Looping NZ Style: Northport to Frankfort

We're on the road again....we tend to sing that song as we leave our anchorage or dock, and head off into the blue yonder.
Today, the blue yonder was not to be. Grey yonder, if you could see further than your nose, for most of the journey.

The alarm went off at 6am, per usual, on our leaving day, but it was black outside still. We stayed in bed a few minutes longer, before going upstairs to read the weather forecast for the day. Nothing had changed from last night, so we proceeded to take all the necessaries off the dock...power, water, ropes, etc and left just on 8am. We did sit quietly and have breakfast and coffee before we did all that though. Most necessary to have a routine, I'm afraid!
As I sit here (10pm) in the Frankfort Harbor, rocking around as all the fishing boats come back in from their late afternoon expeditions, I am also enjoying a cup of tea and some pineapple cake, which I took from the freezer, after dinner.

I made Spag Bol, tonight. Spaghetti Bolognese, with real pasta spaghetti instead of Zucchini Spaghetti, like I normally do. There was a good reason for this....we needed more food for dinner. Out lunch was rather scant, in the rolling Lake, so we didn't eat much at that time...

Back to leaving.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Northport, and would love to go back by road, if time allows. We will have to see if we can get a weekend rental from Enterprise, I think.
We have been on a bit of a push to get to Ludington, as our friends from Houston, Katie and Dean Calkins are there for family and class reunions, this week/end. We really want to connect with them, but rather at the expense of seeing other places. We wouldn't normally do that, but Katie had surgery today...third time on the same shoulder, and we helped her with the second surgery in Houston, this time last year. We may not get to see them again for another year!

It takes a long time to get anywhere in a boat, but the road trip may only be an hour or two...four at the most. We can do this over a weekend. We would also love to go to Traverse City, which is at the bottom of Grand Traverse Bay....Northport is at the top!. We didn't have time to get to the bottom!:(

I took this photo last night just before the rain came down. The light was fantastic! The yachtsmen were in the process of lowering their sails before coming into the marina. They are outside the marina walls, here.

You can just see the yacht in the background...pregnant sky!

This morning, leaving the Marina. It had rained some of the night and everything was very soggy this morning. The bugs were everywhere and as a result, so were the spiders. The poop and the mess from the bugs is incredible. Im about to pull hair, over this one.

Adieu, Northport.

The water, leaving the marina was not too bad...however...as soon as we turned out into Grand Traverse Bay, the waves came up and the chop wasn't fun. We were getting water over the front of the boat, again. It doesn't look high in this photo, but 2-4 feet is more than enough for me. After we rounded the top of the peninsula, the waves took on a side-on chop and this action was even less fun. It is better for me to be captain, in these seas, so I took the wheel for the day. My tummy did required some dry crackers at one stage, last morning, but the lake dropped somewhat after that, and then the waves died to a steady roll....a side-on roll....hmmmm!

The waves were a 'swell', rather than breaking choppy kind. I don't know what is worse!!! The fog came in almost immediately after we left the marina. We had been warned that the fog might be heavy, but nothing prepared us for having to turn the radar on so we could figger out who was out there that we didn't want to run into. We were in a major shipping channel...well, slightly off to the side, but large ships and tows come up the lake, and we didn't want to encounter one of them in the fog.

The two triangles going past us on our starb'd side are two ships...not far away!

Through the fog we could just make out the famous sand hills at Sleeping Bear Point.

I'm not sure where this Light House was, but it looks fantastic through the fog...I think!:)

We make the final turn towards Frankfort..but we cant see a thing! Seriously...the radar said there were a ton of small boats coming out of the harbor, but we couldn't see any of them, so thick was the fog. We also didn't want to miss the harbor opening, and also not to get too close to shore and find ourselves in trouble in the shallows. We had been rather hugging the shore anyway.

Finally! We were pretty close to it though. No matter what the chartplotter or Radar say, it is good to eyeball that thing!

The entry to Frankfort Harbor.

When we first spied the light house, the fog lifted enough for us to see the entry and both lights...red and green!

Here is the red! on the starb'd side. Notice the tripod? I wonder if he was taking pics of the fog or waiting for it to clear?

We could see the channel, but not what lay beyond it...

and then suddenly, all was revealed! Frankfort Harbor. Safe haven! woohoo!

We had been motoring alongside these two Galleon for most of the journey...how did we know? We sure couldn't see them for the most part...One of them has AIS! and he showed up on our screen. They followed us into the harbor for the night.

Fog finally cleared around 4.30pm, and we enjoyed a lovely warm late afternoon.

Suddenly, all the fishermen took off from the boat ramp. Dozens of them...and as I write, at almost 11pm, they are all coming back into harbor, and rocking us!