Sault Ste. Marie to Mackinaw City

Weather delays seem to be the name of the game as we continue on our way back to Muskegon.  Unrelenting winds lead to two full days of small craft advisories between Sault Ste. Marie and De Tour Village, our next stop.  Obviously these advisories do not deter the upbound and downbound freighter traffic transiting the Soo Locks – 17 vessels arrived on Monday, 16 on Tuesday.   Pearl Mist, a 210-passenger cruise ship and Lake Guardian, a Great Lakes monitoring and research vessel owned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, docked along the sea wall on Tuesday.




Boat traffic along the St. Marys River as seen from our slip in George Kemp Marina – the cruise ship Pearl Mist is docked along the sea wall forward of the stern of the museum ship Valley Camp  as a Canada Steamship Line freighter makes its way upbound to the nearby American Soo Lock.  In addition to Lazy W, there are two other boats in the marina flying the AGLCA burgee - Sandrobber and Act III.

 

We were relieved to wake up to gentle breezes rather than gusty winds and by 7:30 AM on a chilly August 24^th we were leaving Sault Ste. Marie behind.  As we left the marina we noticed that there was one upbound laker waiting to enter the American Soo Lock and one downbound waiting to exit the same lock.  For now, we would be comfortably ahead of that laker.  And as we traveled along the St. Marys River and through the rock cut at West Neebish Channel we were cruising at 10.9 knots!  Catch us if you can, downbound laker!

As we passed Paradise Point we noticed what appeared to be an abandoned freighter with a rusty wheelhouse close to the shore.  We both remembered seeing a freighter in this same spot as we transited this area last year and again last month.  We were curious as to what was going on over there at DeTour Dock Company and decided to investigate.

We arrived at DeTour Harbor Marina around lunch time.  After securing Lazy W in her slip we proceeded to the dock master’s office to register.  Frank inquired about the abandoned freighter and was told by the Michigan DNR personnel that while it may look like the same ship from our last visit it wasn’t!  It was a different freighter recently in for repairs at DeTour Dock Company.  I was not convinced and, after some online research, discovered that the Interlake Steamship Company’s John Sherwin has been out of service since 1981 and has been at DeTour for at least three years!!  So much for local knowledge…

The weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow night calls for patchy frost!?!?  This is summer in Upper Michigan!

Next stop - Cheboygan, the southern gateway to the Straits of Mackinac, was an important 19^th century lumber town on Lake Huron.  We docked at Walstrom Marine which was already operating under winter business hours!?!? 

Sculpture depicting Lake Huron at Cheboygan's Ottawa Park

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant - on Main Street In Cheboygan

 

A short fourteen-mile cruise northwest of Cheboygan brought us to Mackinaw City.  Its roots go back to the 1600’s when it was a French fur trading post and to the 1700’s when it was a British fortress.  Today it is a bustling summer resort serving as a gateway to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the ever popular Mackinac Island.  We hadn’t seen this many people in one place since we were docked in Milwaukee over two months ago!

The 136 slips of the Straits State Harbor Marina were occupied by less than a dozen boats when we arrived on Saturday morning.  Billed as Michigan’s most eco-friendly harbor, it features eight power-producing windmills that supposedly generate all the power needs of the marina.  The windmills are a good visual for finding this harbor entrance since our charts seem to have omitted this marina’s location. 

The Conkling Heritage Waterfront Park was hosting the Premier Arts and Crafts Show.  In addition to all manner of crafts in the mitten-shape of the state of Michigan (Petoskey stone pendants, cribbage boards, cutting boards, pillows and mirrors), there were authors whose works were “Written in the Mitten.”  Frank was disappointed that Michael Carrier was sold out of copies of his thriller Murder at Whitefish Point only because we had been to Whitefish Point.

On Saturday hundreds of Corvette enthusiasts and their cars congregated at the Mackinaw Crossings Mall for the 28^th Annual Corvette Crossroads Auto Show.  It was a delight to mingle among the shiny sports cars that spanned the years from the mid-1950’s to 2017.  The grand finale of the show was the 7 PM parade of Corvettes down Huron Street as the cars made their way to a mass crossing of the Mackinac Bridge.

Not only do I now want a Corvette to take to next year’s parade, I also want to practice my princess wave with one of these hands!

 

A wine tasting at Michigan Trails Wine Store and another at Mackinaw Island Wine Store plus a concert in Conkling Heritage Waterfront Park topped off a great weekend in Mackinaw City.

Wine and beer tasting at Mackinaw Island Wine Store

Dan Fogelberg Tribute Band performs in Conkling Park.  It was a chilly night and many in the crowd were bundled in their heaviest fleece as well as blankets!

 

Intimidating wave action forecast along our projected route west kept us in Mackinaw City for a third day.  If you have to weather a delay, Mackinaw City is not a bad place to be.  Hoping that the sun would reappear after a long absence, we donned our rain gear and headed off down Huron Street to Michilimackinac State Park.  Along the way, we were awed by the landlubber perspective of the Mackinac Bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac and connecting the two peninsulas of Michigan.  Millions of cars cross this bridge each year.  Pedestrians have an opportunity to walk across the five-mile bridge this Saturday during the 60^th Annual Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk.  Fifty-thousand people are expected to participate and preparations to deal with the crowd have already begun at Conkling Park as city workers erect what look like holding pens on the grassy lawn.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse was completed in 1892 to guide mariners through the treacherous Straits of Mackinac. Its flashing red light was visible for sixteen miles.  The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957 when it was replaced by the navigation aids atop the newly built Mackinac Bridge.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse at Michilimackinac State Park

 And who could pass up lunch at Wienerlicious!?!

Wienerlicious boasts a 60-foot 7-ton hot dog with all the fixings on its roof