We made our inaugural run of the season today. A short cruise to Charlevoix for lunch and back was the order of the day. Sunny skies, calm winds and a flat lake was our experience. Although it was a little cool, we ran everything while underway including the generator and all of the HVAC units, etc.; all mechanicals checked out fine. It was good to get back out on the water. I had forgotten just how large of a body of water this is. It’s huge! Lake water levels are up this year from last; we had 116’ under the boat as we made the turn around Harbor Point exiting Harbor Springs and entering Little Traverse Bay. Soon we were in 180’ of water and then the depth sounder blanked out until another reading of 215’ popped up. A leisurely cruise at 20 knots (~24 mph) and we made the approach to Charlevoix in about an hour and caught the hourly opening of the bascule bridge into Round Lake.

We had lunch at the Bridge Tap Room, home of 32 craft beers on tap! A great beef brisket and Gouda cheese sandwich along with a craft beer from Comstock, Michigan satisfied my lunch hunger. The Admiral had a grilled cheese sandwich which included jalapeños and bacon and a craft beer from Detroit.

After lunch we walked the town - we had it to ourselves! Merchants are just now stocking inventory for the summer. It was a great day to enjoy the sun and the cold winter breeze! Although temps got into the low 60’s today, it’s still 10’ colder than normal. BTW - water temp was 38’F!

Since we’re north of the 45th parallel, our daylight is very long. Sunrise is around 0600 and sunset is around 2120 hrs. Speaking of which it’s now getting dark outside and I need to go to bed. I’ll update the radar story tomorrow. Be it safe to say that without initiative nothing gets done.

Weather still looking acceptable to move to move to Mackinac Island on Friday.