Aug 24 -30 Petoskey, MI

Aug 24

Another longish day on mostly open water going to Petoskey.  We had some mail from home forwarded to us at Mackinaw City and had to wait for the PO to sort the morning mail and find our package.  While Martha was attending to that I took the boat to the fuel dock and put in 125 gallons of diesel at $2.99.   Enough to get us easily to Sheboygan where they have reportedly got about the best fuel prices on the lake at $2.58.   Finally left Mackinaw City about 9 AM and knew it would be a full 6-hour cruise.  We went under the Mackinac Bridge and formally entered Lake Michigan. 

The Big Mac bridge

  A westward trek for 2 hours before making a hard turn to port heading south and following the eastern shore.  Then across Little Travis Bay with a direct track for Petoskey, Mi.  Long straight shots using the auto pilot in fairly deep water makes for a bit of a boring ride.   We did have one area where we scooted into some 20’ water and with the sun shining down on it you could see clear to the rocks on the bottom.  Amazing clarity and water color!

Amazing water colors

  Petoskey is a great little town. Downtown area covers several blocks known as the “gas light district” with a good variety of stores.   A bit upscale feeling but with plenty of good restaurants and several bars featuring a large selection of craft beers on tap.   Very walkable.

One of only a few "downtown" JC Penney stores remaining

  Initially the town started as a lumbering town helping supply material to Chicago to rebuild after the great fire.   After that it became pretty dependent (and still is) on summer tourism.   The Hemingway’s had a summer place up here so “Ernie” spent summers here until his early 20’s and used this area as a backdrop for many of his earlier works.

Me and Ernie.  

We’re secure in a decently priced municipal marina that’s part of the Michigan DNR   system with a great western facing view that should provide a few nice sunsets.  Good thing the town is nice and within easy driving distance of a few other towns we want to explore as it looks like we’ll be here a few days.  Stronger winds, higher waves and rain expected at least through mid-week.  

Petoskey - Home of the Million Dollar Sunset Views

Journey for Aug 24

Aug 28.   We’re still in Petoskey.  Until today the weather has been fairly decent except for unfavorable winds.  Today it turned nasty with cold, rain and very gusty conditions.  Waves are actually crashing into and over the breakwater protecting the harbor.

 We had a rental car for a few days which let us do some exploring of nearby towns.   We took a trip to Traverse City which has a bit bigger downtown – more shops, restaurants and bars good for a decent mid-day walkabout.  Then we headed to Charlevoix which has a collection of roughly 30 “mushroom houses” or “hobbit houses”.  These were all designed and built by Earl Young between 1918 and the 1950’s.  A very unique and eclectic style using local stones and flowing roof lines. 

The Thatch Roof house - the most famous

The Boulder House

Dinner was at The Polish Kitchen where I got the sampler platter consisting of all the favorites – Kielbasa with sauerkraut, potato pancakes, perogies and a stuffed cabbage roll.    The following day we drove back to Mackinaw City and took the ferry across to Mackinaw Island to explore the town, the fort and the Grand Hotel.   Mackinaw Islands claim to fame is that they prohibit the use of any motorized vehicles. 

It goes back to a town ordinance enacted at the turn of the century when the tourist carriage ride owners became threatened by the prospect of having cars on the island and ruin their businesses. So, they approached the city council to put in place the ordinance that stills stands.   The town is loaded with horse drawn carriages, bicycles, exquisite Victorian era houses, and tons of tourists.

  The Grand Hotel – built in 1887 - is the largest summer hotel in the world.  Very impressive but all I could think about while inside was Jack Nicholson and the movie “The Shining”.  It’s very well maintained but there’s no denying it’s a very old and old school hotel.  

The Veranda of the Grand Hotel

   The fort was well worth spending a few hours exploring with a nice selection of buildings, good historical documentation and an awesome view from up high on a bluff.  

View from the fort looking at harbor,  town,  and Straits of Mackinac

Lunch at the famous Pink Pony Bar and Grill

Another amazing sunset back at the marina

Aug 30.  We remain shorebound.  Advisories have been in place for the past few days and small craft warnings remain through tonight. We have been buffeted by strong winds up to 40 mph so even here in the marina  we get rocked around - sometimes uncomfortably .  Waves still crashing over the  stormwalls and small whitecaps going doing the marina fairways are quite a sight!  During one of our walks around the many park areas in town we crossed a small bridge and saw a slew of guys fishing in this one small  40' x 40' open area  where the Bear River   cuts through town and empties into the harbor.  Unbelievable,  but they were hooking  nice sized salmon!  

