8/5/14 Charlevoix

We are in the tourist/shopping mecca of northern Michigan!  Ann and I love to shop, so we headed out at 10 a.m. for a couple of  hours.  We found some wonderful shops and shared some of our money with them.  The guys met us for a late lunch at Weather Vane.  This restaurant overlooks the inlet and lift bridge. 

In front of the marina office, there is a water feature for kids.  They were having lots of fun.

Ron, Ann and I  walked to the "mushroom houses" between Clinton and Park streets.  These houses were designed by a local resident, Earl Young, in the late 1930s but they were actually not built until the 1950s.  Each house has a unique name:  Betide, the Half House, Abide, the Mushroom House.  They are the most photographed houses in Charlevoix.  Some of the walls are 3 foot thick.  The leaded paned windows came from a Polish castle.  Special stones called "onaway" stones were used to build the homes.

 

view from park Street

 

The flowers around town are beautiful.

After returning to the boat, we dropped the dinghy in the water and took a ride around the harbor.  While in the dinghy, we saw this boat on the bridge crossing the inlet.

 There are beautiful boat houses, elegant homes, and lots of boats here.  We stopped and talked to a man whom we met in Meldrum Bay and is on the boat, Resolute.  His boat is parked in the slip belonging to people who are building a 23,000 square foot house on the property.  He said the owner of the house under construction has twenty extended family members and he took them all to Norway for a vacation.  WOW! 

Our boat is 50 yards from the band shell in the park.  Last night there was an outdoor movie there and tonight there was a band concert.  We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the music after having dinner on the boat.

Tomorrow we leave for Northport, on the western side of Grand Traverse Bay.  On our way tomorrow, we will cross our wake, completing the Great Loop, and tomorrow night we will celebrate with Ken and Ann and put the gold flag on our boat.  They are staying in Northport for repairs, and Ron and I will continue traveling.  Our next destination is to cross Lake Michigan and go to Fayette on the U.P. and then on to Door County. 

8/4/14 Petoskey to Charlevoix

Ann and I went shopping in Petoskey before our departure for Charlevoix.  Petoskey is a very nice town, which is just through a tunnel and up the hill from the marina.  Since we were only two hours from Charlevoix by boat,  we left in the early afternoon.  The waves were 1-2 feet but the period was short, which gave us a bit of a bumpy ride.

While we were underway, I received a call from my friend Trinkie, who lives in Dunedin in the winters and in Michigan in the summers.  She and a couple of friends, MJ and Ron, were in Petoskey eating lunch.  We arranged to meet at 3:30 in Charlevoix.  After a nice visit, they took off for MJ and Ron's cabin which is north of Harbor Springs.

Dinner last night was at a Chinese restaurant.  It was a nice change.

8/3/14 St. Ignace to Petoskey, MI

Our planned departure was 0830, but we realized that the water was perfectly calm at 0700.  We didn't want to lose the advantage of flat water, so at 0730 we pulled away from the dock.  After going under Mackinac Straights Bridge, we headed around the large shoal, Grays Reef.  Just after the shoal, we saw some fishing buoys and gave them a wide berth.  The waves picked up after a few hours, but were still ones and twos. 

The state marina reservation system is somewhat frustrating.  Online reservations must be done by 8pm the night before you want a reservation.  If you call after 8pm, you are told that you are violating the reservation policy.  So today, while underway, we called Charlevoix, our destination of choice, and were told that they would not know until after 12 noon if they had any openings.  We called back at noon and were told they still didn't know.  A half hour later, all we got was a busy signal, so we opted for a different destination:  Petoskey. 

There was lots of room in Petoskey.  We pulled in to our slip in the marina and Ron checked the boat, which is routine.  He discovered fishing line around and under our dinghy and trailing all the way back to the entrance of our row of slips.  After closer examination, we got in the dinghy and collected all of the fishing line that was trailing our boat.  Ron then went under the boat (in 60 degree water), using a borrowed mask and breathing apparatus.  He was able to release the line which was wrapped around our propeller shaft.  What a mess!!  There was no apparent damage, but Ron had a real mess to clean up. 

 

 

 

After some discussion, we ended up at Lou's Pizza for dinner.  They had an unusual bar upstairs.  Instead of bar stools, they had swings.  Very unique.

Breakfast restaurant with cups and saucers in concrete around the door
 

Tomorrow we have reservations for Charlevoix, which is only a couple of hours away.

8/2/14 Mackinac Island

We took the Star Line ferry (which was close to the marina) to Mackinac Island.  It was very cool out, so we opted for an inside ride rather than topside.  These ferries take only about 10 minutes to get you to the island.  Ken and Ann took their bikes along.  There is an additional charge of $9.00 per bike.  If you rent bikes on the island, it costs $5.00 per hour.  Ordering your ferry tickets online gives you a $2.00 discount per ticket.  The regular price is $25.00. 

Once on the island, Ann and I sought out a coffee shop and we got tickets for the horse and buggy tour.  This turned out to be a very good way to see the highlights on the island.  The first half hour took us through downtown and up past the Grand Hotel.  We switched to a 3 horse wagon for the 45 minute tour through the state park to the fort.  We opted for the tour of the fort, too.  Our guide suggested that we have lunch at the restaurant at the fort overlooking the harbor.  That view was magnificent.

UPS?

 

 

 

Michigan former Governor's home

 

Ron and I toured all of the buildings while Ken and Ann toured some and then hopped on the horse drawn wagon again which took them back to town. 

We walked back down the hill to town and stopped by the marina.  We had hoped to move our boat tomorrow to this harbor, but they are full.  We walked through the waterfront neighborhood and enjoyed the Victorian architecture.

 

 

Lunch at the fort

 

 

 

 

Mackinac Island Yacht Club

 

 

After meeting Ken and Ann for a drink, we headed back for the 4 p.m. ferry ride to St. Ignace.

We ate at the Mackinac Grille and then returned to the marina where they had a Jimmy Buffet tribute band and fire works. 

The weather looks good for tomorrow, so we are going to Charlevoix, a 58 mile trip through the Mackinaw Straights and into Lake Michigan.

8/1/14 Detour to St. Ignace

Early to bed, early to rise
But we awoke to foggy skies!

And it was really foggy.  Outside temperature was 58 degrees.  We delayed our departure from 0700 to 0830 to allow the fog to lift.  That didn't happen. Visibility was about 1/8 of a mile.  At times we could see about 1/2 mile out and then it would become almost impossible to see beyond the front of the boat.  Our concern was the large number of vessels moving through Mackinaw Straights, including commercial vessels.  There was lots of chatter on the VHF about the fog.  The waters were dead calm.
Thank God for electronic charts, navigation software, AIS, and radar.  All were needed, along with the captain's expertise.  At 1139 the air temperature was 62 and the water temp was 60. 

We do not have an automatic fog horn, so we used our phone as a timer.  Every 2 minutes for 4 hours we blew the fog horn manually.  At 1236 the fog lifted and we had 2 mile visibility.  This occurred just as we approached the Round Island Passage just before Mackinac Island.  We were so grateful to have visibility in this busy harbor with pleasure craft, ferry boats and commercial vessels.   The day turned out to be beautiful:  sunny, warm and windless. 

Charis rounds the light
 



ferry
 

 

Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island

 

Houses on Mackinac Island

Light house
 

We pulled in to St. Ignace and stopped for fuel and the went on to our slip assignment.

We ate on the boat, but Ken and Ann went to the Mackinac Grille and said it was very good and very reasonably priced.

Tomorrow:  Mackinac Island