I've mentioned many a times before about my annual trip to beaver island. Usually we set sail from Charlevoix. This year we attempted to make the trip from home, Indiana. a little synopsis.
Friday: Departed 5:15pm made 35nm averaging 14.5 knots. this was our best sail. wind from south sailed a screaming broad reach all the way to sunset. slept on boat in Warren dunes.
Saturday: Sailed 13.5 hours. making 53.6nm light variable winds. changed direction many times through out the day. Eded up sailing into a beach just south of Saugatuck an hour after sunset. 4 knot average. long day. Slept under pavilion in park to dodge over night rain.
Sunday: more south winds building to 20 knots in the afternoon. Weset out early. 34 gybes got us 52nm by lunch. This was another great day. Had to pull off in port Sheldon to dodge a front coming though. we got very lucky here. not 10 min after we pulled up the beach there were 30 plus knot winds for a half hour! after we set pack out we were surfing up to 5 footers. we sailed unirig from grandhaven to Muskegon as we nearly pitchpoled right off grandhaven light. we pulled in early to quit while we were ahead. averaged 9.8 knts. we got a hotel in Muskegon. we thought we deserved it.
Monday: Sailed 63.3 nm our longest ever single day sail. Was a truly great sail averaging 7 knots for the first 8 hours. The trip was spoiled by losing wind and spending the next 2 hours trying to make the last several miles to shore. Landed at Ludington state park where the concession stand was serving pizza for 40 more minutes! Slept on boat.
Tuesday: nice wind in morning. then it died completely. we paddled into portage lake. where locals chauffeured us into town for food. slept on the boat. sailed only 27 nm in 6 hours. make the first 20nm in 2h 17m.
Wednesday: Winds were predicted to go north at 20 knts today. we sailed 25nm up to Frankfort where the winds hit.20 knots on the nose in 4ft seas. these were pretty miserable conditions. for those who are unaware waves on the great lakes have a much shorter wave length. especially when the seas go from flat to 4ft in a matter of 45 min. we pulled off in Frankfort and called it a trip. the next 36 hours had the same conditions forecasted. I would have liked to go on, but we had a good sail all the way.
Couple things to note.
We sailed exactly 300 statute miles. Averaging 5.9knts. a respectable average especially looking back at the hours of paddling.
I was worried about having issues finding beaches and locals having a problem with our camping especially in big towns. Everyone was very welcoming. No issues at all. Even the sheriff who woke us up in the middle of the night under that pavilion was happy to hear of our adventure.
No mechanical problems. lost 2 of the set screws on our harken blocks. borrowed one from one of the jib blocks to get by. the main is now pretty much toast. it was toast when we took off. Lots of the Mylar panels delaminating leaving the raw mesh exposed. We have a new sail, but reckoned we could get another 300 miles out of old one.
I'd like to retry sometime and you should all join me.
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Nacra 6.0 NA
Ogden Dunes, IN
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Beaver island... attempt.
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 01:07 PM
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 01:10 PM
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Ogden Dunes, IN
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 02:04 PM
Nice trip. Thanks for the write-up.
-Mike -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 02:16 PM
hell of a trip! -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 02:31 PM
Glad to hear of the welcoming locals. I didn't really have such luck in the Keys. Maybe I'll trailer up to the Great Lakes next time -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 02:36 PM
You should. I would wait until the lake isn't at record high water levels though as it is now. hopefully they'll drop a foot or so by next August.
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Ogden Dunes, IN
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 02:41 PM
just curious - why?
what extra challenges did this create? -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 03:07 PM
Historically the lake fluctuates 6ft. Right now its near its peak. 2012 it was near its record low. 2012 my beach in Ogden Dunes, IN had probably 150ft of sand between the dune grass and the water. Today most of that water is all the way up to the bluff. The widest part on our beach is like 30ft of sand. The same sad story exist on every inch of lake shore on all the great lakes. The problem is created by nothing other than large amounts of precipitation. I spent 10s of hours planning this trip scoping out prospective beach big enough for a beach cat. I would use Instagram and google images and sort by date to get the latest picture of what kind of sand people had. The big cities along the way all somehow seem to have plenty of beach still. also river outlets are an excellent source of sand. in 2012 however I could have just gone north without giving it any thought. the whole Michigan west coast is beach pretty much.
