The First Great Crossing

Arrival in Holland on Monday for 2 nights stay. What made this harbor extra special was being greeted by my good friend as we entered the channel to Lake Macatawa. She just happened to be at the beach with her Mom when we arrived. It was hard to say good-bye as we probably won’t see each other for a year =(.

Our activities in Holland included a bike ride to hardware store. I, Martha, pulled the hose out to clean the boat and unfortunately dropped the sprayer in the lake. Now we’ve each dropped something overboard (1 to 1). Hopefully, this doesn’t happen too often as it could get very expensive. Our other main activity was climbing Mt. Pisgah, a towering dune with 200+ steps to reach the top. The view from the top was worth every step.

Wednesday, August 24, we crossed Lake Michigan from Holland, MI to Kenosha, WI. The waters were calm and the 81 mile crossing was smooth and took 9.5 hrs at 9 miles/hr. Lake Michigan continued to show me its character, but this time its gentler side. At times the water was like glass. As we neared the Wisconsin side, the wind created interesting patterns on the surface of the waters. I was apprehensive about being so far from land, but we did it. Chalk one up for me for not letting FEAR win.

Fun Fact: we had a hitchhiker who joined us about 20 miles form Kenosha. A little yellow bird, maybe a Finch, flew in the pilot house door and couldn’t seem to find his way out. Tim finally caught the bird and placed him in the cockpit. He seemed to rest for awhile, but then the allure of the bugs (bugs & spiders are part of boating) around our boat filled his belly. We decided that having a bird as a pet on our boat would be the best bug/spider deterrent.

We plan to be in Kenosha for a week, so will update you later on the interesting things we explore in this city.