Latest Update

Well the end of August is fast approaching and we are still on Lake Michigan. We are presently huddled down in Manistee waiting for the weather to calm down so that we can continue our trek to Chicago. With a bit of luck we can get to Chicago before the lake freezes over.

We arrived here on Wednesday evening and will be lucky to get moving again by Sunday. The wind has remained above 15 with gusts over 30 and the Lake is running over 6 feet. We are doing this for fun not survival.

August has been a very exciting month for us as Julia and Evan presented us with our third grandchild, Isabelle Marcele Campbell, who arrived on the 11th at 6:41 AM. Isabelle was Evan’s grandmothers’ name and Marcele was Julia’s grandmothers’ name. All three are doing great.

We drove back to Massachusetts on the 11th to meet the newest member of our family and we arrived back in Michigan on Monday. Tuesday we were delayed again by weather in Leland and were not able to leave until Wednesday morning.

Stay tuned for progress updates.

It has been 11 days since the last update and we have been to several interesting places. We spent a few days on the Canadian North Channel at a couple of spectacular anchorages.

We returned to the US on July 30th and cleared customs at Drummond Island, MI, Since then we have been to DeTour, MI, Cedarville, MI, Hessel, MI, St. Igance, MI, Mackinac Island, MI, Harbor Springs, MI and now are in Petoskey, MI. All of these northern Michigan towns are summer resort communities similar to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. While the Massachusetts resorts have homes from the 1700’s Michigan’s date from the 1800’s.

We have found out that the eastern shore of Lake Michigan has few natural harbors however the State has built “Harbor’s of Refuge” about every 30 miles along the coast. The marinas are first class and charge $1.20 per foot.

The lake is very impressive and the waves can come up very quickly giving you a nasty chop. The weather has been chilly with rain today and predicted for tomorrow. They are calling this the year of no summer up here. Where is Al Gore when you really need him?

We finally have a new computer so here are some pictures, in no particular order of places we have been. We have traveled 1637 NM, about 25% of the trip so far. All is well