The Shores of Lake Michigan

Sail #3 of our extravaganza:
Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI to Saugatuck, MI

Leaving St. Joe/Benton Harbor

Getting out of West Basin Marina was a bit stressful for a few different reasons. First the dock was about 3 feet higher than the deck of the boat so I wasn't able to stand on the dock to help us back out. Second, there were huge pilings we had to untie ourselves from (Did we mention we had to tie Further to these because there were no cleats on the dock? Yep, that was an experience.) Third, the fueling station was directly behind us so we had to wait until there was a gap in traffic before we could start backing up. The fourth and final obstacle we had to overcome while getting out of West Basin Marina was to leave the very small entrance to the dock without hitting any other boats as well as giving boats coming into the dock the right of way. This last obstacle was the scariest because, as we have said before, our reverse isn't the most reliable or the strongest. So it can be hard for us to back up or idle anywhere.

A perfect day for a sail!

Before attempting our escape, we talked through our exit strategy, as we always do before leaving a dock. We believe this helps each of us know exactly what the other will be doing. It's also a way to get us in a positive mindset since we both tend to think about everything that could go wrong. Well, when we finally decided to shove off, we executed everything perfectly. It all went as smoothly as we pictured it would when we talked it through.

It was a perfect day for sailing! Barely any clouds in the sky, we had wind and we had each other. We encountered only two problems during this sail; 1) it was too beautiful of a day so we had to create our own little makeshift bimini out of sheets and sarongs and 2) we had a north wind and had to tack back and forth all the way to Saugatuck. Well, almost. We decided to turn the motor on about 18 miles away because a) we didn't want to pull into the harbor at night and b) we already sailed 40+ miles and had about 18 left to go, which would have probably turned into about 36 miles with all the tacking we would have had to do.

Our handmade bimini

Motoring down the Kalamazoo River

The entrance to the Kalamazoo River isn't anything fancy. There isn't a neat lighthouse welcoming us in like there was in Benton Harbor however, we were surrounded by beautiful green trees and foliage of Oxbow! It is a very exciting motor since you have to keep an eye on the buoys that you need to stay in between while keeping out of the way from very large machinery and other boats! We had a very exciting 5-7 minute motor from the mouth of the Kalamazoo River to Saugatuck Yacht Service, a section of Tower Marine that is located in Saugatuck. It was right on the Kalamazoo River a little ways north of the chain ferry. The motoring was very relaxing and the views were spectacular!

Once again had to deal with the HUGE pilings on the docks but thankfully our landing (docking) was almost perfect! I think we are beginning to get a bit more comfortable, maybe not completely comfortable since we both want to throw up every time we come into a new marina, but I do think we are getting better at getting the job done without looking like complete idiots!

Celebrating another great day and successful docking experience!