Friday, August 25 - Charleviox

Friday, August 25 - Charleviox

We had been looking forward to Charleviox since John and Karen, our Florida cruising buddies, talked about it last winter.  And FINALLY the weather cooperated and we could head out to see it.   Craig, the ice maker repair guy, made his third and last trip to our boat, we got gas and pumped out, and were on our way. 

The water was very calm for the first time in almost a week.  Great for cruising.  Not so great - the temperature was 61, so we wore jackets and covered our legs with the UGA throw Jeannie made for us.  I even put on socks.  Finally I wised up and zipped up every window except Danny’s.  Better, but we were still cold.

The clouds were pretty, but that’s about the only thing we could see on our trip.  We were pretty far off shore most of the day. 

We did pass one cargo ship and a couple of lighthouses, but nothing else scenic. 

The eastern shore of Lake Michigan is famous for its dunes.  This is the first one we passed, the really tall ones will come tomorrow.

Our first view of Charleviox was the Beaver Island Ferry.  A fellow Looper had suggested we not enter the harbor for the 2:30 bridge opening because the ferry was big and fast, and the channel was narrow.  The picture was taken at 2:36, too late for the 2:00 bridge opening, but just right for missing the ferry.

Charlevioux has beaches!  Very pretty ones, too.  Not many people were in the water, just a few kids.  And I’ll bet their lips were blue.

This wonderful old boat passed us as we were idling, waiting for the 3:00 bridge opening.  We found out later that Mr Winn of FourWinns Boats lives in Charleviox and has a vintage boat collection.  Wonder if this one was his.  (We found out later from fellow Loopers that it was.)

Charleviox did not disappoint!  These yards were the first thing we saw in Round Lake (Charleviox).  I want their gardener.   (And the money to pay him.)

We signed in, then took the bikes to visit Karen at her shop, Petals.  (Danny would want me to say that I fell off my bicycle on the way.  It was just a little fall.)  I asked her to model so I could get a picture of her hair style.  I am going for a more girly-girl hair style on this trip.  

Had it been any night except Friday, we would have tried to talk Karen and John into joining us for dinner.  BUT B, Karen’s brother, was smoking brisket for “Friday Night at B’s Lounge” and we couldn’t ask them to miss that.  We had been invited to B’s when we were at their house two weeks ago, and we know how special those dinners are!  We said good-bye, and hope that we will see them on their way to or from Florida next winter.

It had been several weeks since we really bought groceries.  Most of the stores had been so small we only bought absolute necessities.  Olson’s Farm Fresh Market was a real store!  Complete with wine, beer, and liquor.  We bought enough to fill our folding red wagon that Jennifer gave us completely full, then headed back to the boat to find places to store it all.

As we got back to the dock, I took this picture of a boat headed toward us.  When we came back up from putting away groceries it was anchored at the end of our dock.  Of course we had to go check it out and take pictures.  It was a 1935, 85-foot Trumpy “Houseboat” now fractionally owned.

These are the only pictures I took of Charlevioux.  I must be slipping.

Thursday, August 24 - Picking Up the Blog

Thursday, August 24 - Picking Up the Blog

Since I am so far behind in my posts, I’m going to make a new start, will go back and fill in later.  At least that’s my intention.  The last post was a couple of days before Mom died, and I’ve been in a holding pattern since then.  Here goes.

We are still in Mackinac City, waiting for calm water and an ice maker repair.  This marina has over one hundred slips and we never saw more than eight boats there.  The young lady in the office said it was toward the end of their season.

This ornate wood stove was in the restaurant we chose for breakfast.  Of course 

Danny loved it - the breakfast buffet and the store. 

On an earlier exploration, we had passed the lighthouse and shipwreck museum, so we decided to brave the cold weather and tour it while we were out.

There were three buildings restored to their 1910 appearance.

The main building held the lighthouse itself and two apartments, one for the lighthouse keeper and his family and one for the assistant. It was restored beautifully. 

The lighthouse itself was narrow and not terribly tall.  The view was  impressive, but we were so crowded it was hard to get good pictures.

The station had a fog signal as well as a lighthouse.  It was housed in a separate building, which was moved once because the sound was too loud in the keeper’s quarters.

The Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum had models of several of the ships that were lost, both as they looked new and as they look now on the bottom of the straits.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Since it was very cool outside, potato soup hit the spot for dinner.  Who knew dry soup mix could be so good?  Rotel makes everything better.

Tuesday, August 8 - Back in the US!

Tuesday, August 8 - Back in the US!

We pulled out of Meldrum Bay about 9:00.  We are still amazed at the clarity of the water. 

This is the inn and restaurant where we at last night, we got a better view from the water as we headed into the North Channel for the last time.

We had lots of open water, about 3 hours worth, but the waves were not nearly as rough as yesterday.

We finally passed the western end of Manitoulin Island, the largest fresh water island in the world.  Manitoulin Island began at Little Current, and we were there a week and one day ago!  We have been taking our time, but it’s still a big island! 

Back in the USA!  The border zig-zags quite a bit, but thanks to GPS we could tell exactly when we crossed it. 

Drummond Island is the US Customs entry point for most boaters doing the Loop.  To get there, we cruised through Potagannissing Bay and saw real houses! 

This is Drummond Bay Marina.  Kind of small.  That is Deb and Gil’s boat, with John from Jo-Ella standing by to help with ropes.  

The Customs lady was very nice, checking in was a breeze.  And the lending library had two Diana Gabaldon books.  Score!

Steve on Sanctuary was at the marina, too, parked in front of quite a nice boat!  

As the boat was pulling up, the Customs lady told us it was one of about 5 yachts that came every year.  This one is the Daddy’s boat, the “small” ones (about 80 feet long) belong to each of the children.  Steve told us that this was the family that owns Amway.  That’s a lot of cleaning products!  We looked up Seaquest, Daddy’s boat, and it is 163.09 feet long.  We saw four crew members lined up along the rail, I’m sure there were more at work stations.  WOW!!!

Our plan was to check in at Customs and then take off before they discovered Deb’s tomato and basil plants!  Harbor Island was just a mile or so away and showed good coverage, so that’s where we headed.  There was one other cruiser there, and several fishing boats passed through. 

After a few brief rain showers, we took the dinghies and checked out the area.  The adjoining cove was beautiful, we turned off the motors and just sat there enjoying the silence and the scenery. 

As we approached our boat, a pontoon boat pulled up to the shore and aa dad, a kid, and a dog got off the play on the rope swing.  I couldn’t get a good picture of them, but here is the swing.

After we called our dear friend, Jim Wansley, to wish him a happy ___th birthday, we sat back to enjoy the night sky.