Day 29: 589.1 miles (today: 90.8 miles in 10.75 hours at 9.0 mph)
Port #10 - Ludington Municipal Marina, Ludington, MI
Today we got the weather window we have so anxiously awaited! Even last night, as we went to bed, 10 boats were checking the forecast on three separate resources. Ten Captains and their Admirals were in disbelief that the weather would allow us to escape Leland, MI.
Todd was up at 4:15AM. I got up at 4:30AM. Charlie covered his eyes with his paws. He pretty much knows if mom gets up before dawn, the engines are going to make that noise again.
We got around well and cast off from the dock at 6:45AM. Lake Michigan was as flat as it can get with waves less than a foot. As I write this (9:15AM), they have built to 1 to 2 feet. It’s still a comfortable ride.
It’s a cold, crisp morning…still. I’ve gone out to snap some pictures of the Sleeping Bear Dunes at sunrise as well as the beautiful sunrise, itself. It just a wonderful day!
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| Sunrise over Leland, MI. It really is a cute little town. Nine days there was just too long. |
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| Sleeping Bear Point at sunrise paint's the dunes in pinks and reds. |
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| Rounding Sleeping Bear Point. |
Long ago, along the Wisconsin shoreline, a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. The bears swam for many hours, but eventually the cubs tired and lagged behind. Mother bear reached the shore and climbed to the top of a high bluff to watch and wait for her cubs. Too tired to continue, the cubs drowned within sight of the shore. The Great Spirit Manitou created two islands to mark the spot where the cubs disappeared and then created a solitary dune to represent the faithful mother bear.
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| NII Wishin and Selah! passing the dunes. |
We’re cruising trawler speed to stay with our little army of Loopers. A camaraderie had developed between us all. It’s us against the odds of early fall on Lake Michigan. There is a lot of boat traffic on the lake this morning after so many bad weather days...including freighters.
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| Sea Estate on her way. |
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| Trawler heading south with us...and freighter heading north. One of the Manitou Islands in the distant background (one of the bear cubs). |
This last gale fouled two of my good lines reducing them to light duty lines. I will need to buy a few more long, double twist nylon lines to replace the black braided lines I’ve lost. The double twist will hold up better to the beating these lines take in strong wind. Of course, any of our boating friends know how I love to shop for lines! I definitely love my lines…almost as much as I love bungee cords.
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| Flat water = Happy Crew and more miles! |
So here’s what I’ve learned about Ludington, MI:
• Ludington is the fifth most popular city in Michigan for tourism…after Mackinaw City, Traverse City, Muskegon and Sault Ste. Marie.
• In 1675, Jacques Marquette, French missionary and explorer, died and was laid to rest here. A memorial and large iron cross mark the location.
• In 1845, Burr Caswell moved to the area near the mouth of the Pere Marquette River as a location for trapping and fishing. His home was restored in 1976 and stands today as a part of White Pine Village, a museum consisting of several restored and replica Mason County buildings.
• The town was originally named Pere Marquette, then later named after the industrialist James Ludington whose logging operations the village built up around. Ludington was incorporated as a City in 1873.
• Like most of Michigan, the area boom in the late 1800s was due to sawmills. The discovery of salt deposits also pushed the boom.
• By 1892, 162 million board feet (382,000 m³) of lumber and 52 million wood shingles had been produced by the Ludington sawmills. With all of this commerce occurring, Ludington became a major Great Lakes shipping port.
• In 1875, the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad began cross lake shipping operations with the sidewheel steamer John Sherman.
• In 1897 the F&PM railroad constructed the first steel carferry the Pere Marquette. This was the beginning of the creation of a a fleet of ferries to continue the rail cargo across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The fleet was also expanded to carry cars and passengers across the lake.
• By the mid-1950s, Ludington had become the largest car ferry port in the world. Currently only one carferry, the SS Badger, makes regular trips across the lake from Ludington, one of only two lake-crossing car ferries on Lake Michigan.
• During the late 1910s and early 1920s, Ludington was the home of the Ludington Mariners minor league baseball team. A team of the same name currently plays "old time base ball" in historical reenactments of the original version of the game.
We are hoping for another good weather day to travel. However, the forecast is not favoring travel…again. So there may be some shopping in Ludington’s refurbished downtown area on our agenda. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather gods will make the forecasters look stupid. We’d rather travel.
Oh yes, by the middle of the trip, this was how Charlie was feeling:
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