Whitehall and Muskegon

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 marked with flags at the ends and sometimes in the center, and can reach a mile long or more. We had seen some in the distance, but were never close to them. On this day we literally almost ran into one of the end marker flags. To avoid possibly getting tangled in the net we had to do a quick tack. They are not very big so you have to be vigilant.

We almost hit this flag. Such a big lake and we find it. The other flags are further out.

We wanted to arrive in Muskegon early so that we could start any paperwork associated with storing the boat until next Spring. 

Channel entrance to Lake Muskegon

Muskegon lighthouse

U.S.S Silversides submarine museum and coast guard ship

Freighter leaving Muskegon Lake. Ferries also leave from here.

We also wanted to start preparations for the boat's storage such as an oil change. We'll also need to remove the sails and boom, and take everything off that won't be stored with the boat.

Rovinj in the last port

All of the stops for the entire trip

Rovinj will be stored in Muskegon on land until Spring. We had wanted to go as far as Holland MI but could not find a marina that would take boats out of the water until September, requiring slip rental until then. Besides the added cost, none had slips available.

This concludes the trip. I plan on one more update with final thoughts when I get home. Then will restart this blog for the return trip next Summer.