7/29/2015
DeTour Passage Light
Clare and Andrew
Martin Reef Light
Our original plan for the day was to anchor in government
Bay in the Les Cheneaux Islands of Lake Huron, but with higher winds forecast
for the next day, we decided that it might be wiser to head straight to
Mackinaw City today. As we entered DeTour
Passage, we could now see large ships , and the wind and waves were coming out
of the northwest, so that we were taking them on our starboard bow. As we turned and entered the Straits of
Mackinac, the wave heights increased, and we decided that we would now run the
boat from our lower inside station where the motion was less, and to avoid the
spray. George, Pat, and Clare went
below, but Andrew (ever the sailor) decided to remain on the fly-bridge, even
though the side-to-motion on the beam was greater up there. We were all glad to see Mackinaw City come
into view, but the entrance to Straits State Harbor Marina was difficult to
discern because of the curved stone wall surrounding it, so we made a call to
the marina, got some directions, and we safely pulled into our slip at 1:30
p.m. after 53 miles, and we congratulated ourselves for making a good change of
plan. This location would allow us to
visit Mackinac Island at a more leisurely pace over two days, instead of one,
and Andrew and Clare could now be sure that they would be able make their
travel connections as planned back to Savannah on Saturday. The marina facilities here were very new, and
Andrew, our “Scout”, explored the grounds out to the main street as well as the
park next to the marina where a Heritage Festival was setting up on its grounds
with Indian tee-pees, pioneer camp-sites, tents, and music pavilions for the
event to be held here on Friday and Saturday. Grilled Steaks with mushrooms and onions were
on our menu tonight along with baked stuffed potatoes and salad, and Andrew took
charge of the grilling at one of the marina barbecue pavilions.
7/30/2015
Harbor at Mackinac Island
Island scenes
Fort Mackinac scenes
Pat and Clare
We decided to use the Star Ferry line as our means of
transportation to and from Mackinac Island for the next few days, where the
wind and waves were really kicked up. Andrew particularly liked this line
because these vessels would also throw up “rooster-tails” of water behind them
as they made the crossing (like we needed more spray!). While some of us (Pat, in particular) opted
for the bottom deck, George and Clare varied their selections for bottom,
middle, or top seating. The ferries carried 330 passengers + crew, luggage, and
tons of bicycles on the normally 20 minute ride each way, and the departures
were scheduled on the hour and ½ hour.
On our first trip we arrived at the island about 10:30 a.m., and were
instantly over-whelmed by the amount of tourists walking around the town and on
bicycles, and, of course the scents of horse droppings and fudge filled the
air! Today our plan was to take the
carriage-tour of the island, which included a visit to Fort Mackinac. The tour lasted almost two hours with stops
at various points, and we got off to have lunch at the Tea Room at the Fort
with its outside dining area which overlooks everything. Afterwards, we took the tour of the Fort with
its costumed docents and re-enactors, and it included cannon firings, musical
presentations, dancing, and historical talks.
It was a really full day, and when we returned to the boat we decided
that it would be simpler to have a pizza and lasagna dinner from “B.C. Pizza”
delivered than to cook, and within an hour dinner was served!
7/31/15
Island Church
Grand Hotel Scenes
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| Looking out at the Mackinac Bridge |
The walk yesterday to and from the ferry was quite long, but
we found out this morning that the ferry line had a free shuttle that would
pick us up and return us to the marina!
Better late than never! So today we used that service as part of our
trip back to Mackinac Island. This time
our aim was to go directly to “The Grand Hotel” for lunch and a tour. When we arrived on the island, George got us
a carriage-ride to the hotel, and we paid a $10.00 per person admission charge
to tour all the grounds and main rooms.
This charge could also be used towards our luncheon bill at the Grand
Buffet, should we decide to eat there.
This is truly a lovely edifice of another time, and we had fun walking
around. We did have other options at the
hotel for lunch, but since Andrew and Clare had never been here before, we decided
on the Grand Buffet Luncheon. This
Dining Room is gigantic, and is decorated in shades of green, peach, and
white. White-jacketed waiters and chefs were
in attendance with lovely live guitar music being played softly in the
background as we perused the large selection of appetizers, fruits, salads,
breads, meats and cheeses, main dishes, and desserts. We took our time with lunch, and afterwards
soaked up the ambiance of this wonderful place on its huge veranda filled with
rocking chairs and a fantastic view of the water. We took another carriage-ride back to town,
and George and Pat did some food shopping at “Doud’s Market’ and then headed
back to the boat by ferry, while Andrew and Clare stayed behind on the island
to do some souvenir shopping. When they
got back on board we had munchies and cocktails, but no one seemed to really
want dinner after our sizeable lunch. So
while George and Pat relaxed with some T.V., Andrew and Clare headed out to see
what was going on at the Heritage Festival, and arrived back from their
excursion sometime later somewhat surprised by seeing Native American children
dressed just in loincloths considering the chilly temperatures, as well as
witnessing the smoke and strange chants coming from the wigwams, etc.
