Arcadia Lake

Monday, September 8, 2014

Stats:

Northport to Arcadia Lake. 5:00 a.m. (yep, not a typo) to 3:00 pm. 67.5 miles (a record!)

Well, we wanted a travel day and that’s what we got.  The forecast said two to four foot waves with winds at 10 – 15 knots, building in the afternoon to 20 knots with up to seven foot waves. 

We had set the alarm for 6:00 but at 5:00 we were both awake and thought, what the heck, let’s go.  Jeff loves driving in the dark but I’m not a fan, so with Jeff at the helm we weighed anchor and left.  We had just driven into this bay yesterday so no problem, we knew the routine.  The chart plotter helped but was also a bit of distraction as it sort of blinded us.  We knew where the markers were and we just followed our path out.  No problem. (Update:  I have since gotten out the manual and read how to dim the screen and set it for night travel.  Much better!)

We had an uneventful cruise.  Lake Michigan has a ton of really big sand dunes.  Holy!  We bounced along, taking turns driving and taking breaks.  We saw a few freighters, lots of  huge sand dunes, and not much else.  We only saw a very few other boats out.  Where is everyone?

We flew past Leeland (sorry Leeland, you sound very nice but we were in a rollin’ kinda mood).  We flew past Frankford, our “best case scenario” destination.  All was going well, it was about 1:00.  We debated.  We knew that it was supposed to pick up sometime in the afternoon but it seemed so nice right now. The forecast of 2-4 feet with 10-15 knot winds from the SW was bang on. Perfect.  It was sunny and we wanted to lay down some trails.  Let’s go! was the unanimous decision.  Splashing along in two foot waves and sunshine.  What's not to love?  Let's go!!

It was my turn on the helm.  Things were going well and Jeff was below on the net. Then some clouds rolled in.  Then winds picked up. Then the waves started getting bigger.  It wasn’t long before I was on the intercom:  “Honey, could you come up here please?”

Jeff says I often over estimate the size of the waves but even he said these were biggins’.  Furniture started bouncing around and we knew it was time to get off the Lake (maybe an hour past time??) We got on the iPad and found a little anchorage just right there beside us.  Whew!  I love that about the East coast of Michigan.  Always someplace to hide.

We’re presently anchored soundly and enjoying a lovely evening.  Tomorrow the forecast and the game plan are the same: early to rise and back at it (weather permitting) but hopefully without the eight (or TEN!) foot rollers, please.

Oopsie.  We both know which wave knocked this one over. 
We looked at each and other and without words, said: "again??"
We gotta screw that baby to the floor.