Day 4 Frankfort to Charlevoix

We spent the morning in Frankfort lounging by the pool and hot tub waiting for the ac pump to arrive. When it hadn't arrived by 11, we went for a nice walk by the beach and down some more side streets to admire the beautiful Victorian homes. When the ac pump finally arrived around 3pm, we started out on the journey to Charlevoix. The photo to the left shows Frankfort from the harbor.

As we left the channel, we found the lake to be pretty rough for our 75 mile day. But when we rounded the corner of Pyramid Point, Ben declared he found his new favorite place on earth, a place we anchored for lunch to take refuge from the rough waters. It was gorgeous with tall sand dunes and crystal clear turquoise water that resembled something in the Bahamas instead of Lake Michigan!

We knew Charlevoix was going to be a magical place as soon as we entered the channel and spotted one of the Four Winns founders (or.. the godfather.. as Ben refers to him) homes & boathouse. We found the municipal marina easily and choose a dock right next to the park.

After tying up in slip #56, we changed our clothes, cleaned up a bit and walked down Main street before settling in at the Village Pub. It was a cute, cozy little place and looked like it was full of regulars. I had the whitefish and Ben had a rueben, a great meal to end a long day!

Right now we're relaxing on the boat, listening to the rain, and a karaoke bar across the street where everyone singing actually sounds good, and we are in heaven! Across from us, we can see the lights of downtown, the tree's lit with strands of light blue, and the old-stlye streetlamps illuminating the park. Down the way a bit towards the boaters lounge, we can see kids playing in the fountain and people walking around admiring the boats. After our very rough day on the lake with 3-4 foot waves, but that sure beats the 6-7 foot waves and water spouts in tomorrows marine forcast, so we are very grateful for the 3 days of relaxation ahead of us here in Charlevoix.

More to come about the wonderful city of Charlevoix tommorow!!

Miles today: 75.6
Avg spd :18.5 mph
Travel time: 4hr 43min
Total Miles: 345.5mi
Fuel used today: 39.1gal
Avg mpg: 1.93

Day 3 Whitelake to Frankfort

Waking up this morning we were excited to see the wind had stopped and the sun was shining! Today we were due to depart Whitelake and head for Frankfort almost 100 miles to the north! We had a lot of miles to cover since we were already a day behind due to the poor lake conditions yesterday. We finally got our a/c pump ordered this morning from West Marine in Traverse City and are having it shipped overnite to Jacobson Marina in Frankfort. Before leaving for our next trip, we topped off our fuel tank at the municiple dock and headed for the channel hoping to have more success than yesterday. Needless to say, it was a huge relief to come out of the channel and see flat calm seas!

After covering about 50 miles at a nice pace of about 27 mph, we decided to anchor just off of the sandy shores of Ludington in about 20ft of water to have lunch and take a quick break. As we packed up after lunch, we noticed some light chop forming, and this eventually turned into 3 footers once we rounded Big Sable Point. This was not at all suprising considering rough seas seem to be the theme for this trip so far.

Both of us were feeling pretty drained by the time we reached Frankfort, but excited to see a new port. After tying up, we headed straight into town for dinner at Dinghy's (a restaurant Dana had picked ahead of time) for their "famous" bbq ribs!

They were delicious and Dana only dropped one

rib on her white shorts which is really good for her!

After dinner we changed into our bathing suites and headed to the beach. It was beautiful...the scenery, the crystal clear waters, and the water wasn't even too cold!

On our way back to the marina, we decided to walk down some side streets to admire some of Frankfort's beautiful old victorian homes. (side note from Dana: When I met Ben, before he was obsessed with boating, he was obsessed with old Victorian homes! So one of our favorite pastimes is visiting old, historic towns and just walking the

neighborhoods to take pictures of old houses. I especially like it because it gives Ben motivation to work on our old Victorian when we get back home!) We were amazed to find block after block of well kept victorians with perfectly manicured landscaping.

Our walk was followed by ice cream at Kilwins (Butter Pecan and Traverse City Cherry) and relaxing on the boat. We had some planning to do. High winds and waves in the forecast were causing us to reconsider our itinerary, especially the long trip over open seas to Beaver Island. We basically had one day to get to a port we could comfortably stay in for at least 3 days, and hopefully not upset our plans too much! We chose Charlevoix due to it's proximity to Mackinac Island and Traverse City, and also because Lake Charlevoix is a huge lake, with a few other ports to explore. We've also heard a lot of great things about the town, so we're getting excited about spending more time there. Now all we have to do is wait in Frankfort until our a/c pump arrives, and make the 4 or 5 hour journey to Charlevoix!

Miles covered today 99.5
Total time 4hr43min
Fuel used 50.0gal
Ave mpg 1.99!!

Day 2 Whitelake to....Whitelake

We had a nice, peaceful morning in White Lake beginning with breakfast on the boat. Dana made french toast and bacon, and we enjoyed breakfast outside in the quiet morning. There were only a few boats in the municipial marina, including 3 who were halfway through the great loop and having a "fantastic journey." After breakfast, we got back to trying to find an a/c pump.

