Day Two in New Buffalo

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 142 - August 20, 2017

We really did not expect to hear from Ed from New Buffalo Marine Services today since it is Sunday, although we hope to hear from him tomorrow. We have one more day booked, and I expect we are going to need to extend our stay, and it would be good to know for just how long!

In the morning, we went uptown shopping. Everything here is within a couple of blocks of the marina, which is really handy. We made stops at the hardware store, the pharmacy, the marine supply store and the grocery store. At the hardware store, I bought some higher quality marine grade utility cord that I use for fender whips. At the pharmacy, Patty got a med that she has been looking for. At the marine supply, I bought a fender to replace the one we lost at St. Joseph and another dock line to replace the one that frayed and snapped at St. Joseph. You would think with all the grocery shopping we have done we would be well set, but such is not the case! When we inventory what we have, we realize we are out of, or nearly out of, this or that or something else! 

By the afternoon, the marina, which had been full yesterday and this morning, had really started to empty out! 

Mostly empty slips in New Buffalo Municipal Marina on Sunday afternoon

In the afternoon, I took Baxter for a long recreational paddle up the Galien River, which is the river that flows though New Buffalo. As soon as we passed the boat ramp, there were very few homes and they were set well back from the marshy shoreline. I was looking to see if there were any potential anchorages up the river, but I did not see a place that looked suitable.

Marshy shore of Galien River with nice relection

Marsh up close!

The Galien River goes on and on, and we probably paddled a couple of miles before turning around. There were quite a few other kayakers exploring the river, and they all smiled at the way Baxter sits up front on the skirt and tubes in his life jacket! At one point, we passed a bunch of ducks, and it looked to me for a moment like Baxter was contemplating jumping to go after them. That would NOT have been a smart move on his part! I grabbed his leash and fortunately he backed down into the kayak.

The New Buffalo Municipal Marina sits right at the end of the channel into the Galien River, with the slips along the left side and end of this Google Earth screenshot. We are about halfway down the slips on the left side. 

Screenshot of Google Earth view of New Buffalo Municipal Marina

Daydream in Slip 11 at New Buffalo Municipal Marina

As you can see, there are fairways on both sides lined with condos with slips (left side) or just slips (right side).  The condos are kind of cookie cutter buildings, but the setting is hard to beat!

Condos with slips adjacent to Municipal Marina.

All in all, if we have to hang a week or so waiting for repairs, this is not a bad place to do it!