Petoskey to Muskegon

We left Mackinaw City under less than ideal weather conditions but conditions on the Straits of Mackinac were beautifully calm.  We could not complain at all about the cruise to Petoskey on Little Traverse Bay.  Upon our arrival at the marina, the sun was shining making it a perfect day to explore downtown Petoskey.  The Crooked Tree Arts Center, housed in a former church originally constructed in 1890, was exhibiting a large collection of photographs by Ansel Adams.

 

 

Downtown Petoskey is a pretty vibrant town with lots of shopping, restaurants, coffee shops and pubs to choose from.  Frank chose Beards Brewery and enjoyed the beer sampling there but passed up the opportunity to buy some gnarly-looking yarn beards in the gift shop.

We originally planned to spend just one day in Petoskey but then we learned about Little Traverse Wheelway, a 26-mile paved trail that connects the towns of Harbor Springs, Petoskey and Charlevoix.  On day two we hopped on the bikes and pedaled ten miles to Harbor Springs where the big boats dock at the Municipal Marina.

 

It was hard to miss the 196-foot yacht Blue Moon available for charter at $395,000 a week (yes, a week) plus expenses!  She boasts six luxurious staterooms, two gyms, several dining areas and a glass elevator.  For playtime fun – two tenders (one classic 28-foot Riva and one 25-foot Chris Craft), three kayaks, two WaveRunners, paddleboards, fishing and snorkeling gear, water skis, etc.  And a crew of 15 to cater to your every need.

After ogling the boats and wandering through downtown Harbor Springs we headed back to Petoskey and our tiny 43-foot yacht.  As we neared the marina we spied this little waterfall along the Wheelway.

The NOAA forecasts for Lake Michigan over the Labor Day weekend were quite ominous with waves approaching eight feet!  It was time for us to make our move further south before the lake turned ugly. 

Approaching Charlevoix Bridge Street Bridge across the Pine River

 My all-time favorite stop on Lake Michigan is Charlevoix.  It is an easy 18-mile cruise west of Petoskey through Little Traverse Bay - especially when the weather cooperates!  We tried to plan our arrival for 11:30 in order to make the opening of the Bridge Street Bridge.  As we got closer to Charlevoix we realized that we might miss the opening by mere minutes and, if that was the case, we would be idling in the Pine River waiting for the noon time opening. That obviously did not appeal to the Captain - he really pushed Lazy W to her limits during the last ten minutes of the cruise and the bridge began to open just as we made our approach. Lucky us!

 

Early morning along Lake Charlevoix

Charlevoix is a popular destination for both boaters and tourists – its population increases from 2,500 to 30,000 in the summer.  The municipal marina was booked for Labor Day weekend and we could only stay Thursday night.  There would be time to browse the farmer’s market where I finally found the best tomatoes of the summer and to reprovision at the grocery store but no time for a walking tour of the unique hobbit-like homes that make Charlevoix so special to visit.  But since we have toured these homes on both our previous visits, I can’t complain too loudly.

Leaving Charlevoix

Early morning September 1^st we were back on the lake heading to Leland Harbor on the Leelanau Peninsula.   Our last visit here was fifteen years ago and while the marina has been revamped the town of Leland looks pretty much the same as I remember it. 

Leland River

Along the Leland River is historic Fishtown, one of the last working and thriving fishing districts on the Great Lakes. Some of the old ice and fish shanties have been converted into restaurants and specialty gift shops. We did the requisite browsing before finding the Verterra Winery Tasting Room.  In less than an hour in town we had, as Frank says, “used this place up.”  Luckily we had one more day of decent cruising weather ahead of us before the front moves through that will put the brakes on any cruising for up to four days.  Even the dockmaster at Leland Harbor said that Leland is not the place to have to spend four days weathering the coming wind storm!

Saturday morning we were on the move just as the sun was coming up in Leland.  The NOAA forecast wasn’t calling for a great day on Lake Michigan (late morning waves less than 2 feet) but these fair weather boaters decided it was nothing we couldn’t handle since we would be to Frankfort before the waves kicked up.  WRONG! 

As we rounded Sleeping Bear Point and the massive dunes of Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore came into view, the waves began to pummel Lazy W’s bow and continued to pummel us for the remainder of the cruise to Frankfort!  We looked at each other in disbelief as we bucked our way through wave after wave after wave.  We were relieved to finally espy the beacons marking the entrance to Frankfort but angst set in as we saw the waves crashing over the breakwall.  Things calmed down as we proceeded down Betsie Lake to our slip at the municipal marina.  September 2^nd gets the award for most unpleasant cruise of the season and the NOAA forecast gets the award for most misleading of the season!

