Day 69 - Fri 5 Aug 2016
Docked - Petoskey, MI

[photo: a rather poor pic of the local farmers market]

It blew pretty hard last night from the NW and then we got a short period of rain. There were clouds filling the sky at dawn, but they slowly cleared to pretty fair-weather cumulus as the front moved on. No one was stirring near us at the marina except for one young woman who was tending the beautiful geraniums on our dock.

The wind was surely not making the lake conditions very nice, but we did need to vacate the space. Fortunately, our destination was only 4nm away. Just a few miles W of there is a place called Bay Harbor where some developer cut through the rock to open an abandoned quarry to the lake. Getting there meant taking the nasty chop quartering off the bow, which was the best way to do it, but it was not a comfortable 45 minutes for Diane.

I didn't ask if she thought it was worth it, but she was amazed at the beauty of the grounds and how immaculately groomed everything was. The bay sports a huge yacht club and two extremely upscale marinas. The homes go from $1M to well over $10M from the little research I did. The boats and dock areas were every bit as expensive.

Leaving there, we had the wind and waves on our stern and it was a pretty comfortable and short run to Petoskey. We have been fortunate so far to be able to get a slip when they tell us the day before that they are not sure one will be available. As our Looper friends from last year (Corinne and Robert on Ariel) used to say, "good parking karma."

We saw another PDQ, Building Our Wings, a dozen slips down and saw a few Loopers we had met before and some new ones, too. Before we left the boat, we grabbed a quick and early lunch of leftovers. As we were getting the bikes ready, John and Sharon from Building Our Wings walked by and stopped to say hi and invite us over for cocktails at 1700.

This place (the marina, bayfront, and downtown) is really very attractive, but the hills to get to the town were more than our bikes could manage without gearing. We had to walk them up most of the way. Our immediate goal was the farmers market ending within the hour, and Diane was eyeing the sweet corn. Unfortunately, she left to shop other stands and left it to me, so I wound up with 18 ears of corn for $3. The vendor was getting ready to leave and figured he was doing me a favor, I guess. They were quite heavy in the backpack.

Diane got some sweet cherries for the first time up here (they are everywhere!) and some other produce. We figured we should see a bit of the downtown since we were there, but didn't get more than a block before stopping at a specialty cheese and meat place. This is part of the reason why provisioning expenses are so high while we cruise; buying specialty meats and cheeses is not cheap. I always figure for every restaurant supper we avoid, we have an extra $50 to spend how we want.

We went back to the boat easily since it was all downhill and Diane stowed the new treasures. I started sautéing onions and mushrooms to go with our steak for supper, and while that was going, I shucked 13 of the ears and microwaved half. Diane later cut off the kernels and froze them. Rather than slow down, we delivered 7 unshucked ears to Building Our Wings and then set off on a bike ride along the beautiful biking and walking path along the waterfront.

We weren't interested in going really far, so we turned around to walk out along the top of the breakwater guarding the marina. We would gladly have ridden our bikes on the mostly wide, smooth concrete path, but the sign said bikes were prohibited. By the end of our two-way trip, we realized most people don't care about the rules. Besides the raw power of the waves crashing against the windward side of the breakwater, sending sprays of cool water over much of the path, we were intrigued and a bit aghast to see families jumping off the end into the roiling water and then climbing back up the ladders. We did not recall seeing any signs prohibiting going in the water, but it seemed dangerous enough in these conditions that it surprised us.

After some reading and short naps, we walked the short distance (for a change) to the marina showers. Other than low water pressure, it was quite fine. We got our beverages and appetizer ready and walked down to Building Our Wings at 1700. It was a good time catching up on things that had transpired since the last time we saw each other.

Without going too crazy with the appetizers, we got back to Diva Di before too long and had quite a feast - pan-seared filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and several ears of that nice sweet corn. We also got word from the marina office that we could stay another day. The lake conditions do not look to be very good tomorrow and the only place we could move to would be into nasty seas.

At least we'll be able to explore the town and biking trails more tomorrow.