We made it into the 31st Street Harbor in Chicago, 3 miles south of downtown, just after noon on Wednesday, 8/29, just ahead of the 5-9 ft. seas predicted on Thursday.    We were amazed that the brand-new marina was less than 50% full, so we had our pick of a slip, selecting one in the middle of the marina, close to the office and the laundry room.    Our plan was to stay in Chicago until Sunday, which would allow us the opportunity to visit the city, and to attend a Great Loop get-together on Saturday.  

A couple of the other loopers, Quest & Queen Kathleen, had arrived in Chicago
a few days earlier, and were scheduled to leave the next day (Thursday).   At this point in the trip, we will start saying good-bye to other loopers that we've come to know during the past 4 months on the loop.    From this point forward, the route for everyone is the same (down the Illinois, Mississippi & Ohio rivers), so, unless someone stops for several days on the rivers, once someone gets ahead, there's probably not much chance that we would be able to catch up.     Carl & Ricki on Quest live in West Virginia, so their route will be to continue up the Ohio after we turn south down the Tennessee River, so, once they leave Chicago, there's probably not much chance that we would see them again.

So, we called Carl & Ricki to arrange a final get-together dinner Wednesday night at Navy Pier, and then followed up dinner by watching the fireworks of off Navy Pier from the aft deck of Quest.    We said our sad good-byes to Ricki & Carl, whom we had known since last fall in Yorktown, wished them well on their voyage back home, and then returned to Rickshaw via taxi at the end of the evening.

The next day we rode our bikes into the downtown area and took the hop on/hop off tour through downtown Chicago, taking in the sights of this fabulous city.    In between our trips between the marina and downtown, the 18 mile bike path that went by our marina and runs alongside Lakeshore Drive gave us a good opportunity to get our bikes out and get some exercise, riding along beautiful, teal-green Lake Michigan.

On Friday, we went back into downtown to take the architectural boat tour of the Chicago River, which is lined with famous and beautiful towering buildings designed to take maximum advantage of the views of the lake.   

On Saturday, we met up with the son & daughter-in-law of our good friends, Woody & Carolyn (who had stayed with us on Rickshaw for a week), for breakfast.   It was great to finally meet Brandon & Rachel, who live in Chicago & whom we had heard so much about from Woody & Carolyn.    Later that day, we were picked up by Skip & Barb, from Moor $tuff, who also live in Chicago, who took us on a tour of the University of Chicago before going to the looper get-together in a downtown high-rise.   At the get-together, we met several other loopers, one couple from Brazil, who were doing the loop, with their 3 year old daughter on their 50 ft. trawler, Jade, after bringing the boat up from South America.   After they finish the loop, they're going to take their boat across the Atlantic and do the canals of Europe!    We also met a couple from New Zealand, on Loopy Kiwi, and another couple from Canada, on The Last Resort.   So, it was quite an experience to meet up with such an international group.

We had planned to leave Chicago on Sunday, but due to the rains from Hurricane Isaac that had made their way into the midwest, we decided to stay in Chicago for another day, which gave us a chance to catch up on a few boat chores (including fixing the generators that had been giving us some problems), and getting ready for the next phase of our journey.   Starting from here, we will be going down through the rivers and back to going through locks again, but this time, we will be sharing the rivers & the locks with tows and barges.    

8/24 & 8/25 - Friday & Saturday - Saugatuck, Michigan - Days 112 & 113
8/26 & 8/27 - Sunday & Monday - St. Joseph, Michigan - Days 114 & 115
8/28  - Tuesday - Michigan City, Indiana - Day  116

We were enjoying the artsy town of Saugatuck so much we decided to stay for 2 more nights.     After Skip & Barb left on Friday, we continued our browsing in the many art boutiques in the town, now with Dave & Joy on Maia who had arrived in Saugatuck, hoping to find new decor items for Rickshaw.     We settled on 3 wallhangings - one for the galley and another for the salon.    One particular art gallery had some very interesting furniture (which we don't need) custom made to look kind of like Cat in the Hat furniture.  On Friday evening, back on Rickshaw, we were able to sit out on our aft deck and enjoy the sounds of the local band playing
in the waterside bar, just 50 yards from our anchorage.    