 

Having weathered a storm in Frankfort years ago, we knew that the municipal marina is not the calmest port in windy conditions.  The waves come barreling off Lake Michigan and directly down Lake Betsie where the boats are docked with their bows perpendicular to the shore, perfectly positioned to rock side to side in even the slightest breeze. So we spent an inordinate amount of time securing Lazy W at the dock and hoped we would not have to make too many adjustments to lines and fenders over the next few days.  (The Captain really doesn’t like getting up in the dark to make those adjustments!)

By 3:30 we had calmed down enough to head over to Villa Marine, a sports bar on Main Street, to catch the kickoff of the University of Michigan opening football game of the season.  After a somewhat sloppy start, Michigan got its act together and beat Florida 33-17.  The day wasn’t a complete flop after all!

Rainbow over Betsie Lake - day four in Frankfort waiting for calmer conditions on Lake Michigan

 

Years ago when we embarked on the Great Loop aboard our Mainship Sea Venture, a common belief was that boaters should aim to be off Lake Michigan by Labor Day.  Many boaters attributed this to the “myth” that the lake was unpredictable and prone to wind storms for much of the months of September and October.  Well, we are here to tell you that the myth has become a reality!  We are tired of reading warnings such as this posted for the lake from Frankfort to Ludington, our next stop -Northwest winds of 10 to 20 knots will hold waves at 3 to 5 feet through late this evening.  This is not what fair weather boaters want to see!  (In fairness to the lake, much of this is due to the remnants of Hurricane Harvey.)

It looks so pretty out there on Lake Michigan...

...or maybe not!

 

While we were griping about the weather that kept us in Frankfort for the past six days, we received an email from John and Karen Siscoe.  It contained a link to a very recent news article concerning the Apostle Islands where we anchored off Rocky Island last month and it made us realize that we really had very little to complain about!  Here is a portion of the article from the Duluth News Tribune:

 

OUT OF NOWHERE:  Furious winds, waves ground several vessels in the Apostle Islands

By Brady Slater on September 6, 2017

Harrowing overnight waves and winds late Sunday into Monday left several boats beached, grounded and even partially sunk in the outer Apostle Islands, where storm conditions persisted into the next day and even thwarted some of the salvage effort.  

No one was injured, but Capt. Tucker Culberson of Black Warrior Marine / TowBoat U.S. in Bayfield said he was taking another 25-mile jaunt Wednesday to retrieve the last of eight boats marooned following a period of reported 6- to 8-foot Lake Superior waves that sprung up at the start of Monday’s Labor Day holiday.

Several boats had been anchored peacefully on the eastern sides of the islands’ outer rim of Sand, Rocky and Outer islands on Sunday. A westerly breeze was keeping them company, Culberson said, when conditions drastically changed.

“Two storms blew everyone apart,” Culberson said. “They came through as a really big windline and when it shifted north-northeast that was the problem.”

Chris Smith, chief ranger of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, said the intensity of the storms was sudden and unexpected.  “It’s the nature of the beast sometimes with Lake Superior,” he said. “These squalls seemingly came out of nowhere.”  

Boats dragged anchor as winds blew the private vessels onto beaches, rocks and into thickets of trees overhanging the waters of Lake Superior. Winds were reportedly up to 35 mph within the island chain and up to twice as fast out on the lake, enough to stir the waters into a boat-shoving frenzy.  

_______________________________________



After a full week at the dock in Frankfort, Lake Michigan finally settled down and we were on our way to Ludington.  The water was pleasantly calm for the entire 50-mile cruise – what a relief!

 

 

S.S. Badger arrives in Ludingon



 

The S.S. Badger is a passenger/car ferry that make 450 crossings of Lake Michigan per season between Ludington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  Built in 1953 for the primary purpose of transporting railroad freight cars across the lake, the Badger is the only coal-fired steamship in operation in the United States.  In 1991, the Badger was repurposed and ever since she has been ferrying leisure passengers and their vehicles sixty miles across the lake in four hours (twice as fast as Lazy W).  She is 410 feet long and can carry 600 passengers and up to 180 vehicles; each of her two anchors weighs 7,000 pounds; her propulsion system has been designated a mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  In 2016, the Department of the Interior designated the ferry a National Historic Landmark.  It is always an awesome sight to watch the Badger enter the harbor in Ludington, noisily drop anchor and then pivot around to the dock.

