Friday June 19th – We are leaving from Manistee this morning and heading to Frankfort, Michigan which is roughly about 30 miles to go today. A bit of our morning routine – first coffee. We don’t have a coffee maker aboard that you would normally plug in at home since this would require too much electricity for us. Instead we heat water in a tea kettle on our propane stove in the galley and use a french press to make our morning coffee. This works well and uses no electricity. I was joking with a friend the other day, if we ever run out of coffee on this boat, we are pulling the EPIRB (which is our emergency rescue beacon). That is how serious we are about our coffee around here.

Now every other day so far, I would go below and bundle up in my long underwear and assorted fleece to go out sailing the lake. However today is quite warm and I am heading out without long underwear and only wearing a fleece top, shorts and bare foot. Feels so good!

Along with the heat of the day, there is little to no wind today. The lake is very flat calm, so we motored most of the way to Frankfort.

No wind, warmth and flat seas = FLIES!! This was the worse fly day yet. Not to gross anyone out but we were afraid to talk to each other in the cockpit because it seemed if you opened your mouth you might get a fly in there. They were literally littered everywhere!! It is kinda gross…. The first thing we did after docking was wash down the boat to get rid of any remnants of flies. We also showered!

The entrance to Frankfort is the same as other harbor towns along the Michigan coast. There is a lighthouse marker at the breakwater, there is a beach and a coast guard station. I don’t know why but Frankfort seems to be the town so far along our path that is the most forgettable. The town is great and it’s pretty with great shops and a brewery, however I guess after 4 towns in 4 days, they are all starting to blend together and hard to distinguish one from the other.

The marina in Frankfort is a really nice marina. They actually have a pool as well. It is a very hot day today and the pool looked very inviting, however we opted for a shower and a walk around town. Here are some photos of the marina.

Painkiller is on the left just behind the large power boat. 2nd mast on the left of the photo.

We walked around town and hit up the local brew pub for some beers and dinner. In this neck of the woods, every restaurant has some form of white fish or perch on the menu that has likely been caught in the waters of Lake Michigan. White fish bites, white fish spread/dip, white fish sandwich, etc. All delicious I can assure you.

The beer at Storm Cloud brewing was just ok. Now every beer that we get is compared to what we had at Manistee at the North Channel Brewery and so far no other beer has measured up to North Channel.

COVID-19 update: Here in Michigan things are fairly conservative. We have become used to the routine of bringing our masks whenever we leave the boat to go into a town. Masks are required to enter any store or establishment. At the outdoor seating in restaurants, masks are required to interact with the hostess and from the hostess stand to your table. Once at your table you can remove your mask, but is again required to walk from your table to the exit. All servers are wearing masks and gloves. Sanitizing tables, etc. It’s funny that the smaller the town, it seems the more conservative they are about COVID and the larger the town, things are more relaxed a bit. Approaching marinas, we have seen some variations. When docking and marina staff are there waiting to help you dock, many are wearing masks to greet you. When going into the harbor master’s office to check in, often masks are required. We don’t see alot of boaters on the docks wearing masks. Most boats are at least 6 feet apart by nature and we are outside.