The next day, Saturday, Jim wanted to finally go to a beach.   The one near Saugatuck is rated as one of the top fresh-water beaches in the country. The weather was perfect, but the hitch was that the beach was a few miles away, across a channel and on the other side of a very steep hill.     So our journey to the beach started with loading the 2 bikes onto the dinghy, taking the dinghy over to the small boat dock, offloading the bikes and pedaling to the chain ferry, loading the bikes onto the ferry, taking them off the ferry on the other side, then riding/walking the bikes up to the top of the very steep hill, then riding down to the beach.    The rest of Saturday was spent laying on inflatable rafts just off of the shore, and relaxing in the cabana we rented, catching up on reading, and just chilling out.  At the end of the day, we reversed the order of the journey to the beach, and landed back on Rickshaw, thoroughly exhausted.

The next 3 days were spent moving further down the Michigan coastline to get us into a better position for a 50 mile weather crossing to Chicago on Wednesday. Since we had not been in a marina since Leland, we needed to stay at least one night in a marina to give our battery bank a full charge.  On Sunday, we motored down to the marina in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI where we spent a couple of days, before pushing on to Michigan City, Indiana on Tuesday.    The weather and waves were very accommodating for travel, which we were obviously very glad to get.     The  weather forecast for the crossing day, Wednesday, was 1-2 foot seas out of the northeast.    The next day, Thursday, the forecast changed significantly, showing 5-9 foot seas in the middle of Lake Michigan, so we definitely couldn't delay our crossing, although we had enjoyed the eastern side of LM so much we really hated to leave.

Monday - White Lake:  Day 108
Tuesday, Wednesday - Grand Haven: Days 109-110
Thursday - Saugatuck:  Day 111


After leaving Manistee, we took every opportunity to move south along the Michigan coast line while the weather remained somewhat favorable.    We left our anchorage in Manistee on Monday morning heading out the channel and towards White Lake, 60 miles away.   At our normal cruising speed of 7.5 knots, today was going to be a very long day.    The forecast of 10-15 knot winds out of the northeast with 1-2 foot seas was exactly correct, making the long ride reasonably comfortable for us.    Rickshaw has a pair of extra fins on the bottom which are the hydraulic stabilizers which dampen the roll from waves coming at us from our beam, or just ahead or behind of our beam.   They are not effective for seas coming directly on our bow or on our stern, so the most comfortable wave direction for us on our trip down the coast is anything but northerly or southerly. 

We arrived in White Lake after 8 1/2 hours, dropping the anchor in a pretty little cove surrounded by summer cottages peering down into the bay from high up on the hillside.     After the darkness set in, we took blankets and pillows out on the dinghy deck (where Ricky-Dink is stored), and gazed up at the millions of stars in the moonless sky.

On Tuesday, the weather forecast remained good, so we pushed ahead down the coast again a short 24 miles to another popular tourist town, Grand Haven.   Grand Haven was a great stopover, especially since it offered one of our most favorite features, a free town wall, which gives us the security of being tied to a wall (instead of at anchor), good access to the town, and best of all, at no cost!   GH goes out of its way to make itself a great place to visit, with a nice downtown shopping strip, a great farmers' market on the waterside, and a nightly musical fountain show, which happened to be right in front of where we parked on the wall.     We decided to stay in GH for 2 nights, giving us a chance to stop and relax a bit.     There is a promenade along the town wall so throughout the day and early evening was a constrant stream of people strolling along the canal, many stopping by to ask where we came from and where we were going.   On the 2nd day, we were surprised to see Maia (whom we hadn't seen since Atlantic Highland, NJ 3 months ago) pull in, so we enjoyed catching up with Dave & Joy on Maia.    