 

I was anxious to make Muskegon before any other bad weather got Lake Michigan riled up again, so we left the dock the next morning.  The start of the cruise was smooth going but the waves picked up some as we passed Little Sable Point.  Luckily the waves were nothing like what we experienced heading to Frankfort and our final cruise of the season was quite comfortable.

 

A stoic Captain at the helm for the last cruise of the season

 

Approaching Muskegon

We are now safely docked at Great Lakes Marina.  Along with reminiscing about the great summer we had on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, we are busy prepping Lazy W FOR SALE!  One of the crew is happier about this than the other and I am sure you can guess who is who…

 

Sunset over Lake Michigan at Frankfort
 

 

 

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

 

Lake Superior - eastbound

 

Duluth is the westernmost point on Lake Superior and the turn-around point on our cruise of the lake.  Howling wind and a constant rain kept us at the dock on Thursday – it was a cold day as well, with a wind-chill of 49⁰ on August 3^rd!!!  Wanting to give the waves on the big lake ample time to settle down from that storm, we did not venture out on Friday either. 

Saturday proved to be a great travel day.  It was time to start retracing  our route back to Sault Ste. Marie. As we were ready to exit through  the Superior entry at 6:30AM, we were greeted by the freighter CSL Assinboine making its way to the Superior ore docks.  Good morning, Assinboine!!

 

Nine l-o-o-n-g hours and 75 miles later, we dropped the hook off the beach at Big Bay on Madeline Island.  This was our longest cruising day of the season.  (One big drawback of cruising on Lake Superior is the long distances between safe harbors/anchorages.  In a slow boat like Lazy W it makes us very aware of weather, wind and wave conditions on the lake. We must pick our travel days carefully.)  After dining al fresco, we were rewarded with a sighting of a bald eagle soaring overhead and the call of the loons out on the lake.

We made a return trip to Madeline Island Yacht Club to feed and water Lazy W and then cruised across the channel to a slip at Bayfield’s Apostle Island Marina.  Out on the water there were dozens of sailboats taking advantage of the breezy day and the Madeline Island ferries were busy shuttling funseekers between the docks of La Pointe and Bayfield.

Barfield, Wisconsin

The Chicago Tribune once dubbed Bayfield “Best Little Town in the Midwest.”  It is the smallest incorporated city in the state of Wisconsin with a year-round population of 487 and a total area of just one square mile.  Rittenhouse Avenue is lined with shops selling locally crafted art, jewelry and clothing and on Sunday afternoon there were plenty of tourists perusing the wares and noshing at the restaurants and pubs.

Frank enjoying happy hour at a rooftop bar in Bayfield

Docked next to us in Bayfield was a sailboat belonging to a sailing club from Hamburg, Germany.  A new crew was boarding for a sail along the northern shore of Lake Superior.  From there their plan was to sail south as far as Chicago before heading back north to winter in Toronto.

We left Bayfield early on August 7^th.  The only other activity on the water at that time was the Madeline Island ferry making its first crossing of the day.  Sixty-six miles and eight hours later we arrived at the entrance to Ontonagon and had our first rare boat sighting of the cruise - a small fishing boat!  We saw more loons than boats today!  Lake Superior is a lonely, lonely lake for cruising.

The marina in Ontonagon was even less busy than it had been on our westbound stop.  Then we had shared the dock with Jill and Howie from Minneapolis on their sailboat Liberty.  Now it was just Lazy W amid the small deserted local boats on the muddy Ontonagon River.  Though it was just 4PM when we arrived, the dockmaster had gone home for the day.  Not much happening here.  And yet we wound up staying another day due to swelling waves out on Lake Superior.

We felt obliged to walk into downtown Ontonagon just to see the Ontonagon County Historical Museum on River Street.  I would not call this small blue building a museum.  I wouldn’t even call it an antique shop.  It was more of a mishmash of old stuff scrounged from grandma’s attic and old churches along with display cases filled with polished agates. The historical significance (if any) of these items was not detailed.  The item most associated with Ontonagon history – the replica of a three-ton boulder of pure copper discovered upstream in the river - was tucked unobtrusively in the rear of the museum among old mining implements and snow shoes.  If you want to see the real Ontonagon copper boulder you will have to go to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

Replica of the Ontonagon Boulder

We were quite excited to see another cruiser enter the Ontonagon River and dock in the marina near us!  Unfortunately, we did not get to chat with them much since they arrived in a rainstorm and we left for Houghton early the following morning.

We were back in Houghton on August 9^th after an incredibly smooth  5.5- hour cruise.  Again, it was a lonely cruise with just two small fishing boats out near Ontonagon and one out at the entrance to the Keweenaw Waterway. 

