Rumblefish - Our Great Loop Adventure

Pentwater, MI to Grand Haven, MI
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Grand Haven, MI to Holland, MI

“It’s all about family!”

It a good thing we built a couple of weather days into our schedule. Rain, wind, and fog can really mess with the best plans. So when we had the opportunity to make the run down to Grand Haven in a light fog instead of high winds and waves, we jumped at it. Our two kids and two grandsons are showing up and we’re picking them in two days! Anyways, the “light fog” turned into pea soup, and we were flying blind! Good thing for radar!

Kids collected from the airport, Amazon delivery picked up from the drop-box, and we settled all six of us into various nooks and crannies on RumbleFish. We had a full day to enjoy Grand Haven before we had to move on. Grand Haven prides itself as the Coast Guard City. The place Coast Guard signs, posters, and memorabilia everywhere. The waterfront is vibrant with activity. A nightly water show, daily music on the pier, and ice cream shops everywhere.

Our next deadline is getting to Chicago so everyone can get on a plane and go home next week. So today we had a beautiful day for our leg to Holland. A quick twenty mile run south in good conditions. RumbleFish got a couple of new pilots at the controls, and we found a great anchorage near a park with good dinghy access.

Frankfort, MI to Pentwater, MI

A month ago, we sat down with our boating buddies to look at our cruising schedules. And I came to the table thinking “What schedule!? We’re retired. We’re doing the Loop. We don’t need no stinking schedule!” But then reality set in. We had to look at the Great Lakes and our self-imposed desire to get to Chicago by Labor Day. So we started counting backwards from Labor Day, and realized that we needed a schedule.

We built some weather days into our schedule for the rainy days, the foggy days, and the windy days. We built relaxation days in, so we could spend some extra time in a town that wanted to explore, or enjoy a quiet anchorage miles from anybody. We’ve done pretty good at keeping to our schedule. Our daughter decided to come out and spend a week with us, so we had to adjust our schedule so we could be at the right harbor when she flies in next week. Goal: Grand Haven by Tuesday.

Which brings us to today. We had looked at the schedule and the weather last week, and saw that there may be some windy days coming up. We pushed hard to make up some time before the weather caught up with us. Yesterday, we used a weather day to hunker down in Frankfort to skip some forecasted wind. Today, the morning forecast looked good to get a little closer to Grand Haven, so we got an early departure at 6am.

The winds were about 10 kts on the bow, with very little wave action. Comfortable cruising conditions. But as the morning went, the winds increased to about 15 kts, the wave action, still on the bow, increased, and we were getting a lot of spray on the bimini windows! And then the rain began.

Ok, I’m making this sound like a lot of bad weather and bad decisions. But the sea conditions were really pretty comfortable. The rain stayed outside while we stayed inside. And with the waves on the bow, RumbleFish rode through it all easily. And by 1pm, the rain had passed, the winds were calming down, the waves were subsiding to ripples, and we made our next harbor at Pentwater.

Tonight, we enjoyed listening to the local high school band play in their homecoming parade, and watched the fireworks after the homecoming game from our aft cabin.

Mackinac Island to Charlevoix, MI

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Charlevoix, MI to Frankfort, MI

It’s pedal to the metal! After spending an enjoyable month in Canada, we have a very tight window to travel to Grand Haven, MI. Although we want to stop and smell the roses, we also have a deadline so every day that we can, we’re doing an extended travel day. Lake Huron and Lake Michigan can be calm and beautiful, but throw in a little wind, and the calm water gets exciting quickly. So, two travel days. Yesterday we traveled 55 miles from Mackinac Island to Charlevoix. And today, we traveled 70 miles from Charlevoix to Frankfort. And tomorrow, we rest! There’s some wind in the forecast, enough to convince us to enjoy a stay-day in Frankfort.

The Big Chute

I may be a few weeks late posting about the Big Chute. One of the coolest movements on the Great Loop!

The Big Chute is the 44th “lock” on the Trent-Severn. But it’s not a lock! The Big Chute is a custom-built rail car that lifts boats, yachts, jets skis, and kayaks from the upper lake, travels on railroad tracks up over a road, and then descends into the lower lake, with an elevation change of about 60’. There’s a surreal feeling riding onboard as your boat takes a train ride!

Government Bay, Marquette Islands, MI to Mackinac Island, MI

I had a little gas this morning! In fact, RumbleFish was just above a quarter tank when we got underway today. Given that the last time we fueled up was at Lock #1 of the Trent-Severn waterway, over a month ago, it goes to show that a tank of diesel goes a long way. However, after putting 260 gallons of diesel in the tanks, our bank account is just a little poorer. (We accept cash donations to Zelle, PayPal, and Venmo!) Thank you to St Ignaces Marina for the excellent service this morning.

Mackinac Island - famous for the Grand Hotel, which was made famous from the movie Somewhere in Time. The island has a strict “No Motorized Vehicles” rule, which is, of course, broken by ambulances and utility vehicles. Everything else is done by horse-drawn carts, bikes, or on foot. Lucky for us, we brought our own bikes!

Bikes everywhere!!! Seriously, bike rentals seems to be the number one business here! We rode out to the Backyard at Stonecliff for a delicious lunch with Brent and Vonni. Our patio table had an impressive view of the Mackinac Bridge separating Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. After a perfect lunch, we rode along Lakeshore Drive on the east side of the island to escape the crowds in the tourist Mecca of the island. Later in the evening, Kimala and I took the bikes out again and circumnavigated the entire island. We called our journey “The Great Loop of Mackinac Island”. 🤔