Although Grand Haven was very nice, we needed to continue pushing south in order to make our goal of being either in Holland (20 miles south) or Saugatuck (27 miles south) by Friday morning, in order to meet Jim's sister, Louise, who was planning to drive over Friday from Detroit.    The weather forecast for Thursday wasn't great, predicting 10-15 knot winds out of the south, with 2-3 foot seas, also out of the south, i.e. on the nose.     Friday's forecast was slightly worse than Thursday's so we decided to make the jump down the coast, hoping to make it as far as Saugatuck, with the backup plan of stopping at Holland.     The ride was probably the worst we had had the entire loop trip, with the waves usually in the 2 foot range but with a few 4 & 5 foot waves hitting us right on the bow.    Rickshaw tends to "hobby horse" when pushing into waves on our bow, which made the 3 1/2 hour trip somewhat uncomfortable for us.    We had no concerns that it was too much for Rickshaw.   Our biggest concern was damage to either us or to the furnishings on the boat during the constant pounding of the bow down into the trough of waves.    Shortly before pulling into the Kalmazoo River, which was our entrance into the Saugatuck harbor, we received a call from Louise that she wasn't feeling well and would have to cancel her visit, which obviously was a big disappointment.    

When we arrived in the harbor, we considered our choices for parking Rickshaw.   The main marina was very expensive (over $100 / night for a slip).   We attempted to get a slip at another marina, which, we discovered after running aground twice, did not have enough water in the available slips for our 4 1/2 foot draft.    Our final choice was to drop our anchor in the middle of the harbor in 8 ft of water just off of the main town marina.     We figured that we were probably the only boat in the group of boats we had been buddy-boating with that would have chosen to travel today, so we were pleasantly surprised to hear Skip & Barb on Moor $tuff call out to us on channel 16 on the VHF, after pulling into the harbor at about the same time, having slogged down from Holland.    We enjoyed the rest of the day (Thursday) exploring the upscale, artsy town of Saugatuck with Skip & Barb, followed up by a delicious dinner in town, before getting back on Ricky-Dink to return to Rickshaw, who remained the only boat in the anchorage.

On Tuesday, Joey & Holly needed to return to Northport, so we pulled out of the Mackinac Island marina by 9am, and shuttled them across the Mackinac Straits to Mackinaw City (pronounced the same with different spelling – go figure) where Joey had parked his car the day before.   After dropping them off, we continued our journey, passing under the Mackinac Bridge, which, at almost 5 miles in length, is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere.    We entered the almost flat waters of Lake Michigan and headed southwest toward a very popular tourist town, Charlevoix, on the western coast of Michigan, 58 miles away.    We’ve noticed a change in the weather patterns in the past several weeks, with the warm and long sunny days we had in June & July being replaced by cooler mornings & evenings and the days getting shorter, and windy weather fronts moving through every 5 days or so.    Since Lake Michigan can be very rough (so much in fact that the government has ensured that there are harbors of refuge at least every 20 miles down the eastern side of Lake Michigan), our intent is to put as many miles under Rickshaw’s keel as we can whenever the weather is favorable.   With the winds typically coming out of the west, the waves fetching across Lake Michigan can easily build to over 6 feet by the time they reach the Michigan shoreline.

 We arrived in Charlevoix around 5pm, and motored under the drawbridge between the entrance channel and the main harbor to our anchorage in Oyster Bay.    Shortly after dropping our anchor, we got a call from Quest, who was in the Charlevoix marina, inviting us for dinner.   So we dropped Ricky-Dink over the side, and sped across the bay 3 miles, meeting up with Carl & Ricki on Quest, Mike & Kathy on Queen Kathleen and Joe & Edie on Seaquel, who we had never met before.    Shortly after 8:00pm, we decided we should return to Rickshaw before total darkness set in, so we made our way back to Rickshaw, returning Ricky-Dink to her cradle on the dinghy deck around 9pm.

