By my calculations, from our first stop in Michigan, Sault St. Marie, to Michigan City, we have traveled about 551.2 miles over 22 days. No wonder I’m tired…and I miss my co-captain. It has been a help to have Bob along, but I want my partner! Today we moved the last leg from St. Joseph to Michigan City where we will leave the boat until Oct 5 while we take care of family business. We return on Oct 5 for the next phase of our trip, moving through Chicago, down the river system to our stopping spot at Demopolis, Alabama.
The wind and waves were forecast to calm down a bit later in the morning so first thing we took a walk down to the beach close to the marina.
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| The St. Joseph’s lighthouse from shore |
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| The sun coming up over St. Joseph |
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| I thought this was a nice view of the St. Joseph lighthouse |
We finished up our walk and after a bagel with cream cheese and the rest of our smoked salmon (remember we are using up our perishables??) we made ready, let loose the lines and got underway. It was bittersweet as the marina, West Basin, was just beautiful, peaceful..it would have been nice to spend a few days there.
The cruise was fine once again starting off a bit rough and then calming down after about an hour. We were at the very bottom of Lake Michigan and spent much of the trip looking west to see if Chicago was visible. It is still about 40 miles to the west and it was hazy so no luck seeing the big city. We did however get a view of Michigan City and the big power plant that sits directly next to the marina.
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| Michigan City - power plant. You can just make out masts in the marina in front of the plant. |
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| Michigan City lighthouse. Yes it does look much like other lighthouses. |
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| The breakwater outside the channel - looks like it needs a bit of work |
Upon arrival we went to the fuel dock for a pump out and fuel up. We last got fuel in Sault Ste. Marie and I had let the fuel gauge drop down to 1/4 of a tank…something we’ve never done. Was I a bit nervous, sure, but I estimated at least 75 gallons left, I so I knew it would be fine. My estimate for the fill up was 200 gallons - we took 190, so I was pretty right on. Pumped out and fueled we made our way to slip 233. We talked one of the fuel dock attendants to come help us tie up (the lady on the boat in the next slip said “how did you get the guy to come help you? I mentioned to him that he had a tip coming and that I would give it to him at the slip!). Once tied up we hooked up power, water and found the marina information in the dock box next to the slip (the marina office closed at 1 pm on Saturday)
On our way in to the marina a lady yelled at us off the back of her boat that if we needed a car we could borrow hers, so we took her up on her offer. We went to AutoZone to buy 5 gallons of Rotella T-4 motor oil. Tomorrow is boat maintenance day - oil change, fuel filter change, pencil zinc change, etc….it was so nice that she offered us the car. There was no way I was going to get all that oil on my bike.
As we grilled salmon we spied the skyline of Chicago in the distance. It was a beautiful sunset with just a bit of chill in the air.
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| Look closely and you can see Chicago |
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| Another beautiful sunset. |
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