 |
| Waterford leaving Mackinaw Island |
 |
| Mission Point, where we had dinner |
We enjoyed a nice ride; a short ride to Beautiful Hessel, that is how the female Harbor Master answers the phone anyway. We arrived @ 12 noon, see a short cruise! We were greeted by the Cheerleader; Gail aka Harbormaster. Her side kick was an old salt named Rodney, who had a cig hanging out of his mouth, but he knew what he was doing and handled lines like he's been doing it his whole life and I'm sure he has. Gail told us we were her first guests of the season. We received the royal treatment, she even offered to give us free pump-outs, if she could train her new helper, not Rodney, but a younger gal who was scheduled in @ 2:00 PM, well as you know we don't pass up too much that's free, so we accepted her offer. What a disaster, that's all I'll say. Poor Waterford went first, so after that, we were able to change our minds & decided to stick to the old saying "If it's free, look out"! Now that I've written that, I don't know if that is an old saying, but it applies here. 
We took a walk & checked out the grocery store, gift shop & further up the road, the bakery. Well, that got our attention. Doug's Mom used to make pasties (not pronounced the same as the things strippers wear). Dinner was purchased from the bakery & we were not disappointed.
Adjacent to our marina, in the same harbor is a boat yard & another marina, which was the first Chris Craft dealer. There are many wood boats still moored here & they are beautiful to watch. We are in Les Cheneaux Islands located in the Northern tip of Lake Huron. These are a group of islands, some pretty good size, with many cottages, so the locals use these boats to go back & forth from the islands to the mainland. This harbor is host to the 2nd largest Wooden Boat show in the country every August. Owners of wooden boats arrive from all over our country & Canada to compete & show off their treasured crafts.
After our short stint checking out "town", we headed out in the dinghy's to the ''big town of Cedarville" about 8 miles away by water. The water was fairly calm and we had a good afternoon of exploring. There are some pretty big homes along the shorelines with big boathouses filled with boats. Here we are dressed appropriately in sweatshirts, pants & jackets for our ride & what do we see in our travels on the water? Three people swimming, 2 of them fully immersed and 2 jet skiers who were not in wet suits as expected but in bathing suits. Are we wimps or are those UP'ers a different, tough breed?
 |
| Beautiful Hessel Marina |
 |
Our duck is also having fun, making new friends! |
