We left Leland at about 8:00 am for a trip of 41.1 miles to Frankfort in a light haze and a southerly breeze of about 8 mph. Normally this would be perfect weather, but there were residual seas from the west, which were left over from the storms 24 hours earlier. The rollers (or dead sea) were about 3 feet and caused us to roll from side to side for much of the trip. Several of our new Looper friends departed about the same time that we did and one of the boats had stabilizers that really kept them from rolling (Akasha, at right). Stabilizers are large rectangular fins that swivel about a central axis. There is one on either side about halfway between the bow and stern, and they are hydraulically controlled. They turn to apply pressure much like a rudder, but they are used to stop the side to side rolling motion. This was the first time that we had the opportunity to observe the results, and judging from our what we saw, they work very well. For now, we will add stabilizers to our wish list for when we win the lottery...
Back on Day 2-272, we had driven to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the Lake Michigan coast, and today about halfway through our trip we went past Sleeping Bear Dunes in Lucky Us. As we passed along the north end of the park we got great end or cross sectional views of the north-south trending dunes (picture at left).The dunes have a gentle slope on the upwind side and a steep face on the downwind side. These dunes have been stabilized by vegetation, and the bare face that we see has been cut by waves eroding at the base.
In another mile we turned south to follow along parallel to the elongate dunes. This is the area where we visited by car. In the picture at the right there is an observation deck at the trees in the upper left. I posted several pictures from the top of the slope looking down the 300+ feet to the water. This view gives you a good idea just how steep the slope really is. The signs at the top warned how strenuous the climb back up the hill is, and they also warned that it is very expensive if you need to be rescued... Now you can see how strenuous a climb it would be with poor footing on the loose sand.
It was fairly deep quite near the slope so we went in close to get good views of the fool hearty climbers. The picture at the left shows a slightly different view of the steep slope as seen from the flybridge on Lucky Us.
The close up picture on the right shows some of the climbers resting on the beach and two groups in the process of climbing/crawling back up the slope. The people also serve as a convenient scale to show the huge size of the slope. On the boat at this position we would have been somewhere on the gentle west dipping (up wind) slope of the dune. Most of the dune has been removed by wave action, and we can see some near horizontal lines in the slope. These are the layers in the dune that are actually dipping gently toward us.
Altogether we have seen the top by car and the bottom by boat. We got to do all of this without the exhausting climb in between. This works for me! Personally, I think that this is also why helicopters were invented... Back in my ancient history of doing geological field work in the US and Canadian Rocky Mountains, I found it very much easier if one started at the top of a mountain with the aid of a helicopter and only had to walk down...
There were sand dunes along the shore on most of today's trip. About 8 miles from the end of our trip we passed the Point Betsie Lighthouse (picture at left) and turned almost directly south to Frankfort. The lighthouse is protected by a steel break wall, and the slope is armored with concrete. The black "spots" on the concrete are steel plates designed to create turbulence in the waves that are running up the slope. The turbulence helps to slow the rushing water, and the circular slopes deflect the water around the lighthouse. Like the locals say, the storms here can be fierce.
The picture at the right shows more of the dunes along the coast as we approach our destination of Frankfort. Like I said, it was a day for sand dunes...
This is the light on the jetty as we were about to enter the harbor at Frankfort. The lighthouse was a welcome sight after 5 and a half hours of rocking back and forth, since you can see the calm water in the channel behind the jetty.
After securing Lucky Us at the dock, we set off to explore the town. We had not gone very far before we were surprised to see this movie theater. Guess what? There was a movie stating in about 15 minutes. No, this was not planned but rather a lucky find. The inside had a wonderful painted art deco style, which had been restored largely by donated local labor. I particularly like the period style clock. We saw "A Most Wanted Man" with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. The movie was quite good but hardly uplifting. Anyway, the popcorn and drinks were refillable, although there was a small charge on the drink refills.
After the movie we were pretty much too tired to tour much more of the town. The marina had a very nice park between the marina and the main street. The park had many kids enjoying all sorts of climbing, sliding and swinging. The local high school football team was selling BBQ dinners as a fund raiser, and the whole place was a wonderful family setting.
The picture at the right shows some of the nicely restored downtown. Much of the original architecture seems to have been preserved, which added greatly to the setting.
As we walked back to Lucky Us, we talked about how many great views that we had seen today. Great day!
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