Integrity Cruise

Day 134: Arcadia to Manistee, Michigan

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Day 134: Saturday, August 27th: The weather forecast was for rain showers and winds southwest 5 to 15 knots. Seas were supposed to be 1-3 feet. We got underway in exactly those conditions. We were a quarter mile behind We Be Blest.

We were OK for about an hour and a half as the seas built past three feet. The rain stopped and the sun began to peek out; that made the wind grow stronger. Soon we were rolling in 4-5 foot seas. They began to rearrange the location of things in the cabinets, shelves and even turned the heavy helmsman's chair over in the saloon.

We chickened out, changed course and headed for the town of Manistee. Soon We Be Blest radioed that they, too, were headed in. It was too rough to suffer that ride.

We were disappointed that we were so concerned about our safety that we failed to think of taking pictures. You'll have to use your imagination to see Integrity rolling 40 degrees and taking spray over the deckhouse.

Although the salmon were running in the area and there were so many fishing boats in the marina, we were able to grab the last slip at Seng's Marina. Getting to it was very difficult as there were dozens of fishing boats of all descriptions in the inlet and narrow river leading to the marina.

Once there, however, it was quite a nice marina. The day had turned gorgeous:

The marina grounds were nicely kept with flowers and giant trees. It offered very clean restrooms and showers, and boasted a nice laundry and small ship's store:

They even had a golf cart for shuttling between the main building and the docks. This is one of the marina owners, Eva, and her two nephews in the cart:

With the popularity of fishing in this area, the marina offered a nice fish cleaning station:

The local lucky took good advantage of it and filleted their fresh salmon. Note the size of those fillets! (Sorry for the lousy lighting):

We wandered into town and walked along River Street, Manistee's main, and just about only, street:

All the buildings were built in the late 1800s of brick after the town burned down. It seems the local lumber barons of that era insisted on wood for buildings up until the fire; bad idea. The new buildings are charming and well-kept and make the street lovely:

We spotted this 1939 Dodge sedan parked on the street; it was in excellent shape:

This fountain was in a little park that marked the end of downtown:

We walked down to the riverfront and saw some friends we hadn't seen since the AGLCA Rendezvous in Beaufort, SC in April. Dick and Gayle from Starsong and Lenny and Roxanne on Summertime had been traveling together recently. We had fun swapping stories. Gene and Jan on We Be Blest wandered up. They had gotten lucky and got a berth at the state marina. Here is Starsong then Summertime behind them:

Here is another view of the boats and riverwalk:

We had bought a few things in town so went back to Integrity for cocktails and to unload. Then we went back to town and had a delightful Italian dinner at "Topo's":

We were exhausted from the rough ride today so turned in early; sleep was welcome.

Position tonight: N44 15.157 W086 18.508

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