Spotters from Torresen Marine's ChicagoMackinac.com Web site traveled up the Lake Michigan coast tracking boats as the raced progressed on Sunday.

As we spotted a considerable amount of the fleet passing by Manistee, Michigan at approximately 3:30 PM EST the wind was from behind and the chutes were up providing a spotting of color through the hazy horizon.  The colorful dotting of the water was completely gone less than an hour later when our spotters reported from just north of Empire.  At about 4:30 PM EST there were no more spinnakers off of Empire and the wind had switch so that it was now coming from the north, north east.

At every spotting location, our onshore staff was hampered by a haze that limited general visibility and made specific boat identification nearly impossible from shore.

From the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station and Maritime Museum, we were able to spot the USCG escort cutter with just a few of the leading boats in sight Sunday evening.  Later, around mid-evening, spotters attempted identification from the Leland harbor.  Again the haze on the horizon made specific identification of the few visible boats cutting between the Islands and the main land very difficult.