Leland, MI

(Wednesday Aug 1 - Dist: 30.4 mi; Avg Speed: 9.3 mph;
        Seas: 1 ft; TTT: 3:20 hrs)

One of my favourite spots in Leland, Rick's Cafe.  It is just so peaceful looking down the canal and watching the fishing boats return and the odd car go cruising by.  It was a great morning for cruising to get here; Traverse Bay and the Lake were quite smooth.  We played trawler for the whole trip. 

I am not sure what is going on here on Lake Michigan but every place that we want to go is full or overflowing.  We could not get into Charlevoix and Leland was full so we ended up in Northport.  Last night Leland was overflowing.  Boats were docked at the end of fairways blocking the two end slips, boats were rafted off other boats at all the T heads and there was even a boat tied to a dredging barge in the harbor.  One reason is the stragglers from the Chicago to Mackinac race are still returning home and another is the Tiara (that is a boat manufacturer) rendezvous in Frankfort on August 8.  But still it is making things tough for us to move in between the bad weather days.

Regardless, we are having a good time.  Linda is even getting me into some of the shops.  I won't say what she has promised but we are enjoying ourselves.

We are starting to meet up with other Loopers and you know what happens when there are 2 or more boats at the same place.  We are hosting six others this afternoon; people from Florida, Kentucky and Michigan.

I am getting good at BBQ'g fresh fish.  We had some Lake Trout today and some smoked fish yesterday.  We are eating and enjoying fish so often that one would think that we are very healthy eaters.  They are obviously not aware of the cinammon buns from yesterday or the bag of kettle corn that Linda brought home today from the farmers' market.  As for our stock of wine, we finished our first 10 litre bag the other day.  

A few random photos from Leland.  Next update from Frankfort, I hope.