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Ogden Dunes, IN
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 03:16 PM
gotcha!
the challenges are that beach-able areas are less with higher water levels -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 04:43 PM
Have those two Harken cleat set screws, Kevin. Send me your address. Pete -
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 06:40 PM
PM sent. no need to go through any trouble though.
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Posted: Aug 26, 2019 - 09:41 PM
That’s a pretty good sail, in what, six days?
I’ve been following an English chap on the English Dart forum. He just sailed around England/Scotland, 2600 miles, in his little Dart 15, loaded with gear.
John O’ Groats, the North tip of Scotland is too cold of water for my liking, & I don’t own a dry suit.
I’ve taken my Dart 15 out & thrashed it in some pretty good waves, they are a surprisingly tough boat & only 230lb.
His blog is here,
urlhttps://mobile.twitter.com/liamthom
Edited by Edchris177 on Aug 27, 2019 - 08:33 AM.
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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
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Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 07:45 AM
- Yes
2600 miles is a lot of water. I suppose if you had the time though...
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Ogden Dunes, IN
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 08:39 AM
what set screws? -
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 08:40 AM
I like the idea of sailing somewhere. I think a huge majority of our sailing is within a few miles of launch. Yes, it good fun to just tool around home port, but I always enjoy stories such as yours, people heading off into unknown waters.
Of course you have to have the water, such as you do. I’m limited to about 400 sq miles, but have crossed the lake, in both directions, though it’s a max of 35 miles. My longest sail was across Great Slave Lake, 105 miles, but that was using a leaner.
I’ve often flown across L Michigan, that eastern shore does have lots of beaches.
That English chap made 70nm one day, which is pretty impressive for a 15’ Cat.
Looking at L Michigan surface temps, it seems there is quite a bit of variance. What sort of wet/dry suits are you using?
Do you see large temperature changes depending on wind direction?
Edited by Edchris177 on Aug 27, 2019 - 08:54 AM.
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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 11:24 AM
On one side of the main block lost both screws that hold the cam cleat for the main sheet. Luckily this happened when the winds were light.
Ed, 70nm is a great day. I like to think 100nm would be easily attainable someday if the stars aligned for conditions.
As for the temperature. The Nacra 6.0 is a very dry boat. I wore a swim suit and a long sleeve shirt and when the wind and waves were up I donned a windbreaker. I also bring water proof long johns like snow pants, but never wore them. The surface temp in August is low 70s all across the lake. When the wind blows hard, leeward shores will drop to low 60s due to what they call upwelling. At its peak surface temps in the south will get into the low 80s.
I'm with you, I love adventure sailing and exploring new waters. Speaking of sight seeing via plan, when I cross the pond last year that southern section between Ireland and England looked pretty inviting.
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 11:33 AM
Gotvha - yea i have lost a few of those in my day - reminds me i should probably check
I lived right there - well a little north of england but pretty close
I was stationed at machrihanish scotland (mull of kintyre from Paul McCartney's Wings band - Sir Paul has a farm there). I sailed a few races @ the Campbeltown Sailing Club while there too - pretty rough seas.
https://www.campbeltownsc…r-heading-for-n-ireland/
as a matter of fact - we had a seal team on base. they used this location for rough weather / surf training. These waters are COLD and the wind in above 50knots most of the year -
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 11:43 AM
"Departing cambletown loch" Those are very specific sailing instructions!
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Ogden Dunes, IN
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Posted: Aug 27, 2019 - 12:40 PM
haha - yea - i guess it could go very wrong if your not careful around there -
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Posted: Jan 29, 2020 - 08:15 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETIYRotdNrU
Here's a video my brother put together from the trip. Hope you enjoy!
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Nacra 6.0 NA
Ogden Dunes, IN
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