Close-To-Home Cruising
LOG SUMMARY
ROUTE
DAYS CRUISING
NIGHTS AT ANCHOR
NIGHTS AT MARINAS
DISTANCE TRAVELED
TOTAL ENGINE HOURS
AVERAGE CRUISE SPEED
TOTAL FUEL USED
FUEL PRICE
FUEL BURN
• Charlevoix
• Suttons Bay
• Traverse City
• Bowers Harbor
• Charlevoix
Five
Two
Two
99nm
11. 65
8. 5 knots
68 U.S. gal. (including five
hours generator time)
$4.65 per gal.
5.4gph; 0.68 gal. per nm
•
TOTAL FUEL COSTS
MARINA COSTS
TOTAL FUEL &
MARINA COSTS
$316
$134
$450
approximately 600 year-round villagers. This quaint
settlement on Leelanau Peninsula exists to serve
boating visitors, who deservedly call it a “safe harbor.”
Photos courtesy of Dick Webster
Top: An overview of Lake Michigan shows the many inlets one
could spend years getting to know. Above: The arrows mark
our rewarding close-to-home route on Grand Traverse Bay.
DAYS II AND III: TRAVERSE CITY
Welcoming the day aboard with a small breakfast
consisting of freshly baked blueberry scones braced
with a few strips of maple-flavored bacon guaranteed
that the captain would be armed with a good mood.
We had called ahead to secure a slip for two nights at
Clinch Park Marina in Traverse City. This was prudent
inasmuch as the National Cherry Festival attracts a
tourist multitude to the area at this time of year.
The transit from Suttons Bay to Traverse was a
relaxing, two-hour southerly run covering 17 nautical
miles through west Grand Traverse Bay. The portside
panorama of Old Mission Peninsula was a rural canvas
of newly verdant vineyards and cherry orchards
amid the rolling countryside. A fresh westerly breeze
handsomely propelled the 77-foot schooner Inland Seas,
starboard abeam us, as she reached northerly to her
home port, Suttons Bay.
Clinch Park Marina, at the base of West Bay and
immediately adjacent to downtown Traverse City, was
