No Travel
As expected the winds have been rough starting yesterday, through the night, and all day today. Constant squeals from the crushed boat fenders, loud thumps when we hit the pilings as well as being abruptly jostled in bed when the boat collided with the sides of the slip led to very little sleep last night for me. The boat pulled and bucked all night long and even managed to pull lose one of the lines we had tied from the pilings to the back cleat.
We readjusted our lines and actually loosened them as Clark was concerned the yanking on the boat cleats would pull them right out of the fiberglass. Just before lunch Clark suggested we take a walk out to the lighthouse. He had seen a boat leave the marina headed for open water and wanted to see what that boat was heading into. As we walked along the inlet, Clark pointed out that it was a straight cut in from the lake allowing the water to pour right in with nothing to monitor its flow. The waves traveling down the canal made a sine wave on the side wall.
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| Wave Action at South Haven inlet |
As we walked out towards the end of the pier, we saw two different boats come in from Lake Michigan. The waves were so very high that they picked the boats up and carried them into the inlet like the boats were on surfboards. Clark's "rule of thumb" on no wake zones came into action as we could see the boat pilots were keeping up their speed as they came in to continue to have some control over their path into the inlet. (Video of wave action and boat entering inlet can be seen at the blogspot website.)
Today, by the lighthouse pier, a red flag waved madly indicating the day as a High Hazard day for swimming at the beach. The wave action was wild. It made me wonder what it takes for the swimming area to be closed as it appeared quite dangerous. No lifeguards are on duty at the beach. It is strictly swim at your own risk. I saw one young boy having a grand time swimming alone within the prohibited 50 foot limit of proximity to the pier. What about the buddy system of swimming with another person, and where were his parents / guardians to watch out for him?
We had just heard of a rescue that occurred not ten minutes before we came out to the pier. Some young guys got in trouble swimming. Apparently, according to the rescuer we talked to, one of the boys was badly beaten up as he got thrown up against the pier. The man telling us the story said that the boys were very lucky and a few minutes difference could have meant a recovery and not a rescue.
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| Note the Red Flag flying behind the signage |
Signage at both Grand Haven and South Haven as well as other locations in Michigan surprised me stating that the pier structure was not designed for people to walk on it so continue at your own risk. I can't imagine a sign like that in New Jersey. In NJ it would say "Stay off" "Violators will be prosecuted" or something of a similar nature.
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| Yellow sign says "... at your own risk" |
I chickened out about 2/3 of the way down the pier, so I didn't make it all the way out to the lighthouse. It's not that the waves scared me or anything of that sort, but I didn't want to get soaked. I had on my good sneakers (big mistake on my part) and I didn't want to walk barefoot on the slippery pier as many others were doing. Also, as waves splashed up on the walls of the pier, folks got wet and, if not diligent, very wet.
Clark walked all the way out to the end, and unlike everyone else on the pier, he came back without a drop of water on him. I asked him how he managed to even keep his shoes dry, and he said it was done very carefully. I had tried to follow him, but I could feel the water starting to seep into my shoes so I slunk back to drier parts of the pier to await his return.
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| Waves splashing over the pier at the lighthouse |
We got back to the boat about an hour or so later, and I set to making lunch for us. I soon found that in the cabin I had trouble just standing my ground. Several times I found myself walking as if I had been imbibing way too much alcohol. Getting off the boat to go to the washroom became an act of daring-do as the boat moved in and out from the dock in rapid succession making it hard to judge when to step off onto the dock. Finally, about mid-afternoon we started to hear loud bangs. A fender strap had broken as a result of the constant pull, yank, pull on the lines due to the high wind / wave action, and the boat was banging up against one of the pilings.
That was the "last straw"! Clark called the marina office, told them we were starting to see boat damage from the slamming in the slip, and requested a move to the more-protected slip across from our assigned slip. Shortly after that we enlisted the help of Bob from Melinda B and Ron from Sea Venture to assist with lines so we could move over. With their help the move was slick as anything, and we were moved and settling in before you could say "Jack Sprat".
While we were putting ourselves back together following the move, the owner of the sailboat a couple of slips down came over to chat. He said, "I saw you rocking over there and wondered when you'd finally move over. You'll be glad you moved come tomorrow. They're predicting 9-foot waves." I told him I didn't have to wait until tomorrow to be happy as I was already happy we moved. The new slip made a world of difference, and the first thing I did after we got our lines secure was jump off the boat and hit the head! I was so happy to be released from being confined to the boat!
With the boat settled, we decided to go into town to visit the Michigan Maritime Museum. We were mistaken in its location and thought it was just up the street from us when in fact it was probably about a mile to walk there. We decided to walk over anyway. The admission was $8 per person, and we may sound cheap, but I have to agree with Clark that although they had several exhibits, the fee exceeded the value received. We did, however, get a personal tour of a replica of a War of 1812 warship.
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| Replica of Friends. Good Will. 1812 U.S. Warship |
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| Poster detailing history of Friends. Good Will. |
We concluded our tour of the museum just at their 5 o'clock closing time and decided to walk the extra block or so to go visit Al and Kaye on Knot Home. Unfortunately, they were "not home" so we didn't get to see them. We met Al and Kaye at Meldrum Bay in Canada, saw them again on Mackinac Island, and haven't seen them since. I had hoped to catch up to them and say hello. Maybe next time as I expect our paths will cross again on the river system.
I started making dinner shortly after we returned to our boat. While I did that, Clark was hanging upside down in the compartment in the back of the boat looking at the packing material around the rudder. He decided that the water we keep finding in the bilge is coming in through the packing and it needs to be tightened. Unfortunately, he needs two mammoth wrenches to do what he needs to do, and he doesn't have them on board or even back at the house. He tried to work with borrowed tools from Melinda B and Sea Venture, but after a lot of grunting and groaning, he decided he just couldn't get the leverage he needed to tighten it. We'll have to take a bike ride up to Autozone tomorrow to see if they sell the tools he needs.
Later, after dinner, the boat started to rock rather wildly once again. If possible, it seemed the winds and waves had picked up even stronger than earlier in the day. Boy oh boy was I glad we moved to the new slip. A couple of loud slams sent us out the door in a hurry to investigate. We couldn't figure out what part of the boat was hitting what, but we knew it sounded bad and couldn't continue without incurring some damage.
Clark decided he would "fix it" once and for all, and he pulled out one of our fender boards. He strapped the fenders to it and hung it over the side of the boat in place of the one fender that had been hanging there. Now, when the boat slams up against the piling it has a 4-foot long board to hit as opposed to a 15" fender target. Clark had 2 fenders attached to the fender board initially, but as the piling slammed into the middle of the board, I was afraid the board would break in half, so we put a 3rd fender in the middle to take the hits.
We are extending our stay in South Haven by yet another day as winds / waves tomorrow are expected to be as bad or worse than today. Looking at the wave action on Lake Michigan today made it easy to understand the maritime museum presentations on the number of boats that have gone down on the Lake over the years. I've seen hurricanes in NJ that caused less wave action!
Acts of nature can be truly awe inspiring. Earlier in the day I was mesmerized by the wave action at the pier. Tonight Clark captured amazing sunset pictures like the one below.
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| Sunset at the South Haven Municipal Marina |
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