8/8/18: Most of the loopers at DeTour were headed to Mackinaw City. A couple of boats were going to Mackinac Island. Sum Escape was going to Cheboygon. We were going to St Ignace. Huh? See – often we do our own thing, for what ever crazy reason. Ask the navigator. We aren’t very good about being groupies. The primary destination for most of us was actually Mackinac Island. It is a fun place that we don’t want to miss, but we had heard from several sources that the marina there is very rocky-rolly. There are passenger ferry boats coming and going all day long, and their wakes create a lot of rocking in the marina. Those ferry boats come from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, where the marinas would likely be less rollicky. Navigator Karen chose St. Ignace for Island Girl. It looked like a small town, with a good marina, and we could ride the ferry to the Island. We slept in after our big day yesterday. When we got up about 8:30, all the other boats were already gone. It was a beautiful day, and the water was nice and calm. It is such a beautiful color, too! So away we went, on our 45 mile journey out onto Lake Huron.
We saw a few large reef lights along the way. This one was DeTour Reef light. It marks the northern end of Lake Huron, and is known locally as the Gateway to Lake Superior. Nearly all commercial freight traffic going to Lake Superior passes by this light which marks a shallow shoal. This particular structure has been here since 1931.
As we cruised along, I tried to clean up a bunch of the bugs that we collected overnight. I swear the entire radar arch was covered with gnats. They were clinging onto everything! And the spider webs that spring up over night, EVERY night, sure don’t help matters because they are full of bugs too!
The water was amazingly calm today. This is Lake Huron – a Great Lake, flat as a crepe.
The only wind we faced was that which we were creating with our own 9 mph speed. The temperature was in the 60’s, so I was a little chilly willy. Even Captain had on his fuzzy. It was overcast but looking like the sun would break through before too long.
We saw this ol’ Bayliner out trying to catch something. Apparently there isn’t a rule about one fishing rod per person in Michigan!! I don’t know how they kept all those lines from tangling up with each other! And they had these side buoy floats that they were dragging along out to the side on both sides. I don’t know what those are, or how they stay out there as they troll along! We saw the same kind of thing when we first entered Lake Ontario a couple of months ago.
About seven miles before Mackinac Island, the sky cleared up and the wind picked up. It was probably blowing about 11mph, since we were just getting some whitecaps on the surface. We went on past the popular island, and saw a whole herd of ferry boats coming and going!
We got to St. Ignace, which has quite the breakwater walls! We needed fuel, so we followed the maze around and made that our first stop. As we pulled toward the dock ready for a starboard tie, the fuel guy told us the wind was going to blow us off the dock. It was primarily blowing right in our face, but there were gusts. OK – so Captain took his suggestion into account. Well, a gust from the other direction hit us, so we came onto the dock a little hot. The wind held us there for a couple of minutes, and we got all tied off. Then the wind blew us off the dock and took all the slack lines tight. This made for interesting fueling, with the boat blowing on and off the dock every couple of minutes. We got all fueled up at $3.49/gal. That sounds awful, but it’s way better than Canadian prices!
Our assigned slip was just a couple slips down the same dock from where we were, with a bow-in, port tie. So Captain just backed us up, I got the port side all ready, and we let the wind blow us down the fairway. This took some patience, since the wind wasn’t consistent. We got to our slip, headed in nice and slow, and I got the mid ship line to the dock guy. Captain told him to cleat it, which he did. I quickly headed for the stern, because I knew it was going to keep moving, and there was a boat on the other side of us. The wind gusts were very unpredictable! I couldn’t get that line to the dock fast enough, and the stern went way starboard toward the other boat, and the bow went over the dock to the port side. These docks are floating, and have vertical pilings bolted onto them about every 10 feet or so. Our dock was missing one, so it didn’t catch the bow before it went way over the dock. Fortunately, the guy still had the line cleated, and Captain could move her forward and use the spring line to straighten us out. Unfortunately, the midship of Island Girl mated with the one midship vertical post and pushed it over the dock, and it came unbolted from the dock. WOOPS! But no damage to the boat or people, so that was good! WHEW! That was the worst docking we’ve had in 149 days! Here’s the post laying on the edge of the dock. The bolts really aren’t very long for withstanding the pressure of a big boat. The dock guy did not seem concerned about the dock or the post, just concerned for the boat and us. Between the wind gusts and the wave action rolling boats at the end of this dock, the posts don’t always survive. Our dock was now missing two, and the dock next to us was missing one midship post as well.
The dock guy made a few recommendations for dinner. We walked over to the Mackinac Grille, and had dinner. I ordered Walleye fingers. They weren’t terrible, but I wasn’t impressed. Kenny says I cannot order fish anymore, because it’s never great. I guess I’m just missing our Florida grouper!
Just outside the restaurant, there was an ice cream station, so we treated ourselves to some dessert. It was yummy, and quite a unique building, fashioned after a double-decker bus!
We walked through town to see what was here…. not a lot. A few shops and restaurants, but nothing really special. It’s not nearly as touristy as we heard Mackinaw City was. We walked back to the marina along the Huron boardwalk. It follows along the lake shore and was a nice walk. I still cannot get over how clear this water is!!
We saw the St. Ignace trolley. I think it is $1 per ride, and it goes all around town. We probably should have rode it around to get a better sense of what was really here. And maybe we could have taken it to the grocery store which I finally discovered is just over a half mile away! I didn’t even think of that until just now! We REALLY need some groceries!
As it turns out, our particular spot in this marina is rocky-rolly, all day long. Apparently we are just in the right spot where the wakes from the ferrys will roll in between or bounce off the breakwater, and roll us here at this end of this dock. We don’t see other boats in the marina dancing around nearly as much as we are. Fortunately, the ferrys stop running at 9pm. Tomorrow, we will be tourists and hop on one of those ferrys to go see Mackinac Island!
