[Rhodes22-list] sailing in Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Hi Jesse,

I’ve never sailed on Grand Traverse Bay; but, have visited all the ports of call in your story from land.  Did you make use of the Michigan Harbor of Refuge system?

I’m just getting back from a weekend camping trip with my Boy Scout troop.  We camped at Trinity Lutheran Church Camp on what used to be Wixom Lake.  As a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, I have access to the camp.  We had access to the lodge to use the bathrooms.  But, otherwise we stayed outside.  Friday night, we got sleet.  Saturday morning, the zipper on my tent was frozen!  Fortunately, a little pulling and working the zipper back and forth freed it up.  Saturday night was much warmer, it only got down to about 40 deg F.  We have several crossover Webelos and this was their first camping trip.  Everyone seemed to be prepared for the conditions and stayed warm.  I was very proud of them.  We did a lot of Tenderfoot and Second Class Scout rank advancement stuff.  After the older Scouts finished their basic classes in knife and axe use and campfire building, I took over and instructed them all in building a fire with soaking wet firewood.  I showed them how to find dry wood even though it had rained/sleeted the night before.  I showed them how to use the hatchet to cut into the dry heart wood on a piece of wet wood and chip off slivers of dry tinder and kindling.  Then, we had the new Scouts build a campfire with this wet wood.  Even my senior Scouts were impressed with how easy it was to get a fire going in these conditions.  I think they all learned a useful life skill.  Now, I’m back home and all my camping gear is drying in the basement.

Life is good!

Roger Pihlaja 
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 18, 2020, at 10:49 AM, Jesse Shumaker <jesse.laten.shumaker at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I put together a recap and some highlight photos of our sailing trip in
> Grand Traverse Bay at the link below.
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-XPDLxAJcuzvKa_3MJ7rwJ9JBhtzb8L_/view
> 
> I included links in that document to resources for anyone that might want
> to plan a trip in the area.  After reading the accounts of the adventures
> of others on this list, it inspired me to capture and share my trips.  Even
> if it's just me who looks at this in the future, I'll have something to
> look back on later and relive the trip on cold winter days :)
> 
> This trip was on a charter boat, but this area can be sailed by a R22 as
> well.  If you make it to the end of the document, a R22 does make an
> appearance.
> 
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-XPDLxAJcuzvKa_3MJ7rwJ9JBhtzb8L_/view?usp=sharing>
> Jesse Shumaker
> S/V Zephyr
> 
> 
>> On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 6:05 PM Jesse Shumaker <
>> jesse.laten.shumaker at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> My wife and I had sailing plans out west, but that has been rescheduled
>> due to the wildfires and resulting air quality.  I really feel bad for
>> everyone affected by that on top of everything else delivered by this crazy
>> year of 2020.
>> 
>> We swiftly changed plans and will be chartering a sailboat out of Traverse
>> City, Michigan
>> later this month.  We're actually going to be up there again in the middle
>> of next summer.  We have some family nearby that will be joining us on
>> board for part of the trip.  For this round we plan on spending most of the
>> time within Grand Traverse Bay and going as far North as Charlevoix or
>> possibly Harbor Point in Little Traverse Bay.  Next summer we would like to
>> make it over to Beaver Island if weather permits.
>> 
>> For the first day, we're going to hire a captain and practice docking and
>> other boat handling since this will be a bigger boat for us.  We had to go
>> with what was available on short notice but end of season discounts help.
>> It has IMF so it will be interesting to try that on a bigger boat.
>> 
>> Tentative plan:
>> Thursday  9/24 1 Captain - spend the night at Elmwood Marina in Traverse
>> City
>> Friday    9/25 2 Power Island & Sutton's Bay
>> Saturday  9/26 3 Northport / Old Mission Bay
>> Sunday    9/27 4 Charleviox / Harbor Point in Little Traverse Bay
>> Monday    9/28 5 Omena Bay / Ingalls Bay
>> Tuesday   9/29 6 Elk Rapids / Old Mission
>> Wednesday 9/30 7 Return to Traverse City
>> 
>> Would anyone on the list happen to be familiar with the area and have any
>> recommendations?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Jesse Shumaker
>> S/V Zephyr
>>