Last night we anchored out at South Manitou Island. It is 15 miles west of Leland in Lake Michigan and part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Note: Pictures are loaded backwards yet again....sorry about that!!!
South Manitou has the only natural harbor on Lake Michigan between Leland and Chicago. The 100 foot lighthouse shown in picture #1 above was active from 1871 to 1958. The island is about 7 miles across at its widest point, and is part of an island chain that stretches north to Mackinac Island. Glaciers carved out the Lake Michigan basin, and these islands are the peaks of a ridge left behind.
We were in a big cove with about 10 other boats; one of them is the Denis Sullivan, a three-masted schooner used as a hospitality and training ship out of Milwaukee, WI. Attached is a picture of that ship. The wind was blowing at 15-20 miles per hour, so everyone moved around their anchors a lot. We re-anchored several times before being satisfied, and held through the night, but didn’t sleep a lot. We have a new anchor, and wanted to try it out. Needs a bit of tinkering before it is right I an afraid.
Also attached is a picture of the boat we took from the dinghy as we were motoring in to the island, and one of Emery and I. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the experience.
We now are in Leland. Another small Michigan port town with lots of summer traffic, good restaurants, ice cream and no Verizon service. The docks here are new, and they are beautiful floating docks so we can easily get on and off the boat from the swim platform. Fun after weeks of climbing onto the boat from high fixed docks.
Enjoy your summer, we are loving ours.
South Manitou has the only natural harbor on Lake Michigan between Leland and Chicago. The 100 foot lighthouse shown in picture #1 above was active from 1871 to 1958. The island is about 7 miles across at its widest point, and is part of an island chain that stretches north to Mackinac Island. Glaciers carved out the Lake Michigan basin, and these islands are the peaks of a ridge left behind.
We were in a big cove with about 10 other boats; one of them is the Denis Sullivan, a three-masted schooner used as a hospitality and training ship out of Milwaukee, WI. Attached is a picture of that ship. The wind was blowing at 15-20 miles per hour, so everyone moved around their anchors a lot. We re-anchored several times before being satisfied, and held through the night, but didn’t sleep a lot. We have a new anchor, and wanted to try it out. Needs a bit of tinkering before it is right I an afraid.
Also attached is a picture of the boat we took from the dinghy as we were motoring in to the island, and one of Emery and I. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the experience.
We now are in Leland. Another small Michigan port town with lots of summer traffic, good restaurants, ice cream and no Verizon service. The docks here are new, and they are beautiful floating docks so we can easily get on and off the boat from the swim platform. Fun after weeks of climbing onto the boat from high fixed docks.
Enjoy your summer, we are loving ours.
1 comment:
Okay, we have not heard from you in a few days. We hope that you are having so much fun, you don't have time to keep up with the blog - if that is the case we are very happy.
Travel safe.
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