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!

Mackinaw Island;ahhh the smell of fudge, horse sh** and Lilacs

Mackinaw Bridge w/ Freighter

Woke @ 7:00 AM to a clear beautiful sunny day. They had called for possible fog, but it didn't materialize today. We still are feeling those Northern cool temperatures;  air 59 degrees, water 57, we are in shallower water between the islands, that’s why the water temp is higher than it's been.  Left Cheboygan @ 8:00 AM, not because of a long ride but we are headed to Mackinaw Island & we would like a full day to play there.  Arrived @ 10:30 AM,  waves were under 1 foot and blue sky all the way.  We passed between the lower peninsula of Michigan & a big island, Bois Blanc which we were unable to find much about.  It's quite big & a car ferry runs there from Cheboygan.  We asked a gal working in the local marina & all she could tell us was that there is a fire & police station on the island, but she's never been.  She said I've been to Boblo Island down near Detroit when it was an amusement park and she was sorry it had closed (how many years ago did Boblo amusement park close?) 

 Fort Mackinaw

The Grand Hotel

Round Island Light

We passed many ferries headed to & away from Mackinaw Island; some are like the jet express that goes to PIB.  We arrived @ Mackinaw Island State Harbor @ 10:30 AM. Traveling a mere 15 miles for a cum of 332 miles, at this pace the miles aren't accruing very rapidly.   The Lilac Festival is happening on the island beginning today through the weekend.  That is how far behind they are.  The lilacs, tulips & daffodils are all in bloom.  It's beautiful.  

Devil's Kitchen

We got our bikes out & began to circumnavigate the island; planning to get back in time to do a little shopping.  It's 8 miles around the island if you don't take any side roads & there are some hills, believe it or not.  There are some high bluffs along the east shore, where nothing is built.  Of course, we had to go by the Grand Hotel where Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeves & Jane Seymour was filmed.  We stopped for a refreshment break there, it costs $10.00 to walk on the porch, but if you go across the street to the Grand Hotel golf pub, the only cost is whatever your drinks run.  

We really did the tourist things today, even getting ice cream @ one of the Fudge shops, but we didn't buy any fudge.  We dined @ Mission Pointe which is a lodge & resort, which was beautiful & would be great fun in the winter while cross country skiing.  It's all big wooden beams & fireplaces.  We were serenaded by a pianist playing a grand piano & a guy on Base.  Very nice atmosphere. 

We took lots of pictures & it was hard to choose what to post. Mackinaw Island National Park is the second oldest National Park, only to Yellowstone.  Had no idea!!

 

We shopped @ the oldest Grocery store in the country

The Marina, water keeps getting better & better

 

Elton's got our duck!!

Beautiful flowers everywhere

Slipping into the FOG,Tuesday & Weds, June 11 & 12, days 10/11

&We woke to very dense fog this morning. The break wall wasn't even visible, which is the wall that protects the harbor.  We hung out at Rogers City till the fog lifted, which was the plan, but really never happened, because we got a bit antsy & left @ noon. What was happening, was the fog would lift a bit, then descend back on us, sometimes the sun would even peek through, then the fog would return.  When I was a school nurse, we loved these days, we would have the whole day off. 


So we left Rogers City in fog @ 12 noon.  Day Dreams was in the lead today.  Waterford was following about 1/4 of a mile behind us.  Sometimes we could see her, sometimes not. We passed 40 mile Point Lighthouse built in 1896, in thick fog, unable to see, so no pics sorry. It’s on land, north of Rogers City.  We have very good electronics, so we felt safe & we did try out our fog horn, which worked great.  We only passed one boat the whole 5 hours & it was a sailboat traveling south.  We spotted it on the radar long before visualizing it with binoculars.  Our radar worked great.  We hardly have ever seen a boat on any of our runs so far on this adventure.  This great lake & we feel like we are the only ones out here.  That is except for the muffle bugs.  We were hit hard with those today & the small slow flys.  Millions of them!!  Again, luckily we are snug as a rug in our pilot house.

We passed the Poe Reef Lighthouse built in 1929 in Lake Huron, between Rogers city & Cheboygan.  Able to get a pic of that, because the fog lifted long enough for us.

14 foot shoal light built in 1930

We arrived @ Cheboygan County Marina around 5:00 PM.  We entered the Cheboygan river and the Marina is just inside the entrance. Cheboygan is home to the Coast Guard ice cutter ship The Mackinaw II; commissioned in 2006, 240 ft long, 58 foot wide, drafts 16 feet & has Azipods drives, 9000 horsepower apiece & they can rotate 360 degrees to direct their thrust in any direction.(Doug had me add all that for the guys). It's job is to keep shipping channels open in the St Mary’s River between Lake Huron & the Sault Ste Marie (locks), which is nick named the SOO. 

