Our last goal of our weeklong cruise of 2019 was to revisit South Manitou Island in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. After the first full day (two nights) spent in the cute town of Frankfort, MI, we were hoping to continue north on Wednesday. South Manitou lies a mere 25 miles north of Frankfort.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Wednesday didn’t look very good. Starting Tuesday night, strong west winds would pick up to around 30-35 knots. Though this would be a fast beam reach, it certainly wouldn’t be comfortable. We also risked breaking stuff… which I’d prefer to avoid… and getting out of our slip at Jacobson Marina would be very challenging, too.
Another problem we had with the weather was what we’d do once arriving at South Manitou. Though the anchorage is well protected from southwest through north, Thursday’s winds were forecast to be more from the south at 35. Strong south winds can result in an uncomfortable swell that can affect parts of the anchorage there. I also wasn’t sure I’d want to leave the boat unattended to go hiking in those conditions.
Considering all this, we spent an extra day in Frankfort. Tuesday night’s weather forecast ended up being accurate, with strong west winds building large swells on the Big Lake. I wrote about our stay in Frankfort in my previous post.
On Wednesday evening, we again checked the forecast for a leg to South Manitou. The NWS text forecast for Thursday still wasn’t very nice: southwest winds 15-25 with gale force gusts (gale watch, too), and waves occasionally to 9 feet. Looking at Sailflow’s graphical forecast depiction revealed that winds would be in the 15-20 range during the morning hours, with the stronger stuff not returning until early afternoon. This could be a sleigh ride for the 25 miles north from Frankfort… as long as we didn’t break anything. Better still, Thursday night and all day Friday predicted sunny weather with northwest winds at 15… perfect for anchoring in South Manitou’s harbor and going hiking.
Thursday morning, the forecast remained the same, though the gale watch was now a gale warning effective at 11am. With life jackets, tethers, jacklines, and reefs set up, we decided to go for it!
After getting docklines off, stopping at the fuel dock for a pump out, and dodging all the fishing boat traffic in Betsie Lake, we cleared the Frankfort breakwall by 9 am.
For the first two and a half hours, it was pretty easy going… a broad reach in 20 knots, with four foot waves and plenty of sunshine. With a single reef in the main and a full jib, boat speed was around 7.5 to 8 knots… a great sail north! Entering the Manitou Passage, the wind shifted more southerly, and we sailed wing and wing with the preventer.
By around 11:30am, the winds began to strengthen as forecasted. Some gusts were over 25 and closer to 30. We partially furled the jib to reduce sail area some more, but with less than 6 miles to go I wasn’t too concerned. Two carefully executed jibes placed us well to sail into the lee of South Manitou Harbor, zooming us past the lighthouse at Sandy Point doing over 8 knots. Inside the harbor, with flat water and a little less wind, we dropped sails and anchored.
The wind had enough of a westerly component to it that the anchorage was fairly comfortable. Conditions certainly weren’t “calm” or “flat,” but compared to getting tossed around in our slip in Frankfort two nights earlier it was fine. Even in the partial protection of the anchorage some wind gusts were in the low 30s, but with a sandy bottom our Rocna anchor held firm. We stayed aboard and relaxed, ate some snacks, and took showers while we waited for the weather to improve.
By 5:30 pm, as depicted on SailFlow’s forecast, the winds shifted to the southwest, then west, and diminished to under 15 by dinner. The waves in the anchorage flattened, too. The skies cleared by night, allowing us to see the Milky Way as well as lightning in a storm over Saugatuck and Kalamazoo far to the south. It was a beautiful night!
Hiking ashore the next day was great. I’ve written about South Manitou before, and not much has changed. It’s still pretty cool!
