DuSable Marina, Chicago, IL - 8/27/12

Mike (Queen Kathleen) and I checked the weather and wind which looked good except the wind would be out of the NW that if it picked up would hit us on the beam as we crossed the 45 miles of open water to Chicago.  We left New Buffalo at 8:30 in a very light chop on the water but it soon turned nasty within the first 5 miles.  This will go down as the third worst trip we have endured on this lake.  For the record ... Lake Michigan and Lake Huron suck!!  If it were not for all the nice little towns along the way this part of the trip would have been wasted.

Chicago in the Fog

 Normally Chicago is visible for many miles out on the lake but this part of the world was fogged in this morning and we couldn't find it until about 10 miles out.

Clean Water

The one (and only) good thing we can say about Lake Michigan is the awesome clean water.

Wind Whipped Burgee

Maybe our burgee will make it to the Cumberland River when we can raise a gold flag which designates that we have completed the loop.

Lake Michigan

Chicago

Columbia Yacht Club 

 To get into DuSable Marina we had to go into Monroe Harbor then weave through a mooring field passing the Columbia Yacht Club and their big boat that is the club house.  DuSable has 400 slips but only 17 for transits.  We have already heard of several loopers that could not get in since they did not make a reservation early enough.

Marina Entrance

Queen Kathleen

 Quest and QK covered the 45 miles in 5 hours in spite of the beam seas traveling about 1/2 mile apart.

Interesting Building

 After cleaning up we decided to walk the few blocks to the upscale food market which is on the 3rd and 4th floors of a building.  We have never seen anything like this before.  I don't think there is anything that can't be found on these 2 floors that are connected by escalators and elevators.

Brown Bell Pepper

Orange Califlower

Bakery

Seafood Display

Navy Pier

 Along with Mike and Kathy we took a taxi to Navy Pier for dinner.  This was supposed to be our farewell dinner as we had planned to leave Wednesday and they are staying until Thursday since Mike's sister will be here, but we have decided to stay as well so we can travel together to the Ohio River.

Navy Pier

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Tomorrow the four of us are taking the bus tour of the city before Mike's sister arrives.  We are meeting a friend that lives here in Chicago for dinner.

New Buffalo Marina, New Buffalo, MI - 8/26/12

All systems were a go this morning for the 52 mile run down the lake to New Buffalo, MI where we will stage our crossing of the lake to Chicago.

Lake Michigan

 Most of the trip was in water showing 1 to 3 footers.  When we were at the marina last night talking with locals about the 2 to 4 footers we saw yesterday, they called that a minor chop and said they water ski in that stuff. Sometimes it is tough to sort out the BS!!!

Entering St. Joe

 One of the loopers ahead of us reported diesel price of $3.69 per gallon at St. Joe so we thought we might as well get a tank full before hitting Chicago.

St. Joe Canal

 We turned off the lake and entered the canal and soon came to a railroad bridge that was normally open unless a train approached so we had to wait a few minutes for a commuter train to cross.

Art Along Canal

Pier 33 Marina

 We led Queen Kathleen up the narrow and shallow river to Pier 33 to get our fuel.  QK ran aground twice while waiting their turn at the pumps and turned back to the lake.

New Buffalo Beach

 It took about 30 minutes for us to get fuel so we were about 3 miles behind QK when we got back into the lake and didn't catch them until about 2 miles from new Buffalo.  The weather was changing very fast with a front moving in and we were getting some rough water on our bow.

New Buffalo

We went straight to our slip while QK went to another marina to get fuel before coming into our marina.  Four other looper boats were here and helped catch our lines.  The water is very low here and some of the boats are actually sitting on bottom.

We ate on the boat tonight and prepared the charts for our trip tomorrow to DuSable Marina in Chicago where we will stay until Wednesday.

N 41  47.851   W 086  44.847

South Haven Municipal Narina, So. Haven, MI - 8/25/12

Our destination today was a 74 mile run to South Haven, MI.  We checked weather and wind and everything said go for it.  We pulled out at 7:30 along with Queen Kathleen and followed them through White Lake then out into a little bumpy Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan

The lake changed at least 3 times from 2 to 4 footers to less than 1 foot which made an interesting ride.

So. Haven Break Wall

 South haven came into view shortly after 3 p.m and we approached the break wall.

So. Haven Beach

So Haven Light

Cat Walk to Light

There is a cat walk above the break wall for the light tender to walk on when the lake is nasty so he doesn't get washed off.

Channel

Tall Ship

Comfortable

We stopped for a pump out before tying to the designated spot on the wall next to the marina office.  There is a lot of boat traffic past this place and it reminds us of the circus atmosphere of Kilarney, ON.

Tomorrow we plan to go another 50 plus miles to New Buffalo to set ourselves up for the crossing of the lake to Chicago on Monday.

N 42  24.212   W 086  16.667

Cross Winds Marina, Whitehall, MI - 8/24/12

Road Trip ... our last day with the rental car so along with Mike and Kathy, off to Holland, MI to catch up with Joe and Edie (Seaquel) and visit the AGLCA Harbor Hosts, Dick and Pat Danly, who we first met in the winter of 2010 in Port St. Joe, Florida.

Looper Super Market

 Our first stop was at West Marine to see about getting a fender replacement for one of Mike's fenders that had a defect.  My purchase was a new door latch set for our cabin door.

