Weather Day at Pere Marquestte Lake (Ludington)

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

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 132 - August 10, 2017

When we checked SailFlow and Marine Weather, we knew today was NOT a travel day! Not only were the winds and waves too high, but the wind was blowing from the south, so if we traveled south, we would be taking it on the nose, so we decided to stay put! 

How to pass the time? Patty usually reads her Kindle or knits when we have nothing else to do.  I decided to take Baxter for a long kayak paddle on Pere Marquette Lake today. Yes, we both wore our PDFs and I had a handheld VHF! It was easy going with the wind to the Municipal Marina about two miles away, but NOT so easy coming back. I was facing some waves INSIDE Pere Marquette Lake that were breaking over the bow! It seemed like I was standing still when I was paddling hard against the wind. Baxter climbed into my lap, which made it even more difficult to paddle. I had some serious doubts about my ability to get us back, had I bitten off more than I could chew? I persevered, since there was no choice! Finally we got back fine once I got to the more protected part of the lake where we are anchored!

In the afternoon, another Looper boat, Eagle Heart, anchored near us. John and Susan are from Duncan, B.C.,  a city Patty and I had ridden through on our six day Vancouver Island scooter trip in the summer of 2016. They confirmed that we had made the right decision to stay put. They said it had been nasty out on the big lake!

Eagle Heart, John and Susan's Taiwanese trawler

John and Susan had invited us for drinks in the evening, but they went to visit a friend at the municipal marina, and they were quite late getting back. To make matters worse, a thunder shower broke out shortly after they returned. I called to suggest we take a rain check on drinks. But the rain stopped, and John came over to get us in his dinghy (MUCH better than our paddling over in our kayak).  

I think we went over to Eagle Heart about 8:00 or 8:30 p.m., and we were not delivered back to Daydream until about 11:00 p.m.!  Wonderful conversation, and a bit of wine and Canadian Whiskey were involved! Very fun and interesting people, and I hope we see more of them along the way!