Gone sailing, be back whenNever!

...the object of cruising is to make a complete change of surroundings, a change for 
the eyes, ears, and nose...a cabin should be very different from a city apartment...
you should not lug along what you are trying to leave behind...
-L. Francis Herreshoff (boat designer, naval architect, and author)

Our big cruise for this summer is nearly upon us. My anticipation is building like the waves of a storm as they roll over a shallow sandbar. We plan to head north out of Muskegon with a very loose goal of eventually crossing Lake Michigan and exploring Wisconsin's Door County Peninsula. But as any experienced cruising sailor knows, the winds dictate the destination and we only control the journey. Even if we don't end up in Door County we'll bare in mind Herreshoff's quote and remember that we're doing this for "a complete change of surroundings, a change for the eyes, ears and nose." 

I've crossed Lake Michigan under sail twice, both during the 2008 Queen's Cup race from Milwaukee to Grand Haven. But I've never crossed the big lake on my own boat. Erin and the girls have yet to experience a crossing and I'm excited to share the fulfilling emptiness of open waters out of sight and reach of land found in the middle of the inland seas. While we had several passages of ~50 nautical miles on our journey to Lake Huron's North Channel a few years back, we've never had a passage as long as the ~70 nautical mile stretch from Pentwater/Ludington, MI to Sturgeon Bay, WI. If the winds and sea allow the crossing, we'll be sure to post a video and our thoughts here on the blog.

We'll likely depart later this week, so stay tuned to the blog as we'll be posting from the water as we go.  

A potential route for our upcoming cruise

Comments

  1. Deb26 July

    We will be watching closely as this is one of the areas we hope to sail on our way out the lakes to the Atlantic.

    Deb
    S/V Kintala
    www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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