I'm in Frankfort, MI and Kathy's in Dallas with her Mom whom is recovering from bypass surgery. My prayers are with her today.

Daisy and I cruised from Traverse City to Frankfort, which is 80 miles by water, but would have been only 30 miles by land because we had to go 45 miles up Grand Traverse Bay before we could go back South to Frankfort. It was a beautiful cruising day with the morning cruising in flat water in the bay and the afternoon in 1 to 2 ft. waves on Lake Michigan. I felt guilty having such nice Lake Michigan cruising weather without Kathy.

You always see something unexpected. Today it was this flotilla of over 100 Mute Swans. I didn't know they gathered in such numbers, but here they were. They were out about 5 miles from land in about 150 ft. of water, just swimming around together. It's not courting season, so what's the deal? Just gregarious, I guess.

We went past Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, where we visited 4 years ago when our son, Mike, worked as a Park Ranger there. Those sand dunes are hundreds of feet high and the park access is at the top. The rangers frequently have to go down to rescue somebody who slides down for fun and then doesn't have the stamina to get back up the slippery slope. Track & Field teams come here to build stamina by running up and down the slopes.

It really gets deep here. This 599 ft. is as deep as I have seen it for the entire trip. Even though we've been out in the Atlantic Ocean, we haven't been in any water deeper than 600 ft.

The wave forecast is for 1 to 2 ft. again tomorrow so I'll go on down to Pentwater, MI.