Days 37 and 38 - in Saugatuck at Singapore Yacht Club - August 12-13, 2011

We’ve spent three nights in Saugatuck at the Singapore Yacht Club.  The yacht club is one of the three places you can stay along the waterfront in Saugatuck.  They only have slips available when their members are out of town – we got lucky and not only was a member out of town when we arrived on Thursday, but the person who had the slip reserved for the remainder of the weekend ended up cancelling, so we were able to stay.  This is a fun spot to stay right in the middle of all the action, although it is a bit pricey.  The club got their name from the town of Singapore that was a lumber town at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River from the 1840’s through the 1870’s.  Singapore was a very large town with three lumber mills and numerous other businesses to support them.  However, when the trees were gone, the town emptied out and its residents moved elsewhere.  Without the trees to slow down the blowing sand, it slowly reclaimed the town and now there is nothing left.

We have spent our time in Saugatuck relaxing on the boat and wandering through town.  The shops, art galleries and restaurants here are wonderful.  It is definitely a place to visit and enjoy.  We had quite a rainy day on Saturday with many thunderstorms passing through the area.  Most of the severe weather managed to go either north or south of us, so we saw wicked clouds and had lots of thunder and lightning, but not all that much rain.  The excitement for the day was “rescuing” a boat that was dragging its anchor.  The owners had taken their dinghy to town and were not aware that they had a problem.  Their boat was headed across Kalamazoo Lake toward boats docked along the river.  We took our dinghy along with another boat owner out to the drifting boat.  The gentleman with us hopped on the boat and let out more anchor rode, hoping to stop the dragging.  Just as we seemed to have things under control the owner arrived, got on board moved his boat and re-set his anchor.  They were still having trouble getting the anchor to hold and eventually left and headed back out the river.

storm clouds over Tower Marina

storm clouds over Tower Marina

storm clouds over the SS Keewatin