Friday, August 28, 2009

Pictures: St. Ignace to Frankfort, MI



St. Ignace Harbor at sunset. This is a very nice stop along the Great Loop, grocery, post office, restaurants, etc.






Approaching the Mackinaw Bridge after leaving St. Ignace Harbor.





This bridge is really remarkable!! The Mackinaw Bridge is among the longest suspension bridges built.





This newer Grand Banks 47 passed us as he cruised north. We do not go that fast!



Saturday, August 22, 2009

New boat decor!!!!



Sierra's stained glass decor brightens up our saloon..(along with Rosie's bucket!)

Finally!!

We finally found a day to get out of town! Started out just a little lumpy, and progressed to bumpy, but we're here in beautiful downtown Saint Ignace, Michigan. Made a grocery store hit up a too high hill ...... down was much easier. We're hoping to be able to move on tomorrow, but the weather liar isn't too encouraging.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A Quick U-Turn!

The weather liar is at it again.... seas supposed to be one foot or less, for our first foray out into Lake Huron on our way to Mackinac. Turned out to be at least 3 feet, and on the nose. We were taking water over the flybridge. After five miles of that, we got smart, and came back. Of course, the ride back was a following sea, and not too bad. When we got back, a nice man named Ron from the Vessel Solitaire showed us a more protected and scenic route to try. Today we're glad we're back inside the marina!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

North Channel Views


Anchorage- dawn behind John's Island, North Channel.










Lighthouse at the entrance to Little Current.




Collins Inlet- beautiful winding passage









Rock wall along the Collins Inlet carved by glaciers in the ice age, and looks like a waterfall today.




Rocks meant to show the way.









There are many rock formations built to show the way-- (see above!) This one looks more like "Howdy, have a seat!"

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Back in the US of A

Had a great ride from behind John's Island Anchorage to Drummond, MI and cleared customs. Then went to DeTour Harbor in Michigan. Getting mail and regrouping here. Much more to follow!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Byng Inlet to Killarney

The weather gods were good to us, and our mostly outside run was calm and lovely. (OK-- it got less so toward the end--- but all in all, pretty terrific!) Killarney is on the "highway" to the North Channel which we will enter tomorrow. We spent the weekend here watching boats. There is no Wi-Fi here, and the air card is very slow, so no pictures for this post. Scenery is magnificent, and will post pictures as soon as I can.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Midland to Byng Inlet

After leaving Port Severn we cruised to Midland, Ontario. This mural welcomes boaters on their way into the town docks. We did some provisioning, boat and fender cleaning, and a ton of laundry.








Henry's Restaurant is only accessible by boat or float plane. I guess that is what gives it it's cache, because the food is ordinary. (But HUGE portions.)





Arriving by airplane for dinner at Henry's.









Our boat at Henry's dock. (We're the lovely one on the far left.)





Narrow channel along the waterway. This is common up here--- that's the only way through the rocks. Gets your heart going!






The lighthouse at Pointe au Baril.







The barrel means that the channel is clear for passage. (I believe that "baril" is French for barrel.) These were early channel markers.




After all of this lovely scenery, we decided to anchor for the night in Sandy Bay. We tried a few different nooks, and crannies, and then decided to go farther back into the Bay, and anchor back there. I bet you guessed it again.... the only possible wind direction that would make us uncomfortable was west, and west it was! We rocked and rolled all night, and by 3PM the next day--- (I guess we're slow learners!) we high-tailed it out of there. We had to backtrack 5 miles or so, but were glad to do it. By that point, we had twenty knots of wind sustained, so we came up
Byng Inlet to Wright's Marina, and here we are. We are out of the wind, watching it rain, doing laundry, and using electricity like crazy!