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.