The first Mackinaw ship, was 290 feet, 78 feet wide & was built in Toledo, OH in 1943. She was retired in 2006,  her home also was in Cheboygan.  It is a museum ship in Mackinaw City currently.  Why didn't Toledo get it back? someone work on that, please.    

We traveled 34 miles today, cum of 317, the air temperature actually hit 60 today, no wind  & no waves, again the lake was like a mill pond (not sure where that term came from, but hope you get my meaning). 

Garry had us check out his new lens, he ordered it under way & had it shipped here.  Garry felt he was missing too many beautiful shots without a better telephoto lens.  I think he did a great job with what equipment he already had!!  

Can you see the Mackinaw bridge?

The sun did show itself after we arrived here, so after dinner we took a walk to catch the sunset.  

We planned to stay 2 nights here because Doug likes to say the name "Cheboygan" so we figured this would be a fun place to stay and a bigger city.  Well, it was a fun place to stay, but it wasn't too much bigger of a city.  The fog had rolled back in after sunset and was still with us in the morning, so darn I had to sleep in!  But by 11:00 AM, the sun was out & Doug had shorts & a t-shirt on to wash the boat and there were no bugs-yahoo!  Our boats had been literally covered with bugs yesterday when we pulled into the marina.  There were 2 types of bugs; muffle bugs & those little slow flys.  Today there are no bugs anywhere to be found. Sorta weird! 

We got the dinghy's down, (I know, "Doug is dinghy & so is Jan") and we took off down the Cheboygan River.  Passing the Coast Guard Cutter, the crew were all working hard on general maintenance stuff. Not much up the river, but it was a splendid day to be out, basking in the sun on the water.  We did go far enough to see the lock which takes a boat to the inland waterway to Mullet Lake & then on to Indian River, so one can almost cross the state of Michigan by water, but it doesn't let you get into Lake Michigan.

This was a beautiful day!  We enjoyed dinner on the back deck & walked to the beach again for a stunning sunset.  

The weather radar says you are having storms @ home, hope all are safe & secure.  We are.

Thirsty Duck

The duck drank too much & got sad cuz it was missing everyone, Don't Jump!

We came to the duck's rescue, all is OK

Monday, June 10, day 9; traveled 18 miles for a cum of 283 miles

blue dot is Presque Isle Marina

FYI:  I have heard comments regarding the difficulty of commenting on our blog.  I believe we have fixed this.  Jacque got on the help line & found out the default was set for registered users only, figures google wants more people registered, but tough, because now I have changed it to anyone can comment, without any signing in.  So please, if you feel compelled to comment, please try again, hopefully it will be easier.  Just don't push the preview button, that doesn't seem to work, just click on publish.  

Last night we dined @ the Portage Restaurant right there @ the Marina; we enjoyed some seafood; Jacque tried the fresh Whitefish caught there, but the rest of us did not take advantage of the fresh catch, but were not disappointed either; Garry & I had the salmon in a coat, I was curious about the coat, the salmon was wrapped in a flakey pastry and Doug ordered the frozen walleye caught in Lake Erie.  He must miss it!!

The "new" Presque Isle Light from the water

This morning, Garry had some business calls to make & we ordered a cool piece of equipment that both of us need desperately.  It is an internet antenna booster, so when these places have internet, but it doesn't reach out to the docks, which is what we've been running into, this will route it to us. It will be delivered hopefully to Cheboygan when we get there.  Back in Harrisville, when we met that couple who had cruised Lake Superior last summer, they had it and shared the code with us to use it and it worked great.  And even better, there is no fee with it, just the cost of the equipment.  

We left the dock our latest yet, but this also is our shortest route yet.  We left Presque Isle harbor @ 10:30 AM, the air temp 52, water 48 degrees, skies overcast & it was misting. The winds were 8 knots out of the east, waves less than 2 and diminished down to less than 1 foot, but it kept raining. 

It was such a short cruise, we didn't even have time for lunch.  We arrived @ Rogers City Harbor @ 1:30 PM.  Doug & I have been here before, years ago when we trailered our SeaRay up this far & then cruised to the western end of the North Channel.  

Don't strain to see all of this, but this is a screen shot of Doug's latest & greatest.  This is his MFD (multifunctional display) unit with Sirius weather overlayed on the Great Lakes chart.  The purple squares are weather stations, he can click on any of those & it reads out a current NOAA weather forecast.  The green blobs are rain, just like on the TV weather.  The white plus sign in the middle is where we are; Rogers City.  As you can tell, I figured out how to do screen shots on my iPad.  Thanks to Chuck!

