Our First Sail Across Lake Michigan!

We are excited to finally check another thing off the list of firsts this summer - crossing Lake Michigan! This was a HUGE step for us.

Trip #1 of our sailing extravaganza:

         Chicago, IL to New Buffalo, MI

The week before our vacation Brady headed for Atlanta on Monday for work. We were planning that he would be back Thursday evening so we would have a day to prepare and provision before shoving off Saturday the 25th for our 10 day sailing adventure. Unfortunately he had to extend his week and he wasn't able to come home until late Friday night. I was planning on completing the provisioning for our trip but ended up having a crazy week myself and was only able to create a list of food we were going to bring during our trip.

On Thursday we decided to push our launch back to Sunday so that we wouldn't be rushing to finish our to-do list. We made it to the boat in the late afternoon Saturday and spent the rest of the time enjoying the evening by having a few drinks while putting everything away.

Since we had some unexpected company show up to Further later that night, we started our journey a bit later than planned. It was a beautiful day, not a single cloud in the sky, and winds were forecast to be 10-15 knots coming from the north with 1-3 foot waves. Unlike previous sails this time we brought all of our dock lines onto the boat and started to motor out of the harbor.

Racing sail boats just outside of Montrose Harbor.

The first few miles to get out of the city were filled with boat traffic. There were races going on that we had to go round, power boats who didn't pay attention (or are aware of) the rules of the 'road' and tons of other sail boats who were all enjoying what it seemed to be the first perfect weekend of the summer. Once out of the Chicago traffic we hoisted our sails and headed straight to New Buffalo, MI (about 41 nautical miles, from Chicago).

We can tell you that sailing is an amazing way to travel. You travel with your home and the best part about it was that we were able to bring Elaine with us (a first when going on vacation)! There is NO stress of traffic, being on time or going through any sort of security, it is completely relaxing. Just you, your boat, the sound of waves and different colors of blues surrounding you. This being said you do have to get up and scan the horizon every 20 minutes so you don't run into anything (we set a timer to wake us up during our many catnaps we took during the trip). Crossing the lake isn't all fun and games. It is a bit dangerous since you have to be on the lookout for BIG freighter and cargo ships since they will not be looking for small boats like us (or random buoys - yes, we almost hit one. Click on the link to see just how close we were when we turned to avoid it at the last minute along with our other pictures from this part of the trip.) Fortunately we have AIS and can spot these large ships on our GPS long before we can actually see them with our eyes (unfortunately buoys are another story).

Bye, bye Chicago! We'll try not to miss you.
Hello new adventures!

Winds began to pick up mid afternoon so we decided to reef our main sail successfully this time and without any added stress. We were averaging about 6.1 knots almost the entire way until the winds decided to shift, coming from the northeast, and we had to do a few tacks to get us to New Buffalo. We lowered our sails a few miles off shore and motored the rest of the way in while enjoying a beautiful sunset.

It was dark when we pulled into the harbor (about 9:30pm ET) and had to use our spot light (that we luckily bought on the way to the boat the day before) to read the numbers on the slips. That was really the only stressful thing we experienced coming into the marina. As we got closer we realized that there was a band playing on the roof of the bar across the street from the marina. Being serenaded with Paul Simon and The Beatles while taking in views of this beautiful harbor town while the final traces of dusk vanished was the most idyllic way we could have pulled up to our first marina.  Just perfect! I think the sights and sounds calmed us to that we were able to dock Further perfectly in our first new slip! Fingers crossed that we can continue this run for the entire trip.

This is the way to travel!

Not that this first stop on the trip needed to be any better, but the amazing workers at the New Buffalo Municipal Marina hid the key to the showers and bathrooms for us since we came in after they left for the day. So we didn't have to wait for them to get into the office the next day to shower. It's so nice when people think of others! We forget how nice people can be when living in a big city, we have to get out more often!

After docking we decided not to tidy up our lines and put our sail cover on so that we would be able to order food before kitchen closed at the near by Stray Dog Bar and Grill. Plus we were a little stir crazy and just wanted to get off the boat! However we did pay for this when we woke up at 5 am the next morning and could see a storm coming in over the lake. It's funny how you see the consequences of all the decisions you make while sailing almost instantly. I have to say that it helps you to learn the ropes more quickly!

5:54 AM - Doing the boat chores we didn't do the night before.
At least we got to see an amazing sunrise! 

We liked New Buffalo a lot so we decided to spend the next day here. The weather also made this decision for us since winds picked up and a few storms came over the lake. It ended up being a blessing in disguise so we could really enjoy everything this small town had to offer. We had brunch at Michigan Thyme a cute little breakfast/lunch restaurant that also had a very cute trinket shop attached to it. After doing a little shopping and stocking up on more fly killing devices. We didn't have as many as we did during one of our May sails, however it was enough to get a few more things to have on hand, just in case. On our way back to the boat we stopped at Nancy's to try one of their "Famous Strawberry Milkshakes" and it did not disappoint, I think their secret was the fresh strawberries!

That afternoon we did a few boat chores, not really chores because we really enjoy working on the boat! Now I know how much fun I missed all those weekends Brady was up in Waukegan working on Further. That evening we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Bentwood Tavern. It had a wonderful view of the harbor but we opted to stay in the AC since we were outside all day (no AC on the boat).
After dinner we had to check out Oink's Ice Cream and Yogurt, it was delish and the place was amazing! There were over 3000 pieces of pig and ice cream memorabilia decorating this cute little shop and more than 30 crazy ice cream flavors to try and choose from. It was the perfect way to end our wonderful time in New Buffalo. We can't wait to see what the other towns in Michigan have in store for us!

Beautiful sunset over the harbor.

Firsts we encountered this leg of the trip:
     1. Successfully reefing our main sail BEFORE we put ourselves in any danger.
     2. Using our spot light when coming into the marina to find our dock.
    3. Successfully coming into a new harbor at night.                                                                                          
    4. Docking on a different dock than what we are used to. (The dock was taller than our boat!)