#44 Leland, Michigan to Frankfort, Michigan

Written by The Crew

Rev writes all the posts as "The Crew" at What Yacht To Do. It's just part of the First Mate duties. That list just keeps growing...

September 1, 2019

After being prisoners in Leland for five days because of the high winds, we were finally ready to move on.

It was still a little breezy but we thought the window of calmer winds could get us to our next destination.

Our Last Night in Leland

To celebrate our last night in Leland, we broke out the town’s favorites.

We had visited a farmer’s market and picked up a jar of homemade cherry jelly, a $3.00 “slicer” tomato, and a blueberry pie.

Farmers’ Market in Leland
This guy sold us the pie. Love the shirt! He also sold us a $3 tomato, Sam is still complaining about paying that much!
Sweetie Pies’ Blueberry Pie

Now how two people think they can eat a whole pie is beyond me, but we bought it anyway.

Smoked salmon happy hour tray aka “Dinner”

We also went to the fish store and bought smoked salmon.

Dinner is served!

It’s a good think that we didn’t discover that salmon until the last day because we would have had it at EVERY meal.

It was that delicious.

So, we celebrated Leland with a tribute meal.

Thanks for giving us safe harbor.

And making it fun.

A Little Breezy

We fueled up before leaving the Leland Marina.

Next to the fuel dock is a public beach.

And out in the water near the beach were kite surfers.

Have you seen kiteboarding before?

That was our first clue.

It may be windier than we think.

And it was.

It was so windy that I had a hard time getting the lines and fenders back in the boat.

Boat Etiquette

When traveling, lines (ropes) and fenders come back in and are stored.

Lines are stored so they don’t fall off and get tangled up in the propellers.

Fenders are stored because they look tacky just hanging down for no reason.

Now when you’re doing the locks nothing looks tacky.

It’s a matter of survival.

Fenders are left out and lines where you need them.

Pretty Bumpy

I had to hold on to the boat railing as I worked to take off the lines and fenders.

At times, I just had to sit down and hang on.

I worked slowly one by one to get all the equipment inside.

In fact, I barely got them in the Lido Deck.

They traveled this way because it was too bumpy to store everything.

Underway

Once we got underway, we kept thinking that it would smooth out when we got around the next point.

And then the next point.

Maybe the next point?

It was pretty bouncy until we were about an hour away from our next marina.

Seeing those channel markers was a very welcome sign.

Frankfort Municipal Marina

It was an easy docking experience in Frankfort.

The dockhands were friendly and helped us get set.

With power.

Yay.

Once we were settled, we saw that there were many other loopers who had been waiting out the wind here.

There is also an anchorage with mooring balls and several loopers were there.

They were smarter than we were and didn’t venture out even though the winds were better, they will still bounce a boat around.

We are proof of that.

Frankfort, Michigan

The town of Frankfort has many stores and restaurants within walking distance of the marina.

This was great news to us because we missed lunch due to the nature of the wave action.

No food or beverage service!

We walked down to Storm Cloud Brewery and got a couple of drinks and a small pizza.

In front of the restrooms, you can see where all the customers are from.
Sam shoved a pin in the Dallas area for us.

Because walking to that brewery we went past an ice cream place that served Moomers.

It was Kawartha Dairy in Canada.

It’s Moomers in Northern Michigan.

I got Cherries MOObilee and Sam got Mint Chocolate Chip.

Another Concert

As the evening came to a close, there was a concert in the park by the marina.

It’s the beginning of Labor Day Weekend so everyone is in the mood to relax.

Except us.

We’ve got to be moving on.

So we stay in and plan.

Our Thoughts

Our Trip

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8 Comments

  1. WE are back home from our Viking River Tour from Amsterdam tp Budapest. A very enjoyable experience and would do it again! Tell Sam I got his Voice Mail and will talk to him when I see he is live on Instagram. Enjoy your next Marina stop!

    Reply
    • I’ll tell him but he’s not on Instagram so I’m not sure what that is all about. Glad you had a great trip!

      Reply
  2. Great account of this segment! I am on watch at the quarterback from 0500 to 0900 this fine morning in Decatur AL. 2 more days of visitors before we weigh anchor and head back to home port of Evansville IN.

    Reply
    • Have fun!

      Reply
  3. What do you tip the dock hands?

    Reply
    • We usually keep a stack of $5 bills handy to tip the dockhands. We tip those that help tie us up in our slip and when necessary, those that help us with fuel and pump outs.

      Reply
  4. Hi Guys, enjoying your trip with you although only up to #44 . I have been looking forward to some more technical aspects . Such as how the dinghy lift works , how many gallons per hour your vessel drinks ? why is the throttles not even ? Your vessel seems to be maintenance free , I though previously you mentioned you would get into stats during one of your episodes . I am also interested in your overall investment including upgrades . And lastly was this the first boat you ever owned ?
    Thanks Jim

    Reply
    • Hi Jim! Such great questions. Yes, this is the first big, live aboard boat. Sam had a 24′ sailboat for a couple of years as his first boat and we currently have a 24′ SeaRay on a lake in Texas.
      Watch our 3,000 mile video: https://youtu.be/OquqNQ8atII
      I think we answer a lot of those questions on that.
      Any others that we have missed send us an email at crew@WhatYachtToDo.com.

      Reply

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