The fog rolled in early evening

Again, we were assisted into the dock by the nicest of young dock hands, it gives us hope for the future, because all along the way, we have met great young adults. The day never improved, but we attempted to make the best of it.  After getting settled in @ Rogers City Yacht Harbor, one of the dock guys gave Jacque & I a ride to Rite Aid & to Glen's Grocery store.  We picked up a few things on our list while Vinny waited for us in the car. He than helped us unload the groceries to our boat, so sweet. The four of us, then walked in the rain up town to visit the Maritime Museum. We arrived there & it was closed, we walked around the corner to another museum we had been told about & guess what-it was closed. Guess tourist aren't supposed to be out touring on Mondays. We did find one fun place that boasted a sign about being open 7 days a week; the old downtown movie theater and Iron Man3 was playing.  What better way to spend a drizzly, foggy night in a strange town than to see a movie & get some popcorn.  It was a bargain @ $5.00/person.

Good night

Sat/Sun, June 8 & 9, day 7/8;47 miles on Sat, cumulative for the entire trip so far: 265 miles

All right, the days are beginning to run together, that's a good thing, I think.  Left Harrisville @ 9:00 AM, it is super calm (water looks like blown glass) & sunny. The blue of the sky blends with the calm water @ the horizon. Able to see the bottom @ 25 feet deep. Harrisville is a great harbor & facility, they have earned the best bathroom award according to Jan & Jacque. Air temp 62, water temp 49, with 3 knots of wind, seems like zero. Of course as soon as we get out into the lake, the air & water temp drop, so we still are warm & snugly in the pilot house.  Due to the calmness with no wind, Gnats have descended upon us, another reason for staying in the Pilot house. A few stops ago, we saw a few Mayflies  but haven't seen any of those since then.  

Sturgeon Point Lighthouse

We will be passing 4 light houses; if any of you have a goal to see every Lighthouse in the Great Lakes, this is one of the trips for you.  

The first is Sturgeon point light house, we did not get too close to this one, sorry. 

Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse

Next was Thunder Bay island light built in 1832 on Thunder Bay island, MI in Lake Huron, 
a pretty spot.

Middle Island Light built in 1905

The "old" Presque Isle Lighthouse

Presque isle has 2 light houses, one they call the old one, built in 1840; which is the one we can see from the lake.  Tomorrow, we will visit the "new" one & I'll have more information on that one.

We arrived into Presque Isle Harbor Marina, about 3:30 PM, again greeted by a great team of four young adults, all eager to be doing something & not sure how to do it.  It's so early in the season and so quiet, they are new and not getting any practice.  We had them practicing something I'm sure they were all yearning to learn; a pump-out!  Not the best job, but they did wear gloves and we tipped them well. We got settled in nicely, how could we not with all the help?  

We enjoyed a cocktail inside, on Waterford, still a bit cool.  Doug then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, he only had 1 Margarita (what a light weight). Later, Doug & Garry grilled out, but they had to move our grills to land, they do not allow us to grill on the boat.  Some Marina's do, others don't, some Marina's have gas grills for us to use, others have charcoal grills, but we do not carry charcoal.  We dined inside again, one of these nights it will be warm enough to dine on the back deck. After dinner we took a walk with our wine, out to the seawall. That's another difference; all these Marina's State or not, allow us to walk around with alcohol and even allowed us to have our cocktail party in their office building one night. That's a big difference from Ohio Marina's, where you are not allowed off your boat if you have a drink in hand.  The seawall is a heavy duty construction with boulders & steel railings. After dinner, we shared some wine with Sonny & Charlie from the sailboat, Kokomo who we passed on the Lake today.  Charlie belongs to North Cape Yacht Club, which is adjacent to Toledo Beach Marina.  Small world.
 


We had decided to stay 2 nights in Presque Isle because there is plenty for us to explore by bikes.  This morning (Sun) we woke to sun, blue skies and warmth.  Doug came into the stateroom and opened the shades & windows and stated "best weather day so far".  We made a big breakfast on board Day Dreams & invited Garry & Jacque over.  We even enjoyed breakfast out on the back deck-Yahoo!  We donned shorts, but that didn't last.  It became partly cloudy, the wind picked up & for our bike ride we went back to longer pants & sweatshirts.  

We rode out to the "new" Lighthouse which was built in 1870.  I think it should be called the "newer" lighthouse because the term new, just doesn't seem to fit.  We walked to the top, up 130 steps, it is the 5th tallest lighthouse in the Great Lakes.  The view was beautiful, we were lucky with blue skies & sun while up there.  We continued biking and checked out the "old" lighthouse, but we didn't feel the need to climb those stairs, it wasn't very tall anyway.  We continued our bike ride along the coastline, found a nice sand beach and some beautiful fragrant woods. We put on another 10 miles today.  Time for a nap.

Does anyone know what this flower is? It is hollow & shaped like a ballet slipper

Bad Duck!!!

 

It's Sunday evening & we are not going "home" how weird is this?  

Love & miss you all,  Come visit anytime.