Am I starting to sound like a broken record? We just cleared out one storm system and oops, here's another. This one brings some promise for northerly winds giving us a chance to boogie south down Lake Michigan. But, right now the good ole lake is a little angry and we'll stay put for a while letting things settle a bit.

We did finally get our sail on Lake Huron; the winds were still NE but what I call a sailable velocity when it's on our nose. We sailed from Harbor Beach just south of Saganaw Bay overnight to Mackinac City arriving with day break, 06:30. The wind was very cooperative lifting us up over the islands east of Alpena and then letting us run NW for a while before dropping below five knots. There is still so much to explore around Huron, north channel, Georgian Bay and so many Michigan and Canadian harbors. But, those will have to be a next year's journey for now we are focused on making our Chicago destination sometime before its snows, ha ha! Seriously though the fall weather pattern makes it a little stressful for us to make some desired longer passages. We need at least two or three wind predictable days for us to overnight down the lake. For the last two weeks the sailable winds have been only a day or so before another cold front swings by whipping up the waters. And you know, we old folks don't enjoy getting beat up as much any more. There was a time when the stronger the winds the better, now, ah well, if we have to reef and pound we'd rather drop the hook, watch a movie and share a glass of wine or two or three.

I think I mentioned the Erie canal is closed from Locks 2 - 22 so cruisers heading south now have to change plans and head for Chicago. They'll get their cruising baptismal sooner than they had hoped.

So today we'll explore this town, meet with local people and learn about its history. We'll probably walk down to the harbor entrance and check out the lake.