Love your updates, OP

How many years of training/learning were necessary before you felt confident enough to take on this adventure?

Interesting question......

I have had several different boats in my lifetime. Small sailboats, hobie cat , small fishing power boats, large trimaran sailboat, etc....
Was a frequent guest aboard several friends larger boats and absorbed what I could.

I read a lot. Took the available State and CGAux courses...but those are pretty basic.

I started a high school sailing club and trained a few hundred kids over the years. That helped sharpen my own skills.

But I would say most of my own learning took place through just being out on the water in a variety of situations and learning what did and did not translate into good outcomes.

Today you have access to tons of good resources online , lots of good quizzes and tutorials on boating and safety as well as multiple certification organizations and tests. Dig in and find out what you can.

I always say You Don't Know What You Don't Know.

But you CAN reduce the amount that you don't know and CAN prepare for a LOT of the unknowns by being cautious, conservative and constantly aware of your surroundings.

Lot's of folks go from couch Captains to being out here on the Loop. It is within reach of most motivated folks. Its sometimes a bit complicated but its not rocket science either.

Good starting point is to dive into Chapman's Piloting ! Great overall resource for all things boating !

That is a good question to ask.

Yes we have used mooring balls. They can be pretty handy !

I use them especially when the mooring field is serviced by a water taxi service ! Makes the whole thing really easy and convenient ! Pull up, clip in and then the taxi service takes you ashore to restaurants or whatever without even having to use the dink !

Mooring fields can be kinda crowded sometimes but most are well laid out and work well. A few fields have had wake issues or rolling swells. Definitely more so than in a slip in a marina but not bad.

Mooring fields are typically a third or a quarter of a marina slip. Typical mooring ball costs $25 to $60. Some fields have an online pay by card system. Some require you to make payment when the dockmaster comes around in his boat.

Almost all fields want to pre-assign a particular numbered ball.....but the best ones let you select your mooring ball of choice and then notify and confirm with them afterwards.

We....and most other experienced boaters...use a bridle to attach to the mooring ball pendant. It allows for better "give" if there is surge....plus if the other boats are attached in a similar fashion then everyone's boats will likely respond similarly to winds and currents.

I use a beefy soft shackle for my bridle to pendant attachment. The soft shackle ( like has become popular in off roading) is uber strong and easier than a stainless shackle and since it is soft, less likely to ding or chip the boat.

And DO NOT attach directly to the top eye on a mooring buoy. It is not designed for that.....although some folks do.....kinda like seeing someone fishing with an open face spinning reel ON TOP of the rod and the guy cranking backwards.

When we first were going to use a mooring ball early on the Loop, my wife had never hooked a ball before and she was quite nervous. But afterwards she said she found it actually very easy. The pendant is usually about 8 feet or so with a small buoy float on it. The end of the pendant has a spliced metal thimble.. This is where you connect your bridle to..

The bow person needs to help guide and direct the helmsman up to the pendant....use the boat hook to grab and raise the pendant out of the water and attach the prearranged bridle line to it.. Important not to overshoot the ball or put any stress on it while bowperson is making the attachment.

And you are correct as to the distribution of mooring fields. We found them common through the Gulf Coast. Florida and up the East Coast. Far fewer since then.

As to compared to anchoring....I see it as just a different thing altogether. Marinas are for ease of access to facilities and a real stable stay. Balls allow use of the marina facilities and access to towns amenities but need to use your dink or taxis to do so. Anchorages are ideal for Solitude and peace and quiet....but if you need to get ashore your dink is your transport.

My favorite mooring ball field was in Annapolis !!! That harbor is just set up soooo well. Lots of water taxis a phone call and 2 minutes ! Everything close at hand. And sailing races with the sailboats darting and dodging right through the mooring fields ! Awesome place !

We had our first Aggie contact on the Loop !

If you recall from much earlier in this thread , snowaggie offered to to meet up if/when we passed through Leland, Michigan.

Well today was that day !

Although it is a chilly rainy day here, snowaggie and his wife came down to the marina and we had a fun talk onboard !

It was good to see some Aggie gear being displayed and I loved being able to use "Howdy" again !

Nice of them to stop by to say hi to us nomads.

I know how TexAgs is.....so if I don't post a pic it didn't happen....foggy lens with the rain....but here ya go !

Good bull! Boy what we wouldn't do for a chilly rainy day here about now!!

Travel day - Northport to Leland.

Chilly overnight and morning. Was mid 50's. Calm with winds predicted to fill from southeast.

Did engine prechecks about 600 am. Made lines ready to easily cast off. Shut down all power on boat ( I call out to wife "Making it a dead boat!" ) and shut down shore power. Turn engine start battery to "ON". Start engine....set throttle to 1200 rpm to bring up to temperature. Watch voltmeter slowly climb up to 13.8 ish. Oil pressure good. Water temp slowly begins to climb. All looks good.

Turn back on essential boat 12volt circuits...Pilot House Instruments, Bow Thruster, Refrigerator and Bilge Pump.

Check chartplotter and other Instruments. Talk briefly with wife about maneuvering plan to leave dock and marina...time to go.

