NOAA: ST JOSEPH to MANISTEE
"...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 5 AM SUNDAY TO 8 AM EDT MONDAY...
...WINDS...SOUTHWEST INCREASING TO 25 TO LOCALLY 30 KNOTS ON SUNDAY.
...WAVES...BUILDING TO 3 TO 6 FEET WITH LOCALLY HIGHER WAVES LIKELY."








I'm looking at Oval Beach. Everything looks good right now. Will look at it one more time in the morning. Will post if not going if forecast craps.

Who and where?
Probably Wolf lake for me. But if can make arrangement for my kid, I may try Michigan City, or St. Jo.
Anyone going with their kids to Michigan City or St. Jo?

Did I complain the other day about gusty wind at Wolf? Never again-the wind at Lake Andrea is the worst known to humankind ! Period!!!
Still I had a great day and kept my wife happy at the same time and the only mistake was trying to sail with the 86. That board is just too unstable for what seemed like 10-30 something mph brutal gusts every few seconds . From now on I'll use that board exclusively on Lake Michigan. On the other hand the AtomIQ did the job nicely with a 5.8 and even 5.2 for a while. I did a Duck on starboard tack successfully and I finally got a planing video of me. A GoPro is long overdue, but there is always something more important that I need and I keep puting it on hold. Anyway here is the today video shot on my wife's phone camera:

Let's play " Where is Waldo" Can you tell me what am I doing wrong in the screenshot from my video? I'll give you a hint: the wrong action makes my board to stop turning and stall.

Finally! Oval Beach goes off. Great to see eveybody. 8 of us on the water. More wind in the morning than forecast had Scott sailing on a 4.4. I've seen this before. Something about that initial heating lasts until about 11:00. Folks started coming out of the woodwork around noon. After the noon lull the day just got stronger. Sails ranged from 6.0 all the way down to 4.2 by afternoon. 5.8 with the 95L for me when I started in the noon lull. Stayed with it as the wind kept building until I was blown off the water in the late afternoon. I was too tired to rig down in the late afternoon when the Big Lake dropped the hammer.. Water was so warm it was the first time I could just wear Lycra for evaporative cooling and sun protection on the Big Lake. Great day and great to see everybody.

Holland Pier



14 of the day's 69 photos. Link for all of the day's photos at the bottom of post.































More of the Day's Photos Here

Thanks Reid for calling that one! Was long drive for one day but worth the trip. Good to sail with the locales and Jake from WI. I'm looking forward to North Westerly at South Haven, beer and cook out. Thanks for the hospitality!

Thank god for hot tubs! Just saying.

Where did you wind up sailing at, Manuel?

I was up in Holland for this, but with only a 7.5. I started alone on the water around 9:15 -- by 11:30AM I was blown off the lake and switched to a boogie board. By that time there were 9 kites up (5 skilled, 4 novices getting in varying degrees of trouble). What an awesome day.

I went to 63rd street beach.
I don't think Michigan was that windy. The Crib's reading were between 16 and 19 knts Good enough for me to plane. Indeed, it was a good day.

Holland was blowing 19 knots with gusts to 24 north of the pier. Sidebar current was 2 or 3 knots!