After pulling the anchor up Wednesday morning, we motored back through the Charlevoix channel returning to Lake Michigan, and turned the wheel southbound, heading toward Leland, where we would wait out the front predicted to arrive Thursday, promising heavy rains and high winds.     We passed through the Leland harbor entrance around noon, and proceeded to our slip in the marina, awaiting Joey & Holly to return via his car.     We had originally hoped to give Joey & Holly the experience of anchoring out Wednesday night, but decided that experiencing heavy rains and 4-5 foot seas when they awoke Thursday morning might be too much for their first time, so we scratched those plans, and instead spent the day exploring the Sleeping Bear Dunes just south of Leland in Joey’s car, along with Joey & Holly.    The dunes are 500 foot high sand dunes which steeply drop down to Lake Michigan and are part of the National Park system. 

The weather forecast for Thursday morning proved to be 100% accurate, so we awoke in the marina to a downpouring thunderstorm and were rocked throughout the day and night by heavy winds, reaching 40 mph at one point.   The bad weather gave us a chance to catch up on a few chores and boat projects, including the repair of the washer & dryer, thanks to the receipt of a new water pump to Holly’s grandmother’s house, and the resolution of a problem with the fuel polisher.   Belinda spent the day verifying a successful fix of the washer by catching up on laundry (yea! No more water on the floor!), and exploring the quaint shops in the town between rainshowers.    Another problem that needed Jim’s attention was to diagnose the cause of the radar not communicating with the scanner mounted on top of the arch, 8 feet above the flybridge.    During one of the breaks in the rain, Jim unzipped the flybridge cover and started the removal of the radar scanner dome cover to check for any loose wiring that might explain the reason for the malfunctioning radar.    The dome is held in place by 4 bolts, of which 3 are easily accessible by standing on a bench seat on the flybridge.   The last bolt proved very difficult to reach so Jim attempted to extend his reach by standing on a very wobbly 15” stool, placed on top of the bench seat, which soon proved to be a bad decision.    As he stood up on the stool to reach the last bolt, the stool tipped over, sending Jim crashing down and planting the left side of his face solidly into the edge of the bench seat, resulting in an almost perfect circular deep-purple black eye.
He now bears a strong resemblance to Petey, on the Little Rascals (for those old enough to remember).

On Friday, Joey loaned us his car which enabled us the means to get out of the marina and do more exploring and to do some major reprovisioning from Walmart in nearby Traverse City, since our existing inventory of food and supplies had been severely depleted over the last month due to the 3 sets of company.     We invited Carl & Ricki along & decided to drive back up to Charlevoix for a quick reunion with Skip & Barb on Moor $tuff, whom we had not seen since mid-June in Waterford, NY, and Joe & Tara on Seabatical.     After the brief visit and a lunch stop, we headed back south in the car to Traverse City, loading up a basket with $250 in groceries at Walmart, and a few small purchases at West Marine & Home Depot.   We arrived back at the marina about 5pm, and quickly dropped off the groceries, before cleaning up and driving back north to Holly’s grandmother’s (Christie) “cottage”, in the exclusive community of Northport Point, where Christie spends her summers, away from her home in Houston.   We feasted on wine & a wonderful dinner prepared by Christie, watching the sun set over Grand Traverse Bay, following a golf-cart tour of the gated community before being returned to Rickshaw by Joey around 10pm.

The weather had finally broken Friday afternoon, so, on Saturday morning, we gladly untied our docklines from the Leland marina and headed out to the last island that we would visit for a while, which was the South Manitou island, 15 miles west of Leland.     The island is part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes national park, so is manned by two Park Service personnel, who live on the island full-time during the summer season.     Upon arriving in the eastern-facing bay on the east side of the island, we dropped our anchor in 25 feet of crystal clear aqua- green water, ate a quick lunch on the aft deck, before hoisting Ricky-Dink over the side to explore the island.    The bay is edged by white sandy beaches, which, together with the aqua waters, gave the appearance of being somewhere in the Caribbean, except for the absence of palm trees.    We beached the dinghy near the ranger station and walked up the beach to inquire what there was to do there.   We were told that we had just missed the last tour of the 150 year old lighthouse, but that we could be given a personal tour in about 30 minutes.     Bob, who worked for the Park Service until his retirement a few years ago, and who now volunteers to work for 3 weeks straight on the island, showed up right on time and gave us the personal tour of the lighthouse, explaining the history and the mechanics of how a lighthouse operates, including how a 120 watt light bulb can be projected through a Fresnel lens and be seen over 10 miles away.    Returning to Rickshaw early evening, we spent the rest of the evening being rocked to sleep in our anchorage.