8/1/15
After a breakfast of BLTs aboard, we said “Goodbye” to
Andrew and Clare. They had a car service pick them up at the marina at 10:30
a.m. so that they could begin their long trek home via three airline flights
back to Savannah. Obviously, it was not
an easy task for them to get there from here, but we were so happy to have them
join us on this leg of the trip, and we really appreciated all the travel
efforts they went through to make this happen.
Later on, Pat did numerous loads of laundry at the marina’s laundromat,
and then got our guest quarters (forward cabin, head, and
shower) back in ship-shape condition with clean bed linens, and towels. In the early evening we decided to walk into
the town of Mackinaw City which is quite reminiscent of the New Jersey
boardwalk in the summer with lots of fudge and ice cream shops, T shirt and
novelty stores, bars and eateries, along with plenty of tourists walking
around. We eventually had dinner at
“Nonna Lisa’s Italian Ristorante”, decorated in what only can be described as a
rustic Italian woodsman style with mounted deer-heads on the walls, antler
chandeliers on the ceiling, and rough-hewn tables and chairs. The food was good and the portions were
large, yet we still had room to finish off our evening at a nearby ice-cream
shop where Pat had a chocolate ice cream cone, and George had a “Black and
White” malt!
8/2/15
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Ice Breaker "Mackinac"
Knowing that bad weather was predicted, we had wisely
planned to stay “put” here for another day, and were definitely glad that we
did! Black clouds dominated the
sky-line, and lightning, thunder, and periods of strong winds and rain occurred
for a good part of the day. Severe weather
warnings abounded, the Mackinac Bridge was closed for a period of time, and
there were numerous reports of wind damage and flooding throughout the
area. We, however, spent a quiet day
aboard monitoring the weather, watching movies, reading, napping, and planning
the next leg of our trip down the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
8/3/2015
Mackinac Bridge
Petoskey, MI
After five days here we finally left Straits State Harbor
Marina at 8:30 a.m. after taking on 150 gallons of fuel at their fuel
dock. The wind was coming at us on our starboard
bow, and as we proceeded under the Mackinac Bridge the conditions were not very
comfortable, so we went down below to operate from our lower helm station. Wave heights were supposed to be about 1’,
but despite whatever weather forecasting services, apps, or other
prognosticators we use, they never are completely accurate. As we then made our turn through Lake
Michigan’s Gray’s Reef Passage, we started taking the seas on our starboard
beam, which started a rocking motion from side-to-side that continued for some
time until we could make our way into Little Traverse Bay, where now the motion
came on our stern. After 57 miles, we
arrived at Petoskey City Marina in the mid afternoon, but we were so tired that
we decided not to even walk into town. We
were also waiting for a new hot water heater that we had ordered to be
delivered by one of the salesmen from the local West Marine Store here in
Petoskey after his work hours! This was
truly the epitome of over-the-top service, and this kind man wouldn’t even
accept a tip! Grilled cheese and ham
sandwiches with soup were on our dinner menu, and that was fine with us!
8/4/2015
Northport Municipal Marina
Private Home with Railroad theme
Our 39 mile trip today took us to Northport, the
northern-most harbor on Grand Traverse Bay.
The Northport Municipal Marina was a lovely facility and was very close
to the village with art galleries, bookstores, and boutiques, as well as “Tom’s
Supermarket” for groceries, and we had lunch at a cute, very popular restaurant
called “The Garage”. We chose outside
dining here, and the food was great, and the portions were huge.
8/5/2015
Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Park
Leland Township Harbor Marina
Fallen tree that just missed hitting a house
"Fishtown" and Leland River Falls
This morning we made a 31 mile trip around the Leelanau Peninsula
from Northport on the west shore of Grand Traverse Bay to Leland on Lake
Michigan’s eastern shore. The facilities
at the Leland Township Harbor Marina were superb, and again the town itself was
very close to the marina. A National
Landmark District, “Fishtown”, is located here, and the harbor was filled with
tourists either walking around visiting the many boutiques, eateries, and gift
shops, or waiting to take ferries that offer visits to explore South Manitou
Island, or to camp on North Manitou Island.