"This one's going in the cooler"

Took a stroll along the shoreline looking for (and finding) some Petoskey Stones - the state stone of Michigan. Fossilized corral from a bazillion years ago when the area was  part of the sea.  Now we just need to polish them up.   Hoping the weather breaks for a Saturday departure.    This has been about as good as any place we could have asked for a layover but after a full week being shore bound we’re getting anxious to start moving again.   But the sunsets do  continue to be amazing!!

Aug 23 DeTour MI to Mackinaw City, MI

Aug 23

Off the docks before 8AM headed for Mackinaw City.   Nothing but open water and quite a few lighthouses.  Water barely had a chop with a light NE breeze giving us a slight push at the stern. 

DeTour Reef Lighthouse

Reynolds Reef Lighthouse

Mackinac Island Lighthouse

Round Island Point Lighthouse

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

   A very peaceful and tranquil ride until we approached Mackinaw Strait where passenger ferries come from every direction at full speed throwing huge wakes as they shuttle people back and forth to Mackinac Island.   We rocked and rolled and generally just tried to stay the heck out of their way. 

One of the smaller ferries but still plenty of wake

We got tied up at Strait State Harbor (try saying that one 3 times fast over the radio).  Another very nice marina operated by the Michigan DNR that was virtually empty. 

Coast Guard Ice Breaker museum ship behind As You Wish

  We strolled around the town which is very much a tourist trap with all the requisite t shirt, novelty, ice cream and fudge stores.   Found a park with a good view of the Mackinac Strait  Suspension Bridge.  It was the longest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1957 at 5 miles total length and today is still the third longest.  When we cross under it we will officially have left Lake Huron and entered Lake Michigan.

We found a theatre on our walk that was playing “The Art of Racing in the Rain” so after a very late lunch/early dinner of fish and chips we hit the 5:15 show.   It’s based on a book with the same name we’ve both read and while some of the book is based around racing the story is actually about a dog.   Patrick Dempsey (actor/heart throb/race car driver) bought the film rights to it and as producer did a very good job of keeping it true to the book.   Despite overcast skies most of the day it completely cleared off  by evening delivering another  orange and crimson  delight.

Journey for Aug 23

Aug 21 BACK IN THE USA - Meldrum Bay to De Tour, Michigan

Aug 21

Finally all caught up with posting to the blog now that we're back to getting  decent cell service.

Another longer travel day covering about 6 hours and 50 miles from Meldrum Bay, Ontario, Canada to De Tour Village, Michigan, USA where we checked through customs using a very cool video conferencing app that the US Customs and Border Patrol calls ROAM.  No inspections, no waiting.  Just a couple clicks on the phone, a conference call, a video hook-up so they can see your face and compare it to your passport, a couple basic questions and they send you an approval notification.   Of course, they could always tell you stay on board, they’re sending a customs agent, but I   haven’t heard of that happening to anyone yet.   

Early rise as boats started leaving at first light. Caught the sunrise and was reminded of that old sailors saying about “Red sky in the morning….”

We finally left Meldrum Bay at 7 AM figuring we should get to De Tour by 1PM.  Calm winds as we left but as forecast, they continued gradually building.  Made it a little sloppy the last hour or so but we still made it to De Tour before the stronger afternoon and evening winds arrived.   We even hit our furthest northern point coming around the top of Drummond Island. 46 06.47degrees!

  Sitting on the boat now in the security of a protected marina slip listening to it blow and watching the whitecaps out on the water.  Good Planning!!   De Tour is a pretty small village.  A small IGA grocery, a gas station, and 3 restaurants (best one with a bar  and the blue prints for the Edmund Fitzgerals hanging on the wall is closed on Wednesdays) so we wound up with pizza.    We did see this boat go by in the channel  that is of the same design.

I’ve talked about how clear the waters were in the Georgian Bay and North Channel but once we turned the corner heading towards the USA and Lake Huron proper, we were surprised by the sudden color change.    With the sun shining down it becomes the azure blue color that reminds you more of the Caribbean.   Extremely eye appealing. 

Aug 22

We spent an extra night  in De Tour.  No real reason other than timing our arrival to Charlevoix for Sunday after the weekenders leave.   Not much to do but chores so gave the boat a long overdue  washing and defrosted the freezer.    Had a good batch of loopers here  so of course docktails were in order.  No craft brewery here site but found this  really nice dark beer at the grocery.   Dinner on board.

