We began our final month of cruising on Croker Island, in the North Channel. We enjoyed our time there, picking blueberries, walking along the rocky hills and paddle boarding around the anchorage. We were into the Benjamin Island area of the North Channel, known for its pink quartz islands. These islands are a very popular stop but as we were early in the cruising season, all the anchorages were nearly empty when we visited.
From Croker Island, we headed just two miles away, to South Benjamin Island. We stayed at a different anchorage on the island than we had last summer. The anchorage is on the north side of South Benjamin, with North Benjamin just across the bay. We shared the anchorage with a few other boats that came and went but it was never crowded.
We stayed three nights, enjoying two sunny days then waiting out some rain and higher winds before moving on. The islands provide plenty to explore, walking along the rocky cliffs, paddle boarding and taking the dinghy around.
We had one more stop in this island group, Fox Island. We headed through the narrow cut between North and South Benjamin Islands and over to Fox. We love Fox Island! It was one of our favorite stops last summer. The island has lots of narrow channels in the rock for paddle boarding. We enjoyed the day paddle boarding around, exploring and relaxing onboard. We were starting to get anxious about getting back to Muskegon, so after one night, we continued on.
We headed off to Shoepack Bay, we had seen this bay last summer but we weren’t able to get a spot as it is pretty deep. This time we were able to grab a spot a stern-tie for the night. The bay features a tall rocky wall along the northern coast. We paddled along the wall and spent a rainy afternoon onboard, making some blueberry jam from all the blueberries we had previously collected.
Our next stop was Beardrop Harbor. We loved this anchorage last summer! It is well-protected with tons to explore. We enjoyed two nights there, paddle boarding, hiking and exploring. We then headed off to our final North Channel anchorage. We soaked up the last of the North Channel at the Turbull Islands.
We left the North Channel and started heading towards home. We anchored at a really pretty spot on Harbor Island, near Drummond Island for the night then continued on, anchoring in Les Cheneaux Islands of the U.P.
The following day we had snagged a slip reservation on Mackinac Island. We were super excited to spend the day on the island. We got to meet back up with our friends Lucas and Emily from SV Alaya who left from Michigan last summer. They left their boat in the Chesapeake and are working on the Island for the summer. It was great to catch up with them and take in all the wonderful sights.
The next morning we headed off, under the Mackinac Bridge and we were officially back in our home waters of Lake Michigan!
We arrived in the evening to Beaver Island. We stayed a few days on the island, hiking enjoying the beach and catching up with some old friends (Chip and Colleen on SV Horizon) from Harbour Towne- the marina we left from in Muskegon.
From Beaver Island we headed south to Suttons Bay. We had a really nice sail, with the motor off for most of the journey. We stayed in Suttons Bay three nights. We enjoyed the beautiful bay, did some wine tasting and had a wonderful dinner with our friend Max who recent moved to Traverse City. His wife, Leeann is currently hiking the PCT so we will have to wait to catch up with her until her adventure is finished. You can read more about her through hike at the Passport Pair.
Our final night in Suttons Bay was very rolly from a strong north wind. We left first thing in the morning and began heading out of Grand Traverse Bay. We decided to skip over South Manitou Island and head all the way to Frankfort. We enjoyed the small town and hiking the nearby dunes. Finally we were on the west coast of Michigan and it was really starting to feel like we were almost home.
From there we headed to Ludington where we stayed the night before setting off for our final passage back to Muskegon. Today we are are on our way home. We will arrive to Muskegon late afternoon/early evening. We are a bit earlier than expected but after nearly 13 months away we are starting to get anxious to see our new house and finally be home.
This is the end of our full-time, live-aboard cruising adventure. We have taken Resande from Muskegon through Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, the Erie Canal, the Hudson River, the Atlantic coast, parts of the Atlantic ICW and across the gulf-stream to the Bahamas. In the Bahamas we explored the Berry Islands, Eleuthera, the Exuma Islands, and the Abacos. We crossed back over the gulf stream and re-traced our steps. Today we will come full circle into our home port. In total we traveled 7,150 NM.
We talked about our reasons for coming back to Michigan and back to land-life in a previous post so we won’t rehash them here. The year off of work and away from home taught us alot about ourselves and gave us time to think about what we want to do next. We did a pretty clean break when we left, selling our cars and most of our stuff, renting our house and not promising work we would be back in any specific time-frame. Land life 2.0 will look a bit different for us.
We are moving to Muskegon to be closer to the lakeshore. We have always said we wanted to live by the water but a job in Grand Rapids kept us from moving too far away. We want more flexibility in our jobs and more time off for travel, sailing and whatever else we decide to do. I (Erika) have found a telehealth OT job that I can work from home, part-time. Ryan is searching for remote or hybrid- work as well to give us the freedom we want going forward.
We will definitely cruise on Resande throughout the Great Lakes during the summers. We aren’t done with boat life for good, we are always scheming and dreaming up our next adventure. But, for now we will get to work, settling into land life 2.0!