Gary Harkins
09/07/2011, Lake Michigan

These are the bluffs just south of Frankfort. When I "shot the gap" I did it from the Arcadia bluffs to Greenpoint. After several hours of flying I landed just south of the channel going into Frankfort.

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Gary Harkins
09/07/2011, Lake Michigan

This is the gap which used to be nearly impossible to cross in the early days of hang gliding.

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Gary Harkins
09/07/2011, Lake Michigan

This picture shows the bluffs near Arcadia. The next picture shows what we used to call "the gap" and the last picture shows the bluffs just south of Frankfort. In the earlier days of hang gliding it was considered to be quite an accomplishment to "shoot the gap" and soar both bluffs in the same flight. I was the first hang glider pilot to do that. I think that was in 1978.

We left the Frankfort docks at 0915 and headed out toward the channel and Lake Michigan. The waves were one to two footers, but the wind was almost nonexistent. I plotted a course for Big Sable Point. This is one of the easier legs. Frankfort to Big Sable is a straight line and puts you within about 8 miles of Ludington. From Big Sable it's a couple of miles due South to get around the point and then straight to the Ludington harbor. It was marginally good for motor-sailing so I put out the genoa. That gave us 0.2 knots additional speed at best. The wind increased the last couple of hours. They got up to about 14-16 knots relative almost directly on our stern. That means that the true wind was 20+. With the additional wind we were making as much as 8.3 knots. We got our slip assignment and were tied up by 1600. I took Scupper for a run on the bicycle. We rode over to where a charter boat called "Kickin' Back" is moored to see if Paul, the captain, was around. The boat was there but Paul was nowhere to be seen. We rode back to our boat and had the last of the pasties for dinner.

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