Finally, in Lake Michigan
17 July 2016
Well, it has been a long time coming, but we finally made it to Lake Michigan. As I last posted on Monday, we got back into the Straits, and went into the St. Ignace Municipal marina. A very nice marina staffed by great personnel. We ended up staying until yesterday, Saturday, July 16 as the winds that the NOAA forecasters were predicting, arrived. Northern Lake Michigan was called for having 4 – 7 ft. waves, but we talked to a couple that spent most of the week holed up in Leeland. The waves were more like 9 – 10 ft. out on Lake Michigan, so, we stayed in St. Ignace. We wandered around the stores and went in the Ft. DeBuade Museum and the Ojibwa Museum. We had dinner out a couple of nights and had great meals. We went to Mackinac Island on Wednesday and had a great time. After wandering around all day Tuesday, I decided that I was not sitting around the boat all day, so I told them all that I was going to the island. You would have thought my sisters were kids again. Before, when the island was mentioned, both sisters said that they had no desire to go. When I stated that Nancy and I were going, well, it was a different story. We took the Arnold Ferry over from St. Ignace and then wandered around in and out of the stores. We did buy tickets to go on the island carriage tour. It was nice. While up at Arch Rock, we ran into some friends of Diane’s from the East Tawas, MI area. We had a great meal at ‘Horns’ on the main street of Mackinac Island, then took the 5 PM ferry back to St. Ignace. On Wednesdays, there is live music at the pavilion at the marina. Wednesday night’s entertainment left a lot to be desired. It is local entertainment. On Thursday, the rain came in and the live music was cancelled. Friday, was the beginning of St. Ignace Heritage days. They had some re-enactors at the Ojibwa Museum. There was also live music back at the Marina, with ‘Le Compagnie’. A five piece group that plays French, Celtic and Great Lakes Music. They were very good. As we were watching and listening, Nancy thought she recognized someone that she knew. I mentioned that she should at least ask, so Nancy went over and talked to the lady. It turned out to be Lynn Johnson, the head of ‘Project Lakewell’, which Nancy had worked with for years while she was at the Museum. Project Lakewell would borrow the Museums re-created birch bark canoe to take to schools and such. Lynn is also the program director at the Ft. DeBaude Museum in St. Ignace, three days a week. Nancy and I indicated to her that we would love to help out with anything that she needs with Project Lakewell.
We left yesterday, Saturday morning and were going to go into Petoskey, MI. However, since we were at Petoskey very early, we decided to continue on to Northport, MI. We got in here around 3 PM and are tied up on the outer wall, inside the marina. We passed under the Mackinaw Bridge, which my sisters were more that overcome. They were like two little kids trying to get their pictures of going under the bridge. I must say, that it never does get old. It is a pretty neat site and feeling to pass under the bridge.
The weather for today was again high winds on Lake Michigan, out of the South, and thunderstorms, some severe. So we opted to stay for tonight. IF the weather breaks, then tomorrow we will travel to Frankfort, MI, around 55 miles. Then as long as the weather holds, we travel to Ludington, again another 50 miles, then from Ludington, to Feath’s new home at Lakeshore Yacht Harbor. So, if all goes according to plan and the weather cooperates, we may possibly be pulling into Lakeshore Yacht Harbor sometime early afternoon on Wednesday of this week. But again, that is if the weather cooperates. All in all, we haven’t had too many days that we have had to sit out due to weather, since we actually left New Jersey on June 6. Oh, I also am not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not, but at the beginning, we estimated the trip to be a total of around 1500 miles. Well, Nancy’s ‘goes intas’ (her math) was not totally correct. The entire trip will end up being around 2100 miles.
We are ready to be home.