Sunday’s weather continued to be favorable for travel, so we took advantage of the calm seas and winds to make more progress down the Michigan coast.    Our hope was that, by the end of the week, we could be near the bottom of Lake Michigan to meet up with Jim’s sister, Louise, and her husband, Bob, who could drive over from Detroit for an overnight visit.    The next weather system was predicted to be at mid-week, so we wanted to make as many miles as we could while the weather cooperated, in order to be that far south by the end of the week.    The best destination for Saturday was decided to be Manistee, 51 miles down the coast, so we pulled up the anchor at South Manitou island early Sunday morning, and motored down the coast, passed many more sand dune cliffs lining the shores of northern Michigan.    We arrived in Manistee by 5pm, passing through 3 drawbridges, and into a marina where we took on 660 gallons of diesel, which had been consumed since we last filled up in Brewerton, NY.    After doing major damage to our credit card at the fuel dock, we crossed over the bay, and planted our anchor in 20 feet of water, just off of the small boat ramp.

Aug 11th-13th, Sun-Mon, Days 99-101: Mackinac Island

We arrived in the Mackinac Island marina midday on Saturday, and spent the rest of the day catching up with other loopers who had waited out the high winds over the past few days here and waiting for Woody & Carolyn to arrive via ferry from the mainland.  Mackinac Island was one of our favorite stopovers in the entire trip.   It amazed us to realize that the residents of Mackinac Island have managed to build magnificent homes, and live day to day on this beautiful island without relying on any automobiles, since no motorized vehicles (except for EMS vehicles) are allowed on the island.    The only modes of transportation on the island are bicycles and horses, so any inbound supplies are received at the main dock and off-loaded onto horse-drawn wagons for distribution across the island.    I guess if you live here long enough, you eventually get used to the smell of horse poop which seemed to be everywhere along the streets.    The maintenance department does a great job of trying to keep it cleaned up, but the smell of it permeated the air, making the entire shopping district resemble a town 100 or more years ago.   

We spent our last hours with Woody & Carolyn on Sunday exploring the island via bicycles, circling the islands via the 8 mile bike path.    We completed our circumnavigation by lunchtime, so we said goodbye to Woody & Carolyn around 2pm, and began getting Rickshaw ready to receive our next set of company due on Monday, Belinda's son Joey and his girlfriend, Holly.    Later in the day, we squeezed in a visit to the Grand Hotel, which is the famous upscale $400/night hotel featured in the movie, Somewhere in Time, overlooking the Mackinac Straits.

After Joey & Holly drove up from Northport (near Traverse City) where they were visiting Holly's grandmother, they parked their car at Mackinaw City (on the mainland), and caught the morning ferry Monday morning, and arrived on Mackinac Island around 11am.   We spent the rest of the day touring the island by bike (again) and by dinghy, taking Ricky-Dink out of the marina and around part of the island, which afforded us a magnificent view of the island from the water.    That night, we treated Joey and Holly to a wonderful dinner at the restaurant "The Woods", which resembled a large hunting lodge, buried deep in the interior of the island.    Getting to & from the restaurant is a major part of the experience, since the only way to get there is via horse-drawn carriage.    It was a somewhat magical experience to travel through the tree-lined paths, in the woods, in the dark of the night, on a carriage drawn by two draft horses.   We filed away in our minds a promise to someday try to bring our grandchildren back here.