Muskegon, MI


After waiting 7 days in Ludington on weather we found a calmer wind day and every Looper that was waiting along with us was leaving.  Our departure time was 7am and we were still waiting at 9am.

  With very little wind comes FOG!! We were waiting for it to burn off, and waiting, and waiting and then just said "we gotta go".  Fog doesn't last all day when it's not raining, right?? Wrong, we endured 7 hours of fog, with no relief.  

In the video above of us leaving Ludington (thanks to Shannon from Misty Pearl!) and in the photo below, it may seem like there was adequate visibility but there wasn't.  We relied on radar and our chart plotter and blew our horn every 2 minutes if we saw something on the radar that could be a boat.  Three near misses along the way, 2 sailboats and 1 power boat but we made it and we were 50 miles further south. Wahoo!!



We arrived at the Harbor Towne Yacht Club in Muskegon, MI in the late afternoon and there was no fog once we were off Lake Michigan.  Go figure!!



There was one restaurant within walking distance and it was crowded for an early Sunday evening. They came by boat and by car but it was the happening place with very loud live music!





Since our next travel window wasn't until Thursday we had to busy ourselves so we went to the USS Silversides Submarine Museum.  This was something new and very informative.




The markings on the ship count the number of vessels that it sank or damaged. The "sunbursts" denote war ships and the Japanese flags count the number of merchant ships. Sinking merchant ships was the strategy to limit the supplies available to Japan to continue to fight the war.

As noted in the list below, USS Silversides was the #3 most successful submarine in the US Navy during WWII.



We got to take a guided tour of the USS Silversides too.


Aiming the machine gun on deck in the photo below.


The photo below was taken in the forward torpedo room - and also the sleeping quarters for many sailors. Some poor guys literally slept right alongside the torpedoes.


The engine room is a tad different from ours!


Walt Disney designed this logo for the submarine.


That's a lot of gauges to watch!



The next day we rented a car and took care of some errands including OMG, a West Marine, haven't seen one of these in a long while.




Our final night in Muskegon, Doug and Dana treated us and Change of Pace (Jeff and Teri) to Shrimp Etouffee.  It was outstanding!! Now we are ready to go tomorrow!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making our lists and checking them twice

Image
As Brent and I pondered retirement, we wanted to be active and do something together.  We considered moving to a smaller house in a smaller city but that didn't spur any ideas of how we would fill our time. (For those of you who know me well, you know that I need to be busy most of the time.) We had always enjoyed being on the water and had owned boats for almost 20 years. So we decided that maybe living on a boat would be different yet, enjoyable.  We spent more than a year looking for the perfect live aboard boat with the idea of spending 6-12 months in one marina and then cruising on to another location. As we searched, we revisited an idea Brent had many years back.  He wanted to do the Great Loop.  In a weak moment, I agreed and then the type of boat we needed for The Loop changed drastically.  We needed something that was economical, had a long range, wasn't too large and wasn't too tall. (Lots of bridges to pass under).  In April 2017 we finally ...
Read more

Fort Myers Beach and Downtown Fort Myers

Image
Fort Myers Beach proved to be yet another popular destination as you can see from the pics.  You would think that the temperature was in the high 80s with all the people on the beach but on this day it was barely over 70 but that didn't seem to hinder the population.  Downtown Fort Myers, which is walkable from the marina, always seems to have something going on. On Friday they had a Music Walk and as we went from one performance to another we weren't sure if the performers just picked their own spot to set up or if it was organized.  They offered a wide variety that ranged from a 10 year old country singer to 65-75 year olds band with horns.  There was something for everyone!   
Read more

NYC - Day #2

Image
Although we covered a lot of ground on Day #1 we went back into the city for another day.  We started back at Times Square and decided the way to get to Ground Zero was to get on the Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley (upper and lower deck busses) so we could learn more about the city (via earbud narration) as we were transported to our destination. The photo above was taken as we entered the Garment District. Notice all of the wooded structures at the tops of many of the buildings. I believe they are for water storage (like water towers for each building). Entrances to Madison Square Garden above and Macy's on Fifth Ave. below. Beneath the Empire State Building below. The building below is referred to as the Iron Wedge Building because of its unique shape. Quick view of a small section of Greenwich Village as we drove by below. Below is the Freedom Tower; built on the sight of the former Twin Towers. The new tower is 1776 f...
Read more