Day 162 - Cruising Into Our Home Waters

It was definitely less windy when we woke up, with temperatures in the high 40’s and a partly sunny sky.  We decided to test the waters and left for the fuel dock at 9:30 am to fill up.  Forty minutes later we were on our way and went under the Mackinac Bridge, returning to our home waters of Lake Michigan, at 10:30 am.  I was able to get a picture of the Grand Hotel On Mackinac Island as we went by.  The clouds had returned and would stay with us the rest of the day, making it a cold and gloomy trip.

We saw 2 freighters, one heading northeast and one northwest.  Gray’s Reef light came up on our starboard and soon the town of Charlevoix was on our port.   By 1:30 pm, the tall sand dunes of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park loomed to the port, North and South Manitou Islands (which are part of the park) to our starboard.  Shortly after came Sleeping Bear Point and the huge Sleeping Bear Dune.

 

We reached the town of Frankfort and the Point Betsie Lighthouse at 2:30 pm.  A few years back, we biked from Frankfort to the lighthouse.  There are more and more homes along the shore and up in the dunes as we go further south.  Another lighthouse we biked, then walked along the beach to, is Big Sable Light.  Big Sable Point is several miles from Ludington, our destination for the day.

A light began to fall as we pulled into Harbor View Marina at 4:30 pm.  We were looking forward to dinner at PM Steamers and called for a 6:00 pm reservation.  PM Steamers is on the harbor and always very crowded whenever we had been there in the past.  We trudged over through the rain and were surprised to see only a handful of occupied tables.  Then we remembered it was mid-September, not July or August.  Eventually the place grew busier, including a tour bus full of people that were led to a private room.  No matter, we enjoyed our dinners:  crabmeat stuffed tilapia and shrimp/artichoke risotto.
 

We visited Best Choice Market, a specialty grocery store, for a few things on our way back to the boat.  Unfortunately it was still drizzling.  It had been over a year since we had been in a familiar port and seemed incredible that we had only 2 more days until we would cross our wake.