New head piers and the Fourth of July create excitement

Tim Larson skimboards

Dock attendants at the Village of Suttons Bay Marina said the combination of new head piers that connect to 19 finger pier slips, and the coming Fourth of July, have created plenty of “positive buzz” among the boating crowd.

“Everyone we’ve been talking to is just crazy about the head pier docks” that were installed in June, said Mick Suliman, a dock attendant and DPW worker in Suttons Bay. He said the addition has generated plenty of positive comments because it improves boater access.

Alex Ray, another attendant from Bloomfield Hills who is spending the summer in Suttons Bay, expects the marina will be mostly filled on the weekends this summer.

“On Monday through Friday, there’s usually space but on the weekends it’s generally all filled up with boats,” he said, adding that hopes are high the marina will also be filled to capacity on the Fourth.

At the marina, there are 144 permanent slips and 32 more for transient boaters. A couple of the transient slips were being occupied Friday by sloops owned by Jim Shroeger of Traverse City and Peter Larson and his family from Grand Rapids.
Shroeger said he’s good friends with Jack and Marilyn Klang of Suttons Bay, and wanted to spend some time with them at the marina.

“I’ll be out (on the water) for 10 days, stopping at Elk Rapids, Northport, Suttons Bay and maybe back to Elk Rapids,” he said. He spent part of Friday afternoon chatting with 12-year-old Tim Larson of Grand Rapids, who was in the family boat tied up next to Shroeger’s slip.

Larson’s 14-year-old brother Tim, meanwhile, was some 50 yards away on the village beach while playing in the water on a skimboard. The activity involves running down the beach, dropping the skimboard on the water and jumping on board for some Great Lakes-style surfing.

Jim Shroeger of Traverse City

Peter Larson said his family was enjoying its stay in Suttons Bay. He sailed out of Muskegon and up the Lake Michigan shoreline before rounding the curve at Lighthouse Point before putting in at Suttons Bay for a few days.

“The boys are having fun, though I’m not sure how excited I’d be in the water when it’s cool like this,” he said of the air temperatures that were in the mid-60s Friday afternoon.

Warmer conditions were expected this week, however. The forecast for the Fourth of July calls for mostly cloudy skies until midday, then becoming partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms and a high in the mid 80s.