Every year, the sea kayakers of Southeast Michigan and beyond descend on the tip of the thumb of Michigan for the Port Austin Sea Kayak Symposium, put on by Riverside Kayak Connection. For some reason, kaykers love a good lesson. We respect this, and in fact, have learned a whole lot of good safety tips and cruising knowledge from our kayaker friends, but mostly, we just love the excuse to get together with our buddies... who happen to by kayakers...
This year marks the opening (or semi-opening) of the Port Austin State Harbor. The Michigan State harbors are a remarkable resource for the state and, hopefully, for the communities where they're located.
The new docks are floating, allowing for changes in lake levels. This is an amazing improvement over our last visit in 2011, when we had to climb up a tall ladder to get to the dock!
While the kayakers enjoyed filling their brains with new paddle strokes and rolling around in the water, we spent the day lolling around the harbor, enjoying the Port Austin Farmers' Market, and taking folks out for a spin in Sorcerer. This was our first outing in Sorcerer all season; quite a shame, considering it is nearly the end of June!
On Saturday morning, we took two guests out in light and variable winds, mostly bobbing around, but enjoying the view nonetheless. The breeze picked up in the afternoon, so we sailed to the light house and back. The previous night, by the campfire, Marv told us the story of how the community formed a non-profit to adopt the lighthouse from the Coast Guard.
On Sunday, we slept in, enjoying the opportunity to have a real weekend without an alarm. We were to drive home that afternoon, but the breeze was promising. We packed up the tent, spent a few minutes tacking back and forth in the harbor giving the kayakers a real-life lesson in "rules of the road," and headed out for a quick sail on a beam reach on Lake Huron.
Once again, we feel blessed to live in the heart of the Great Lakes. After a fun morning of sailing, we headed in, loaded Sorcerer back on the trailer, and began thoughts of our next cruising destination. Where to?
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