We spent a couple of nights at anchor in the North Channel where Darrell and Bob did some fishing again. We had another nice dinner of great small mouth bass.
At this anchorage, which was our last night there, Beth and I had picked out 3 possible anchorages. The guys chose this last one. However, when we got there, we found it was VERY small....first the entrance to it was barely visible, and then it was only about 20 feet wide. Our boats are 14 feet wide. Holding our breaths though, we made it in. The book had assurred us that once we were in though, it was plenty deep with plenty of room. Well, not exactly....it was deep enough in the middle but the whole space was only about 100 feet by 300 feet.
The first picture shows Bob stringing a line to one shore which he tied to a tree.
This is a line to the other shore...with storms forecast, we didn't want to swing too much. Rather, we didn't have any room to swing !
This shows the entrance....leaving in the morning, we again held our breaths.
Before leaving though, the anchors had to be raised. Beth here looks like she's wondering what to do about the stuff on the anchor...and this was after they got most of the stuff off by dropping it down again !
She looks a little more relieved here !!! Bob and Darrell said that this anchorage will forevermore be known as "Beth and Margaret's anchorage"..
Here we pass a cottage within the US border near Drummond Island where we cleared customs...
This is a picture of Drummond Island Yacht Club where the Customs officers are located. We had to wait a little while because they didn't come on duty until noon, but once they came, we were cleared in just a few minutes.
Although we started our "loop" in Superior, we actually closed our loop when we crossed the St. Mary's River. This is about where the Coast Guard stopped us last year. This cruise ship was docked here now.
And, because we were so close, we went up to where this boat was on shore to see if any more work had been done on it since we saw it last....We think the entrepreneurs ran out of steam. It was supposed to be a Bed and Breakfast...
To celebrate, we bought some steaks and had Darrell and Beth over for dinner, including champagne of course. This is Bob and Darrell cooking---it was windy. Bob is in charge of the meat and Darrell is holding the umbrella.
Leaving the DeTour Marina the next day, we headed out into Lake Huron with the destination of Mackinaw City Marina.
The first lighthouse is the DeTour LH--I don't think I was able to get a picture of it last year as the water was pretty rough as I recall. Today it was very calm.
As we neared our destination, we passed Mackinac Island. This is a picture from a distance.
This lighthouse is at the entrance to the Mackinac Island harbor.
And of course, the Grand Hotel !!!
Across from Mackinac Island is Round Island which has its lighthouse too.
This is a view of the fort there on the Island. We have been there a couple of times so we didn't go there this time.
Our first sight of lakers...with a view of the Mackinac Bridge. It celebrated its 50th birthday this year.
We enjoyed Mackinaw City...it has a nice waterfront and the downtown is filled with shops and restaurants. Returning to Michigan, of course we had to get some pasties again !
Leaving, we had this wonderful view of the Mackinac Bridge.
From here we plan to go to Charlevoix (it turned out to be Leland), then Frankfort, MI. From there, we will cross Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay where we will leave the boat. Home soon !
