Sail Far Live Free

"Long voyages - any voyages - in a small sailing craft are most complex operations when they are carried out properly, in a seamanlike manner. The idea of escaping the problems of life by sailing away is a fable. -Tristan Jones from Yarns , 1983. The above point is well taken and quickly understood once the shoreline disappears. You'd better have your ship together and know how to react to any "problems of life" rather instinctively when running to a safe harbor isn't an option. While crossing Lake Michigan (or any of the Great Lakes) isn't quite the same as a bluewater ocean passage, there are some similarities in how you prepare and the safety equipment you should carry. Since I get a lot questions here on the blog about crossing Lake Michigan and keeping young children safe on such a passage, I thought I'd share our recipe for safety on a crossing. On our ~72 nautical mile crossing of Lake Michigan this summer, we used the following safety gear: 1...

There are several Great Lakes cruising destinations that are truly world class. Lake Huron's North Channel, Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, and Lake Michigan's Door County Peninsula are three of the most well known, both in the region and in the larger cruising community as a whole. This summer my family and I had the good fortune of taking an 11 day cruise to Door County from our home port in Muskegon, Michigan. While the weather didn't allow us to circumnavigate the entire peninsula during our short cruise window, we did enjoy a couple of excellent Lake Michigan crossings and a bit of time exploring a few Door County ports. If you plan to take a similar cruise, you'll have to make a few logisitcal decisions. First, you'll need to decide which port to depart from in Michigan and where to arrive in Wisconsin when you cross Lake Michigan. You'll also need to decide which ports to visit in Door County. What follows is a summary of our experience and a few...