Lake Michigan!

When Ken last posted we were headed to Charlevoix on Lake Michigan.  That was Sunday, 7/29!  Let’s talk a little about boating on Lake Michigan.  It is like doing a mini gulf crossing every day!  You have to know how strong are the winds blowing and in what direction.  You have to know how high the NOAA buoy says the waves will be and lastly because the boating season on Michigan is relatively short, the popular marinas are often booked!  Therefore you always have to have a Plan B and realistically a Plan C.  That was the case with heading to Charlevoix.  There was no room in the inn so we continued further south to Leland, MI, a small fishing village that has a section of town called “Fishtown”!

Here is Fishtown!  It is a channel off the Lake where commercial and charter fishing boats dock, pick up their passengers and unload their catch!  

Leland was a charming village with lots of little shops to wander through.

We also saw interesting modes of transportation!  The sign on the front of the dinghy reads, “Old boat motors wanted, 1 - 3 HP!”

The next decision you have to make on Lake Michigan is whether to go down the east coast or west coast of the lake.  There are strong opinions on this supporting both sides.  East has neater towns to explore, the west side is calmer etc. etc.!  We knew we were going to meet up with our friends Jean and Denny at their marina in Racine, WI (on the west side).  The weather was looking pretty windy for the next few days with winds that would cause the east side to be bumpy!  We were at a point on the lake with one of the shortest crossing distances so.......we decided to cross to the west side and head into Green Bay (the bay, not the city) and explore a little of Door County!   The crossing to the west side was pretty rough but her majesty 20BUCK$ and Captain Ken handled it beautifully!  It is really nice to be able to get up and run when the seas are bumpy even if the $20 bills fly out the exhaust pipes!

Sister Bay in Door County was our destination!  Much like the other seaside towns in Door County, Sister Bay was beautiful!  We tried to go this restaurant, Al Johnson’s, with the goats on the grassy roof but the wait was way too long and we were too hungry! 

The evening in Sister Bay brought one of the strongest thunderstorms we have had since we left MN a year ago!  The TV was alive with storm warnings and we did not escape.  Fortunately the large hail that hit some parts of WI missed us.  We had strong winds and torrential rain!  A few pictures of the storm!

Today we headed the rest of the way down Green Bay and through a canal that takes you to Sturgeon Bay where we stopped for gas and a pump out!  Once through Sturgeon Bay you are back out on Michigan but now on the west coast! 

Today's destination was Manitowoc, WI!  Manitowoc was home to a large ship building facility in WWII.  It was also home to Burger Boats, maker of mega yachts!  Right next to the city marina where we are docked is the Wisconsin Maritime Museum advertised to be the best Great Lakes maritime museum!  So off we went! 

The picture below is the car ferry that still runs twice a day to MI!

The museum had displays of the rise and fall of commercial fishing on the Great Lakes!  The numbers of commercial fishermen have dropped dramatically and now much of the fishing on the Great Lakes is done by sport fishermen!   Other displays were of boat building and how that industry has changed over the years!

The highlight of the museum was a tour of the USS Cobia, a submarine built in Connecticut in 1943!  I can’t imaging spending a 90 day tour of duty during war time in a submarine!  And we think we have tight quarters on 20BUCK$! 

 

 

Check out the bunk on top of the torpedo and the launch tubes in front!  Sweet dreams! 

There is a 10 step process to flush the head or the next person to use it gets a major back wash!  EEEWWWW!!!!

They even had an America’s Great Loop exhibit!  Amazing to see how far we have traveled posted on a large display on the wall!

Tomorrow we continue down Lake Michigan to Port Washington, WI.  We are 300 miles from Minneapolis, by car that is, but still over 1,000 miles to go by water at an average of 60 miles per day! 

Time to watch the Olympics!  Such an amazing group of talented athletes!

Still more to come from the Loop!  Pat

Back in the USA!

From our last anchorage in Baie Fine, we traveled to Spider Bay Marina in Little Current, where our friends Phil & Lise let us use their slip. Thank You so much! We fueled  and pumped out, and spent the night there. The next day we traveled 50 miles to an anchorage at Breardrop Harbour.
This was a large, busy anchorage, and had some very nice, secluded areas to dinghy.

And......of course another spectacular sunset!!!

On Wednesday, the 25th, we traveled another 50 miles to Thessalon Marina. Thessalon is a small, old town on the west end of the North Channel. It was a drizzly afternoon, but we put on our rain gear, and walked into town in search of the library, and an internet connection. We found the library, but it was locked. “No Problem”, a couple of young local gals said. “Just sit in the foyer, and you can get hooked up. They leave it on all the time”.

On Thursday AM, we headed across the North Channel to Drummond Island, where we had to stop to check back into US Customs. We got a fairly early start, and got to Drummond at 10:00 AM, but discovered the agents don’t start work until 10:30. The check in was quick, and off we went to our next “major” destination of Mackinac Island. 

Pictured above is the Grand Hotel on Mackinac. It was built by the railroads in 1887, as Mackinac was becoming a popular summer vacation destination. We took a walk thru it, and it is truly impressive!

