25 Aug 17

There is a fishing tournament in Manistee this weekend and about 30 of the participating boats are staying at our marina; they all got up and headed out to fish starting at 04:30, so for the next 45 minutes or so, it was one engine after another slipping past us down the river. When we finally got up at 08:00, it was 40 degrees F; in August! We got underway to Ludington about 09:45. The wind was light from the E, so we motor-sailed with the main all the way to Ludington, where we tied up at the municipal marina at 13:00, in the slip next to “Patience Preferred”, our boat neighbors from Leland. We had a quick bite of lunch and then walked into town to see the Mason County Historical Society’s Maritime Museum. Afterward, a walk around town resulted in a quick grocery run and not much else. Back at the boat, we shared cocktails with Dan and Karen from “Patience Preferred”, the walked over to watch the S.S. “Badger” (the cross-lake car ferry between Ludington and Manitowoc, WI., come in. This is a coal-fired, steam-driven ship (one of the last of her kind), with twin screws and no bow thruster. It has to turn around and back into the slip at each end of the run (i.e., loading is only via the stern ramp), and to execute the turn within the confines of the harbor, it drops its anchor short of the slip, then spins on it; wonderful to watch this “old-school” boat handling. We had dinner aboard and were in bed early to be ready for an early call tomorrow.

43-57.210’N, 086-27.322’W; Log = 22.6, Sum (2017) = 1907.6 N-m