Captain's Choice blog: Hello Lake Michigan

Saturday night was extremely windy so we set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. hopeful that the winds had subsided, they were howling so it was back to bed. An hour later they had gone down some so we listened to the weather forecast. Now from our marina we estimated the winds to be at least 15 mph, but the weather forecast stated they were only 5. At this point we decided one of 2 things were going on, a) the weathermen didn't know what they are talking about or b) the marina has some weird weather pattern. It ended up being b! With wave heights at the bouys measuring 2-3 feet (per the weather radio) we set out for Beaver Island, MI. We were glad we did as the winds weren't bad at all.

We could see Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel as we passed by and reminished about our wonderful stay there last year...from the clippity clop of the horses, fudge shops, beautiful homes on the cliffs and the bugler playing taps at 10 pm. One year and 1 day ago we left Mackinac Island, headed just under the Mackinac bridge to say we were in Lake Michigan then headed down Lake Huron back to Buffalo. We hated leaving the loop but happy to go home and see our family and friends after being gone almost 3 months. Sunday we picked up where we left off and although the last 2 weeks have been great we are anxious to see areas we have never been.

We anchored in the bay at Beaver Island (the largest island in Lake Michigan) under sunny skies. Unloaded the dinghy and headed to town. It was a wonderful day on the water and a peaceful night on the hook, after 3 days in a marina we needed to be back hanging on the hook again.
Monday we are headed to Charlevoix.