Michigan: a great place to sail

one awesome feature of the state of Michigan (distances according to Wikipedia) is that:

no point in Michigan is more than six miles (10 km) from an inland lake or more than 85 miles (137 km) from one of the Great Lakes.

with all that water around, there are plenty of opportunities to sail: there are yacht clubs galore established on many of the inland lakes, or spread out along the Great Lakes coastlines, as well as sailing clubs and teams at area high schools and colleges, and there is also the occasional sailing school where you could take sailing lessons if you choose.

several of Michigan’s colleges and universities have collegiate sailing teams that sail as members of the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association, or the college might have just a sailing club, that often uses the facilities of a local yacht club nearby (Sail Michigan has a good list of both).  in the lower part of Michigan, there is both Michigan State University in East Lansing (collegiate team and sailing club) and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (collegiate team and sailing club), as well as several other smaller colleges with teams and/or clubs.  a few of Michigan’s high schools offer sailing as well, but it is not a huge list (again, Sail Michigan has a good list on their website).

most of the sailing schools in Michigan are situated near one of the Great Lakes, but in the Metro Detroit area, you can find the American Sailing Institute, which sails on Kent Lake in Kensington Metropark, as well as Stoney Creek Metropark and Lake St Clair.

you can also find community sailing in Michigan, as the Traverse Area Community Sailing has been operating up in the northwest corner of Michigan’s lower peninsula for almost 20 years now.  I had a chance to visit their facility about a year and a half ago, and was really impressed!  I really wish that the Metro Detroit area had a similar community sailing system set up, as I think it’d be a great way to introduce more people to sailing.

Traverse City isn’t exactly in my neighborhood, though, and I’ve never taken any classes at the sailing schools or clubs around, so I have taught myself to sail by reading some books, and learning by trial and error out on the water.

so over the past few years, I have tried to take advantage of Michigan’s plethora of water, and sail on a variety of the nearby inland lakes (if I can find a public access point), as well as sailing on the Great Lakes when I get a chance.

I’ve sailed several times on Lake Michigan.  two summers ago, I added Lake Huron on a trip up to Tawas Bay – the “Cape Cod of the Midwest”.  and this last summer, I added another one of the Great Lakes to my list, as I sailed a couple times on Lake Erie.

this leaves me with only Lake Superior and Lake Ontario to round out all 5 Great Lakes, although the last 2 will probably be the hardest to cross of my list, as both will entail serious drive times just to get there.

not every sailing trip has been great though – I got stuck in weeds and then had to sail with dead carp floating around me at Kent Lake – with video evidence!

but the nice thing is that there will always be another lake not too far away that I can try the next time if I get too frustrated with the sailing on that lake.

probably one of my best sailing memories is spending a few days sailing on a couple lakes in Michigan’s northwest lower peninsula with my wife.  we sailed twice on the East Bay near Traverse City, and then had an awesome sailing day on Crystal Lake – an absolutely amazing lake to sail on (and perhaps my favorite thus far of any lake I’ve sailed in Michigan).

but, I think a big key to some of my fondest sailing memories is sharing the trip with someone – often times one (or more) of my 3 young boys, or the 3-day trip with my wife (that’s about the only time I’ve been able to get her to sail with me on the Sunfish!), a friend from college, my siblings, even my father one time on Lake Michigan!  here’s a video from a great day of sailing on Lake Michigan – it was a fairly calm day with light winds, and I was able to slowly sail back and forth along the coastline of Lake Michigan, giving short rides on the Sunfish to my kids, a few of their cousins, and even a few adults who wanted to give it a try!

________________________________________

so does Michigan offer this more specifically than any other state or exotic sailing island in a much more tropical climate? no, not really.  but, for me, the best sailing place is one that I can get to easily, and enjoy the time out in the wind, on the water, and hopefully sharing that memory with someone as well.  and Michigan has a lot of options for getting out on the water – sailing, swimming, kayaking or whatever water sport you choose, no matter where you are living right now.

so even though my boat of choice the Sunfish can get a little cramped with me and 2 kids riding along, or maybe ride a bit low in the water if I’m sailing with another adult, the fellowship of sailing with a friend, or the sheer joy I see on my kid’s face (or that of any other child I’ve had a chance to give a ride on the Sunfish) has been amazing.  my 3 1/2 year old son has already asked me a few times this spring to take him sailing again.  maybe this year or in the near future, I’ll work in racing other Sunfish – the Greater Detroit Sunfish Club is a local club option that seems like a great place to start.

