Frankfort MI

August 19, 2019

The morning of August 19th was clear and relatively calm. Our plan was to head south along Michigan’s shoreline while watching for a weather window to cross Lake Michigan. We planned to follow the Michigan coast when wind speeds were low or winds were coming from NE, E or SE and hunker down in a marina on Michigan’s western shoreline if strong winds came from SW, W or NW (like we did in Leland).   This allowed us to make progress until we had a good day for a crossing.

Our 41-mile route from Leland took us east of North and South Manitou Islands, past Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, around Point Betsie to Frankfort MI. We did our best to get some photos of Sleeping Bear Dunes, but we must have been too close to get a good profile shot. 

We arrived at Jacobson’s Marina in Frankfort at 1:25pm. Jacobson’s is a very nice, well-protected marina located up a small channel off Lake Michigan.  This meant a good night’s sleep for Bo (and the rest of the crew). Frankfort is a nice little town with a great deal of sport fishing activity. We had time for a few boat chores and a short shopping trip to the local glass art store. We visited Dinghy’s Bar & Grill for dinner and enjoyed the best sweet potato fries ever made (according to Sue). It was a beautiful evening with lots of fish jumping out of the water and small fishing boats busy following them along.

 Frankfort was a place we would have gladly hung around for a few days, but the weather forecast for August 20 was the best we had seen in two weeks, so the decision was made to cross Lake Michigan the next day with our course set for Kewaunee, WI.