Moving on to St Joseph

Tuesday, September 6 was still a bit windy! The waves were forecasted to be 3-5 footers so we opted to spend another day in Saugatuck. It hard to make that decision sometimes; especially when the harbor is pleasant and so protected. We just have to depend on the forecasts for the Lake – "out there!".

Across the Kalamazoo Lake is the town of Douglas. It had a supermarket so we decided to dinghy to that side. We parked out dinghy next to the S.S. Keewatin and walked about one-half mile to the store. It turned out to be a really nice supermarket. In fact, Mike and I must have been hungry because it didn't take us long to fill the cart! It's nice to back in the states where things are quite so high priced. Once we checked out we begged them to let us take the cart to the dinghy. There was no way we could it carry all! They graciously agreed. Here we go walking down the Bluestar Highway pushing the grocery cart. Do you think we looked like tourists??

Anyway, you should have seen the dinghy once we transferred all the bags from the cart! I think it sat quite a bit lower in the water. I wasn't too sure there would be room for me. Mike eagerly agreed to wait in the shade with a cold beer while I walked the cart back to the store. I needed the exercise – that's what I said – not him! Anyway, I made it back only to find him helping this guy launch his beautiful restored wooden boat (50's era). It was gorgeous and named Josephine. He told Mike that he and his buddies have a tradition that the day after Labor Day they get their boats out and toast the end of another great summer with champagne. That was where he was headed. Sounds like a pretty cool tradition!

We made it back to NautiNell with our goods all intact – even though the winds had picked up and it was becoming rather choppy on the Kalamazoo. Ookpik had taken their laundry over to Douglas and said they got a little wet coming back. It's always an adventure!

We did find out that Me Nou had ventured out and made it to New Buffalo. Their boat is a "cat" and can take the waves better than our trawler. However, we probably could have made it a ways, but oh well. Later on Last Dance came into the harbor to anchor. They had come from Holland. A pretty short trip but they said it wasn't bad. Tomorrow is another day! All of us planned to leave in the morning.

On Wednesday we woke to a better day concerning the winds. We were on the move early. However, we needed to get fuel so we had to wait for the marina to open at 8:00. We found Erika Lin at the marina. They were heading out too. We took some fuel and headed out about 8:45. About an hour or so behind the others. We planned to catch up! The Lake wasn't bad. We were able to easily make it past South Haven and on to St. Joseph. We would have liked to gone on to New Buffalo, but by the afternoon the waves were building as usual. We had caught up with the rest and we all got slips at the West Basin Marina. It's another municipal marina that treats you right. The rate was about $1.00 a foot! That's always nice. We all checked our weather info and found that it could easily be Saturday or Sunday before we would be able to leave again. Darn! We are so close to Chicago! BUT – 9-11 foot waves??? I DON'T THINK SO!!

SO, we did the typical Looper thing – we all got together for Happy Hour! There was a good lounge area where we all could sit and talk out of the cold. Oh yes, did I mention it – last week the weather was breaking records with the heat – now it's getting down to the 40s at night and only 60s during the day – plus – don't forget the wind! BRRRRRR!!

We had a great Happy Hour – OokPik, Dovekie, Last Dance, Erika Lin, Dockers Inn, Confetti and NautiNell were all in attendance. What a group! Good food and good company!

We'll see what tomorrow will bring.

Till next time!

Admiral "C"