Sailing Vacation, Part 2

[Wrote this post in September(!) and forgot to publish.....]

The storms passed as predicted and Stardust came through unscathed.  She was tethered to six cleats and/or posts during the big wind event.  So we packed back up, left St. James Harbor on Monday around noon, and headed back to Garden Island.  

The harbor entrance was much nicer on our way out than on our way in during the storm on Friday!

Anchored back in Northcut Bay.

Stardust at anchor - again, we were the only boat in the cove.

David grilled up another great dinner.  We love our Australian grill (GalleyMate 1100) that we bought at the Annapolis Boat Show in 2014.  It functions as a grill and a griddle, and gets taken off the stern rail when we aren't cruising.

Monday evening's sunset at Garden Island.  Mergansers were swimming and diving around us, and two owls were "talking to each other."  Magical.

Tuesday dawned clear, cool, and windy.  We opted not to swim that day and instead got a lot of reading done (in the shade).

Tuesday night's sunset.  This was the only night we had "visitors" in the cove.  Three sailboats and one powerboat arrived late in the day.  We planned to head back to mainland Michigan the following morning.

We were up at 6:00 and weighed anchor at 7:00 knowing it would take much of the day to get south.  Had great easteries early in the day that slowly clocked to the NNE at 12-15 kts.  Sailed all the way back to Northport Point with a hull speed that ranged from 5.5 to 6.0 kts.

Heading south with the sun still low in the eastern sky.

Leelanau County in the distance.  Nothing but the sound of wind and water....it's a pretty great way to travel.

This is my very bad screenshot of our approximate route (44 miles).  We waved to Mildred, Jodi, and Trish on our way past Cherry Home Shores :)

Anchored back at Northport Point after a long day.  It's days like this where we "settle" for cocktails and a charcuterie spread for dinner.

The coyotes were howling at dusk.

Very little wind on Thursday morning.  We had planned to anchor at Haserot Beach on Old Mission Peninsula, but the overnight winds would be coming out of the SE, so we headed to our home port of Suttons Bay and dropped anchor in the SE corner for our last night of vacation.

Final sunset of our first cruise aboard Stardust.  She is strong, steady, and very comfortable.

David taught me to play cribbage in 2015 when we were in the Bahamas aboard Virginia Dare.  The tradition continues, and we look forward to our next cruise.

Beaver Island: Shelter from the storms

We knew two waves of storms would be blowing through over the weekend, so we booked a slip at the Beaver Island Municipal Marina for Friday and Saturday nights.  The forecast predicted 17-19 knot winds out of the east on Friday morning and the wind had been building overnight at Garden Island Harbor.  After one cup of coffee instead of our usual two, we decided to weigh anchor and head over to Beaver Island and the safety of a slip.

Motoring west out of Garden Island Harbor (wind at our stern)

We rounded the "corner," headed east through the channel to get to Beaver Island, and were confronted with sustained 21 knot easterlies and stronger gusts.  Sea state was 4-5' waves crashing over our bow and port side (no dodger yet, so we were getting drenched despite wearing our foulies).

Before we turned east (and before I was holding on with both hands :)  Yes, we're ordering a waterproof iPad case!  I wish I could have captured the waves and whistling wind, but it was impossible.  The engine was humming loudly, we were going head first into 20+ knots, and Stardust was (only) making 1.7 knots of forward progress.  It was sloooooooow going!

Heading into St. James Harbor

Safely tied up in at the North Marina (far, far end of the harbor)

The flags were snapping in the wind

The yacht club is built right over the water.

Loved these compasses embedded in the sidewalks

Inside looking out of an art installation

The marina had bikes to borrow, so we tooled around town between storms.

Whiskey Point Lighthouse, circa 1870

Ruby Ann has seen better days :(

What's a toy museum without a scary clown?!  YIKES!

We hiked through the woods to a north-facing beach (looks a lot more calm than the day before!)

The calm before the next storm

This poor boat hadn't been well cared for and broke free of its mooring

The brewery was open Th, Fr, and Sat from 2:00 - 6:00 pm (ha!)  We closed the place down on Saturday.

(More) calm between storms

Hearty breakfast aboard Stardust...eggs, bacon, venison, hash browns

Second storm rolled through on Sunday - wind whistling through the rigging - and we extended our stay to Monday.

Pretty sunset after the storm on Sunday

The islands are known for having many, many snakes.  Thankfully, we only saw squashed ones.

Sailing Vacation, Part One

Ahhhhh, we finally sailed Stardust where the wind took us without returning to our dock for nearly two weeks!  We forgot how much time is needed to properly provision for a cruise, so it was a late start on Monday, August 23rd and an overnight in Omena Bay.  A charcuterie board and champagne were the perfect "dinner" to celebrate spending the first night aboard.

Thank you for the bubbles, Gary and Kelly! We savored every sip.

Sunset in Omena Bay

The following day, we had planned to anchor in Cathead Bay on the west side of Leelanau County, but the forecast changed, so we turned tail as we passed Grand Traverse Light and headed back to a protected bay in Northport Point.

Altered our plans to avoid a storm coming across Lake Michigan

Sunset in Northport Point (photo credit: David Cooper)

Sunrise departure to sail up to the Beaver Island chain

Blurry image of the James L. Block in the shipping channel

Captain of our ship ;)

Nice westerlies pushing us north toward Garden Island

We were the only boat in Northcut Bay on Garden Island.  The water was warm and we swam every day at anchor.

Happy captain at happy hour

Sunset smiles

Not a wisp of wind that evening

On Thursday after breakfast, we moved west to Garden Island Harbor.  After four attempts in a sandy and rocky bottom, we finally set our anchor and swam all afternoon.

Anchored in Garden Island Harbor behind Little Island.  Thanks for the awesome stern lettering, Meg Young, we love it!

Hazy sunset behind Little Island on Thursday evening.  Storms moving in for the weekend.