In Rogers City there was a boat with Dekalb, IL (an hour from home) as its port of call, so I went over and talked to the owner who is a retired Northern Illinois University professor who grew up in Rogers City and now spends his summers here. He told me alot about the area and that many residents are predominantly of Polish and German decent. I fit right in, he said that if I needed any provisions there were two meat markets in town that specialized in their own sausages, hams and many other unique homemade items. I hopped on one of the marina bikes and went to both stores and even though I didn't really need much, I found several items at both to add to the stock that is now on board. One store boasted of being in its fourth generation and the other that it had been in business for 98 years. By the time I departed Rogers City it was past noon.
I wasn't in a big hurry because it was only Thursday and only about 50 miles to Mackinaw City, where I had marina reservations for Saturday through Monday. Denise was flying to Traverse City, MI and renting a car to drive to Mackinaw City on Saturday. So I had plenty of time to get there. NOAA was calling for 1 foot or less seas.
Those are not 1 foot seas, easily 2's and 3's and even though straight on the bow it was a little bumpy. I stopped at Hammond Bay, about 30 miles from Mackinaw City, to anchor, but when I pulled into the harbor and dropped the anchor I could not get a good "bite" in the strong west winds, so after four attempts, I decided to keep going and eventually called Mackinaw City to extend my reservaton one more day. Denise was not arriving until late afternoon, so I changed the oil in one engine and cleaned up the boat. It had been a month since she had been on the boat and even though I try to keep it tidy, it needed a good cleaning before she arrived.
On Sunday, Denise and I took the ferry to Mackinac Island. You probably know that there are no cars allowed on Mackinac Island, so people mostly bring or rent bikes or walk the island. Since between Denise and I we might have one good knee, these options were not going to work for us. Instead, we opted for another popular means of seeing the island.
It was only an hour ride and mostly the horses walked, but every once in awhile, on their own accord, they would go into a trot. Denise did not shift her weight to the stirups when this happened and instead bounced up and down in the saddle. At the end of the day she said she was sure she had broken her butt. Despite this though, we both enjoyed the ride on both the paved and unpaved trails. It was hard to get good pictures though because we were always being bouncing around. Nonetheless we tried.
After lunch, we took another horse powered ride and saw more of the island.
On this ride we saw many of the old private summer homes in one part of the island.
The views of the Straights of Mackinac from some of these homes is stunning.
The most famous place to stay on the island is the Grand Hotel. Probably the most expensive too.
And there are others that also appear to be very nice.
Even though there are no cars it doesn't mean there can't be a traffic jam.
As you might expect, there are a lot of stores for soveniers, ice cream and of course fudge. I don't know why Mackinac Island fudge is so famous, as far as I know there are no unique ingredients that can only be found here, but it seems to be the one thing you must get when you visit, so we did. We also had ice cream after dinner, but we did not get any soveniers, even though Denise strongly considered a T-shirt.
We caught the 9 PM ferry back to Macinaw City, leaving from the east side of the island. When came around to the south side we were treated to a great sunset as we headed across.
This is really beautiful country and the water can be many variations of blue and it is very very clear.
Denise left after breakfast on Monday and I changed the oil in the other engine while waiting for my friend George to arrive to become my crew for the big Lake Michigan crossing. The weather forecast for Tuesday was not sounding great, but after a short discussion, we decided to go. Our destination of St James City on Beaver Island was only 43 miles, but there was rain, t-storms and strong winds being forecasted, with seas building as the day progressed. So we left early, logic being that we'd get there before it got too bad.
First thing after leaving the marina was the Mackinac Bridge.
It wasn't long though and the skies ahead started getting dark.
This turned out to be the last picture of the day, because soon after, it started raining, then the wind picked up, then it got pretty bumpy. We made the harbor before 1 PM and either the island was blocking the wind or it had died down, because the afternoon turned out to be pretty calm. George had brought along a new anchor light I had ordered and had shipped to him and a new invertor and both were installed well before dinner. I'm really looking forward to the new invertor, because its big enough to power the coffee pot and now there won't be a need to start the generator, when at anchor, to make coffee. With George aboard, that means more sleep for me, because in the past I was awakened when the generator started, usually an hour or more before my usual time to get up.
We've checked the forecast and will recheck in the morning, but the anticipation is that we will be staying another day in St James City because seas are forecasted to be 6 to 8 feet tomorrow. I suspect my next post will be from Wisconsin. Seas are supposed to be improving by Thursday.
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