Three Quick Trips - Suttons Bay, Harbor Springs, St. Ignace

As much as they hated to see us go, we finally left the Duncan Clinch Marina in Traverse City to continue our cruise. Our Go-Fast neighborss waved goodbye and wished the best of luck to "Crash" as we pulled out of the slip.

Not that we went far. We revisited Suttons Bay (about 20 miles) to anchor again. But this time we buttoned up Meridian tightly so we wouldn't end up with an aft full of bugs. After a fairly uneventful anchoring (no grounding, no boats fleeing in fear, no sailboats being rowed around), we settled down for a relaxing overnight stay.


Here's a photo of Meridian anchored off the Sutton's Bay public swimming beach. We didn't notice at the time, but it appears to be "bathing suits optional" :-)

In the morning we weighed anchor (and learned the anchor has been eating too much ice cream -- it's gotten pretty heavy) then headed off for Harbor Springs.

We've visited Harbor Springs before and Bernie was looking forward to visiting the Woolly Bugger Coffee Shop for one of their Lake Effect coffee drinks. It was as good as she remembered it. We also stopped by the Touring Gear bicycle shop to have them do a quick check of her bike, post-accident, to make sure everything was working OK. They did and we then took an 8 mile ride along Little Traverse Bay. It was great to be able to ride again. (A side note, Bernie stopped in at the Touring Gear after the ride to let them know that everything was working OK on the bike. When she told them that we had done a short ride, the first thing they asked was not "How did the bike work?" but "How did you do?" That's a sign of a great bike shop!) As we left Harbor Springs to head for St. Ignace, the Harbor master radioed us to wish us safe travels.

And we needed those good wishes! The trip to St. Ignace was rougher than expected. The wave direction was not in our favor and Meridian felt the need to slam down on all the waves. It made for a very long 55 mile trip. For an smoother ride (and to get the trip over as quickly as possible), we actually went much faster than our normal 7.5nm speed. Oh it hurts to see what high speeds do to our gas gauges. Even at the higher speed, the ride was so rough that the refrigerator door opened. Luckily we noticed it early on and the only things lost were a carton of eggs and a half pint of blueberries. However, smashed eggs and crushed blueberries are a pain to clean up. For the record, our refrigerator has never popped open during a trip -- even last year's infamous Frankfort Trip. And we have, previously, tied up the refrigerator door but we weren't expecting such a rough trip. LESSON LEARNED: Always secure your refrigerator door.

There's only one remedy for that kind of run and that kind of clean-up: ICE CREAM. And Bentley's B-N-L Cafe is the place in St. Ignace to get that!

Meridian in the St. Ignace Marina, with Mackinac Island in the background.


On Thursday 7/10 we left St. Ignace for Les Cheneaux Islands, a short trip of about 25 miles.

Last year's related posts: Harbor Springs, Michigan - Just a Short Bike Ride in St. Ignace - A Stroll over the Bridge ... Episode 1 - A Stroll over the Bridge ... Episode 2