Lyn's Log, 16th September 2007
Northern Lake Michigan

It did not take long to explore the pleasant village of St Ignace. It was the site of the first French settlement in the upper Great Lakes, and I really enjoyed the little museum attached to a kind of antique shop, as it had a lot of Indian artifacts and much about the local Indian tribes and the early French mission.

The next morning, 8th September, was very calm and sunny and we again headed for Lake Michigan, motoring under Mackinac Bridge, but this time at twice the speed as the water was calm. We motored all day and into the night, southwards down the east side of the lake. By midnight the wind picked up and we managed to sail at 3-4 knots. The weather forecast was now suggesting that the winds would become strong that afternoon with big waves. Also, strong southwesterly winds were likely to continue for several days. We decided it would be best if we crossed the lake at this point to the western side. We would have around fifty miles to reach harbour on the other side, and could make it by mid afternoon. So we went for it. By midday the wind was already strong and we were able to sail towards our destination making good speed, arriving at Kewaunee marina at four in the afternoon. Well, actually it was three, as the clocks were an hour different in Wisconsin.

There was not much to see or do, although we did see two other Bruce Roberts yachts on the hard at the marina. The forecast for the next day still made the winds favourable, at least for the morning, so we decided to go south to Sheboygan, where we could meet Chris Rocks, a guy Andrew had been corresponding with on the Internet. Apart from there being drizzly rain all day, it was an excellent, fast sail and we arrived at the marina at eight in the evening. It was good to meet up with Chris the next day and move from the expensive marina to the friendly yacht club where we were introduced to Jim Kennedy. Wednesday evening we piled onto Jim’s Laser 28 Yikes with three other guys for the last race of the season, and had a great time with a good result. One of Jim's crew was Joseph who was interested in looking over our yacht and spending some time with us. The following day he took Andrew off to a shop where he rented a pipe wrench and managed to get the old immersion heater out of the water tank for us. At last we could put in the new 110 volt immersion heater and have hot water!