At 660’ long, the front porch is the largest in the world. More than 130,000 guests stay at the Grand each season! The 5,000,000th guest in Grand Hotel history checked in on June 26, 2006.

 The interior furnishings and carpet are fit for royalty! Of the 338 rooms, no two are alike. I could not help notice while walking one of the stairs, that the entire four floor staircase was crooked, and much of the trim work did not match properly.  I was told this was due to the hotel being built in 90 days!

We have told you that we always take the trolley tour of any town we really want to see. Not here - there are no cars on Mackinac! So we took the carriage tour! 

In 1896, the City of Mackinac voted to ban all “horseless carriages” from the island, and that law is still in effect today!  Even the garbage truck is pulled by horses!  The mode of transportation here is by bike, and a 20 MPH speed limit exists. Our carriage driver told us his room mate was caught by the police, with a radar gun, doing 37 MPH down a hill, no hands on the handlebars, and texting on his phone. $110 fine!

We saw some spectacular scenery on our ride, and even an antique carriage museum.

On Saturday, we rented bikes, and took our own tour. We rode the 8 mile perimeter road around the island. The beaches have small, polished rock in some areas, and larger rocks in others. The water is crystal clear! I would say better visibility than the Caribbean!

We found some nature hike areas through the woods along the way.

We noticed many of these rock “statues” along the water front. They are called cairns’, or inuksuks. They were originated by the Inuit Indians, and were used to mark their paths.

So we decided to build one of our own!

Today is Pats B-day, so tonight we decided to take a taxi ride out to the Woods restaurant for dinner. It is about a 1/2 hour buggy ride out of town.
We had a lovely dinner in the woods, and a nice ride back to town.

Tomorrow morning we head down Lake Michigan to Charlevoix, which will begin our leg to Racine, Wisconsin,  where we will meet our friends Denny & Jean who slip their boat there. 

Good Night

Captn Ken

Anchorages, Amazing Adventures and Awesome New Friends!

The final stretch of the Georgian Bay is called the Collins Inlet Channel!  It was very narrow and shallow turning into it, but once in, it was miles of scenery like that above!  We were headed on Friday for Covered Portage Cove, an anchorage just beyond Killarney.  Killarney is a small town that obviously caters to boaters.  They even have a “Boat in Theater”.  We headed back into Killarney on Saturday by dinghy to check email and have fish and chips at Herbert’s Fisheries which is in this red bus!  We are now in the North Channel!

 


We arrived at the anchorage on Friday afternoon!  Our plan was to stay one night and move on but it was such a beautiful spot that we decided to stay a second night.  There is a hike up to the top of the ridge that overlooked the anchorage and it was spectacular!  You can see “20BUCK$” along with several other boats at anchor!

An added bonus to this anchorage was that there were three other Looper boats anchored too!  We enjoyed cocktail hour both Friday and Saturday nights with them.  Catherine and Bob on “Next to Me”, Gary and Christelle on “Time and Tide”, and Jim and Ann on “Wild Goose” arrived on Saturday!  Always fun to laugh and share stories with other “loopers”!

Ann, Jim and Christelle

Bob and Catherine

Gary

We hiked up to the top of this hill and looked down on the 20BUCK$!

We have mentioned folks from the Cruisers owners internet forum that have followed our travels and met us along the way.  Above is Phil, Lise and their daughter and son in law!  They keep their boat at Little Current and happened to be anchored in the next bay over.  Saturday they walked through the woods to visit us and today they pulled into Mary Ann’s Cove right after us to spend the afternoon hiking!  So fun to meet them!  Tomorrow we will  go to their marina, Spider Bay, in Little Current and may or may not see them again!

We left this morning headed for Baie Fine.  This is described as the closest thing you will see to a fjord.  It is a 10 mile long bay with several popular anchorages ending with one called the “Pool”.  We opted to stop at Mary Ann’s Cove and anchor and take the dinghy up to the end of the bay where there is a hike up to Topaz Lake.  This has turned out to be one of our favorite stops!  After getting settled at anchor, we dropped the dinghy and headed up to the end of the bay!    We began our hike up to Topaz Lake, 0.6 miles and a 400 foot vertical climb!

It was so worth the hike!  At the top of the ridge is Topaz Lake!  These pictures will show you how beautiful it is!

We visited with a wonderful couple and swam with their three boys, Tyler, Cameron and Laucklin(not sure of his spelling).  Turns out they own the grocery store in Little Current where we will be tomorrow buying groceries.  Thanks for the use of one of your towels!  That’s Catherine from “Next to Me” swimming with the boys!

The water was crystal clear and so refreshing!

On our way back to the boat I told Ken this was such a special day that we should have one of the beautiful pink rocks to put in our waterfall rock garden at home!   A memory of this day!  He headed over to shore and I climbed out of the dinghy!  It was deeper then we thought and as soon as I stepped down I slipped!  I was wearing one of the life jackets that inflates when wet!  Well we laughed until we cried!  It would keep your head above water but it about choked me in the process!  Not my most graceful move.  We got the rock though and will remember this day forever!

See....aren’t these rocks pretty??  I picked out a great one with pink coloring after I quit laughing!

Time to put the burgers on the grill and enjoy this beautiful evening!

Pat