8/4 South to Ludington and the Badger

We said good-bye to Manistee Harbor.  The light house looked so pretty as we passed by.  Notice the cat walk out to the light.  When the weather was bad and caused the snow and ice to build up, the keeper walked on the cat walk to get to the light.

Once out on Lake Michigan, we headed south to Ludington.  There were many fishing boats the whole way down the coast.  Looking to the east we saw huge shipping vessels in the shipping channel.  The shipping vessels were huge.  AIS on the chart plotter gives the information about the ship including the name, length, width, speed, destination, and time to destination.  One ship was the Stewart J. Cort.  It was 1001 feet long with 105 foot beam (width)!  It was going to Lake Superior with an estimated time of arrival 8/6 at 1 pm.  It was 4 nautical miles from us and still looked huge. 

The winds were going to pick up so we arrived early in Ludington.  It is a beautiful harbor and town.  The municipal marina is huge.  There is a large marina park here too.  The park has many sculptures that speak to the history of the town, shipping, logging, sailing, cherry farming, and even the baseball team that was here in the 1920's.

I particularly enjoyed this sculpture of children playing on rocks at the children's park.

After walking the park, I walked the 4 blocks to the beach.  The Ludington light is open for tours, so I climbed the light.  So I got a picture looking back on the harbor from the top of the light.

By now I was warm and walked back to the beach and dove into the lake.  The water was warmer today and felt so refreshing. 

At 6 pm, John and I went to the harbor wall just a few feet from our dock to see the S. S. Badger return from her run across the lake from Wisconsin.  The Badger was originally built to handle train cars to be taken across the lake.  Interestingly, it is coal powered.  Now, it ferries cars, RVs, buses, and even 18 wheelers.  It is 410 feet in length.  It is just enormous.  When it comes into the harbor, it does not have a tug boat bring it in.  The captain drops an anchor and uses the anchor to turn around and back into the slip.  It is amazing to watch.  In the pictures you can see the 18 wheeler in through the back of the Badger.

Tomorrow, we plan to stay here in Ludington.  The farmers' market is tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow night, they are closing the main street for a street fair with music, food, and other events.  Sounds like it will be fun.

Lat 43 degrees 57.21 North
Long 86 degrees 27.32 West