Depart smoothly. Wife begins pulling and stowing 4 fenders even before we are out of marina. I put in a couple initial waypoints. We're off.

Smooth calm waters with a sunrise in clear skies at 630 am is such a satisfying way to begin a day. Today was one of those !

Front with rain and wind is forecast for today around noon. We have about 26 miles to cover before then. With starting up and the slow down to approach the destination marina and dock, I plan on averaging about 6 mph. Budget 5 hours time. Make note of time and jot down engine data. Calculate ETA at three waypoints. Make pencil notes of same on paper chart.

Route today goes east a couple miles from Northport. Rounds three red buoys before heading north up around Leelanau Peninsula, turns west, then turns south to Leland. All told the ground distance from Northport to Leland appears to likely oy be 10 or 12 miles. But going up and around the point will take a lot more.

One odd thing today...up over the Peninsula there were 4 folks in parasails with a backpack motor and propeller flying about. I remember occasionally seeing them over beach at Galveston but these are the first we have seen on the Loop.

Swells are coming in from the north so they become a bit more pronounced as we lose the protection of Leelanau Peninsula. It is a pleasant rhythmic up and down. Good speed of about 6.5 knots.

We can watch the building clouds sliding in from the west and can make out curtains of rain falling in the distance out over open Lake Michigan. Its definitely moving our way. But we should beat it into Leland.

By 830 we are under the clouds and the sun is gone for today. The Michigan shorline is big steep sandy cliffs along this stretch. Deep 200 foot plus waters here.

Leland harbor has a big breakwater and a channel that shoals every year. Charts show 2 1/2 to 3 feet but it has been dredged recently. Contact marina via radio to confirm...yep...8 to 10 feet now.

Reach breakwater mouth about 1030...rain getting close but not an issue.

Dockmaster gives us our slip number and some directions....make a smooth docking and hook up 50 amp shorepower again. Shut down and record hours and data. Do post trip engine and systems checks...record in logbooks...all good.

Rain begins !

Check my texts...today a visit from snowaggie is planned. Our first Aggie contact since we left Texas back on Halloween !

Today was just a regular good normal day !

Thanks for sharing your adventure tailg8r. Your preparedness, knowledge and attention to detail are inspiring and likely a reflection of the type of educator you were. Respect for both you and your wife. First thing I check on my phone every morning are updates on this and the inconseavable thread.

Thanks for the comments...Yes , we were both "Planners" and took our calling to teaching Very seriously.

Sunday travel day ....Leland to Frankfort

Sunday was going to be our only travel window this whole week according to the weather forecasts. This week Lake Michigan is expected to get waves in the 6 to 8 foot range ( weather service forecasts on Friday and Saturday were actually cautioning about possibilities of 13 footers this week ! )

So while Sunday was hardly ideal, I felt we needed to make the 40 mile jump down to Frankfort while we could. There is no place in between Leland and Frankfort, so it is a commitment once you get out on the water.

Forecast began as 1s and 2s with North winds. Morphed into 2s and 3s with northwest winds...that Western component bringing in more beam seas than what I would like. But doable.

Large 75 foot sailboat was to leave just prior to us departing....but...it grounded right in the Leland harbor exit ! Stuck. Took several minutes but was able to free itself and backed up returning into marina to check for any damages. I'm sure it has like about 6 to 8 foot draft. Idk what the result was. We only need 3.5 feet so after they recovered we left.

Because of wind and wave combinations and arrangement of water depths and geography, I needed to steer a course for the first 4 to 6 miles basically bow on into the seas and winds. I then planned to turn southerly and let seas and winds ride on my starboard aft quarter for the rest of the day.

First hour beating into head seas was not pleasant. Harsh short snappy steep waves and spray. Not much fun. But after we clawed a few miles offshore I turned to port and the ride eased up significantly and we spent the next 5 hours riding a squirrelly roller coaster. Not much fun but doable.

Passed a number of HUGE sand dunes on our Port side. Huge. Look closely at a couple of the pics and you can see people walking the shorelines for scale comparison.

Rounded the last headland and worked down wind toward the Frankfort breakwater. Will wait out the weather this week in the marina.

Shortly after we docked at Harbor Lights marina, a really large yacht tied up 50 yards away. Ziggy. About 115 foot. Apparently owned by a Michigan car dealership chain guy. Google the yacht Ziggy if you are interested. Their "dinghy" is a 30 something Boston Whaler !

https://www.yachtsinternational.com/owners-lounge/threes-good-company

They take their fishing seriously up here !

I know about downriggers and cannonballs and planer boards and how to use them....but I am amused by just how many rods some of these guys have onboard and ready to deploy !

Check out a few examples ....

Yes. Correct. Those are Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore area.

Huge 450 foot tall dunes. Scenic area.

https://www.awesomemitten.com/sleeping-bear-dunes-national-lakeshore/

Salmon and trout are the main targets here. Seen a lot of salmon brought in and fileted.

So they have folks in safety orange hats and shirts at the bottom by the parking lot that tell everyone it's 1.8 miles to the water, have plenty of water and don't go barefoot. They told my wife since they started having those ambassadors there they've had a 70% decrease in rescue calls.

