Leland Day 2

After turning back we spent 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 in 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 winds, rain and lightning.

It was breezy in the morning coming out of the right direction. The wind was out of the north west and we were headed west and then south west then south. The wind picked up in the middle of the day and then died by the time we were approaching Frankfort, out next stop. The waves where pretty high the whole day due to higher waves in the middle of the lake (according to the windfinder website). The high winds turned but the waves didn't. All told we had a very pleasant sail and sailed the entire way from Leland to Frankfort, our last long leg.

The coastline here is beautiful. There are high sand dunes the whole with with many topping 200 feet. We passed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore which peaks at 285 feet. I'm pretty sure some of the other peaks were higher than that. A friend once told me that Michigan couldn't possibly have real sand beaches because it didn't have ocean coastline. After sailing almost all the way around Michigan, and knowing what the rest looks like, Michigan has as much real sand beach as anywhere and dunes as high if not higher.
Dunes we saw leaving Leland



I think this is the Sleeping Bear Dune that you can hike over. It all looks different from the lake


Another dune in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore park.



This is how far we've gone so far. Not too many stops left.


Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 12, 2023 at 9:17 AM

    This is because g bro’ Dave! Congratulations on your almost successful accomplishment of this bucket list item. Being the keen observer I am, I can’t help noticing that all your photos in this blog feature large amounts of water in the foreground. At this point have you come to regard the aqueous medium as a nuisance or as an ever-present friend? As a Bedouin might regard sand?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PaulJuly 14, 2023 at 9:17 PM

      The water is a friend. It keeps us cool while the rest of the country swelters. The Michigan beach sand is also a friend as I am a beach volleyball player.

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