These islands are both off-shore and are part of the Sleeping Bear
National Lakeshore Park. A fleet of
Great Lakes fishing and charter boats also operates out of this area. We had lunch in town, and then did some
shopping for our two great nieces and two great nephews, who we were looking
forward to seeing in the next few days, and also picked up some items at the
local market. Afterwards, Pat did
laundry at the marina, while George did some chores around the boat, and in the
evening we simply took in the beauty of this fabulous location with its
wonderful sea-wall amidst sand beaches and blue waters reminiscent of the
Caribbean!
8/6/2015
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore
Point Betsie Lighthouse
We left Leland at 7 a.m. for a 41 mile trip down the eastern
shore of Michigan to Frankfort. As we
left the harbor, the wind and the waves were again higher than we anticipated,
but conditions eventually calmed down as we travelled south past the Sleeping
Bear Dunes National Seashore with some of its sand dunes as high as 450’! We visited Frankfort on our first “Loop” in 2009, but this
time we chose to stay at a different marina – the Frankfort Municipal Marina,
which is well inside the harbor on Betsie Lake.
Once we were tied up, we spent the day cleaning both the inside and the
outside of the boat, and we swear that spiders, gnats, and shad flies should be
named something like the “State Birds” of Ontario Province in Canada, and the
State of Michigan in the United States. These insects particularly like waxed, white,
fiber-glass boats, and once they attach themselves to your vessel, they are NOT
removed easily! After finishing our
chores, we took a walk into the downtown area with a host of restaurants, pubs,
stores of all sorts, banks, a post office, and, of course, ice cream shops, all
located quite close to the marina. We dined that night at “Fusion”, a very busy
Asian restaurant, and we were well-satisfied with our meal.
8/7/2015
Entering Manistee Lake
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We left our slip in Frankfort for today’s 27 mile journey to
Manistee, and we were finally treated to cooperative winds and seas on Lake
Michigan, which made for a very pleasant trip south. Our destination was Seng’s Marina on Manistee
Lake, and we were looking forward to seeing our nephew Chris and his wife,
Angela, along with their four children, Charlie, Allie, Anna, and Henry, as well as
Angela’s parents, Joe and Linda, who would all be visiting us today. Chris and Angela and their children live in
Virginia, and just happened to be spending a family vacation at Joe and Linda’s
beautiful carriage-house in Manistee on Lake Michigan, along with Angela’s two
brothers, and their families as well.
Our guests arrived at 3 p.m., and after some snacks, exploration of our
vessel, and catching up on everyone’s activities, we were invited to have
dinner at their residence with the rest of the family. The group included 9 adults, and 8 children
under the age of 11, and what a great time we had! Dinner was delicious, the kids were
delightful, and we even got to see the “Bunk Room” that Joe had built for all
of their 10 grandchildren and that Linda had decorated in red, white, and blue
with name-pillows for each one. After
our wonderful evening, Chris and Charlie delivered us back to “Reflection” in a
steady rain that lasted all night.
8/8/2015
Despite over-cast skies and a heavy mist, we got ready to
leave “Seng’s” at 7 a.m. for a 25 mile mile trip south to Ludington. However, as we started to pull away from the
dock, George realized that there was a problem with our starboard-side
transmission cable on the upper helm which would only stay in reverse. We were able to maneuver the boat out into
Manitee Lake, and immediately proceeded to anchor, so that George could
evaluate the situation, and so that we could both figure out what our options
would be to get it repaired on a Saturday morning. Some of our options included: limping down to Holland as planned over the next few days
using the lower helm only, trying to obtain a replacement cable from a local
West Marine store if they had it in stock, or having it shipped to a nearby
location, finding another supply house, seeing if “Seng’s” had someone to
repair it, etc. The West Marine
computers did not activate until 9 a.m., and by 9:05 a.m. George found out that
the closest store that carried the part was in Chicago! That option was out, but the salesperson also
kindly told George to try “Van’s Sport Center” in Grand Rapids, because they
might have the cable. George finally got
through to them, and “Alleluia!” , they did have the part. However, they closed at noon on Saturdays, and
it was almost a two hour drive away! So,
we made a phone call to our nephew, Chris, to see if we could borrow a car, and
he said that he would bring it to us, and then we quickly picked up the anchor
and high-tailed it back to “Seng’s”.
Everything then happily fell into place!
George got the car, drove to Grand Rapids, and managed to pick up the
cable and a spare at 11:59 a.m. before they closed! He then returned to the boat around 2:45
p.m., and was able to make the repair (Pat even helped!), and Chris and Angela
and the kids came over after their day out on the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, and
picked up the car! Thank you, God! We were both tired after our long and stressful day, and after a dinner of
Italian Sausage in Vodka Sauce with Salad, we headed to bed at “Marathon
(Florida Keys) Midnight” a.k.a. 9 p.m.
