Legs 29, 30, and 31 of our 2022 cruise up north
(to read about Leg 28, Spinnaker Run Under the Big Mac, click here)
We anchored near town on Pentwater Lake just after sunset this evening. We covered a lot of miles, a little over 50, though much of the time we were on a beat to windward. I’m a little beat, too! The wind should get much stronger from the south tomorrow, so we expect to be here at least two nights and wanted a nice town to hang out in.
We’ve had little wind for two days, so we motored most of the way from Garden Island to South Manitou Island two days ago, then Frankfort yesterday. We didn’t even remove the sail cover yesterday.
This morning, we left Frankfort and motored south in a very light south wind. Our wind instrument at the top of the mast wasn’t working this morning… a spider, attracted to the glow of the adjacent anchor light, had built a web around it. I often set the autopilot in “wind vane” mode when on a close reach, so we actually use our wind sensor a lot. I worried a little, but by early afternoon the wind built to south at 12 knots and blew off the spider web, clearing the issues with the speed and direction functions.
Of course, the south wind presented a new dilemma… keep motoring south and make six knots towards our destination, or sail the beat at a much slower VMG?
We compromised. We motored straight into the wind for about 45 more minutes, placing us close to Big Sable Point. A freighter slowly crept past us to our starboard, and we set sail once they were clear. After rounding the point we couldn’t directly lay Pentwater, but it was mostly a starboard tack to get there with some short port tacks when the shore got too close.
Just north of Pentwater on the shoreline lies the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, a hydroelectric energy storage facility. From Lake Michigan it merely looks like a dam with power lines running from it, but apparently there’s a lake above the dam that empties during the day and fills at night. The Wikipedia page is an interesting read if you’re an engineering nerd like me. We do have to avoid the safety zone around it, though it’s well marked with buoys.
We’re almost home, but sailing home tomorrow looks like a lot of work with 15-20 knot winds from the southwest. I think we’ll be beach bums instead.