The Ferry boat was the only one leaving today. It’s considerably larger than us but had a wild ride.

We’re on our third day in Leland. Our wind gauge is steady at 30 mph. The boat is rocking quite a lot. It’s good to have a handhold if standing, Sue says she feels a bit green when she is up and about and we’re still tied up at the dock! If we were outside the breakwater we’d really be rocking.

The boat rub rail is against a piling making continual squeaking noises. It doesn’t hurt the boat any but is annoying. If I could shorten the lines on the windward side I could stop that, but they are way too tight from the steady wind to attempt that. We’ll just have to rub.

Little of our traveling before now has been weather limited. We have sat out a few days because of rain or winds. Rain just makes it more unpleasant for us, but doesn’t affect how the boat goes. We had not seen any really high winds. A regular stiff wind certainly affects docking the boat, but does not impact travel much. We just zip up the isinglass to avoid it in our faces and go on. When it gets too cold we go downstairs. That’s only happened twice that I remember, and then only for a few hours each time.

On Lake Michigan things are different. There are many days, like yesterday and today, with waves of 5 feet or more that are bigger than we want to take on without having some stabilization. The boat should take it OK, but we might not, and anything not screwed down would be off the tables and counters and maybe out of the shelves and onto the floor. Boats our size or smaller usually sit these days out. With worse weather it’s not hard to get 20 foot waves that might sink a boat our size. The last time they had those conditions in this area was August 2.

One of Paul’s last pictures. Rain off and on. Wind came up and stayed up our second day here.

We’ve been out in the town a bit, but periodic wind and rain is keeping us on the boat also. The local “Mercantile” is the only grocery store and is pretty complete if a bit higher priced, so Sue and I can get our shopping done and be ready for hopefully better weather tomorrow.