Our trip from Frankfort to Grand Haven was about 60 miles. This is one of the longest trips we’ve taken regarding mileage. Our original thought today was to go Muskegon, with Pentwater as a back up if the weather was not cooperating. Once we were out and heading down the coast, the ride was comfortable and it made sense to us to just keep going.
Grand Haven bills itself as “Coast Guard City, USA”. There is a large coast Guard base there, as well as a quaint town of shops and entertainment venues. They also have a colorful musical fountain that puts on a nightly display.
When we were getting close to the destination, we realized we didn’t know where we were going to stay exactly. We had heard and looked on a map at some marinas in the area, as well as some anchorages. Once we got into the river, it continues on a ways inland where all of the marinas and anchorages are. As we were getting close to the downtown area, we noticed a lot of boats tied up along the wall along the boardwalk. We spotted an open spot, and cautiously started to dock. A helpful guy jumped off of his boat and assisted us with grabbing lines. Once secure, we chatted a bit, and he told us the wall is free for day use, but they come by and collect $10 for overnight stays. Great! This is a deal! The location is superb, the price right. There is no water or power, but we really couldn’t beat the location. After we were settled in, we hung out on the back deck of the boat and watched the people pass by, them watching us. This was a fun opportunity to chat with locals and other boaters. We wandered around town a bit, and had some dinner. We were able to watch the musical fountain display as well from our boat.
After a long day, we were getting tired and ready to retire for the evening. I did a last check of lines and fenders before heading in. The river was starting to get a little rocky, as the current/waves were coming in from the lake and following a path along the wall in. I secured a few more fenders and called it a night.
Around 2am, I woke up to the boat pitching and rolling around. I went outside to assess the situation and could see the boats all around us being tossed about. The way the water was coming in from the lake made us bounce off the wall, then get tugged back by our lines. Checking all the bumpers and lines, there was nothing we could do to stop this, so I went back to bed for the night.
The next morning, the rocking had not stopped, but it slowed down so it wasn’t as violent. I chatted with neighboring boats, and everyone said this was not normal. Upon checking the weather, we could see there were some storms coming, and knew that spending another night on the wall was not going to be a good option. We saw some friends on another boat (Trinity) come in and they told us they were heading to an anchorage a little ways up the river. I reached out to them, and they said it was nice there and they were the only ones anchored there. There was another boat we had made friends with (Sirius) that had spent the night on the wall and they told us they were going to join them at the anchorage. We decided the anchorage would be better than getting rocked on the wall all night.
We spent the afternoon at the beach, and explored downtown some more. We of course found some breweries to hang out at, and eventually returned to the boat to move to the anchorage. We got to the anchorage just before dark. We found a spot upriver from the other two boats. We dropped anchor and backed it down, ensuring it had taken hold and would not be moving overnight. I had mentioned the approaching storm, and winds were expected to reach 30+ mph. This was going to be a big storm.
The storm came overnight with the high winds. We felt protected as the anchorage was only 75 yards wide, by 200 yards deep. There were houses on hills on either side, and most had boats at docks along the channel we were in. We woke up once or twice throughout the night due to the howling wind and lightening and thunder rumbling around. A quick check around and we were still secure in the same position we dropped the anchor. I went back to sleep feeling good. Around 8am or so, I woke up and looked out the window. Our friends on Sirius were motoring out, headed to a marina where they had to do some fuel line maintenance. Trinity was still there, so I laid back down for a bit. The wind was still blowing, and it seemed like it was getting stronger. I woke up a half hour later, and that’s when I noticed we were moving at a fairly fast clip backwards. The boats we were even with, were now moving past us. I jumped up and did a quick confirmation that we were indeed moving, fast! I looked back and saw we were heading toward the other boat. Lauren was getting the animals their breakfast when I flew downstairs, exclaiming “we’re dragging!” and turned on the ignition switch. I ran back upstairs and started the engine with my heart beating fast. The winds were now blowing straight down the channel, pushing us faster and faster toward Trinity. At this point, the anchor is still down, but clearly not holding onto anything. I put the boat in forward gear and gave it some throttle. We were not moving forward! still dragging backwards and getting even closer to Trinity! I gave it even more throttle, ready to put it in full speed- anything to stop us from hitting them! I eventually got a little forward movement, and gave it even more throttle. Soon we were making some headway forward, away from Trinity, but still dragging our anchor and lines in the water below us. At this point, Lauren took over at the helm and I went out on the fore deck to try to retrieve our anchor. The wind still blowing hard, I had no way to communicate with Lauren, as she was driving from inside. We were using hand signals to tell her when to raise the anchor, which way to steer or when to stop. On one of my trips inside, I turned on the VHF radio so we could communicate with Trinity if need be.
We finally made some headway and was back to our original location of dropping anchor. I had also managed to get the anchor raised so we were safe from any tangling or snags from the trailing lines. Trinity had called us on the radio and told us of a marina that was around the corner that had space for both of us, at a dollar a foot. At this point my leg was bleeding from a run in with a bike pedal, and the rain and wind were not letting up; I didn’t care how much it cost, I just wanted to be tied up to a dock and safe. We followed them out of the channel and toward the marina. We got to the marina in the rain and had a dock hand assist us getting into the slip. The wind made it tricky, but we made it. The sense of relief cannot be explained. Nothing here was life threatening, but definitely could have been a disaster of a collision or grounding. This isn’t the first time we’ve dragged our anchor, and it is becoming a bit of a concern because we have planned on anchoring more often than docking.
Now that we’re securely tied up and safe, we turn our thoughts toward another issue we’ve been having. We have had an oil leak coming from around the oil pan attached to the engine. I can tell the gasket is shot, and this is allowing oil to drip out into a drip pan under the engine. I had researched this and ordered a replacement online, which I had shipped to our friend Barbara. We were supposed to meet over Labor Day weekend, but due to weather that did not happen. I spoke to the marina, and they said it would be okay to have the part shipped to the marina. After some coordination with Barbara, the part was on the way. This also meant we had to stay another day to wait for the delivery, then install it. At least the marina had good amenities such as a pool (which we couldn’t use due to weather) clean showers and restroom facilities, and a large area to walk Frank. We took the bikes for a ride and went back to downtown Grand Haven. We have gotten plenty of biking in, and what I used to say ‘no way’ to, is now an easy jaunt.
The part arrived on Friday, and I had to use one of the on site mechanics to assist with this. The oil pan is too large for one person to hold in place or even remove without letting it fall to the pan below. The process itself wasn’t too difficult- remove the bolts, clean up the old residue, apply new gasket sealer and gasket, then bolt back in place. This took about an hour of time, which was billed to me along with the dockage.
By Friday evening we were ready to leave Grand Haven. Tomorrows weather looked good in the morning, so we decided we would get an early start toward our next destination, which is Holland, MI as of now…