S/V Geru: Moving South on Lake Michigan

After Arcadia our next stop was Pentwater. The motor there was a little boisterous yet again. Even the good weather windows were sometimes questionable in October on Lake Michigan, but we had to keep moving as the weather was only going to get colder and more stormy as the season progressed. Tying up to the dock in Pentwater was a bit of a challenge as most of the docks were underwater due to high water levels on the lake and the wind pushing even more water into the harbour.

Although the weather was warmer in general, we were yet again encountering stores already closed for the season or with reduced opening hours. We certainly were late for this part of the country.

We heard an odd noise when turning the steering wheel as we were docking. After some investigation, we were rather shocked to find out that a bolt which basically holds our steering together was loose and the nut had come off! It would have been a major challenge if we had lost the steering while surfing waves on Lake Michigan. We were glad we found the loose bolt while at a dock.

Our next stop was an anchorage in White Lake, which is connected to Lake Michigan by a short channel. We had good weather that day, but, by the time we had anchored, it was very windy and wavy out on the big lake. A couple of hours after we arrived, another looper came in and they had a really rough time out on the lake and in the channel - we were glad our timing worked out.

After White Lake we motored to South Haven where we were met at the dock by seven other loopers. It was lucky they were there as Ruth had to put Geru into the smallest slip yet (it was 16' wide for Geru's 15'3" width!). It was a great time catching up with old friends from Charlevoix and meeting new ones, but our visit was a bit short. We rushed off the next day to Michigan City as we saw another good day for moving before we'd be stopped by weather yet again, and the harbour in South Haven looked like it would be somewhat unprotected in a blow.

We stayed in Michigan City for four nights hiding from the very windy weather out on Lake Michigan. The marina in Michigan City was great - we had the best sleep in a while as there were no waves at all in the harbour. The part of the town we were able to walk to from the marina wasn't much, though. We had to take an Uber to get to a grocery store.

After a smooth motor across the bottom of Lake Michigan, which was getting increasingly industrial, we were met by lots of pleasure boats and our first tows and barges as we entered the Calumet River, just south of Chicago. Our destination was Crowley's Yacht Yard, which is a huge operation where a lot of the Chicago boats are stored over the winter. Geru's mast was unloaded there to be trucked to Mobile, Alabama. We didn't want it sticking out behind the boat for all of the locks down to the Gulf of Mexico - the Canadian locks were enough. Crowley's was quite the efficient operation - we have never seen boats de-masted or hauled out so quickly!

Next up was the big city of Chicago...