Downtown Holland

 We contacted Pat when we got to Holland about noon and set up a time to visit them then went to lunch in a very neat restaurant.  Joe and Edie had been touring the Tiara factory and called us to see where we were and also joined us for lunch.

Downtown Holland

The downtown area seemed very vibrant and had a lot of nice touches.  We noticed young folks that were wearing a badge that designated them as "Town Ambassadors" placed there to help visitors.

Gypsy

 Mid afternoon we drove to the Danly's home on the lake where they have their trawler parked in the back yard.

Dick and Pat Danly

A wonderful visit that included information on places that we will encounter in the coming days.  Apparently they plan to attend the next looper rendezvous and plan to do the loop again.

My Dinner Dates

 We returned our rental to the airport after dropping Mike and Kathy at the marina.  Gale picked us up and the three of us went to a wonderful restaurant for dinner.

After dinner we returned to the boat and Ricki and Gale finished off the evening talking about old times.

Tomorrow our plans are to leave at 7:30 a.m. and see how far we can get down the lake toward Chicago.

Cross Winds Marina, Whitehall, MI - 8/23/12

We woke up this morning to a day that was beautiful but windy.  I had made arrangements to take some canvas to a local canvas shop for repair work, Mike was expecting his steering repair part to arrive and the ladies were planning a shopping trip.

Mink on the Dock

 As we were getting ready to leave this little guy was playing on the dock.

Worn Flag

Our Looper Burgee has taken a beating from all the wind we have seen.

Girls Day Out

 Girls Day out included toes and fingers .....

Queen Kathleen

Lake Mall

 ... And shopping for a few hours in the mall.  Our canvas was done shortly after noon and Mike's repair part did show up and everything was installed.  Mike and I took their boat for a test run then stopped for fuel and a pump out before going back to Muskegon to pick up the girls.  They had agreed to call us when done so we stopped at a Barnes and Noble to kill time until they called.

After picking them up we drove back to Whitehall and went across the bridge to a Dogs and Suds for dinner.

Worlds Largest Weather Vane

The weather vane was just a couple blocks from the diner.

Judo in the Park

 Our route back to the marina took us by the empty Municipal Marina and past the park where these guys were practicing their craft.

Community Library

Ricki had to get a new Kindle Fire sent to her since the old one wouldn't accept charge anymore so we went to the Community Library for WiFi to download her stuff from her "cloud".

Tomorrow looks to be another windy day with 5 foot waves predicted so we plan to take a road trip to Holland to see Pat and Dick whom we met on the loop in Florida in 2010 who are now the Harbor Hosts there.  Then we will return our rental car with the help of Ricki's friend Gale and maybe be able to get back on the water tomorrow or Sunday at the latest.

Cross Winds Marina, Whitehall, MI - 8/22/12

Ricki's friend Gale joined us for breakfast on Quest this morning before she went to work.  We checked on a rental car and nothing could be found except at the airport in Muskegon 18 miles away but the same town that Gale worked in so she took us to pick it up on her way to work.

We returned with the car back to the boat to get Mike and Kathy for a day of shopping.  Of course included in the shopping was a trip to WalMart to stock up on food.

Since we are here for a couple more days we have a zipper that needs replaced on the canvas and made arrangements for the repair work tomorrow.

Ricki joined Gale for a "Girls Night" and I was invited to Queen Kathleen for dinner.  

Ricki and Gale

Tomorrow Mike expects to get his steering part delivered and possibly installed so we will probably take the ladies to the Mall and come back to the boat until it is fixed.  Hopefully the weather looks good for a Saturday departure on down the lake.  This is very fickle water and almost unpredictable.  Today a couple of our friends left the marina in what looked like a decent day and reported back that it was rough, so you never know until you stick your pointy end into it.

Cross Winds Marina,Whitehall, MI - 8/21/12

When we  checked the weather this morning NOAA predicted seas less than 1 foot with winds out of the west at 5 to 10 MPH. One out of two ain't bad .... we did have winds out of the west but the seas were rollers of 2 to 4's on the beam all day which made out trip not one of the best and we had 48 miles to go to Whitehall. We left with Seaquel and Queen Kathleen however due to the rough ride, Seaquel got on plane and left us.  I was able to get Quest up to 12 mph and since Queen Kathleen is a single engine, we put some distance between us as well.  QK lost their steering coming into Lake White and had to defer to a manual tiller with Kathy in the stateroom operating it connected to Mike with headphones. They may be here as well a day or so waiting on repairs.

White Lake Light

 Since the trip was pretty rock and roll, Ricki stayed down stairs most of the day and we did not get any pictures of the trip until we got to the calm water inside the breakwater.

White Lake

 After leaving the lake and entering White Lake we still had almost 4 miles to get to the marina.  The lake is very large but has several shallow areas that are well marked but we still saw a boat on the wrong side of the marker with its occupants standing in knee deep water waiting on Boat US Tow.

White Lake

Cross Winds Marina

 We got to the marina early afternoon and proceeded to get ready for our guest this evening.

Best Friends

Here Ricki is greeting her high school friend Gale who haven't seen each other in over 40 years.  As the 5th wheel in the group, they let me take them to dinner then back to the boat for a very nice evening. We are spending another day here so they can continue their reunion.

N 43  24.357   W 086  21.080