________________________________________

this post is for the sailing blogfather Tillerman (at his blog Proper Course) who had requested that fellow bloggers write about the “Top Sailing Destination on the Planet.”  as much as I would like to, I just don’t sail nearly as much some of the other bloggers, and not nearly as much or in as varied exotic places as Tillerman has been lucky to sail.  that being said, the post above is my case: Michigan is a great place to sail.

a reason for all the dead carp

so, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I went sailing on Kent Lake (here’s the video) at Kensington Metropark near Brighton, Michigan.  the plethora of weeds was frustrating for sure, but the odor and sight of dead fish floating by certainly didn’t help my opinion of the lake that day.  I had figured they were dead carp, but didn’t inspect one close enough to actually verify it – and wasn’t sure what would cause so many carp to die off at once.

(Photo by GILLIS BENEDICT/DAILY PRESS & ARGUS)

apparently, it’s a a disease that is killing the carp: “spring viremia of carp — which causes infected fish to become extremely lethargic”.  there is an article about it in the Livingston Daily: “Fish die-off hits area waters“.

Up to 500 carp died over the weekend at Kensington Metropark’s Kent Lake and portions of the Huron River, likely due to a virus called spring viremia of carp, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

my brother suggested that the government should find a way to distribute the spring viremia to all the Asian carp that are infesting the rivers, and threatening to reach the Great Lakes.  killing them off with this spring viremia might be a more effective form of control than the Asian Carp Control Program (ACCP).

Asian Carp Control Program (ACCP)

 

 

swim & paddle with HRWC

the next 2 weekends offer some chances to get together with the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC) for some local activities (details here).

this Sunday, July 17th, is “Swim Baseline Lake” (hosted at the Michigan Sailing Club).  this is a community swim from the river channel through Baseline Lake, approximately 1 mile of swimming.  advance payment & registration is required.

also on Sunday, July 17th, there will be a “Paddle Instruction” on the Huron River, hosted by REI, from 10am to noon.  more information is also at REI’s website.

REI will provide a recreational and family oriented paddle instruction at Gallup Park in Ann Arbor. You can enjoy learning to paddle in a kayak or a canoe provided free of charge by the Gallup Park Livery. Free, all the basic strokes (forward, reverse, sweep, draws, stopping and braces) are covered.

the following weekend, Saturday, July 23rd and Sunday, July 24th, there is an “Overnight Paddle“.  this event is also free, but advanced registration is required.

Meet at Island Lake State Recreation Area at 2 p.m. on Saturday just below Kent Lake Dam to leave boats and gear. We will then caravan to the take out point at Huron Meadows Metropark and leave cars. Our shuttle will bring paddlers back to put-in.  Camping that evening at Island Lake State Recreation Area Canoe Camp. Continue on the next day to takeout at Huron Meadows Metropark.

sunfish sailing on Kent Lake [video]

here’s a short video I put together from my sailing adventure a few days ago on Kent Lake at Kensington Metropark in Michigan.  you can see the frustration I was having with the weeds, see a few dead fish go floating by, but also at least a decent bit of sailing that afternoon.

this is my 1st time mounting the GoPro HD Surf Hero video camera out on the lower boom – I kind of like the perspective it gives.  watching the video, I can also see that the camera angle/view gives more of an idea when I was getting into the weeds, as there were times out on the water that I didn’t even realize I was getting close to a weed cluster.

sailing log: 2011-06-18

so Saturday was like a trifecta for sailing – it was Father’s Day weekend and my wife was encouraging me to go sail, the weekend also happened to be the Summer Sailstice, and it was going to be my 1st chance to test out the new (to me… it is a 2000, so 11 years old or so) Sunfish I had picked up off of craigslist.  the weather report was for a chance of showers and light winds, but after doing a few things in the morning and afternoon, the rain hadn’t started, so I took off for the lake to get out on the water.

