Saugatuck, MI, Day 3

Days on cruise:  150

Saugatuck is a really nice little town. The anchorage here, though shallow (we have TWO feet of water under our hull) is so well protected that we haven’t worried at all about dragging anchor, being hit with scary wind or waves, and of course there’s no tide or current to worry about.

However, a Sherriff’s boat came by and asked all of us who were anchored to move to a different location to get out of the “Turning Basin” needed for the Cruise Ship “Yorktown” to come in the following morning. Regular readers may recall when we were tied up to the Town Wall in Little Current, Ontario, they cleared all boats for about 500 feet to prepare for the arrival of this same Great Lakes cruising boat. So at 7am we saw it come in again.

There are several tourist boats that make regular trips in Kalamazoo Lake, often within about 50 feet of our boat, so the tourists wave and take photos of our boat, and we get a little rocking from their wake. Below is the Duck Boat.

Below is The Star of Saugatuck, a paddle-wheel-driven tourist boat for day trips which also operates here.

We took the dinghy into town again, tied up at the dinghy dock, and caught the Dial-a-Ride transit service to the grocery store 3 miles away. In Saugatuck there’s no fixed route/schedule bus service, just the mini-bus that you call ahead to arrange a ride. We called and got picked up at the dinghy dock 25 minutes later. After buying our groceries, we called again, and 10 minutes later they picked us up at the grocery store and took us back to the dinghy dock. Wow! All at a one-way cost of 50 cents for Bob (age 62 or over) and $1 for Cathryn.

We also wandered through town again, much less crowded and quieter on a weekday than a weekend when lots of folks are visiting. Again, we were struck by the quantity of public art which makes it so much more interesting. We did a bit of early Christmas shopping.

All the Looper friends with whom we’ve socialized the past two nights left this morning, headed south. We’re the only boat anchored here tonight, so Bob grilled steaks and Cathryn prepared veggies for a quiet and pleasant night on the sundeck by ourselves. Given our regular need for “time to ourselves”, this was perfect, despite how much we enjoy other Loopers.