Michigan: Saugatuck to South Haven

Day: 63
Travel Time: 3 hours
NM Today: 20
NM Total: 1405

We watched for a weather window to let us out of Saugatuck and found our opportunity at 9:00 which got us into South Haven just before noon.  The seas were topsy-turvy but not bad.  In fact Clark made a comment later about the fact that I was reading my Kindle while being rocked around. Hey, a person gets bored doing nothing, and after I set the waypoint for the straight run from port to port, I had nothing else to do.

Entry to South Haven Harbor

The lighthouse configuration at the entry to South Haven strongly resembled that of Saugatuck with the red "chopped off" lighthouse on our starboatd side and the green / white striped lighthouse on the port.  The following seas gave us a shove into port.  Clark says he has a rule of thumb, "when the waves are bigger than my wake, I apply speed to control the boat even in a no wake zone."  That rule applied today coming in the inlet.

Quaint, Downtown South Haven 

We decided that our first order of business today was grocery shopping.  About a mile or so out of town we found a shopping center with Meijers groceries, next to a large, daily farmer's market, and a Walgreen's. The last two towns we stopped at had little to offer in the way of groceries, so I was thrilled to walk into something the size of a Walmart with just about everything I needed and more.

Here I am coasting down the hill back to the marina
with my backpack full of goodies

We ended up making the trip to the food stores two times - one for the grocery store and one for the farmer's market shop.  Poor Clark, I loaded both our backpacks both times, but his holds a lot more and when loaded weighs a lot more.  Luckily the ride back to the boat was mostly downhill.  We got back a lot quicker than we went.

After we got the groceries stowed enough that the cold food wouldn't go bad, we set out a third time (this time on foot) to walk around town and see what the shops had to offer.  I have been looking for a new sleeveless shirt for the hot weather we are experiencing now, and I found one.  It cost more than I wanted to pay, but I bought it because it was convenient to do so.  Most of the stores in town have already swapped out their summer stock for their fall stock, so if I had needed a sweatshirt / hoody, I would have been all set.

Clark stopped to take a picture of the
obligatory description of the town's history
(Sea Moss is in the picture facing the empty slip)

With all the food we bought we decided that tonight we should dine out, so we moved our table to the cockpit and ate alfresco on Sea Moss.  It was so much cooler than the salon, and the scenery was prettier too.  Fortunately the lack of bugs allowed us to enjoy our meal to the utmost.

Dining Out on Sea Moss

Following the Looper Trail is very interesting in that we repeatedly see people we have met before even when many days or weeks may have passed since last we met.  Today I met Melinda and Bob from Melinda B, which is very interesting because I have been hearing Melinda B on the VHF radio or referred to by other boaters while chatting for weeks.

After dinner we decided to walk back into town to hit the ice cream shop, and on the way, I suggested we pop over to introduce ourselves to Melinda B.  We had a nice chat, and Melinda pointed out that Knot Home is also here in South Haven but at the marina across the water from us.  Somehow we'll have to figure out how to get over there to say hi.  We last saw Knot Home in Mackinac Island when we were leaving and they were staying for two more days.

We also met some non-loopers today (Sherry and Dave) who are down a couple of slips from us on a friend's boat.  Turns out they own a house on the intra-coastal waterway in South Carolina.  They gave us their contact information and told us to look them up when we pass by their house which is directly on the water.  (Sherry came over and took the dinner photo above for us.)

The weather is looking ugly tonight with a thunder lightning storm on the way, and high winds and rain tomorrow.  We are staying put here in South Haven for 2 nights and most likely for 3 until the bad weather and high winds clear out.  It's looking like Friday will be our next travel day to get closer to Chicago.