The river trip is right around the corner, and our preparations start getting serious. The list of boat projects we want to complete (as discussed in Ep 15) before leaving Lake Michigan is LONG.
With so many different boats out there, how do you find the right one? Where do you start? What do you look for? There are thousands of threads in online forums asking the same question. I'm no sailboat guru, able to look into a crystal ball to find the perfect boat for you. But, I can talk about our experience and hopefully you'll learn a thing or two, including a few things not to do.
A leaky marine head can be a very sh*tty situation. At one point during our shakedown cruise around Lake Michigan, we ended up with toilet water where it SHOULDN’T be — outside the bowl.
Back in our homeport of Racine, we start tackling the long list of projects we want to finish before leaving for our journey down “The Ditch.”
That’s a wrap on our shakedown sail! In this episode, after sailing back across Lake Michigan to our home port of Racine, Wisconsin, and getting a little weird during the crossing, we talk through everything we learned during our 3-week cruise along the west coast of Michigan.
Freshwater surfing! Kirk’s beyond stoked to get a chance to surf Lake Michigan. After leaving Charlevoix, we snuck into Leland just before a cold front moved in.
Summer in Michigan is magic, because it’s so fleeting. It usually arrives sometime in June, and by the time you’ve attended a family get together and a wedding or two, it’s already August, and you’re wondering where the heck the time went…
Round Lake was a boating mecca; all sorts of craft paraded across its waters, waiting for the fuel dock, or a city marina slip, heading to and from the private residential docks, or passing through en route to Lake Charlevoix or Lake Michigan.
Our shakedown cruise is officially underway! After crossing Lake Michigan with Kirk’s dad, we arrive in Pentwater, MI where we meet up with the rest of Kirk’s family.
It’s our FIRST OVERNIGHT PASSAGE! We set sail across Lake Michigan, leaving in the middle of the night to ride the fading winds of a storm.
