quite large. Channel marker marking the right side of the entrance to the channel. Lighthouse across from the channel marker. First of two draw bridges that we had to go through. They didn't seem to open them all the was so it was narrow at the top to negotiate the mast through. Had the boat rocked at all the mast could have hit both sides. I failed to get a picture of the second one. It was under construction, so they had to move equipment off of it before opening it. An interesting sailboat that we saw in the marina. It look

 Frankfort is a nice beach town. The beach sloped down from the road level down to the water. It was a deep beach that sloped gradually. There were swings, volleyball courts and benches facing the water. Lighthouse marking the entrance to the channel taken from the sea wall. View down the beach back toward town Beginning of the dune that stretched quite a way north. These trees at the water are those in the center of the picture below. Benches at the beach set up like an amphitheater to watch sunsets. Panorama of the beach from the channel and condos on the left to the benches. The big dune is further to the right. Passing the lighthouse and entering the channel. I walked up to the trees the went down to the water in the center of the dune. View to the other side of the channel. The sail from Frankfort was slow. There was hardly any wind again and what wind there was came out of the south, the direction we were heading. Fortunately we didn't have a long leg and sailed as long as we

After turning back we s pent the day in Leland. It was very windy all day and there were high waves all day. You could hear the wind howl most of the day, the halyards clanging against the masts and the creaking of the boats rubbing against the docks and pulling the dock lines. I took a walk on the beach to find Petoskey stones but there was too much churn i n the water to see anything. Some people have too much money. That sailboat has to be at least 80 feet long if not 90. The marina and river The marina with clubhouse in the background The beach next to the marina The weather was more conducive to kite boarding than boating. You can see the guy on the left kite is above the sea wall. They were flying. There were two otters eating fish between the boats in the marina. The weather got worse overnight confirming that it would not have been good to anchor on South Manitou Island, which was an option that would have gotten us one fourth of the way to the next port. There were very high w