Northport, MI to Suttons Bay, MI

We woke up from a peaceful nights rest to a lake of glass. The water was clear all the way down to the bottom; even at a depth of 30+ feet. You just don’t see waters this clear. Even in Door County. It’s a sight to be seen.

Breakfast was at a bakery called “Barb’s” where they apparently serve world famous cinnamon twists. I decided to forgo the twist and opted for a more savory pastry with a cup of coffee. The place was packed for a Monday morning and we were able to snag two seats with three incredibly nice people named Jim, Bev, and Barbara. None of them were locals, but they apparently spend good chunks of their summer in Northport since it’s such a beautiful little town. Jim and Bev were from Muskegon, MI and Barbara was from Midland, MI. Additionally, all three of them had even done some sailing in the Caribbean! It was a great little breakfast that lasted well over an hour with them swapping stories of their sailing charter experiences in the tropics. Good stuff 🙂

We pecked around town for a bit checking out the local shops, getting a few food items at the local grocery store, and stopping by the Northport Marina to check if some of my parent’s old acquaintances still had their boat in the marina. Being satisfied with our canvassing of the small downtown, we hopped back into the dinghy and rowed, yes rowed, back to Carpe Diem. We’ve decided to minimize our usage of the dingy outboard engine as much as possible due to it’s 80lb heft.

Once on-board, we planned to spend an hour or so cleaning up all the dead bugs that have been accumulating in our cockpit over the past few days. It’s quite disgusting. After wrapping that up, my dad decided to try his luck at a little fishing after I spotted a big fish meandering around the boat. He didn’t catch a fish, but what we did catch was an amazing video of a loon swimming and diving around our boat. I’d seen photos/paintings of loons before, lots of wooden cut-outs too, but never one up close and personal. It was incredible to watch him surface, dive, and casually cruise about under the water.

After our super cool loon encounter, we decided that it was time to pick-up the hook and head for our next destination, Suttons Bay. There was almost no wind at all, so we reluctantly decided to motor the entire 12 miles to our destination.

Arriving in Suttons Bay was pretty uneventful. It’s a very deep harbor with about 150+ feet of water until you’re just a few hundred yards from shore. When we were coming in, we could see twin masts hidden behind some trees, and sure enough, it was an old gaff rigged schooner that’s been restored. It’s being used for educational purposes now, but it’s a beautiful boat. And, we even got to see them take her out for a sail on the bay. Very neat!

Once anchored, we again set to the tedious task of cleaning out all the dead bugs from the cockpit that had accumulated from our relatively short trip from Northport. It must be their mating season. As they were rampant! With the cockpit cleaned, I suggested that we maybe try the new bug netting that we had custom made for Carpe Diem so that all of our hard work wasn’t all for nothing in a few hours time again. So, we got to hanging the screening and viola. The bugs were kept at bay! A few of the more crafty species happened to find their way in. But, for the most part, about 90% have been denied entrance to our little floating home.

We had dinner at a local establishment called Boone’s North Country Grill. I had a nice juicy burger, french fries, and washed it down with a local wheat/cherry micro brew from Michigan (very refreshing brew!). My dad even ordered deep fried pickles as an appetizer, something that I had never tried before. They were delicious!

On our way back we decided to take a walk down to the marina to check out the other sailboats. On our walk down, we happened to see a sailboat coming into the marina. I ran over to help them dock and we ended up chatting for close to 45 minutes about sailing, the North Channel, and even got a tour of their beautiful 34ft Elan sailboat! Jim and Sandy are incredibly kind people and very experienced sailors, it was wonderful to meet them and get their input on places to visit in Canada.

As we continued our way back to the far side of the marina where we left our dingy, we stumbled upon a building that we had originally thought were condos. There was a little patio with a Yuengling umbrella and what looked like hanging glasses over a bar inside. So, being the inquisitive people that we are, we wandered right on up onto the patio. Yep, definitely still a condo! As we recoiled away from the patio in laughter, we happened to catch the owner of the unit one patio over relaxing with a friend. We said hello, and his first question to us was, “Where did you two just come from?” My dad responded, “Wisconsin.” He said, “No, no no, I mean just now.” And we collectively said, “The patio next door. We thought it was a bar!” The owner laughed with his buddy and told us that it wasn’t the first time that this has happened. I mean, come on. Look at this place. It’s got B-A-R written all over it 🙂

Well, it’s been a long and very eventful day. Even as I sit here at close to 10pm EST, there is still a glinter of sunshine off in the distance that is just barely lighting my keyboard enough for me to finish this post. More to come tomorrow.

Stay tuned 🙂