Aug. 25, 2016 Ludington, MI and The S.S. Badger... an historic car ferry

My blog post on Tues.-Wed. Aug. 16 & 17 included a piece on Trailer Sailers. It was recently highlighted on the AGLCA website as a blog entry worthy of note. What a nice surprise to find that it attracted that kind of response!

We have been hearing about a great car/passenger ferry based out of Ludington, Michigan. Entering service in 1953, The S.S. Badger is the only coal-fired cross-lake ship remaining on any of The Great Lakes today. She can carry 620 passengers and 180 cars. She cruises at 18mph, but can go as fast as 24 mph.  In “the day”, a fleet of 13 ferries called Ludington their home port!

The S.S. Badger has gained even more notoriety for her unorthodox docking style. Imagine a 410-foot ship approaching her dock at a healthy clip. Suddenly her starboard anchor is deployed and she begins to spin in a clock-wise direction. By the time The S.S. Badger’s stern is where her bow used to be, she is being secured to the dock and is ready for passengers and vehicles to off-load. Amazing!  We were treated to this display of ingenuity at 6:30 Thursday night and again at 6:30 Friday morning. (From our slip in the Luddington Municipal Marina, we could look out on her dock.) In the 12 hours that had past, she had crossed to Manitowac, Wisconsin and back again. What a grand old lady!

Created by Darcy O Campbell

Tues.-Wed. August 16&17, 2016 Petroskey in Little Traverse Bay on Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan

Many thanks to Gold Looper Paul from Nordic Tug Zephyr for transporting us for re-provisioning in his home port of Petoskey.  We missed seeing Denise, but we loved her snappy convertible! Later in the day Paul joined fellow Loopers from Summertime, Lone Star, 4th Inning and Eagle Heart on Moondance for docktails and cruising talk. Using loaner bikes from the marina, we peddled east on the paved Little Traverse Wheelway to get a first-hand look at the Bay View Association. Its a Methodist “encampment” of nealy 500 Victorian homes. Using the Chautauqua (NY) Assembly model to inspire, entertain and educate, the hillside community has been active in the summer months for almost 150 years. On the north shore of Little Traverse Bay, Harbor Springs has a showy presence with notable family names such as Ford, Upjohn and Gamble. Further west of Petoskey on the south shore is Bay Harbor Lake, an upscale private community created in the 1990’s on the site of a limestone quarry.

Created by Darcy O Campbell

Monday, August 8, 2016:Kagawong to Croker Island in the Benjamins

We crossed Mudge Bay into Clapperton Channel; cruised counter-clockwise around Clapperton Island to Croker Island; passed between Secretary and “Sow and Pigs” into the lovely remote Croker Island Harbor around 9:45am. This harbor equals the raw beauty of our favorite anchorage Covered Portage, near Killarney. The overnight boats departed by 11:15. New boats arrived by noon. We dinghied over to South Benjamin and peeked into private “one-boat tuck-ins”...sweet! Back at Croker, we climbed 100 feet up to the top of the smooth ledges just behind Summertime, enjoying the stunning vistas in all directions. Discovered a tiny statue of King Neptune near the waters’ edge. “Ever Hopeful”, a lone visiting duck, got lots of loving words but no hand-outs as she paddled from boat to boat. Swimming off our swim platform in clear, comfortable water made the experience just about perfect.

Our anchor chain came up with tangles of grass from the bottom.

Created by Darcy O Campbell

Tues. July 26 and Wed. July 27: Making peace with the Marine Railway’s Big Chute

Along with the Peterborough and the Kirkfield Liftlocks, another oddity of moving from one level to another on the Trent-Severn Waterway is the railway lift called The Big Chute. In order for us to study how this contraption worked, we spent an afternoon and overnight on a Parks Canada dock and watched boats get transferred from the Trent River down to the Severn River. Early the next morning, Summertime, with us aboard, was strapped into the partly submerged railroad car, balanced with straps, trundled on tracks out of the water, across a roadway, rolled down a hillside amd placed “nice as you please” into the waters of the Severn River.  The entire operation, an engineering marvel for sure, took less than fifteen minutes! 

The marine railway awaiting a days work

The railway submerged awaiting our arrival

Slings awaiting

Summertime sitting high and dry on her keel 

The Admiral on watch

Almost back into the water

On the water again!

Created by Darcy O.Campbell