Bristol-Blue Lake Michigan Sailing Adventures

Venetian Festival!!!!!   Each year in Saugatuck Cow Hill Yacht Club puts on Venetian Festival.  Cow Hill is not really a club for boaters.  It is a charity group that raises funds for the needy in the community.  They Start Friday night with a big party.  Kids games, Beer tent and some great live music. I'm proud to say that my wife serves on the board of Cow Hill and helps put this event together along with a few other events throughout the year.  Saturday afternoon after the Venetian dingy poker run had cleared out we took to the harbor and headed out to Lake Michigan for a sail.  It has been a long while since I have removed the cover from my knot meter. It appears the poor center ring has fallen to the bottom. However, the miracle is, it works. I don't think it has ever worked before, but today it was. Although it doesn't agree with the GPS on speed. According to the knot meter, we are flying along at 6.5 knots....

Some days you have to just call it.  Today is one of those days.  We left our breezy little harbor for Lake Michigan to find this, the whole of Lake Michigan sheltered by the dunes on shore.  Grr east winds. The lake was glass flat except for the power boat waves. After an hour of drifting and bobbing we had to call for the iron genny to get us home.

Yesterday we were out and about. We met up with some friends at the beach then sailed back. We ran down with the spinnaker. Then after a few hours of beach fun we tacked back up the lake. Here is the funny guy I sail with crushing the MT Baldy Radar tower on the horizon. Where are we?

Captains log as we neared boat the sky opened up.  Currently taking cover in cabin... Perhaps we will stay at the dock today.

BB was on the dock the other day as a friend and I came across the lake.  She got some nice pictures of Kraken coming up tacking and heading back out. 

We made it out for a nice sail today. Check out the new flag set up on the backstay!

The day after launch I got down before the rain rolled in. After about an hour I had Kraken's mast tuned in and everything rigged up. As I rigged up the boat I was watching the radar. Once everything was ready I checked the radar again.  Looks like I have time for a quick shake down. The new running rigging is color coded. I know there are lots of opinions on how this should be done. I decided to go with white and red for all the jib controls and sheets.  Blue and white line runs everything for the mainsail including the topping lift. I think this should help out as Myles learns more about sailing this summer. The spinnaker gear is all still pretty new but matching as well but I don't think will be teaching the kid about that yet. I made it back to the dock in time to put everything away before the rain.  Love that radar app. Before I left the marina office 10 minutes later.it started raining. Hopefully Memorial Day Weekend will be nicer.