The “Plan”

Step One: Ship the boat from Pepin, WI to Manitowoc, WI.
Step One is complete and we shipped the boat to Manitowoc in September of 2019.
We currently sail on Lake Pepin and have our boat docked in Pepin, WI. In September of 2019, we will ship our boat over land on a big truck to Manitowoc, WI which is situated on Lake Michigan. Why Lake Michigan you ask? We wanted to spend the summer traveling/sailing the Great Lakes and if we started from Lake Superior we felt that we may not have enough time to casually see all the sights we want to see along the way. Lake Superior is also much cooler in the spring than Lake Michigan so our departure of Lake Superior would likely be later in the spring/summer than we could plan to leave Lake Michigan.
Your on the Mississippi River, why not take it down the river to the gulf? This was on the table for consideration, however we would not be able to do any sailing on the route down the Mississippi River and given the height of our mast, we very likely would have to travel without the mast on the boat. fake Michigan was made after careful consideration of maximizing our sailing time, wanting to see some cool sights, and enjoying our first summer as full-time cruisers.

Step Two: Sail from Manitowoc, WI and explore upper Lake Michigan
We intend to leave Manitowoc, WI in June 2020, no exact date yet as weather and readiness will dictate that degree of precision. We really want to explore the Door County Peninsula area of WI, so heading inside the peninsula at Sturgeon Bay and sailing Green Bay to Egg Harbor, Sister Bay and Washington Island. From there we plan to cross Lake Michigan over to the Michigan side of the Lake to Charlevoix and explore this coastline of Michigan. Next will be heading under the Mackinaw Bridge and spending some time at Mackinaw Island.
Step Two: We got a bit derailed with step two when Covid happened in 2020. We put our plans on hold for a year to actually depart the great lakes and head to the Caribbean. However, in 2020, we were able to explore Lake Michigan for the summer and had a fabulous time. Here’s where we actually went. We are on track to leave this summer in June of 2021 to continue on with our plan. We plan to leave in mid-June 2021.

So, where did we visit and stop?
Manitowoc to Pentwater
Pentwater to Ludington
Ludington to Manistee
Manistee to Frankfort
Frankfort to Leland
Leland to Northport
Northport to Charlevoix
Charlevoix to Petoskey
Petoskey to Harbor Springs
Harbor Springs to Beaver Island
Beaver Island to Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island to Beaver Island
Beaver Island to Fayette State Park
Fayette State Park to Washington Island
Washington Island to Little Sturgeon Bay
Little Sturgeon Bay to Manitowoc
550 nautical miles in a little over a months time.

Explore the Manitoulin Islands of Northern Lake Huron in Canada before we head down the east coast of Lake Huron




Not sure yet which shore of the Lake we want to explore, but for sure we are headed to upstate New York by Kingston (that’s Kingston, Ontario Canada) to explore the Thousand Islands area of upstate New York. After we are done exploring this area, we will head down the Lake to Oswego. Oswego is an important stop in our journey. This is where we have to remove our mast from the boat as we begin our journey down the New York Canal System (aka the Erie Canal). We have to remove our mast in order to get under the many bridges that are part canal system and we will have to be able to clear about 20 feet.

Isn’t there a song about the Erie Canal? It rather difficult to view it on a google maps unless you zoom in really close, however it starts at Oswego, travels through Oneida Lake, to Rome, NY, then roughly follows the path of the New York State Thruway to Schenectady, NY and on to Waterford where the canal system meets the Hudson River. In total we will transit 30 locks as we go through this section of the journey. The New York Canal System is a National Historic Landmark and just celebrated it’s 100th birthday in 2018. There are countless museums along the canals quaint towns with free dock tie ups for the night.






