Monday morning we were up early and left Mackinaw for a long 53 mile ride to Charlevoix. It took us a little over 8 hours towing the dingy. The sky was clear and the water was smooth as we headed out into Lake Michigan!
Once out in the lake the ride did get a bit rough.....3 foot waves on the nose. Roxie was on the edge of being seasick but held it in! Bill and I did fine. I even worked in the office. We were happy to see the dunes at the entrance of Charlevoix.
Charlevoix Municipal Marina is located just inside Round Lake but unfortunately we were unable to secure a dock, so we headed out the other side of Round Lake into Lake Charlevoix and over to Oyster Bay to anchor.
We have weather headed our way and we needed to buckle down for a couple of days to wait it out. The anchorage in Oyster Bay had great holding, good protection from all but south winds. The big drawback....nowhere to take Roxie to land. The anchorage, and most of the shore in this area is private and lined with big beautiful homes. So, Roxie and Bill have a 2 mile ride back to Charlevoix Municipal Marina to take care of business.
Tuesday morning Bill and Roxie had to make the trip to Charlevoix in the rain.....while I worked. Haha! 😁
Most of the day Tuesday was gloomy, cold and raining.
We had another strong gust and Agnus slipped about 20ft before grabbing hold again! We decided that we better reset the anchor and moved more toward the center of the anchorage. We reset and settled down for a blustery night.
Looking at the forecast the winds and waves were going to die down Wed night with a good weather window for getting down Lake Michigan before another round of wind and waves come back on Saturday and not letting up until Tuesday! Bill made some calls for possible dockage and we lucked out and found a marina who had space for us. We decided that we would leave tomorrow around 4 and do an overnight run, getting as far south as we could overnight and docking at Safe Harbor Marine in Muskegon.
Wednesday morning.....actually pretty late in the morning because the lake was still roaring, Bill took Roxie into Charlevoix for a potty break. I which I had taken a picture......he was all bundled up like he was going snowmobiling! The temp was in the low 50's and he had a rough & wet 2 mile ride into Charlevoix.
While he was there he asked the Municipal Marina dockmaster if we could come in and tie up Cheers for a couple of hours. The graciously allowed us to stop in and while tied up there we did some provisioning and prepared for our overnight run.
We made it through the 4:30 bridge and off into roaring Lake Michigan. The first couple of hours were a little bouncy, but not terrible. Long before dark the winds and lake settled down and we were looking forward to a nice cruise.
Pictures do not justify just how big the waves were!
Oh, did I mention it was our 37th wedding anniversary? Nature gave us a beautiful sunset and moon rise. And not just a normal full moon; it was the Blue Moon. The moon was so bright it made traveling so much easier. Bill and I took 2 hour shifts throughout the night.
Yep, that's right! 549 feet deep!!
Blue Moon rising!
Beautiful!
We couldn't have asked for a better travel night. We made it into Safe Harbor Marine in Muskegon about 2 pm. Looking forward to a nice, long holiday weekend!
