The trip into Petoskey from Leland was pretty smooth. The water remained glassy, but it is getting a lot colder the further north we travel. Northern Michigan is under attack, by massive swarms of Midges. My Grandma used to call them lake flies. They are the size of those big black ants and they are a mess! They are covering everything and especially anything that is white, not the ideal color for a boat – who knew. They latch on and don’t really move. They fly in huge black clouds into the face, get into the mouth and nose, get stepped on, sat on, leaned on and squish into everything.
Michael has found a way to kind of move them off the boat without squishing them as they leave black/green stinky streaks when squished. Problem is there are just so many of them it’s impossible to get rid of them and ultimately they just move from one place to another.
After 4 days of cold and rainy weather while doing all the tourist things I missed last year while in Petoskey we headed out to Mackinaw City, to our next stop on the journey north. Mackinaw City is just across the Strait from Mackinac Island, where we stayed last season. Due to the distance we needed to travel and the incoming weather in Mackinaw City we planned to head out from Petoskey very early at sailor’s dawn (also called navigational dawn) – which is about 70 minutes before actual sunrise and is the first light where you can see to navigate instead of actual sunrise which is when the sun can be seen over the horizon. BUT, it was very foggy that morning so we were delayed a couple of hours before we could see out of the marina and just make out the land in the bay. So we took off, really how long could the fog actually last? Well, it lasted several hours and almost the whole 45 miles north. Good thing we have radar and now AIS (Automated Identification System) which identifies us to other ships; those who also have AIS and most importantly commercial ships so we can see where they are, which way they are traveling and at what speeds and they can see the same for us as well. It really makes it a lot easier when someone (coast guard, police, navy, other boats) hail us using our name rather than big white boat traveling in Lake Michigan, which is how the Navy hailed us in Norfolk before we got the AIS.
We finally got out of the fog within about 5 miles from the Mackinaw Bridge which made me very happy as I kind of like to see those things before I have to negotiate my way under/through them. We got docked just in time as the rain started again, we were in store for another few days of cold wet weather. We did however manage to get into the cute little tourist town of Mackinaw City with lots of local shops and a stop at the saloon for a lunch of the famous Michigan Pasty. A pasty is essentially a meat and potato hand pie in a thick crusty pastry. Michael thought it was okay except he felt the pastry part was pretty dense. I didn’t really care for the bite I had of his as it didn’t seem to have much flavor to me. I stuck to the pulled pork sandwich – you can never go wrong with smoked pig.
We also toured the USCG ship Icebreaker Mackinaw at The Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum which is located right here where we are docked. She is known as the “Queen of the Great Lakes” and “The Largest Icebreaker on the Great Lakes”. She was built as part of the WWII war effort to meet the heavy demands of war materials and transportation during the winter months through the Great Lakes. She was launched in March of 1944 at a cost of 10 million dollars. Due to her age and expensive upkeep she was decommissioned in 2006 and was replaced with a younger and smaller multipurpose vessel. Hmmmm, seems I have heard that story before? The tour was very interesting.
We were scheduled to head up about 20 miles past Mackinac Island tomorrow to an anchorage for the night, but as it would happen to us, our mail, which we paid extra for UPS to deliver today, didn’t. It’s supposed to be delivered tomorrow and depending on when/if it gets here we may scoot up to the anchorage anyway. The weather is supposed to be a lot better than the past week and there is even report of some sunshine and warmth next week.
Thanks for following along and keep checking back with us. Love to all, Gina and Mike
