Better here than there

Last night's weather check made today look like it might be a passable travel day. The route included a nearly 10 nm stretch of open water across the mouth of Grand Traverse Bay. The years on Kintala taught us such crossings can be a lot rougher than the forecast might suggest. Having stayed put yesterday because of the wind, there was some concern that crossing the bay opening would be a bit of a ride. So we were looking for a pretty solid forecast this morning. It looked good, so up came the anchor (with a fully functioning deck wash...thank you very much) and off we went.

A bit more than 5 hours later, we were pulling up to the fuel dock at the Leland Township harbor. There we took on about 175 gallons of diesel and pumped out the holding tank. That sounds like a staggering amount of fuel. But my guess is that all of the fuel we have used so far on this trip is still likely less than the fuel we put in the car over the course of five months. The ride across the mouth of the Bay was a bit bumpier than the rest of the trip but still good enough to let the autopilot do most of the steering. I did have to give it a rest pretty much every time the smaller waves from the wind got tangled up with the larger wake from a passing boat.

One thing that did concern us was that we had a reservation for only one night. The weather check that assured us today would be passable also suggests that the next few days are going to be “stay put” days. The forecast from now until Monday includes thunderstorm with winds WSW 10 to 20 then NNW 15 to 25. Big waves and confused seas are guaranteed.  Monday may be the next travel day. Unfortunately, the marina has this slip booked for another boat come Sunday. We extended out until then but we are not going anywhere on Sunday regardless. The general opinion from the dock master is that no one is going to be showing up on Sunday looking for a slip, reserved or not. I suspect he is correct but we will see.

Many Loopers have rolled in since we arrived. Everyone we talked with is looking at the same weather and coming to the same conclusions. There was never much of a chance that we would get down the length of Lake Michigan without some notable weather delays, so this isn't a surprise. Leland seems like a nice town. With the marina breakwaters there is no open water to First Light in any direction. There are stores within easy walking distance and the marina facilities are nice. Wind 15 to 25? Confused seas?  It will be much better in here than out there.