Day 2-276 to Northport, MI almost out of Grand Traverse Bay

     Lucky Us was moored on the backside of the fuel dock so we were able to get a pump out (after moving about 3 feet forward) before leaving the dock this morning. Technically, that made the world a safer place since I did one fewer docking/undocking today...  Just kidding.

     We left the dock at 9:00 am for the trip northward up the west side of Grand Traverse Bay. The weather prediction was very accurate with 10-15 mph winds out of the north and 1+ foot waves for the first third of the trip in the West Arm of the bay. When we got out of the West Arm and into the big bay itself, the waves picked up to 3 to 4 feet also as predicted. Fortunately, most of the waves were more in the 3 foot range, and we were going virtually straight into to waves so there was little rolling (side to side) motion. During this kind of weather, we tend to hold on more and take fewer bathroom breaks.

     The last 5 miles was calmer as we turned more westward to enter the more protected area around Northport. If we had continued northward into Lake Michigan, the forecast there was for waves as high as 6 feet. THAT is definitely out of our comfort range.
     The picture at the right shows the entrance to the marina from the inside, and it also shows the beautiful blue sky that we had all day. It is very well protected from virtually all wind directions. We waited until after we arrived at 12:50 pm to have lunch, and the Admiral made one of her delicious salads, which satisfied even my large appetite. After lunch we re-tied the dingy on the stern davits. It has a tendency in larger waves to move around as the big waves come out under the stern and try to lift it. Then (you guessed it), it was nap time.

     We headed into the small town about 4:30 pm. There is a beautiful, waterfront park next to the marina, and as luck would have it, there is a farmer's market there in the morning (on Friday). The picture on the left shows the park and a small bridge over a creek that connects the marina to the park. Hmmmmm. I guess that I will get to sleep in tomorrow morning while the Admiral checks out the farmer's market. That works for me.




    For a town with less than 500 year round residents it had 5 nice looking restaurants. We had dinner at the Garage Bar & Grill. In an extremely rare event we both chose tandoori  chicken salad. It was very tasty and not too heavily seasoned. For both of us, it brought back memories of our times spent in Qatar, which has an incredible breadth of restaurants, including wonderful Indian food.

     The picture at the right shows the marina's beautiful new clubhouse on the shore side. The original marina was built about 60 years ago, but the harbor was recently renovated, including new docks and clubhouse.

     We will need to check the weather in the morning to see if Lake Michigan has quieted down some as predicted. If conditions permit we will go out into Lake Michigan and head south to Leland, MI for a total trip of almost 30 miles.