Saturday, June 15, 2013

Friday June 14, Day 13 of our Adventures, traveled 13 miles, cum of 345 nautical miles

Waterford leaving Mackinaw Island
Mission Point, where we had dinner
We left Mackinaw Island @ 9:30 AM, after a walk to the coffee shop to treat ourselves to cinnamon sticks & a mocha for me-yum.  Sunny, blue skies & air temp finally 60 degrees with water temp back down to 49 degrees; quite a drop from yesterday's.  Waves less than 1 foot, winds 5 knots out of the Northeast.


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!











5 comments:

  1. Aren't you glad you had more than two weeks?
    Bob

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  2. Let's see if this works..I've commented a couple of times, but I don't think it went through. Anyway Mackinaw is always pretty minus the smells, I'm sure even nicer with all flowers in bloom, sat on the porch their last year drinking long Islands, was a nice day. I'm sure the further you go up the more interesting it will be, tell Doug hello talk soon Terry lynn

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  3. You got it this time TL-good. Didn't know u were leaving so soon @ TBM, would have liked to spend more time visiting. Have to do more happy hours in the fall. MI is a great place to drink on a porch, lots to watch. Doug says Hi to u & Mark. :) Jan

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  4. 49 degrees and they were in the water? Brrrrrrrr! We love pasties! When I asked Michael what he wanted to eat the first time he came home from Seattle, he told me Lehto's Pasties from the UP. I tried to have some shipped, but they couldn't do it. I ended up trying to make some, but it was just not the same. We are jealous.
    All is well in Ohio. Miss you.

    Kathy

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  5. Love the Lathrop hard hat on the duck!

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