Nexus
Jet Boat Junkie
- Messages
- 261
- Reaction score
- 152
- Points
- 137
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
- Boat Make
- Scarab
- Year
- 2019
- Boat Model
- 195 ID
- Boat Length
- 19
So the wife and I had planned on doing the July 3-7 2020 crossing with other members of this forum. Due to the pandemic, we decided to pull out. No Bimini this year but hopefully next year it will come together.
So, we decided to stay closer to home and go visit the Michigan sand dunes. I mean, the great lakes are kind of like an ocean (3rd coast) and the sand dunes... well beaches!
Only July 7th, I packed the truck and headed from Chicago to the marina in Wilmington, IL to get the boat. I say "I" and not "we" because my wife was working until the end of the day. I pulled the boat from the water and met her downtown. Let me tell you, there's nothing funner than driving in the country's 3rd biggest city, during rush-hour traffic, pulling a boat (not)! So around 7pm we started our trek to Grand Haven, MI (about 1/2 hour west of Grand Rapids, MI).
The plan for day 1 was to boat from Grand Haven to the Silver Lake dunes (about 50 miles each way):
I'd estimate that it was about 1 1/2 hours to the dunes when we got to lake Michigan, but it took us an hour just to get to the lake due to the 5 mile "No Wake" zone from Pettys Buyou Boat Launch to Lake Michigan.
Once we finally got on the lake we made fairly good time. We used the boat's economy mode and cruised at around 30 mph. On our way we saw some lesser sand dunes:
We actually went past the dunes and stopped in Pentwater, MI (about 9 miles further) for fuel:
Nice property right on the channel. I think the (3rd) blue house is gong for about $700K.
We decided to stop for gas since the 11 gal/hr burn at 30 mph meant we would probably return on fumes. As it was, I'm not sure we would have made it!
So after fuel we returned to the dunes:
It's, apparently, a popular place for off-roading and we're thinking about renting ATVs on a future trip.
We continued a bit further south and found a quiet (desolate) part of the beach for some R&R:
When we got the boat, I thought that the rear speakers would be great for sitting out on the rear-facing seats and enjoying the tunes. An unexpected benefit was pointing the rear of the boat to the beach, and being able to control the tunes via my phone and Bluetooth. Who knew? 
After a few hours baking in the sun, we headed back to Grand Haven for the night (including that dreaded 1 hour "No Wake" zone!).
The following day we left Grand Haven for Traverse City (on land) and decided to stop in Pentwater again.
We put the boat in the water and were going to go out on the lake again, but found the water a bit too rough:
So we turned around and headed back into Pentwater Lake and enjoyed lunch and loafing around while anchored. On our way back we received a visit from the US Coast Guard. Everything checked out, except they suggested we have flares if we were to go out onto the lake. I thought I'd actually had some but it turns out they were not in the boat. Oops! After pulling the boat out of the water we headed up to Traverse City, stopping off at Wal-mart for flares.
The next day, Friday, the weather was not supposed to co-operate (T-Storms, etc...) so we decided to stay land-bound. It actually worked out pretty well as we weren't that crazy about our hotel and used the downtime to switch to a nicer one (that actually had a restaurant open). Another bonus is that since it the weather wasn't as bad as predicted we saved about 30 minutes of bike-riding to go into town to eat, etc... I just wasn't crazy about dragging a boat behind me into town and wasn't sure if the hotels would let me leave an unattended boat in their parking lot.
On Saturday the weather turned for the better and the plan was to visit THE Sand Dunes. The Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (biggest ones on Lake Michigan, I'm told). So we packed up and headed for Frankfort, MI:
As we left Betsie Lake, we were greeted with some sand dunes:
Nice, but not what we were waiting for.
Of course, the dunes continued:
But still not what we were waiting for.
Finally, we got to see these famous dunes and boy did they not disappoint:
Those little dots are people!
We anchored the boat and made the decision to climb to the top:
Doesn't really do it justice.
After taking longer than I'd like to admit, and watching too many under-20 year old legs go by, we were greeted by this sign at the top:
Good thing we went UP first!
Here is our boat from the top. Maybe this will give it a bit more perspective:
Still felt steeper.
