Beaver Island Michigan

September 21, 2016

It was very calm at the St. Ignace marina when we woke from our long slumber. We were excited to get going and slide under the great Mackinac bridge into Lake Michigan, our third Great Lake. There were angry storms south of Beaver Island, where we wanted to go, but we decided to go for it anyway. A north wind kept those storms below us, the sky cleared and we were actually hot for the first time in many days.

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Bridge view from the waterway

Slipping under the Mackinac

Leaving the Mackinac in our wake

We had to make a slight left after passing the White Shoal Lighthouse. The shift added just a little chill to the air. We were surprised to see a sailboat coming toward us from the west, eventually rounding Grey’s Reef Lighthouse before us. This gave me a photo opportunity. The captain made a wide birth around the light and we snuck in between.

White Shoal Lighthouse

Grey's Reef Lighthouse

One of few sailboats we've encountered

Sailboat rounding Grey's Reef Lighthouse

The day was lovely! We were able to use the autopilot and move around the boat a bit. We experience no dramatic weather during the almost eight hour cruise. We arrived at Beaver Island at 5:00 and anchored in Paradise Bay. Another boat was already bobbing on it’s chain. I made dinner and tried my hand at galley apple crisp. Dave installed our invertor which will allow us to use regular household hookup on 12 volt batteries. We’ll need this to power up our laptop for Navigation from here to Chicago. In anticipation of thunderstorms we put up our rain tarp. We will be lucky if it passes us by. I know we will sleep better if it does. It is quiet and dark here at our anchorage; almost eerie, after so many noisy, bouncy nights. Hopefully this is not the calm before the storm!

Western MI University Paradise Bay Beaver Island, MI

Beaver Island has a lot of history. There were so many opportunities for photos so, I shot a lot! We walked through town, end to end and were fascinated by the rich culture!

Dave's work friends will love this!

Markers located all over town

Old Mormon Printing House

Beaver Island Historical Museum Old Mormon Print House

Beaver Island Jail Built 1910 Burned 1931

Daddy Frank's Closed of course

The Irish connection

St. James Yacht Club Prop

King Strang History

Beaver Island Light

Dave on the thinking bench

Picture of a post card!

Beaver Island Tiny Garden

We tied up at the dock on our second night at Beaver Island. We watched as sailboat Peregrine came into port. The owner and crew were delivering the newly purchased 41 foot Kings Legend from Bayfield, Wisconsin to Milwaukee. They were pretty wiped out from the day but agreed to meet us at the Shamrock for a beer and sailing lore! Judy Cook and Bill Jelinek are part of the crew and plan to be in the Bahamas this winter. They gave us their contact information and promised to show us the ropes.

Mystic at Beaver Island Municipal Dock

Beaver Island Ferries

We met the cutest couple at the Shamrock, Angelina and Mike, who were on the island to celebrate Angelina’s 36th birthday told us they are proud parents of an adorable set of twins, a boy and a girl. They were sitting at a table but Angelina came boldly over to our large group to “break the ice!” She asked us a riddle; “What can’t you hold for 10 minutes even though it’s lighter than a feather?” Answer: your breath. One of the crew from Peregrine knew the answer so she went for a harder one; “What turns white when it is dirty?” Answer: a chalkboard. They were a delight to chat with and once they heard we have the blog, they asked that we include the story of meeting them. Too bad I forgot to take their photo!

We enjoyed our visit to Beaver Island, staying for three nights due to unfavorable weather. We tried to leave for Leland on Friday, September 22nd but had to turn back after five miles of me puking overboard and Dave fighting the wind and waves.

Back at Paradise Bay, on the hook with dinner cooking, we recover quickly. It’s very nice tucked back out of the wind. We hope to get up before sunrise and make it across the lake to the eastern shore to hide from the east wind expected tomorrow. If we can make it, the trip to Chicago can continue with short or long hops down the coastline.

Note: My new "go to" snack is Ginger Snaps and I am now wearing my Sea Band bracelets with the hope that they help me with seasickness. For the record...I'm also wearing my B~Strong bracelet from Bobbette Barber Clapsaddle! I've had it on since we launched! It is my reminder to "dig deep" when I need to! I am stronger than I realize!

St. Ignace, Michigan

September 20, 2016

There are days when our bodies have just had enough. Our strong will to forge onward cannot fight the need to stop and rejuvenate ourselves. St. Ignace was a place of rejuvenation. We had a long day of banging against a head wind on the trip from DeTour. Mystic tolerates the waves that accompany the wind far better than we do. In addition to having your brain sloshed around for 6 hours, you have to constantly brace yourself from the movement. We both have nasty bruises from being tossed around, but worse than that, the fatigue sets in.

Onward to St. Ignace

After rounding Mackanac Island, we arrived at St. Ignace at 4:06. The marina closed at 4:00 but we met some nice seasonal dock holders who gave us the bathroom code and advice on where to get dinner. The WIFI was open, so we were good for the night!

Mackinac Island Resort

Mackinac Breakwater Light

Mackinac Island Homes

Round Island Light

Mackinac High Speed Ferry

Mackinac Island ~ Grand Hotel

We walked to the Gangplank and enjoyed whitefish sandwiches on thick wheat bread with real fried sweet potatoes! After dinner, we meandered through town, first south, then north where we found the new Dollar General store. This is the biggest Dollar General we have ever seen, with fresh and frozen foods. Had we not been in such a fog we would have stocked up on more items. Instead, we wandered around, mumbling now and then about how tired we were. We grabbed a few things then headed back to Mystic. St. Ignace has a boardwalk that runs along the shoreline. We took that route back instead of the street. After storing everything away, we laid down for a much needed quick nap. We awoke ELEVEN hours later; feeling much better but amazed that we had slept for that long, uninterrupted. We will remember this visit to St. Ignace, mainly as a place for recovery!

