Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI

 Our departure was delayed by rainstorms until 10 AM.  We wanted to make Michigan City, IN, 80 miles, for this evening as 4 couples who have condos in our development in FL were having a gathering for us as they all have summer homes there.  

 I thought the plan aggressive! We entered the lake and all was well, so we speeded up to cruising speed.  The seas were predicted to be 2-4 feet, manageable.  Well, not for long as the winds increased so did the seas to 4-6 right on our bow, we were crashing through it.  

We called our hosts and told them the news we had to seek shelter in St Joseph/Benton Harbor, 35 miles short of our goal, a distance of 45 miles.  We said we would try to rent a car there.  We entered the inlet and there were large rollers, so in we surfed.  A boater on our dock saw his coming and took the pictures as we rolled in.  It was supposed to be no wake but I came in at 18 MPH to ride the back of the wave.  When we tied up at the marina Debbie did a damage assessment.  Some items knocked around but a porthole in our cabin had come open during one of the times we buried the bow in a wave so the cabin including our bed,  my clothes and a new apple laptop. were soaked.  The ONLY saving grace, was that it was NOT salt water.  With the work of restoring the cabin we decided to not rent a car to visit our friends.  

 Adjacent to the marina was the St Joe YC.  We called and made a reservation.  When we arrived I showed my St Pete YC card for reciprocity.  It wasn't in their YC book so the manager said sorry.  Luckily the boater that took our pictures walked in for dinner so we were admitted as his guests.  Boaters are a friendly and helpful lot.

 The marina only had a few transient slips so they put us on the fuel dock for the night, worked great.  

 This municipal marina like many in MI is clean and reasonable. Luckily there was a laundry (free) so we did 7 loads of soaked clothes.  The computer was shot.  We dried the mattress in the sun.



Not being a fisherman I wonder why they need so many poles!