GLORY DAYS ON THE GREAT LOOP: ANOTHER "NIGHTMARE"!

DAY 79 SUN. AUG. 21, 2011
AM OVERCAST CLOUDY RAIN SHOWERS. PM CLEARING, CLOUDY, COOL
DEP. LELAND 06:50 ARR. FRANKFORT 11:20
D. 44.2sm. / 1442.7

I wish I could say this trip was uneventful, but it wasn’t. The forecast called for wave of 1’ to 2’. As we headed south with the Manitow Is. to the west, the wind picked up from less than 10k. to 15k out of the NW. As we passed the islands the winds picked even more and the waves went from 2’ to 3’ to 4’ just ahead of the starboard beam. It made for a very uncomfortable ride. Pat went below to lie on the sofa and………….prayed! At around 09:00am, I change course for a more seakindly and direct route and increased the speed from 8sm/hr to 10sm/hr. This made the ride a little easier, and shorter, but the wind increased even more. My guess would be to between 20k and 25k. The autohelm kept us on course very well and we cut our cruising time by about an hour. That doesn’t seem like much, but as someone said, when you are bouncing and rolling like that, time seems to drag. We were very happy to enter the calm waters of the harbor, and didn’t care about the 6.8gph we burned to save that hour. On the plus side, the local H.S. football team was hosting a fundraiser BBQ that afternoon at the marina and we enjoyed some inexpensive roast pig and corn on the cob.