St. Ignace Harbor

Whitefish Point to DeTour

September 18 - 19, 2016

It finally feels like we are making progress! We are eager to get off of Lake Superior but the weather keeps holding us back, almost taunting us with the truth that Mother Nature determines much of our travel destiny. This is a good day for her and for us.

We headed out of Whitefish Bay with the fishermen at 9:00 am in a light westerly wind. The weather forecast indicated a chance of showers in the afternoon. We tried to motor-sail but the winds were too light, so we settle in for a long day of motoring. Entering the St. Mary’s River around 1:00, we wound our way to the Sault St. Marie (Soo) Locks arriving by 2:00. As we approached the Locks the entry light was red. Dave radioed the lock master. A tour boat was already in the chamber on the westward side so we had to wait for them to clear before we could enter. It only took about a half hour to lock through. There were a ton of friendly people on the Canadian side who chatted with us and waived. Locking is not hard but you have to pay attention. The lock master instructs you to enter the lock and wrap your lines (one bow and one stern) around the vertical cable that holds you to the lock wall. You do not tie off; instead, you slide up or down a cable cable that hangs from the top of the wall, depending on whether you are rising or dropping in the lock. Today we are dropping. Several small children watched, with eyes as big as saucers, as we disappeared below the lock wall.

Beth Waiting to lock through at the Soo

Entertainment Tent at Roberta Bondar Park
Sault St. Marie, Canada

Power House ~ Edison Sault Electric Co.

The weather was perfect so we decided to continue on to Lime Island. We’d already covered 40 miles. Lime Island was another 35 or so. The trip to Lime Island took us through the west channel of Nebish Island. This is a cool place with a fast current. The narrow channel is lined by a rock quarry.  A rock wall holds the land back from falling into the channel. I have some friends back home who would love to get their hands on some of these rocks! The St. Mary’s River is lovely. We’ve seen so many beautiful homes. Hard to say if they are summer homes or year round.

Rock Cut Nebish Island

Rock Cut Nebish Island

By late afternoon we could see a squall to our west gaining on us. It was quite beautiful, like a fog curtain hanging from the rain cloud. We put everything that we could down below and tied everything else down, including ourselves in anticipation of a good hard rain! What we got was a warm summer drenching without wind and a beautiful rainbow once the storm passed. Poor Dave got swamped by the volume of water that dropped. We’ve been struggling with the weather, no internet reception, a camera that seems to be dying and suddenly there is a glorious rainbow emerging before us; a reminder to always look for the positive side of things!

Squall coming at us from the west

A very wet captain

When we rejoined the main channel we could see a Coast Guard cutter coming toward us. What a magnificent vessel! We waved and took photos. They were blasting toward the Soo locks on a mission to get home for the evening it seemed.

Coast Guard Cutter heading for the Soo Locks

It took longer than we expected to cover those 35 miles so we were docking at twilight, not day but not quite night; and NOT what we planned. When we got to Lime Island we could see that it was closed for the season. The island was deserted, the houses all boarded up and the outhouse removed. We were exhausted but managed a light dinner and a toast (beer) to our major milestone of getting off of Lake Superior! It took us 11 hours today, our longest day so far, but we did it!

Sunset off of Lime Island

Lime Island was once a fuel dock for passing tankers. The houses on the island were for the workers and their families; now available to tourists. There is a schoolhouse that once serviced 28 students! It is a popular camping and hiking island. There is a plover sanctuary off of the dockage area. We were surprised that these tiny birds had not left the island yet. They serenaded us all evening. We enjoyed their company much more than that of the mosquitoes! Tied up for the night, we knew we’d be safe here with the wind out of the south. As we’ve seen time and again, the wind shifted in the night and came out of the southwest which is the only direction that makes this port a bad spot to be sitting. We rocked and rolled all night long, neither of us getting much sleep.

Plover

Lime Island Welcome

Lime Island Cottages

Lime Island School

We rose early to make the 10 mile trek to DeTour Marina. When we got there, we tried to get fuel but the pumps wouldn’t work so we moved to a transient slip and settled in. We hadn’t had a full day ashore in some time so we took care of things like showers, laundry, cleaning Mystic and grocery shopping. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the rainbow video off my phone and finally realized I could upload it to My Drive on google then download from there. This felt like a big accomplishment!

We took a walk into town and I shot some photos around DeTour. There was a rain garden near the parking lot. As I walked by, something caught my eye. There were dozens of beautiful monarchs gathering nectar from the purple asters. I was amazed by how many were in the garden and I was filled with joy at capturing this moment. We walked through the tiny downtown of DeTour thinking we may stop for a nightcap. There is a local pub and a restaurant bar that looked intriguing. The dock hand, Daniel, had warned us that you never know when this place would be open. Inside we could see people at tables and at the bar but the "OPEN" sign was darkened. A woman standing on the deck smoking a cigarette looked our way and said, “Sorry, we’re closed for the night!” Weird! I guess that was what Daniel’s warning was about! Maybe she only serves locals. This is a town of 350 residents! You’d think she’d want our money. Oh well! We saved our money for a meal in St. Ignace. We know they like transients there!

Purple Aster ~ Monarch Butterfly

Passage Keeper