Frankfort
On Sunday September 4th we finally pulled out of Leland after a three night stay. We have found after about three days we tend to get restless and look forward to moving to different scenery with occasional exceptions. The cruise was about 40 miles which means 5 hours on the water for us. The sea state was predicted to be a bit rough until we managed to get around Pyramid point and it was just that.
It took us about an hour and a half to round the point and the waters began to calm down. Once we passed Sleeping Bear Dunes it went dead flat and turned into a great cruise for the last half. The whole coast was again flanked by tall dunes and Bahama colored water. We saw what looked to be a awesome golf course high on the dunes over looking Lake Michigan. My buddy John Gawne would have gone out of his mind.
We left port at 7:30 so we were in Frankfort by 12:30 and took advantage of a free day dock with the plan to pull off later and go to anchor in the basin. Sue enjoyed a quiet afternoon on the boat and I explored the town and local bike trails. There was a great local smoke house that specialized in smoking white Fish, salmon and lake trout. They also had jerky that was delicious.
At 5 pm a big Looper Docktail broke out. We got to meet a number of Loopers we had not met yet. One couple was not only from western New York but actually from my home town of North Tonawanda! What made it even more special was at 38 they were the youngest Loopers we have met to date. They decided to both take off a year from work and do the Loop. Now that’s what I’m talkin about. After a fun couple hours we pulled the boat off the wall and dropped anchor for the night.
We settled in for an early rack time when we heard a tapping on our hull. It was our friend Dan from Razor’s Edge. He said, “Hey, we have a slightly boot leg stream of Top Gun Maverick. Would you like to come watch?” Well hell yeah. So we jumped in his dinghy and went to his boat to watch. Unfortunately we only got thru the first half before the stream started to buffer persistently. Ya just can’t watch a movie like that with buffering. So back to the boat we went.
Manistee
Monday morning we awoke to a brisk 48 degrees where the steam was rising from the water. Yesterday I noticed the tell tale sign of a change of season was near. When you grow up in the north you come to know the signs all to well. In September when you see the Golden Rod bloom and the Queens Anne Lace turn brown you know fall is on the march. What that means for us is a serious effort to move the pointy end of the boat south.
Our trip to Manistee was a short 29 miles over the calm lake. We arrived to our anchorage around noon so we would have plenty of time to explore the town. Well as things have it Manistee did not have to typical small Michigan town charm. It had a very old feel to it and lacked the quaintness of the others we had experienced to date. To make matters worse for some reason being Labor Day most everything was closed.
We made the best of it and saw what there was to see. But just when we thought all was lost we stumbled into an upholstery shop and had a great conversation with the 70 year old, second generation owner/main production person. He said he works 12-14 hours a day six days a week and loves it. Turns out he owns most of the block where his shop is located. After the great conversation we headed back to the boat at anchor in the back lake past town. After dinner we watched a movie and called it a night.
There was a lot of Swans in the back lake of Manistee
Stunning coastline
Most of the break walls have a light house. When the lake really whips up the waves will crash and go over the top! Fortunately we only saw pictures of that in a local gallery. So far the lake has been very kind to us.
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