Weeds + Mackinaw City, Not Mackinac Island

Days on cruise:  129

Distance traveled:  28.7 miles

Travel time:  3 hrs, 48 mins

Total trip odometer:  2,834

We started out slowly this morning, pulling the anchor  about 9:00 which afforded 4 hours to cover 20 miles to Mackinac Island.  Our plan was to pass through the winding channels of the Les Cheneaux Islands and view all the wooden Chris Craft vessels for which the area is famous.

What we learned is that we should have done this tour in our dinghy instead of Next To Me.

Given the very shallow water, we had to travel quite a bit offshore, so most of the boats were too far away to see well. We also found the shallow water had lots of milfoil, so we spent a fair amount of time stopping, reversing the engines to get the weeds off the props, then moving on.

After leaving the Les Cheneaux Islands, we headed for our marina at Mackinac Island 15 miles away. The wind and waves came up and produced 3’ to 4’ seas which were not a problem, but neither were they fun.  When we were one mile off the marina and busy attaching dock lines and fenders, Bob pulled up the marina reservation on the Ipad and . . . .   discovered the reservation was for Mackinaw City Marina six miles further on.  Oops!

Interestingly the two different spellings are pronounced the same:  Mack-in-aw (just like the wool).

Mackinac Island is served by fast ferries from Mackinaw City, as shown in the photo. We’ll take one of these in the morning to visit the island.

There are lots of attractive lighthouses here on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.  As folks from the Northwest, we associate lighthouses with salt water, not lakes!

We spent the afternoon walking around Mackinaw City. It’s a pleasant place, but mainly serves as a jumping off spot for those visiting Mackinac Island.

It’s now late Monday evening, after dinner, and we’re sitting on the sundeck with a glass of wine watching the lightning and listening to thunder and rain. Hopefully tomorrow’s forecast for sunshine will come to pass, as our plans for the day won’t be nearly so much fun in a thunderstorm.