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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI\u2019m on watch. With 9 knots of wind from the north, we\u2019re making 5.4 knots on the rhumb line (93\u00ba True) to the tip of the Leelanau peninsula. We left Pedersen Bay around 5:30am CDT. It\u2019s about 35 miles or seven-ish hours until we get to Leelanau. We\u2019ve come about 25 miles in the five hours since we weighed anchor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wind was light at first, so we had the sails up, and the motor running at 1700rpm. That made sure we were above 5 knots. We\u2019ve been on this course since we left the Porte des Morts passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wind hasn\u2019t changed much in the past three hours, so the sails are trimmed just so and left alone. The autopilot is locked on a course of 91\u00ba True, and allowing for leeway our course over ground is 93\u00ba True.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a compass but really don\u2019t bother with it – just let the GPS and the computers drive the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what do I do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The marine radio is set to channel 9, and also monitoring channel 16 (hailing and distress frequencies respectively for the Great Lakes) and there\u2019s little traffic. I read a chapter in my book, \u2018The Cornish Village Murder\u2019\u00a0<\/em> by Fiona Leitch (a fun series). Put the book down, and have a look around. Make sure we are still on course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pull up the AIS list to see if there is any ships near us, as we will cross seven shipping lanes today. Note that the wind speed has dropped and so our boat speed. I\u2019ll let it be for a half-hour, and if it hasn\u2019t changed, we may need to motor for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then it\u2019s back to the book for another chapter. Repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, I\u2019ve written this – so it\u2019s time to take another look around. Waves are one foot or less. The wind has slowed and we were down to 4 knots. Switch on the motor, 1800 revs, making six knots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sounds of the water now have a bass note thrum of the motor accompaniment. If the wind picks up, we will switch it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Land-ho. North Manitou and South Manitou are off the starboard bow. We are in the deep part of Lake Michigan, over six hundred feet deep and the depth sounder doesn\u2019t measure it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The elevensies scones were eaten at around 9. It\u2019s 11am now, lunch time, and then I turn Reflection over to Marcia for three or four hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To be sure, a Great Lakes passage is short. You\u2019ll only make a multi-day passage if you sail the lake in the long way. Ocean passages can be measured in weeks. As I write, the nearest land is 18 miles away or about three and half hours at our current speed. A look in any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upon-reflection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_20260710_101630553_HDR-576x1024.jpg\")
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