Whitehall.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

And.... we're off! 

Stats:

Pentwater to Whitehall. 7:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.  37 nautical miles.

Weather report: 15 – 20 knots winds from the SE, shifting to W.  Three to five foot waves increasing to SEVEN.

Sunrise.  Not the friendliest
looking sky

The water didn’t seem too bumpy at first and we were encouraged…  but then the witch of Lake “Bichigan” got her back up again and we got some of the big ones they had predicted.  We spent the morning bouncing around in confused seas with an uncomfortable but safe ride. We made our way South along side a fellow Canadian Trawler from Hamilton, Perfect Balance, with lots of chatter on the VHF and picture snapping between the two boats.

Dueling photo-ops with Perfect Balance.
Why do the waves always look so much
smaller in photos??  Not showing here
are the great big rollers that cause us
to pitch and roll around.

Yep, here you have it folks,
 in case you were ever wondering...
it's the largest wind-vane in the world.
It's outside the grocery store in
Montague, Michigan.

We stopped in Whitehall Lake, with the towns of Whitehall and Montague on either sides, anchored beside Jim and Mimi from Perfect Balance, and we all dinghied into town to explore.  People here are so nice.  We walked around for a bit and eventually asked some fellow boaters at the dock for directions to the grocery store.  Not only did they give us directions but they gave us the keys to their car and let us borrow it!  Fantastic generosity.  Boaters are great.

Our backyard tonight.

A Huuuuge thanks to the fellow boaters who, without question, lent us their car so we could buy groceries.  To the crew of  Chris' Craft from Whitehall.  Your generosity was very much appreciated.  I just love the way boaters help each other.

Back at the boat we napped and later joined Mimi and Jim for another evening on their beautiful Marine Trader, Perfect Balance.  We pitched in for a lovely steak dinner, great conversation and lots of laughs.

Tomorrow we're not sure what we'll do.  We're noticing a trend. Each day we look at the forecast from several different sources.  Always, day five looks great, but by the time we get there it has changed and we're bouncing around out on Lake Bichigan again.  We're beginning to think the weather forecasters have NO idea what is going to happen next so they just forecast: calm seas, one foot waves, no wind in an attempt to placate us.  Just one nice day (or two, three?).  Is that too much to ask?!?!  C'mon weather guys!!

So, like always, tomorrow we'll get up and look out at the weather and see what we think.  IF we can get a couple of hours in while it is still relatively calmish in the morning, before the witch of Bichigan wakes up and stirs the lake, we will.  If not, it will be a "port day".  We can't change the weather.... but we sure can find fun where we are!  So we'll just go with that plan.

Might as well!!

The entrance to the channel at Whitehall.  Notice how shallow it looks and how the water rushes in off the lake.
Kind of intimidating at first, but easy-breezy.