8/10 Change of Plans and Beautiful Day on Lake Michigan

It was beautiful warm summer day as we passed the Grand Haven Light to head south on Lake Michigan. 

We were heading to Holland, Michigan but changed our plans.  Over the weekend and the beginning of next week, the winds are forecast to be high and create some high waves on Lake Michigan.  It was so beautiful and the lake was so calm today, that we decided to go 67 miles to St. Joseph, Michigan.  It was like we had the whole lake to ourselves when I took this picture looking off the bow. 

With this change of plans, we are now renting a car here in St. Joseph and will drive about an hour to visit Holland, Michigan to see the windmills.  Another day. we will head to the Blueberry Festival in South Haven, Michigan.  Having a car will help us provision staples for going down the rivers after Chicago.

On the radio, we heard the Tug Ann Marie issue a securite warning a couple of times.  As we got closer to St. Joseph, we could see the triangle on our chart plotter that indicates a boat that runs AIS.

When you click on that triangle, you get lots of information about that vessel.  Here is the information about Ann Marie.  She is further in St. Joseph Harbor than we are tonight, so I hope to see her tomorrow.

She was built in 1954 for the U. S. Air Force.  In the 1980's, she was sold into commercial use.  She has been working in the Great Lakes and is home stationed in Frankfort, MI.

Tomorrow, our rental car arrives and we will start touring by car.