8/13 Frankfort to Pentwater

Even though the weather forecast wasn't so good I decided to leave early and head south, if necessary by engine. Fortunately, the weather was better than expected (mostly sunny) and an increasing wind allowed me to motorsail and by lunchtime, switch the engine off entirely. The wind now came straight from astern, which meant - gennaker time! This is, when the waves are not too large and cause rolling, the most comfortable direction of sail and I got the pleasure of running like this for the next 7 hours! I let a small section of the jib stand in parallel to the 'kite' which gave it the look of a cutter (double headsail), and which I imagined stabilized and improved the gennaker performance.
As I approached Pentwater one other boat peeked out of the harbor and did a few spins, but then decided to head back in just ahead of me. As I entered the harbor I heard shouts of 'Arrrr' and found Kyle Buckland and his girlfriend Kelly waving to me from a pier. They had seen me entering the harbor and came to invite me to watch the annual Pentwater fireworks. First I had to anchor, but the boat I had previously met came close and shouted that I was free to use a mooring that was currently unused by its owner. Great - that saved me the usual anchoring troubles!
After having a light dinner I headed to shore and met Kelly's parents and watched an impressive fireworks display from their summer home. I slept well that night.