Such a gorgeous place. We only made it up the first two faces, nowhere close to the lake side.

Not meant at all to derail this thread.

This thread is fascinating. It reminded me of an adventurer I met early in my adult life. Dean Meeks was a Junction boy from Gatesvile who had to return home to help his family run a dairy. After he retired he visited his Air Force daughter in England, bought a boat and sailed it down to Africa and after a couple of failed attempts sailed it across the Atlantic. I hadn't known this until one day I asked him about using Levita Road NW of Gatesville as the landing strip for his plane so he told me about his ocean going adventure. I asked him what sea faring experience he had and he said he had sailed on Lake Belton a few times.

His daughter wrote a book about the adventure and actually called me before she did to ask what he might have told me. As a young man in Gatesville I had the reputation of cornering older men who had done something incredible and listening to their tales and someone told her to ask me because if Dean had told anyone it probably was me.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43243417

That's a lot of fishing rods ….. great pics

Significant wave and wind event on Lake Michigan this week !

We will NOT be traveling Wednesday or Thursday !

My typical go/no go decision for comfort and ease of travel is 2s and 3s.

This week has few windows with those parameters....

And Wednesday into Thursday has the potential for 16 FOOTERS !

A big nope from me !

Check out the forecast below ...

https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/Forecasts/FZUS63.KMKX.html

AgLA06 said:

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TailG8TR said:

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Significant wave and wind event on Lake Michigan this week !

We will NOT be traveling Wednesday or Thursday !

My typical go/no go decision for comfort and ease of travel is 2s and 3s.

This week has few windows with those parameters....

And Wednesday into Thursday has the potential for 16 FOOTERS !

A big nope from me !

https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/Forecasts/FZUS63.KMKX.html

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Could be fun!

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Cue Lt. Dan

"You call this a storm!"

I was thinking cue Edmund Fitzgerald.

Its gonna get pretty sporty for us.

Dockmaster making the rounds to check on lines and give advice.

Gales predicted.

Dockmaster has posted on his office wall ....

"It's gonna get western!"

Who's Gale? She sounds wild!

OP, I hope you're keeping your cigs dry. give us an update-

I need to see some pics of 12'-14' swells on a lake. That's wild!

Travel day Friday...Frankfort to Manistee, Michigan

Past two days were pretty windy and wild. Not gonna see any pics of it because we were cozy and comfortable in a rocking and rolling slip in Harbor Lights Marina.

Waves didn't reach teens but did reach 9 feet. Wind began to subside Thursday afternoon. Watched forecasts closely and left about 11 am on Friday.

As forecast, 3s from northwest became 2s from west northwest by late afternoon. Nothing dramatic....as it SHOULD BE if you are doing this correctly and being cautious and conservative. Passages like this are where boring is a good thing.

Big Coastie presence up here.

Deep blue water over 100 feet deep most of the way but shallower water is a turquoise green.

A couple lighthouses along the way. Lots and lots of guys catching salmon today.

Will hang out in Manistee for several days. 100 hour oil and filters change time. There is an auto parts store easy walking distance so dropping off used oil is easy here. Swap out zinc engine anodes. Couple other chores.

Time to check out the local craft brew scene.

Preparedness ...

I carry a lot of spare/redundant parts onboard. I carry LOTS of tools.

I have the 2 8D main engine start batteries. Have 3 group 31 house batteries . Both sets charged off the 125 amp alternator. Have 600 watts solar tied in through MPPT controlled charger. Have shore based charger controller. Hove 5kw diesel gen set. Have portable Honda 2000 watt inverter gen set.......

AND.....
I Purchased two lithium battery packs designed for jump starts and have ac inverter capabilities. These two units are rated for 10 liter diesel truck starts. Hold charge for 6 plus months. These were for the SHTF "just in case" situations....

Today had a chance to use one of them.

This area of Michigan has loads of small fishing boats......and several of dubious care and maintenance.

Guy in the marina with a pretty sketchy unit tried a few times to fire up his bow rider and then the dreaded click and silence. Asked him if he needed help. He says....Naw...just need to let the battery "rest" for a bit....he says he knew it was going to be hard to start back up after visiting the dockside pub...says he doesn't think his outboard is actually charging his battery. Has had difficulties before but always had his "buddy" to jump him. No buddy today....but refuses help and says 30 minutes and the charge will "rise back up" and he will be good to go.

Obviously 30 minutes later and nothing doing.

Knocks on the boat and asks for a jump...when he sees the small size of the jump pack I pull out of the locker he is almost laughing and doubtful. I assure him it is more than capable.

Connect the loaf of bread sized powerpack....turn the key...and voila !

I think I converted a few skeptics today as about half a dozen had collected around this guy in need.

If you have not seen these power packs...look into them. If you have seen them and wondered about them....go get one. Pretty slick units.

One charge good for multiple jumps/starts. Recharge pretty pronto too and easy to tuck away for emergency use. Great peace of mind.

Anyway.....pays to be prepared !