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!



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