Chapter 75: Lundington to Harborside

Log 75
Ludington, MI to Harborside

5:15 AM
Friday, August 04, 2000
Harborside Marina
Wilmington, IL.

Day 96

Well we are less than 40 miles away from completing the Great Circle Trip.
We decided to stop at Harborside (where we originally bought the boat) and take a day to regroup, before heading into Starved Rock Marina on Saturday. Actually, for several years I had planned to leave a marina on September 4th, and head to Florida. We accomplished that. 18 months ago when I was planning this trip my goal was to return on Saturday August 5th. That is exactly what we are going to do.

Let me bring you up to speed on the last couple of days.
Wednesday…
After 2 days in dense fog I was eager to get up in the morning and see what the conditions were. To my joy, I could see stars in the sky, and it looked like the day would be clear. In fact the only problem was the boat was covered with bugs. I guess they had been attracted by the lights from the marina, but whatever the case there were thousands of them, so I washed the boat down before heading out. (Which is one of the reasons I didn’t get to write a daily log)
It was a little cool as we left our slip and headed out to the lake. The sun hadn’t come up yet, but it looked like it would be a great day. A cold front had come through over night, and there were strong storms in the central part of Michigan, but they were south of us, and would be gone by the time we got there. There was only a slight ripple on the lake, and I set the RPM’s at about 1100, (10.5 mph) and the autopilot for a spot off the tip of Little Sable Point which was a point we would need to get around before we could head almost due south. Our plan was to make it to Benton Harbor, and that would leave us only 50 miles to go across the lake on Thursday.
About mid morning the lake started to kick up a bit, and by noon it was rolling pretty good (about 1 to 2 footers) with winds out of the southwest. The good news was our heading put these waves on our starboard bow, and we could get over the top of them without too much trouble. It was a little bumpy, but nothing that was all that uncomfortable. It was too rough though to make lunch, so I decided to stop in Holland to get some fuel, and have a chance to make a sandwich while we did so.
After fuel, and lunch, we headed back out to the lake, and it hadn’t changed much. NOA weather predicted the winds to change from the southwest to the west, and then later from the north. That was good news for us for our trip to Benton Harbor but could be bad news for our trip across the lake. In fact what they predicted did happen, but while the winds were shifting they became almost calm, and the lake went from choppy to almost smooth by the time we got to Benton Harbor.
We were about 10 miles out of the harbor when I asked everyone if they wanted to cross the lake now. The lake was almost dead calm, the weather was perfect, and it was only 63 miles to Hammond Marina. The chart plotter said it would take about 3 hours at the rate we were going, and it was only 4 PM so we could be there easily before dark. I explained the prediction of 15 to 20 mph north winds and said it could be very bumpy if that happened. We talked about it for a while, and then decided to stop in Benton Harbor, and head across in the morning.
We tied up at our slip at Pier 33 Marina about 5, and after getting settled Terry and I went in to the show room to look at the new boats they had on display. We ended up talking to one of the sales guys, and he offered to take us into town and drop us off at a restaurant he recommended, so we headed back to the boat to let the girls know, and we left about 6:30.
Dinner was fine, but nothing special, and we walked about a mile back to the boat rather than get a taxi. The cold front had definitely come through. The winds had changed, and were blowing from the north, and the temprature had dropped several degrees.
I think we all fell asleep thinking about the winds, hopping they would diminish, and wondering how they would effect us the next day. I know I did.

Thursday…

It was windy and cold when I got up. The winds were a little lighter than the night before, but not much. The sky was clear; so there would be no rain, but I had a feeling the lake would not be our friend this morning. I decided we would drive from inside this morning because it would be too cold with the winds and a temperature of 58 degrees. Our plan was to leave early so we could at least take advantage of lighter winds in the early morning.
We untied the lines a little before 6 AM. It was still dark out, but the sky was starting to get a little lighter. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a railroad bridge to open so we didn’t get to the lake until about 6:30.
The minute we hit the lake we all knew we should have crossed the day before. We were no more than out of the breakwater and a wave hit our starboard bow and lifted us in the air, and threw us sideways. I hit the throttles hard and made a hard left to get the boat straight and tried to get us in sync with the waves. I fought it for a while and then finally settled in on about 1750 RPM’s, which is about 18 to 20 mph. This may seem fast is heavy seas, but it took this kind of speed to keep up with the waves.
The next 3 hours seemed like an entire day. The waves were averaging 3 to 5 feet, and at times they were averaging 4 to 6, and occasionally someone threw in a rouge wave that was much greater than that. One time Deb was sitting behind me and we went over a wave, and fell into the trough after it, and we looked out the port side of the boat to see the crest of the wave over the top of the boat. (As I write this I am getting help from Terry to make sure I don’t exaggerate) I never felt we were in any real danger because the boat handled things fine, but I sure wanted to be in a lot of other places besides where we were.
After getting pounded for 3 hours, and over 50 miles we reached the Hammond Marina. We were about to go in when Terry said, “Hey, it’s only 8:30 Chicago time, why don’t we head for Harborside?” We talked about it for a minute or so, and decided to go for it. I felt great about the decision because I was very concerned about getting into the Hammond Harbor. It has a narrow entrance, and with the waves I was trying to figure out I would get this done. Going to Harborside meant heading into the Calumet Harbor, which is large, and has a great breakwater to protect the entrance.
It was great to get inside the Calumet and feel the calm waters. We made our way through the channel, and although this is a very industrial area, and it has bad smells everywhere we were glad to be here.
Everything was going great and we were making good time, but when we got to the Lockport Lock we had a couple of problems. The first thing that happened was they were working on the lock, and we had to wait about an hour or so. We finally got in, and ended up tying up to a barge inside the lock. I shut down the engines to wait for them to drop us down, and when the lock opened and I went to start the engines, the starboard engine wouldn’t start. It seemed like the starter wouldn’t engage. So after trying a couple of things, we limped out of the lock with one engine.
With only one engine, we went the 5 miles or so through Joliet, and into the Brandon Road Lock. It was a little tricky getting into the lock, and tied against the wall, but we made it. While I was in the lock I called Detroit, and set up for them to come to Harborside today, and we left the lock with still only one engine, and made the final 7 miles to Harborside, and got here a little after 5.
Today…as we sit here this morning Terry and I need to clean the boat, and I am waiting for the mechanic to get here to look at the engine. If everything goes well, we’ll be out of here early tomorrow morning, and we should be back in Ottawa by noon.
5000 miles behind us.

BK