Michigan Tech's Ranger III cruises under the Portage Lake Lift Bridge.  Notice how the ship and the bridge are color-
coordinated!

Weather-related delays kept us in Houghton at the city wall for two more days.  Needing to get off the boat, we decided to take a shopping trip to Walmart.  The city of Houghton website listed the schedule for the downtown shuttle which had a conveniently located stop just a few blocks from the dock wall.  We trudged through the rain and waited patiently at the shuttle stop at the Lode Theater Building.  We watched as the long-overdue shuttle passed us by!  A call to the transit office informed us that the shuttle route had changed and there had not been a stop at the Lode for “quite sometime.”  HELLO?  Wouldn’t you think the schedule on the website should reflect that change????  Undaunted, we trudged to the nearest designated stop (according to the transit office) and again waited somewhat patiently for the shuttle that NEVER CAME!  There would be no shopping trip today…

Back at the boat, we hunkered down to wait out the rain.  By late afternoon, the skies started to clear and brighten.  The event calendar on the city of Houghton website listed Bald Squeezebox was to perform at 7PM at the Ray Kestner Waterfront Park as part of the Summer Concert Series.  Who could pass that up, especially if you had been stuck inside all day?  After dinner, we grabbed some beach chairs and strolled down the waterfront looking for some musical entertainment.  Alas, the city of Houghton failed us again – the band stand was deserted, no performers, no spectators.

Don’t get me wrong - Houghton wasn’t all bad.  We enjoyed a nice Italian dinner at the Ambassador, savored the breakfast pasty at Roy’s Bakery and Pasty Shop, and picked up some bargain bottles of wine at Michigan Made (although the Italian and Australian wines we bought were clearly not made in Michigan!)

Passing one of the Huron Islands on the way to Big Bay

 

Saturday was finally a gorgeous day for cruising back to Big Bay where we were warmly greeted by Bob and Pam, the harbor hosts.  They reported that the dock here was filled for the last three days as boaters everywhere on Lake Superior waited out the wind and waves.

Then it was back to Marquette’s Cinder Pond Marina after another perfect cruising day.  We hadn’t had the chance to pedal the lakeshore bike path on our initial stop here, so Sunday afternoon we pedaled off to Presque Isle Park.  It was dry and sunny all the way there – not so all the way back!

Lake Superior from Presque Isle Park

Our reward for spending the day checking off needed boat chores, reprovisioning and doing laundry was dinner at Portside Inn.  I finally got a taste of Lake Superior whitefish and it was good.  Now on to Munising before the weather turns on us again.

The forecast for Tuesday, August 15^th called for light variable winds with waves of less than one foot – a perfect cruising day.  WRONG! SO WRONG!  It was a rockin’ and a rollin’  ride with gusty winds from the north - just the right direction for waves smacking us square on our port side.  After two hours we had cleared Laughing Fish Point and we were definitely not laughing!  After another two hours we had made it to a slip at Munising’s Bayshore Marina.  Eddie greeted us and delivered the package of oil sample testers that Frank ordered last week.  

New docks being installed at Bayshore Marina in Munising.  Eddie is not so sure these new docks will survive the ice flowing into the bay next spring!

Some big changes had occurred at the marina since we were here just one month ago.  The seawall expansion was completed and new floating docks were being installed.  The weather had not changed much though – it was still windy and chilly!

The pavilion in Munising with the Community Bread Oven to the right

Tuesday is Farmer’s Market day in Munising and the tomatoes have finally ripened in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula!  The evening Summer Concert featured the band Reality Bites playing music from the 90’s.  Next to the pavilion where the concert was held is a large free-standing stone oven (The Community Bread Oven) and the Cooking Carberrys were doing a lot of business selling wood-fired pizzas as a fundraiser for the local high school girls volleyball team.

Lake Superior just didn’t want to let Lazy W out of its grip.  The weather turned nasty and nastier as the week went by.  Thursday the rain came and on Friday the wind was howling at  over 25 MPH with gusts up to 35 MPH.  The lake was stirred up and the NOAA forecast was calling for waves ranging as high as 12 feet!  We were not going anywhere!

So what does one do when stuck in Munising for four days?  Of course, the Captain always has boat maintenance chores to do, so he did some boat waxing and changed transmission fluid. We watched and critiqued the ongoing work on the $2-million dollar marina expansion; we watched the seemingly never-ending long lines of tourists boarding the excursion boats heading to Pictured Rocks in all but the worst of the weather on Friday; we attempted to have brunch at the nearby Navigator Restaurant before giving up (who knew that an order of pancakes and a grilled cheese sandwich could take more than 40 minutes to arrive? The help wanted sign posted on the entrance door indicated that a cook was needed. Definitely needed!); we perused the books and had ice cream at Falling Rock Café; and we checked and checked and checked the weather forecast for the eastern stretch of Lake Superior.  Saturday was looking like a travel day at last.

