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.