Journey for Aug 21

Aug 20 The Benjamins to Meldrum Bay Marina

Aug 20

Forecast for winds to die down overnight held true and we got a good night’s sleep.   Woke up to no wind at all and just a light breeze expected to pick up later in the day. So we dawdled around making a batch of pancakes laden with our freshly picked blueberries.  Very yummy especially with the addition of real Canadian pure maple syrup.  

While we would have liked to spend more time exploring areas of the North Channel, we need to press on so made a longish 45 mile run to Meldrum Bay bypassing many additional fine anchorages.  

Great day on the water

  They have a town dock/RV park/boat ramp, a General Store/LCBO, and the Meldrum Bay Inn.  It’s also got a Canadian customs  videophone for all the Michiganders entering the North Channel area . The town docks are just 4 long floating piers.  When you approach they tell you what color picnic table to look for at the end of  the dock and advise if you will be port or starboard tying.  We are at port tied on the yellow picnic table dock. 

Colored picnic tables on docks

One of the things we've seen throughout our time in Canada is stacked rocks.  We saw them at about every island anchorage.  Some quite sizeable.  Best ones look like  people with hands outstretched.  Most just an odd  pile of stones.   We left a few behind ourselves - just our way of saying "We were here".     Found out there is actually a name for them - cairn - "a pile of stacked stones".  Things must get slow in Meldurn Bay as someone took time to build small cairns  on every large bolder they could find.

Oddly,  The Meldrum Bay Inn is a  finer dining restaurant that does a good business with loopers.    It specializes in North Channel/Georgian Bay fresh fish dishes but is also known for their outstanding steak dinner.  It’s the last stop for most of us before  returning to the US and a great place to celebrate finishing the summer season in Canada. 

We can understand why many loopers go around twice.  I could see rushing through other portions just to spend extra time  anchoring all around this pristine area.  Who wouldn't want to see scenes like these all summer?

Journey for Aug 20

Aug 18-19 Little Current to The Benjamins

Aug 18 – 19

We had a fog issue at Little Current that kept us in port until it burned off at 10 AM.  Odd fog, it would start to burn off and then 5 minutes later we were fogged in solid again.   Repeated that process several times before the sun finally broke through for good.   First time so far on the trip we’ve had it create a travel issue but I expect we’ll see more of it as we get into cooler weather down the rivers.

Our late departure Sunday wasn’t a big issue as we were only headed about 20 miles away to an area called The Benjamin’s so we  set about eating  hearty breakfast of homemade granola and our freshly picked blueberries.  

Several islands make up the area and it’s a favorite anchorage due to some   very smooth rocks that go right to the waterline and offer a great opportunity when a cluster of loopers are there to have “rocktails” on the shore instead of the usual “docktails”.  The forecast the next few days called for winds to pick up to 10-15 mph and change directions.   We scouted out the main anchorage but with several boats already in place we weren’t satisfied with the anchoring arrangements as the wind shifted. 

Approaching the Benjamins Islands

So, we moved on to another anchorage on the back side which looked promising and was   completely empty.   We dropped anchor in the middle of the small cove and figured we could live with the SE wind exposure until it swung around to the W where we had protection from the shoreline trees. 

Yup, anchored and open to the winds!! Mistake!!

  Well, the wind picked up with gusts well over 25 knots giving us a very uncomfortable night. We bounced around like a rubber ducky in an infant’s wash basin.  Even once the wind changed direction the waves continued rolling in from the SE giving us am uncomfortable bean sea.  Not much sleep and it continued to blow most of  Monday keeping us at anchor.   We could see whitecaps on the open water which at least now weren’t rolling into our cove and the weather report had waves of 2-3 feet with a short period. The boat could easily handle it but it’s uncomfortable cruising for us. So we sat on the boat, did a little reading, and caught up on a little sleep.  The wind finally abated enough late in the day so that we could safely launch the dingy and head over to South Benjamin Island, climb the rocks, and do some additional blueberry picking.

Very nice afternoon once the wind died down.

Nice stash of blueberries. 

   This is considered one of the “don’t miss” anchorages of the North Channel and I can see how on a warm, flat calm evening it would be ideal, but for us it has been a memorable stay for a lot of wrong reasons  with bad winds  and a rocking boat and a few good ones once we finally got to climb the rocks and pick blueberries. .

Journey for Aug 18