Without success, we decided to journey on our bikes to the lakeshore to check the lake conditions, since the NOAA weather report was calling for 3-5 foot waves. White Lake was about 6 miles long, so we figured we could manage it, and end up at the lake eventually. We found out this was a bad idea when 40 minutes later we realized the trail had curved and we were riding away from the lake! We aborted this mission and turned back around. It was still a nice bike ride though.. and we needed to burn offsome calories from all the good eating we've been doing!

On the way back to town we stopped off at a neat little sandwich shop called Pekadill's and enjoyed a nice lunch.

After debating back and forth, we decided to try to make it north at least to Pentwater. We loaded up the bikes and got ready for travel. Cruising through White Lake on the way to the channel, we were optimistic. It was hard to belive that Lake Michigan could be that bad considering White Lake was flat calm with little wind.

Entering the channel though, we could see boat after boat in front of us turning around mid-way out of the channel...we should of taken this as a bad sign. The channel between White Lake and Lake Michigan is a very narrow steel lined channel and it got really hard to control the boat the closer we got to the lake. Considering at that point it would have been too hard to turn around without smacking the wall, we went for it!

Bad idea. As soon as we were out of the channel we immediatly hit a wall of water followed by 5-6 foot waves one after another! We made it a couple miles before deciding to turn around and head back to White Lake. We were in a bad postion since turning around in waves like that can be dangerous. If one were to hit us broadside in mid turn we could roll. I was looking for a calm spot to turn around when a huge wave hit the bow, sending it skyward quickly followed by the bow diving into a deep trough. Shortly after I looked over to see Dana putting on her life jacket and handing me mine. We battled the waves a little longer until I found a good chance and in a quick motion poured on the throttle and cranked the wheel starboard before the next big wave hit us.

Whew! We successfully turned around, but now we had to try to get back in the channel, which might be even more dangerous. And to make it even worse, as I was concentrating on not crashing the boat against the steel wall, Dana pointed out in panic that 2 kayakers were trying to enter the channel right next to us! It's hard enough to keep the boat from hitting the wall, but now we had 2 people we could barely see above the waves to look out for. We had a few scary moments when the boat pitched sharply to the port side, but soon we were back into the calm. We learned our lesson. When boats bigger than ours are turning around and it looks too bad to go out, it probably is. :-) At least we gained some more lake experience. We will continue on our visit to White Lake in the next post. Thanks for reading!

Miles: 15.5
Fuel used: 7.9gal
Avg mpg: 1.96
Total time: an eternity

Day 1 The Journey begins!

The day we have been waiting has finally arrived! After a year of planning, and three days of careful packing, it was time to leave port and head north. Our goal was to get to the boat and be ready to go at 6a.m. and we came close! We arrived at 6:20a.m. and met Ben's dad, Bill, who helped us load the rest of our gear and film our departure. We left Portage Harbor at approx. 7:20a.m. and headed northeast on the lake with the gps set to Muskegon . The day started out rainy with calm seas, and progressed to much rougher seas. By the time we reached Saugatuck waves were reaching 3ft, and hitting 4ft at Grand Haven!

We reached Muskegon in about 5 hours, where we stopped to see the Tall Ships and meet a fellow Four Winns forum member Cap'n Morgan. Thanks for the open marina slip tip! After touring the Tall Ships it was time to have lunch on the boat, fuel up and complete our trip to White Lake, a little over 10 miles away.

Entering White Lake was very beautiful and peaceful. The lake is 6 miles long, with White Lake Municipial Marina at the very end. We pulled into slip #44 on our port side and a marina attendant was there to help us tie up and tell us about the area.We unloaded our bikes, connected to shore power, and discovered our AC Pump stopped working!! :-( Lucky the forecast called for a cool evening.... and we made plans to try to get a new pump in the morning.

After showering and relaxing a bit, we headed into town in search of pizza. We ordered a deluxe pizza from Big Johns and walked around town while we waited. Back at the boat, we enjoyed dinner and relaxation.. and headed to bed at 10pm, beat up and tired from the long day on a rough lake

Day 1 Miles -154.9

Moving time -7hrs 9min

Fuel used- 77.7 Gal

Average Mpg -1.99!

Seapickle II Crew

Our first embroidered Seapickle II gear! Yes!! We finally fit in with the rest of our Four Winns friends! haha...

Thank you to Bill & Kathy (ben's parents) for the gift! We can't wait to wear them on our trip! We'll probably have some cooler nights up north in Michigan... and while I love hot summer weather... I'm actually looking forward to some cooler days.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for updates on our progress through Lake Michigan! We'll try to update as regularly as we can.

~dana

Fuel Flow Meter

With our trip coming up I wanted to install a fuel flow meter so I could not only use it to estimate fuel usage(mpg), but also as a more accurate way to monitor total gallons used. I decided to go with the Floscan 9000 because of a high quality construction and it also uses an NMEA 0183 communication sytem which is the same system my gps unit uses so the two units can properly communicate. The Floscan uses a sensor installed in the fuel line to measure the flow of fuel, then caculates mpg based on the information output by the gps unit.