Getting down was, obviously, faster than going up. Again we relaxed in the sun listening to tunes:
A few hours later we packed up the boat and started the 25-mile trek back to Frankfort followed by the 33-mile jaunt to Traverse City. We had dinner and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we started our 6-hour journey back home (via our marina):
This was our final fuel stop before the Marina
So for those of you that are wondering:
So, thanks for sticking with it if you got this far. I apologize for the crappy pics. I wasn't expecting to do a blog and just haphazardly took pictures whenever I actually thought about it. Overall it was a good trip and plan on doing it again in the future. But really hoping for Bimini next year!
So, we decided to stay closer to home and go visit the Michigan sand dunes. I mean, the great lakes are kind of like an ocean (3rd coast) and the sand dunes... well beaches!
Only July 7th, I packed the truck and headed from Chicago to the marina in Wilmington, IL to get the boat. I say "I" and not "we" because my wife was working until the end of the day. I pulled the boat from the water and met her downtown. Let me tell you, there's nothing funner than driving in the country's 3rd biggest city, during rush-hour traffic, pulling a boat (not)! So around 7pm we started our trek to Grand Haven, MI (about 1/2 hour west of Grand Rapids, MI).
The plan for day 1 was to boat from Grand Haven to the Silver Lake dunes (about 50 miles each way):
I'd estimate that it was about 1 1/2 hours to the dunes when we got to lake Michigan, but it took us an hour just to get to the lake due to the 5 mile "No Wake" zone from Pettys Buyou Boat Launch to Lake Michigan.
Once we finally got on the lake we made fairly good time. We used the boat's economy mode and cruised at around 30 mph. On our way we saw some lesser sand dunes:
We actually went past the dunes and stopped in Pentwater, MI (about 9 miles further) for fuel:
We decided to stop for gas since the 11 gal/hr burn at 30 mph meant we would probably return on fumes. As it was, I'm not sure we would have made it!
So after fuel we returned to the dunes:
It's, apparently, a popular place for off-roading and we're thinking about renting ATVs on a future trip.
We continued a bit further south and found a quiet (desolate) part of the beach for some R&R:
After a few hours baking in the sun, we headed back to Grand Haven for the night (including that dreaded 1 hour "No Wake" zone!).
The following day we left Grand Haven for Traverse City (on land) and decided to stop in Pentwater again.
We put the boat in the water and were going to go out on the lake again, but found the water a bit too rough:
So we turned around and headed back into Pentwater Lake and enjoyed lunch and loafing around while anchored. On our way back we received a visit from the US Coast Guard. Everything checked out, except they suggested we have flares if we were to go out onto the lake. I thought I'd actually had some but it turns out they were not in the boat. Oops! After pulling the boat out of the water we headed up to Traverse City, stopping off at Wal-mart for flares.
The next day, Friday, the weather was not supposed to co-operate (T-Storms, etc...) so we decided to stay land-bound. It actually worked out pretty well as we weren't that crazy about our hotel and used the downtime to switch to a nicer one (that actually had a restaurant open). Another bonus is that since it the weather wasn't as bad as predicted we saved about 30 minutes of bike-riding to go into town to eat, etc... I just wasn't crazy about dragging a boat behind me into town and wasn't sure if the hotels would let me leave an unattended boat in their parking lot.
On Saturday the weather turned for the better and the plan was to visit THE Sand Dunes. The Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (biggest ones on Lake Michigan, I'm told). So we packed up and headed for Frankfort, MI:
As we left Betsie Lake, we were greeted with some sand dunes:
Of course, the dunes continued:
Finally, we got to see these famous dunes and boy did they not disappoint:
We anchored the boat and made the decision to climb to the top:
After taking longer than I'd like to admit, and watching too many under-20 year old legs go by, we were greeted by this sign at the top:
Here is our boat from the top. Maybe this will give it a bit more perspective:
Getting down was, obviously, faster than going up. Again we relaxed in the sun listening to tunes:
A few hours later we packed up the boat and started the 25-mile trek back to Frankfort followed by the 33-mile jaunt to Traverse City. We had dinner and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we started our 6-hour journey back home (via our marina):
So for those of you that are wondering:
- We travelled approximately 150 miles by boat and 800 by truck.
- The boat burned about 83 gallons of gas whereas the truck burned through 79.
- We spent around 16 hours on (or around) the boat and Google Maps says 14 hours in the truck.
So, thanks for sticking with it if you got this far. I apologize for the crappy pics. I wasn't expecting to do a blog and just haphazardly took pictures whenever I actually thought about it. Overall it was a good trip and plan on doing it again in the future. But really hoping for Bimini next year!