I decided to try Kent Lake at Kensington Metropark again, which has been pretty hit or miss with me, and even though I’ve been frustrated with the weeds there before.  this time, I was going to try out the west boat ramp, which would put me closer to the wider and deeper portions of the reservoir (for hopefully a less weedy experience). I was looking at some stuff on the Michigan DNR website about lakes and public boat access points, and saw they are warning about spreading these weeds (called Eurasian milfoil) to other lakes.

after scoping the boat launch area out a bit, I decided the light winds were hanging around enough to get me moving across the water some, so I backed up the trailer near the boat ramp, and started to rig my boat up.  the first thing I noticed was a strong odor of rotting fish.  sure enough, as I started sailing, I kept seeing huge dead carp floating in the water.  I’m not sure what caused it, but they seemed to be everywhere.

and once again, I had trouble with the weeds at Kent Lake.

here is a screen shot from the video I took – I had just hit a nasty weed bed, and the boat had come to almost a dead stand-still, but the back end was still swinging around to the right. I noticed that the camera shows the weeds really well, but sitting down at the boat level, I couldn’t always see them (until too late).  also note the nice floating dead carp off to the right side of the boat, towards the little island in the upper left.

trapped in the weeds with a dead carp floating nearby

the light winds didn’t help either, as I had trouble building up enough speed to plow through the weeds when I did encounter them.  I got stuck again, and drifted up near that little island, and had to break out my collapsible paddle to push away from shore, and paddle the boat a ways out.

it wasn’t all for naught, as I did have a few stretches of nice sailing. I was testing out the GoPro video camera mounted on the back of the lower Sunfish boom, and am pretty happy with that location – I’ll try to edit out some of the rough parts from the day and get it down to a manageable file to upload soon.  here’s another screen shot from the video when things were going a bit better.

the other thing I found out is that the wooden daggerboard from my old Sunfish doesn’t fit down completely into the daggerboard slot on the new Sunfish!  it is about as deep as it can go in the picture above.  the fiberglass daggerboard I bought will fit just fine, but I didn’t want to drag the new daggerboard through the muck and weeds of Kent Lake.

I got frustrated with the light winds and weeds slowing me down, and called it after about an hour of sailing.  I headed back to the boat ramp, and packed everything up to head home.  once I got there, I re-set up the whole boat, and washed it all down with soap and water – hoping to get the weed scum and dead carp juices off as best I could.

I was pretty annoyed with the whole thing – and am pretty much done trying to sail on Kent Lake anymore.  Michigan has so many lakes, I just need to find one nearby that will work out better (with some type of public access).  still it was nice to try out the new(er) Sunfish, and great to get out on the water (even though it stunk a little bit).

UPDATE: okay, here is a short video from the sailing on Kent Lake.

greater detroit 2010 race schedule

the greater detroit sunfish club (GDSC) has released its 2010 race schedule.

• Sunday May 2 – Maceday Lake
• Sunday May 16 – Watkins Lake
• Sunday June 6 – Watkins Lake
• Sunday June 20 – Stoney Creek Metropark
• Saturday/Sunday July 3/4 – Lakeport State Park
• Sunday Aug 1 – Stoney Creek Metropark
• Saturday Aug 21 – Portage Lake
  • this one is part of the Scowfish Invitational (Sunfish & MC Scows)
  • first three races count toward GDSC scoring
• Saturday/Sunday September 4/5 – TBD (Labor Day)
  • I believe this is now going to be Lakeport State Park, too
• September 26 – Watkins Lake
• October 3 – Big Lake

all Sunday races start at 12:30pm, holiday weekend races start at 10:30am

I’m hoping to make it out to at least 1 or 2 of these, but I am a bit bummed to see that there won’t be a race at Kent Lake, where I normally do my sailing.

sailing log: 2009-09-03

my 4th sail of this year was on the Friday before Labor Day, and I had the day off from work, my wife was working from home, and I had already dropped the kids off at daycare.  I decided I’d quickly trailer the Sunfish back up to Kent Lake at Kensington Metropark (where I had such a blast the last time I was there!).

when I arrived, the American flag at the beach was just barely and randomly flapping… not a very encouraging sign!  nevertheless, since I had already paid the park entrance fees and was there at the boat launch, I decided I’d put the Sunfish in the water and see if I could have any luck sailing it in (very) light winds.

