The morning dawned clear, cool, and and breezy. We got rid of the trash and picked up a bag of ice before departure. We had a great sail from St. Ignace to Harbor Island, which is one of many islands on the north side of Drummond Island. It is really beautiful here and is called the beginning of the North Channel, yet we are still in Michigan. We went for a dinghy ride and Mike fished. Unfortunately, I think one needs worms to catch the perch or bass that most people fish for in this area. There were deer wading the edges in the evening and sand hill cranes serenading us in the morning.

We have at least one TV channel here-I turned the TV on just to check and something was on...it always amazes me. I quickly turned it off. We may check later or in the morning for weather.

A "great sail" for those unversed is such things, is any time you can operate on wind power for an extended period of time. This morning we left St. Ignace with a steady 15 knots of wind from the north. We were able to sail on a broad reach (wind at 90 degrees) for about 6 hours. Gusts were up to about 25 knots and put our rail in the water on numerous occasions. The only minor problem was the temperature....52 degrees at our departure ,climbing to a pleasant 65 in the late afternoon. Kathy had at least 4 layers of clothes on most of the day(Yup, jeans, fluffy(fleece-thanks Sam and Mark), and rain gear to stop the wind). There are five boats here and another 6 or 7 in the inner harbor but everyone is well spaced so there isn't the worry of being too close .

Tomorrow we will head into Canadian waters and will have to stop somewhere to clear customs and hopefully buy some bait.

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Another day has been spent in St. Ignace. It has rained off and on and thunderstorms are predicted for tonight so we thought we might not want to be anchored out. Mike installed the propane detector and I sewed one side of our sun shade for the cockpit. It will zip on to the biminy and tie to the life lines to give us more shade when we need it. We shopped around downtown and walked along the boardwalk which goes right along the lake.

For cruisers who are aware that all public libraries in Michigan have free wireless internet access, and computers anyone can use, and it is good to know the location of the libraries from marinas. The library here is probably about a mile's walk from the marina, a little way up the hill. I believe I paid $10 here to use the internet right from the boat, and it has worked fine for us. We usually have to go up above to get a good connection, but it's more convenient than walking up the hill.

We went to the Mackinaw Grille for dinner tonight and the food was very good. The best part was that on our way, there were otters climbing up the ladder on the end of a dock and playing on the dock. It was fun to watch.

We are planning to leave in the morning for either Government Bay in the Les Cheneauxs or Detour. It's supposed to be a beautiful day .

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