Beach Time on Lake Michigan

This blog documents the last of our time on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan including Saugatuck, South Haven, and Saint Joseph. At this point, we were trying to make a scheduled date in Saint Joseph because we were renting a car to go home from there for a wedding. In boating, wind and waves should control your travel timing for your destinations, but sometimes life happens. That meant we only had time for a day each at Saugatuck and South Haven.

Saugatuck

The entrance to Saugatuck is very long and twisty and is lined with mansion-like cottages. We were not able to get a reservation, but we had read that we could anchor. We did not see anyone else anchored when we arrived so it felt a bit strange. We followed the suggestions for anchoring from Navionics, between two marinas, and it felt weird. We felt like we were in the middle of everything and

wondered why no one else was anchored. Then it turned out to be pretty good. We've learned that things always look better for space and location when we dinghy away from the boat and look at it from a distance. Finally, a small sailboat pulled in to anchor, but he anchored across the harbor from us which we though was weird. It turned out that it was a Loop boat called Sea Bear and we would meet him on

the rivers. The only issue with our location was that we got boat wake from boats going in and out of the marinas and Heather actually felt a little sea sick that evening!

The recommended location to go to shore was a park. They had excellent dinghy docks, so we tied up and explored the town. There was a very unique outdoor art gallery or centre with cool floral boat sculptures, lots of flowers, some sculptures and really cute totem poles. We enjoyed walking the docks at the marina, and visiting the shops in the very quaint downtown. We enjoyed an ice cream while we watched them making caramel corn.

South Haven

We had a marina booked in South Haven and we were looking forward to plugging in and running our air conditioning. It had been a very warm day, even out on the water. Unfortunately, we hooked up to the shore power and tripped the breakers! Cam worked hard following some theories he'd found to correct the issue, but we still tripped the breaker. The dock master was being very patient and helpful with our testing as well, but to no avail. Cam put together video to discuss our issues with tripped breakers and how we eventually got it corrected when we got to Florida. It was more complicated than we thought and we could not have resolved it without Ben Stein from Panbo Marine Technology Hub.

So what do you do when it's sweltering hot and you have no breeze or air conditioning? You go to the beach! We really enjoyed our beach time and a lovely swim.

We did not want to heat the boat up by cooking dinner and the idea of an air conditioned restaurant was appealing, but the restaurants were turning people away

because they were so busy. Fortunately, we had some leftovers that we could eat cold while we ran our generator for a short time to cool off the boat. We enjoyed an evening walk through the town and even found that several of the shops were still open. Cam got a new shirt and we managed to find some more fudge to satisfy our new fudge habit.

Saint Joseph

We made it to Saint Joseph a day ahead of schedule, since we had to avoid some bad weather that was coming. We decided to get fuel and a pump out. While they were filling our boat, they ran out of diesel! That's never happened to us before or since! They said that the fuel truck was on the way so we waited on the fuel dock for about an hour. The good thing was that as soon as the truck started filling their tank, they could fuel us without waiting for the truck to finish. The staff at West Basin Marina was very professional and helpful. They would even drive folks to the grocery store, or, in our case, to the car rental office.

We were excited to have our own car for a while, especially in a town that has Wolf's Marine. Wolf's Marine is the largest marine store we've ever been to and we spent at least a couple of hours there. We could have easily bought way more than we did. One of our best purchases was 21 inch fender balls, which were recommended for transiting the locks. They have come in handy for much more than the locks. We also picked up some children's windmills at the dollar store and two of these are now zip tied to our railings. I wouldn't have believed it, but these little windmills keep the birds from landing on our railings and doing you know what on our boat!

We left the boat there for eleven days. When we returned, we immediately got an invitation to docktails with Off Leash and Gypsy Soul. We started comparing notes for weather and travel days and made plans to leave for Chicago. We met again later with Off Leash to discuss plans and reservations for the river system and decided to become buddy boats, at least until the fall rendezvous in October. Off Leash chose to go to Michigan City before Chicago so we would meet again a day later. In the meantime, we organized another docktails with all the new boats that had arrived. It's great to make these connections as you will meet them time and again as we loop-frogged through the loop.

Photo Credit: Tagsforhope.com

The saddest part of our time in Saint Joseph was taking our dog Frodo home to live with his big sister. Frodo had been boating with us since he was a puppy but he had always been nervous, and shook constantly while we were underway. He could manage a 2-3 week summer trip on the boat, but after two months, it was clear that it was going to be too much for him. Check out our Looping with a Dog page. We know that he and Rachel will be very happy together. He and Rachel are shown below with his new Tags for Hope gear, showing off the fall line. While living with Rachel, he worked for them as a model where he was paid well in liver treats, cuddles and tummy rubs.