my hopes of a decent day of sailing started to rise when I noticed a couple guys from the American Sailing Institute (the sailing school there) were getting an Interlake sailboat ready to sail.  since I was alone, I launched the ‘Fish off my trailer, and dropped off the rest of my supplies on the grass nearby while I parked the truck and trailer.  as I got back down to the launch and started to get the ‘Fish ready to sail, I struck up a conversation with a gentlemen (Louie) preparing to go fishing with his father (Lou).  He told me about being a member of the sailing club at Michigan State University (Go Green!) when he was a student there, and how much he had enjoyed small boat sailing, and wanted to get his family more interested in it.

after I got the sail up and all my rigging set, I said goodbye to Lou and Louie, and started drifting away.  that was about the fastest I ever got going, though!  the wind, when it did decide to flutter a little here and there, was from the northeast, so I initially attempt to tack into the wind.  as there wasn’t really any constant wind, though, I was having little success.  so, instead, I made an about face, turned the boat with the wind, and just let out the mainsheet to open the sail all the way.  I still didn’t get very far.  I was slowly drifting with little tiny gusts here and there teasing me into thinking the wind just might pick up.

I eventually took off my life jacket, and dropped it down into the cockpit to use as a seat cushion – I then sat down in the cockpit, resting my feet up on the deck near the daggerboard, and resting my back against the back of the cockpit.  initially, I used a bungee cord to keep the tiller set straight, so I would sail a straight course whenever the wind decided to show up.  after a while of drifting like that, I unhooked the bungee, and just held the tiller extension over my shoulder – it worked well enough, and gave me a little more control over where I was drifting.  after maybe 20 or 30 minutes of lazily drifting “with the wind”, I turned her around and decided I’d tack back into the wind towards the dock and boat launch.  when I first turned around, it actually seemed like I got a small bit of wind, because I started slowly sailing a steady course.  it was fairly short-lived, though, and the breeze that was there died off again.  after drifting along for a while, I finally gave up, and grabbed my telescoping paddle, and paddled the rest of the way back in.

I originally thought I might just put on some more suncreen (I hadn’t expected to be sitting so calmly in the direct sun!) and try to sail her some more in the northern part of the lake, but I noticed the Interlake from ASI was also paddling in at the same time, so I just got my truck and trailer, and loaded the Sunfish up to go home.

it was a beautiful calm day – probably a great day to be kayaking or canoeing on the lake, but a dreadful day to try sailing.  what a big difference from the last time I was at this lake, with the multiple tips, heavy wind and even stronger gusts.  maybe I’ll have better luck next time.

sailing log: 2009-07-11

my 2nd sail of the year was just a couple days after my trip out on Portage Lake with Micah.  my wife and I took all 3 boys out to Kensington Metropark, near Brighton, MI, for a nice afternoon of sailing, swimming and playing on the beach.

link to maps of Kensington Metropark (.pdf file)

the lake there is Kent Lake, which is also home to the American Sailing Institute (ASI).  as an aside, I’ve thought about signing up there to take lessons (they sail 17-ft Interlakes), but haven’t been able to set aside that much time… maybe in future years?  a co-worker’s husband has been a member for a few years, and enjoys it, so maybe I should give it a chance, plus it’d give me some experience on other sailboats.

Kent Lake is nice because there is a no-wake or 5mph speed limit, which pretty much limits boating traffic to small fishing boats, canoes/kayaks, paddleboats, sailboats, and the occasional windsurfer.  no jet-skis, powerboats, or water-skiing to have to watch out for, which makes life a little less stressful out on the water in my little Sunfish.

honestly, the setup the park has on the east side of the lake is a bit of a pain.  since I was going to start out sailing solo, I needed to drop off my wife and 3 boys at the beach/swimming area, but we had already driven down by the boat launch.  we debated them walking over to it, but it was a pretty hefty hike over no apparent trails, and my wife wasn’t too eager to drag the 2 older boys and push the 14-month old in a stroller loaded down with water bottles, swim toys and towels all the way there (and eventually back), so we drove the truck and trailer out and up to the beach area, where I dropped them off, and then I had to drive all the way back out and around and back to the boat launch area… not exactly convenient.  also, it then meant I was launching the boat, parking the truck and trailer, etc by myself – again, not that hard, but just a bit more frustrating, and it takes that much longer to get going (and less time on the water).

finally got it all set up and rigged – I had adjusted the halyard position on the upper spar and the gooseneck position (I really need to get me one of those quick-adjust levers!) so that the sail was rigged a little higher up, making it a bit easier to see under to scout ahead for other boats. wind strength was pretty strong coming across the lake, mostly heading north-east. I remember looking at the wind forecast and thought it had said 10-15mph with gusts, and I’d guess it was at least that… probably with gusts closer to 20mph… and the gusts were pretty random and frequent. made for some interesting sailing!

