Left Sunday morning, August 25, a little bumpy; air temp 66 & water temp 61 & partly cloudy. Waves 2-4-6's thru the straits of Mackinac which are always a tad rough but winds were increasing as we cruised towards the Mackinac bridge. We were in front of a storm that hit the Soo this morn & did creep to Detour after we departed. The storm did not catch us but the winds picked up & we did have some 30 mph gusts & bigger waves until land helped us. Arriving into Mackinac Straits now, we have traveled 1633 miles.
We docked in the new State Straits of Mackinaw marina. Very nice facility & beautiful wood floating docks. The city Marina is where we stayed years ago & they have fixed docks which are really high @ the moment. The DeFever Hallelujah, who we met in the Soo @ Kemp Marina is here. Also the boat Bijou that docked in TBM last year is here, so Greg came over & said Hi. The boating community gets smaller all the time. We just found out that Blue Moon, our friends who are traveling the loop just met up with Raydiance who we met this summer. They were both in Petosky, MI.
We walked around the tourist area near the marina & went to Shepler's Marine store & picked up the battery charger that Doug had ordered. Ours died a couple of weeks ago & luckily Garry had a spare one available on Waterford, which we borrowed until we got the new one. We stopped & had fish & chips @ Bell's Fish Market here on the water, it was tasty. Later the four of us, walked around & shopped some & stopped for a drink @ the Keyhole Bar.
For everyone that's wondering; neither Doug or I have had a haircut nor have I had a colr done. Now it's become a "thing" & we are going to wait till we get home. So we look pretty ragged to say the least. Needless to say, we won’t be stopping @ Gross Pointe Yacht Club looking like this, haha!!
While we were visiting Mackinaw City, we were reminded that on Labor Day, they have the Mackinac Bridge walk, this is the 56th one. They have been conducting this walk since the bridge opened in 1957. Jeri has done the walk. We have decided we need to do this walk, so we will be coming back here. Since we are ahead of schedule & can't get home too soon, we are adding to our itinerary and going to venture into Lake Michigan. Staying Flexible is also a big part of our adventure.
Wish we would have had blue skies & sun for the bridge pics & it is misting now. Beaver Island has 2 marinas and the Municipal Marina had been recommended to us by one of Marty's friends. They don't take reservations but as of last nite, Joe (dock guy) said it looked like they would have space for us today. As we neared Beaver Island we called the Municipal Marina & Jim (harbor Master) said no one had left today due to the weather & he only had one slip that was deep enough for us. Looks like another Plan B day! There is a private Marina; Beaver Island Marina, so Garry called Pat, harbormaster from BI Marina & she would love to host us. The docks & facilities are not as nice but they're no Rossport or Duluth either. The dock guy "Charlie" made up for all that was lacking. He is a good looking young man who works really hard. He even found us wood for a campfire. They do have a sandbar in front of some of the docks & the depth went down to 1.7 feet on our depth meter during our approach. That is always a bit unsettling. Plus the water is so clear, it's difficult to tell how close bottom really is, so that even makes it more of a challenge. 
Wednesday, we biked some of the island. It is a big island: 45 square miles. We biked 10 miles of it. It hit 90 degrees today & we are not complaining-we are loving it. Lots of sand & dunes and lots of cedar, oak & birch trees. Some beautiful big old trees. They have a coffee shop, grocer, gas station, ice cream & gift shops, couple bars, couple of restaurants & of course a hardware store. We waded in @ two of the beaches & when we got back to our boats, bathing suits went on for the first time this whole vacation & we all jumped into cool, clean Lake Michigan right off our boats. Later, we dined @ The Shamrock, which was walking distance into the main village. Guess what? Not one Irish item on the menu! 
The history of Beaver Island is interesting. Native Americans were the first documented inhabitants and the Odawa tribe has 100's of graves here. In 1847 James Strang, a Mormon, who had broke away from the main group brought his followers to Beaver Island. Within a few years he had control of the island and crowned himself King. His Kingdom was the only kingdom ever to be established in our United States. All the gentiles were forced off the island. He wouldn't allow his followers to have multiple wives but he had 4 himself. In 1856 he was assassinated by some of his disgruntled followers. His loyal followers were forced to leave & the Irish Catholics took over. Hence the Restaurant the Shamrock, we thought would have Irish food! 