I had trouble finding a good spot to mount the unit where I would have good visability. I decided the spot on the dash currently occupied by the trim tab switches would give the correct viewing angle,and would not distract my attention away from the helm while underway. I never cared for where the trim tabs switched are mounted since you have to reach over the throttle controls and spotlight control to adjust them. The logical position for them would be right in front of the throttle control so while controlling the throttle, the switches are at your fingertips, the only problem is that space is occupied by the spotlight control. Finally what I ended up doing is putting the trim tab switches were the spot light control was, mounting the spotlight control on the lower dash, and installing the Floscan in the spot once occupied by the switches.

I have been using this set up for a couple of months now and I absolutely love it! I don't even have to take my hands off the throttle control to adjust the tabs, which is really convenient in rough seas. I'm finding that I now pay more attention to this gauge than any other gauge I have! It's easy to trim a boat out by feel, but you can perfect it while monitoring a fuel flow monitor and runs at it's most efficient rpm and trim angle. I'm hoping this is one modification that will pay for itself in fuel savings.

Four Winns Chicago Meet-up

We had the unique opportunity to meet up with some of our Four Winns friends for what turned out to be an unbelievable weekend! We all met up Friday night at Hammond marina, with Dana and I being the last to arrive which is ironic considering we had the shortest distance to travel by far! One couple, Joe and Pat in their beautiful Four Winns 338 named "Better Yet", had a 10 hour trip up the Illinois river from their home port! Dennis and Christa trailered their Four Winns 278 "Wet Ink" up from southern Illinois, and the couple responsible for putting together this gathering Joe and Miranda trailered their Four winns 268 "Serenity Forever" up from Indianapolis.

The plan was to complete the Chicago loop cruise, see the Gary air show, and try to make it to boaters beach. Along for the ride with us was my cousin Mark and his wife Stacy. After a nice breakfast we casted off and headed north for downtown Chicago. Joe and Pat had decided to ride along with Joe and Miranda in Serenity Forever.

Our first stop was a scenic cruise through Burnham harbor to drool over the yachts (some with their own garage in the back of the boat). We then headed to the lock to enter the Chicago river, but were put on hold due to a massive barge locking through. With boats getting backed up waiting for the barge it gave us a good opportunity to head a couple of miles out into to the lake so we could swim and prepare lunch. We rafted, or tied the three boats together so all three swim platforms were even allowing us to walk from boat to boat. We ended up spending the next three hours soaking up the sun and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

As we were finishing lunch we started hearing reports of foul weather south of us, but none of it seemed to be coming our way. We packed up and headed back to try our luck at the lock again, and this time we got through rather quickly! It was the first downtown Chicago trip (by boat) for Dana and I as well as our first lock experience, but with the guidance of Joe and Pat, our seasoned veterans of lock procedures, we made it through with no problem!

Our trip through downtown was amazing! We have spent alot of time in Chicago, but it was a completely different experience by boat. Actually the city is alot more peaceful from this point of view. We took our time and just cruising slowly through the city at idle speed taking in all the sites and sounds!

At the end of our cruise, while we were watching helicopters chasing each other overhead filming Tranformers 3, the bad weather we had been avoiding all day finally found us and the skies started to open up. It was a mad scramble to put up the canvas while locking back through to the lake! We had the canvas up before the real heavy rain thanks to Mark and Stacey's help.For the first time putting up canvas, they put it up like a old pro's! Once we got past the break wall outside Navy Pier the wind kicked up, the skies got dark, and what was a calm beautiful lake all day turned ugly fast! Our trip back to Hammond Marina was in very rough seas with pouring rain and howling wind. As we entered the harbor the bad weather left as quickly as it came, and the once dark skies was replaced with sunshine and a massive rainbow!





On sunday we fueled up and headed to the Gary air show. Unfortunatly, Dennis and Christa had to pack up "Wet Ink" and head home early due to prior obligations and a long drive home. Joe and Miranda got onboard with Joe and Pat in "Better Yet" and we cruised to the show. Just like seeing downtown Chicago from a boat is a completely different experience, so is seeing the air show. It is so cool to have a fighter jet take a hard bank right over your boat at low altitude. Once again we rafted our boats together and thank to Joe and Pat's hospitality, we had an excellent lunch aboard "Better Yet".

After a great air show we decided to take a cruise along the lakeshore to see Dunes State Park, and then over to Boaters Beach to end the weekend the way every weekend should end, soaking in the 90deg. water with a cold drink in hand! It was an amazing weekend we will not forget. It's so neat that aside from a few emails, three couples that hardly knew each other got together because of a common interest, and by the end of the weekend parted ways as friends! Within days of getting home the emails started flying around making plans for next year! We would like to thank the other couples for their wonderful hospitality, and a big thanks to Joe and Miranda for putting this gathering together...we had a blast!

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