MANISTEE to LUDINGTON / Tuesday, August 16 to Wednesday, August 17 (Days 209-210)

Admiral's Log:     9:00 am, Tues. 8/16/16
                         Air Temp:   70     Water Temp:   71
                        Winds:   2 mph
                        Speed:   8.9 knots

We said goodbye to Sweet T and took off for another sunny calm day.

Interesting landscape along the lake

 We saw over 30 fishing boats not far from us in 200+ feet of water, mostly catching salmon. Several of us had commented on all the rods these guys have on their boats! Overkill to us fisherman from the South. Mike and Robert of Over Ice were commenting on this over the radio when one of the fisherman jumped in and explained they throw over 15# sinkers and have several rods rigged with different things. So they can switch them without having to re-rig. He said it's a fun day with your buddies and a cooler full of beer. Over Ice seconded that idea, haha. It made sense but these boats are pretty small and some of them have like 30 rods on them! Just different kind of fishing than we are used to I guess. 

Tons of rods!

Ludington is little larger town. Very nice marina and of course you can walk to town. We had a really good lunch then I went to the Hallmark store and stocked up on cards for the rest of the year.

Benches, flowers and playgrounds add to the quaintness of these cute marinas.

Ludington is also home to the SS Badger. It is a 620 passenger and car ferry that travels 60 miles across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc Wisconsin in 4 hours. The Badger was built in 1953, is 410 feet long and is the only coal fired steamship in use today.

After lunch we took the dingy and met Over Ice and Phase II at a beach on the lake. I did not go swimming, but waded in the water which was quite warm.  

Enjoying a little beach time.

We had docktails on our boat with Over Ice, Phase II and Sea Trek. We had not seen him since Trent Port. We also visited with Seascape who we saw in Bobcaygen briefly. He is still working so they do 2 weeks on the boat then 2 weeks home. Seems kind of a pain to me, they really don't get to see much, but guess it works for them.

The guys discussing boating issues...as usual.  It's a boat!

We cooked an Indian dish for dinner and watched some of the Olympics; not quite as good now that gymnastics and swimming are finished, in my humble opinion. 

Wednesday, the winds had picked up a little so decide to stay put another day, plus this was a cute town we wanted to check out a little more. We took the local transit bus to Walmart. What a deal 2$ each way total! Then we had lunch at the House of Flavors, a local chain. Reminded us of Steak and Shake. Then we just read and I worked on the blog.

At 6:30 we watched the Badger dock, it was really amazing. 

We had pizza delivered for dinner, then walked to House of Flavors for some ice cream and watched more Olympics.