 

Don’t get me wrong – Munising is a pretty nice place to hole up in bad weather.  But we needed to get a move on.  Saturday we finally left the dock and turned east toward Grand Marais.  It was a beautiful morning to get underway.

Abandoned lighthouse on Grand Island

Approaching the dunes at Grand Sable

Shortly after 1PM we were tied up at the dock in Grand Marais.  John, the harbormaster, remembered us from our last stop here with Alan and Patti – he had been unsuccessful at collecting our dockage fee from that visit because he came to collect while we were off the boat drinking in one of the two local pubs.  He only charged us for tonight’s dockage. 

 

Located just a short stroll from the docks are two pubs – the Dunes Saloon Lake Superior  Brewing Company  and Grand Marais Tavern.  We stopped at Dunes for a quick drink and then headed over to the tavern for a cudighi sausage pizza.  Neither place disappointed us!  Then back to Lazy W for another relaxing evening onboard.  Unlike our last visit here, there were plenty of late night partiers on the beach and, after much partying, they shot off some fireworks. 

Early Sunday morning we were back on the water headed east for Whitefish Point.  Lake Superior was remarkably calm until we neared our destination.  Much to my dismay, a small craft advisory had been posted for the area beginning at 7 PM.  The lake was already beginning to churn up at noon.  Maneuvering through the entrance to Whitefish Point Harbor is tricky in the best of weather – shallow water across its face forces you first to hug the boulder-strewn northern seawall which then turns to port at a menacingly sharp angle and then turn to starboard to hug that wall before arriving at the barebones wooden slips.  Phew, the Captain kept his cool as we skidded into the harbor and the Admiral snagged a dock cleat on the first attempt!

Whitefish Point Harbor

 

We were not alone on the big lake today – we observed three westbound lakers. Two were way off on the horizon but the third appeared to be perilously close to shore just off Whitefish Point.

 



The Captain on the Whitefish Point seawall – it’s all fun and games NOW!  In a few more hours the wave action was such that the waves were breaking over the seawall.

 

By the time we awoke on the morning of August 21^st Lake Superior was looking serene.  We were on our way by 7AM bound and determined to be secured in a slip at Kemp Marina in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan by noon. There was a partial solar eclipse to be viewed between 1PM and 3:37PM!

Along the St. Mary's River

Smooth sailing the entire cruise through Whitefish Bay!  We surmised that the American locks at Sault Ste. Marie had to be busy this morning as we passed several upbound freighters on the bay and on the St. Marys River.

Entrance to Canadian Soo Lock

We decided to go downbound through the Canadian Lock rather than with the big boys waiting at the American Locks.  As we approached the lock entrance we were informed that we would be sharing the experience with Le Voyageur, one of the Soo Locks Tour Boats.

Lazy W was told to exit the lock before Le Voyageur and the tourists on board got to ooh and aah over our “big, pretty boat.”  The George Kemp Marina sits within a few hundred yards of the Canadian Lock on the Michigan side of the St. Marys River.  We were there in no time.   Nick, the dockhand, fueled us up, pumped us out, and directed us to our assigned slip.  It was just after noon – mission accomplished! 

Now we could get set for watching the solar eclipse.  Frank had crafted a dandy camera obscura for our safe viewing. And he was pretty proud of his contraption until our buddy Jim emailed us pictures of his much classier camera obscura.  Here are the results - four years of engineering studies at SUNY Maritime and this is what the boys made!

 

 

 

As the time for the much anticipated partial solar eclipse approached, we took a moment to toast the completion of our Lake Superior cruise.  (Yes, it was an early start to happy hour!) It was forty days ago that we departed on that adventure from this very slip at George Kemp Marina with Alan and Patti onboard.  The cruise covered 893 nautical miles (1,026 statute miles).  We experienced only three days of weather-related delays westbound but eight on our return trip east.  To another item crossed off the bucket list – CHEERS!

For weeks there was plenty of hype over the North American solar eclipse but here in Sault Ste. Marie it was a pretty disappointing non-event.  Peering intently through our camera obscura, we kinda sorta convinced ourselves that the moon was taking a very tiny nibble out of the upper right portion of the sun.  Oh well, maybe we’ll catch the next one!  J