St. Joseph Free Wall!

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 138 - August 16, 2017

Conditions could not have been better for our 44 mile cruise from Kalamazoo Lake to St. Joseph. Even though the wind was nominally from the south, the wind speeds were so low, single digits under 5 mph, that it was not a factor. There were no waves or even appreciable swells, and we made very good time! Here is our track.

Screenshot of Kalamazoo Lake to St. Joseph track

We had received some advice that the Free Wall at St. Joseph might not be appropriate for a small boat such as a C-Dory, but when we got there, it seemed perfect, provided one used a trick we had learned at Mackinac Island when tying to pilings or posts - fender the post, not the boat! We ended up doing one of each. Here is what the Free Wall looks like between the Railroad Swing Bridge and the foot of State Street (there is more free wall between the foot of State Street and the Blossomland Bridge, but there is no concrete sidewalk past the foot of State Street).

St. Joseph Free Wall

So you can see that unless you have a lot of really big ball fenders, the Free Wall could present a bit of a problem! So, these two photos show our solution, which is working great.

The rear fender is on the aft cleat, with the stern line around the post and a spring line to
the rear preventing the boat from moving forward and moving the fender off the post

The front fender is on the post, since there is no place on the boat it could
be deployed that would line up with the post

The result is that Daydream is safely fendered with just these two fenders and held basically square by the stern dock line and the spring line. The bow line is loosely tied to yet another post farther forward. Here is the result seen from above.

Daydream on St. Joseph Free Wall.
There is barely a foot between the top of the gunwale and sidewalk, so easy step off!

The last thing I needed to do to complete our setup was to connect to the free 30 amp power. There is only one power post with two thirty amp sockets all along the whole Free Wall, but since we are the only boat here, it was not a problem to position ourselves directly opposite the power post! We carry the standard big yellow shore power cord, but early on, we started using a standard heavy duty extension cord with 30 amp adapters for each end, because it is about three times as long as the shore power cord and we do not have any current draw that exceeds the capacity of the extension cord anyway!

Free 30 amp power post at St. Joseph Free Wall!

The Free Wall is below a very nice park called the Margaret B. Upton Arboretum, which has a lot of nice benches, statues and sculptures, most of which are "In loving memory" of some spouse or parent. The one amenity the park lacks, however, is a public restroom. 

We asked a couple at the park if there was a grocery nearby, but the closest "real" grocery store is about two miles away, so we decided to hold off on a shopping trip until we get to New Buffalo, where everything is very close to the marina. Patty and I did, however, walk up to the nearby Mini Mart to see what they carry, and it turns out it is a very well stocked liquor, wine and beer store, with a small area of canned and packaged goods and some other household items. We replenished the bar stock, and I bought two four packs of my new favorite Michigan beer, Bell's Two Hearted IPA, which is very, very good.

Since today is my birthday, we thought briefly about getting a Hostess Cupcake and a bunch of small candles, but we did not see how we could fit 71 candles on that little cupcake, and we settled for fudge from Grand Haven! 

We are here for three nights due to the forecast winds on Lake Michigan, and with the Free Wall and the free shore power, it is about as good a place as we could hope for without going to a marina!