Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Sailing Lake Kalamazoo. We had a great fall Saturday here in West Michigan.  The sun was shinning and the weather was superb. We very well could have gone out to the big lake and sailed.  Instead we decided to pull out from our dock at Tower Marine and put up the sails.  This is the second time we have sailed Lake Kalamazoo.  It is very shallow in areas and you really have to get to know the lake.  Watching the eyes of the other big boats owners turn into saucer as we turn out of the marked channel and into the lake is just great.  We started with talking with people around are marina and getting some local knowledge.  Looking at the lake on Google satellite view then pulled the charts for lake K-Zoo from the NOAH web site .  With the map and charts we where able to link up some visual land marks with water depth data.  From their it was experimentation.  We started and worked northwest to southeast with our depth sounder expecting to sail from center dock at Tower to the large

Our second trip out was a great success.  The 1st trip was okay but a bit breezy for us so it was cut a bit short. So off  for a sail on Lake Michigan.     This post is just eye candy. Moving along Pillows Tell tails look good. Snack Time TY Cabin Kid Kicked Back After a bit of sailing we had enough of the black flies and headed for the beach. From the water. Stern from the water line.  Swimming to the beach. On the beach "Get Kraken" in the background. Back at home port.

This was our first time launching the Typhoon off a trailer. BB and I had launched my old Catalina 22 off a trailer before but we figured this was a bit different the dory being a full keel boat.  I talked to a John at Tower Marine about the best places to launch in Saugatuck. He recommended launching at the  down town ramp next to The Star of Saugatuck .  The Star is a large paddle wheel river boat that cruises up and down Lake Kalamzoo and out to Lake Michigan.  When I went in to pay the ramp fee I asked the ladies at the counter about the ramp and water depth.  The drought this year was foremost on my mind and water levels are down here.  They said they didn't really know and in all their time working their had never seen a sailboat launch from the ramp.  So I paid the fee trusting John's knowledge of the area and we checked the ramp out more closely.  The launch went really well. So here are the basic stages we went through for those of you new to launching a sailboat at a

The drought here has finally broken.  We've had several days or rain and there is just not much that can get done on the boat at this point.  So I pulled the tiller back off and brought it in for the day.  After several different wrap attempts I finally settled on this.  It really looks neat and the double braid line color goes really well with the new anti-skid.  The pictures really don't do this justice.  One of these days I'm going to get a better camera...  "I'll have to quit buying boat parts."   Yeah I'm probably never getting a better camera.  top side close up head on Bronze port Hillbilly Bronzing:  I looked at bronze ports at over a $100 a piece they are a bit down the road with regard to this project.  However Rustoleum metallic  paint is $22 dollars so this seems like a good option.    "Maybe I will get that camera after all."  Tape it off sand the old chrome spray it, easy peasy.  These where originally