With higher winds and up to 2 inches of rain predicted for tomorrow, we departed Elk Rapids today, which was a day earlier than planned. HOWEVER, there was one big difference in today's trip... If you remember, the Admiral had ridden her bike to Traverse City to pick up a rental car, and thus, she remained at the dock as Seaman 3rd Class Ann and I took the boat out. She was the designated driver of the rent car to the marina in Traverse City. I must admit that it really felt strange waving goodbye to the Admiral as we backed out of our slip. Ann had been learning how to handle and stow the lines, but this was her first solo performance. She performed quite well with fending the boat off of the pilings, etc.
We departed about 9:00 am for the 28.0 mile trip to Traverse City and arrived about 12:45 pm. The Admiral took the picture at the left as we went out in the channel. As the crow flies it is only about a 13 mile trip, but we had to go north and around the peninsula that divides southern Traverse Bay into the East and West Arms. So we went north about 9 miles and then west for several miles around the point before we could head south directly to Traverse City. The sky was grey, but the temperature was just above 70 with a 5-8 mph breeze out of the north. It was far from our best day on the water, but it was much better than the 20+ mph winds with 2-3 foot seas that are predicted for tomorrow.
As we were going west around the tip of the peninsula, I heard my phone ring. I had been taking pictures of the Old Mission Point Lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula, and the Admiral was calling from in front of the lighthouse. It was quite shallow for nearly 2 miles out from the point so the photo at the right is not very clear so you would need a very good imagination to actually see the Admiral standing there waving at Lucky Us.
She took some nice pictures of the "rock art" that locals had created in the shallow water (picture at left and below) in front of the old lighthouse.
As I said earlier, it is very shallow for a long way north off the point, and the art works extend some distance out into the water. It is too shallow for real waves to reach the rocks, but they were very well placed or stacked to withstand the strong winds that would hit them. To be stable each rock must have at least 3 points of contact so they have to be moved around to achieve this for each additional rock. It is not easy, and some of the stacks are quite elaborate.
We arrived off the Clinch Marina at the same time as 3 other boats. Also, I slowed down for the last mile to allow time for the boat that was in our slip to depart. This allowed for time to enjoy the beauty of this gaff rigged two-masted schooner that had almost finished putting up her sails. They had quite a crowd on board for their trip. However, in about 15 minutes as we were just finishing the docking process, it started to drizzle so that might have put a bit of a damper on their fun cruise (?).
Anyway, she was a beautiful sight to add to our list of unexpected wonderful sights on the trip.
The docking process went very well with the Admiral, who had already arrived, there to help catch and tie the mooring lines. For some unknown (to me) reason, Seaman 3rd Class Ann seemed to be very happy when we were safely tied up and the engines had been shut down.... At least, she did not run down the dock and kiss the ground.
The Admiral had prepared lunch for us to have on board during the trip. That meant that the only thing left to do after checking in with the marina was to take a nap. We headed into town to see a 4:15 pm movie at the nicely restored State Theater. Notice the "It's not confusing at all" on the sign. They were indeed showing the movie "Chef" at 7:00 pm, and we were going to see the movie "Le Chef". We had seen the "Chef" several months ago during its first run, and as it turns out "Le Chef" is in French with subtitles. Now, we have now enjoyed watching both "cooking" movies. We plan to complete the cooking movie trifecta soon when we see the new movie "The Hundred-Foot Journey". I never would have thought that I would watch 3 chef/cooking movies in the same year. Traverse City has a 10 year old movie festival that draws large crowds including stars, executives to this lovely little town. They have 6 indoor venues ranging from 35 seats to 500. There is also an outdoor theater adjacent to the marina, and they have recently added a "floating" theater on a large trimaran that sails out in the bay.
After the movie, we set out along the main street looking for a restaurant where we could have a very light dinner after all of the movie popcorn. Of course, we did visit a few stores until we selected a restaurant. Then we had a 30 minute wait for a table so we "hit" two more stores while we waited.
After dinner, it was a very tired group that walked through this tunnel under the main highway on our way back to the boat...
The picture below shows her relaxing in her (not very) luxurious quarters. Like the rest of us, she is trying valiantly to stay awake until 10:00 pm. so she won't be up before the Sun. Good luck...
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