I got off to a great start, and headed north up the lake towards the swimming area. I planned to sail mostly in that area, and if the opportunity arose, would be close enough to pick up my older son. I sailed solo for about an hour, making several laps out in the area to the west of the swimming area. one real frustration was the presence of weeds in the water. Kent Lake is quite heavily weedy, mostly underwater (where it’s hard to see them coming!), but some areas with surface weeds as well. I actually got blown off course, and right into one of these big patches of surface weeds – got myself stuck pretty good, too. I eventually just popped the daggerboard and rudder both up, and the wind was strong enough it quickly blew the boat sideways out of the surface weeds, and I was able to drop the daggerboard and rudder back and get sailing again.

this was probably one of my fastest sailing days ever – on one stretch, sailing pretty close-hauled, I was able to get the boat to plane for quite a long stretch. I wasn’t pushing the limits on hiking myself out, though… I need to get in better shape to be doing that for extended periods of time!  after about an hour (I’m guessing – I’ve realized that a waterproof watch is a pretty important piece of equipment that I need to really make sure I remember for future sailing trips), I headed into the beach to see if my 8-yr old son wanted to join me. he was already waiting there with a big grin, so as soon as I waved him out, he was wading out to me and getting his life jacket on (I had wrapped his life jacket around the mast to carry while I sailed solo). unfortunately, I had poorly planned my landing point: to leave the beach, I had to head either straight south/south-west, and basically hug right along the coast of the lake, OR, I could sail straight out, but risk being blown into the swimming area if I didn’t get her sailing right away!

as such, before we were even 50-feet from the shore, we tipped the boat over THREE times! luckily, my son didn’t seem to mind at all, and as the water wasn’t too deep, it wasn’t too much of a deal to quickly right the boat, lift my son back in, and try again. on the 4th try, we finally got going, this time heading straight out from the shore. we sailed a good stretch close hauled, and I initiated our first turn to tack, and dumped it right back over again, this time in much deeper water. I made sure my son was alright, and then righted the boat, got him back in, and then it dumped right back over again!  this time, the mast started to sink under, and even got tangled up in the nasty weeds.  my son kept swimming along side me, though, pretty good spirits, too, as I righted the boat again (slower this time due to the mast tangling up on the weeds).  after that, I took it easy, and we didn’t tip again.  in retrospect, I think I will have to talk with my son more about how to handle the tipping – such as, what to do, where to move, and how to handle it if he got stuck under the sail – we were lucky this time that things went well, and he was able to swim well enough with the life jacket helping, I’m sure.

we sailed together for maybe 45 minutes or so, and then started beating our way back to the boat launch.  that’s when the hidden weeds struck again.  this time, I had just tried to initiate a tack near the series of slips used by the sailing school, and just flat out stopped… not in irons, but tangled up on the weeds.  I didn’t have really any option to turn the boat that I could figure, so I ended up dropping the sail, and jumped off the boat to swim her up to the nearby boat slips.  2nd mistake here – the weeds make it incredibly difficult for me to even swim!  I was pretty whipped by the time I got it to the dock, where a kind man helped me unload my rudder, daggerboard, sails & my son.  I then used my telescoping paddle to slowly maneuver the stripped ‘Fish back to the boat launch.

we loaded the boat up on the trailer, picked up the sails and hardware from the docks, and made the drive around to pick up my wife and 2 other boys.  I was pretty exhausted at that point – a couple hours of hard sailing, the 5 times righting the boat after tipping, and then the awful swim thru the weeds really took it out of me.

all that being said, this was by far one of my most exciting sailing adventures – I felt that I was really sailing well at many different angles – I lost the wind a couple times, but I think that was more due to gusting, and the subtle changes in wind direction due to the small lake.