Ludington

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 have luck with sunsets since there were always clouds at the horizon. Being in the far western part of the time zone means that sunset is very late.
Late evening volleyball on the beach. This is at 9 PM and see how high the sun still is


Over night there was a huge storm. We awoke to so much lightning it was almost like the sun was up, one bolt after another nearly continuous. We were happy it was over before we had to leave.
The storm left the Lake rough. It was really bad early but got a little better after we had been going a while. It never got smooth though and there were occasional whitecaps and waves that cause big splashes from the boat. Wind was moderate and would have made for good sailing but once again was a headwind. I hope the winds are the same next year for our return because then they'll be tail winds. Since we had a long way to go today we couldn't mess around and motored the whole way, using the sails when the wind direction would help.

Splash caused by going over a wave. It wasn't this bad all day

A couple of hours after we left

More dunes along the way. There are big houses on some of these. Not sure how their foundations are done.
Video of the waves early this morning




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