Our last day anchored at South Manitou Island. Was very eventful…we started our morning out with what we thought was going to be a fantastic weather day. The forecast was sunny with a low breeze. 

Bryce suggested we take a kayak ride sounded great to me. The water is so deep & clear I was also surprised on how warm the water was compared to the air temperature. The anchorage was so pretty and the bottom was sandy but the beaches or shoreline were rocky. 

 Look 👀 how clear the water is 
We ended up kayaking to the point of the island. I think it’s the nesting grounds for seagulls. 

 Flying seagulls  
The winds started to pick up a bit it was getting a little harder to paddle on the trip back to the boat. One of the power boaters that we spoke with from Frankfurt was out paddle boarding pulled up anchor and headed back. They didn’t stay long at all I would of consider that waste of gas. Two sailboats came in and didn’t stay…

 Me Kayaking  
Oh well it’s time to pull a Kelly’s island favorite ( beach chairs, umbrella, lunch and of course some beer) on the shoreline. We do this every time we go to Lake Erie to Kelly’s island. 

 Our beach opportunity  
The funniest thing happened we are setting there enjoying our conversation and all of a sudden the wind blew and carried away our umbrella away. Bryce ran after it!! I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to take the photo..I missed a good photo opportunity. 

 Bryce caught the umbrella 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 
After a great few hours, I was sitting relaxing in the cockpit when I went to the weather forecast….I went down to show Bryce the forecast..tomorrow (Monday) winds 25-30 knots from the South/West Tuedsay about the same. We were going to have to spend two more days before we get the next window of opportunity to leave! At that moment we both agreed to pull up anchor and head to Frankfurt only 28 miles away. NOAA weather said the winds were only  9 knots. We had to go..,

 Getting ready to pull up anchor  
 We had a horrible time crossing took us 7.5 hrs last night to motor across 28 miles from South Manitou Island. We got beat up on the waves. Waves hit over 10 feet winds gusting at only 17-19 not sure why the waves were so big. We have sailed in gust over 20 and waves were not bad. 3:30 am we finally with the grace of God pulled in to safe harbor.  We are spending 2 days here in Frankfurt. 

Moral of the story is we have to keep a better eye on the weather. No, more coming into anchorage at night or should I say early morning.