Northport

Northport is a nice little town relatively close to Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse Bay. There were several sailboats sailing out as we were motoring in despite the fact that there was little wind. Town was nearby.



When we left Northport there was a little wind coming at us. We didn't think that was too bad since after we got out of Grand Traverse Bay we were going to turn 90 degrees and then hopefully have a beam reach (wind over the side of the boat). It took longer than expected to tack out of Grand Traverse Bay and by the time we turned the corner the wind died, which was not typical of our trip. Winds usually have picked up in the late morning and die down in late afternoon. So we had to motor the rest of the way to Leland. A little surprising was how many other sailboats we saw doing the same thing, motoring. Only a catamaran was able to sail with reasonable success.

The Lake Michigan shoreline on the north west part of the lower peninsula is very sandy and the further south we went, the higher the dunes seemed to get. They looked at least 100-200 feet above the lake. It's amazing that the sand stays that high through wind and storms.






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