Northern Michigan peninsula

It's a great time to be in Northern Michigan - while the rest of the nation is having extreme heat! 

 We do appreciate the cool nights, as we don't have air-conditioning on our boat.

Leaving Port Huron....

Moving on up the coast, our next night was in Port Sanilac and here's the lighthouse marking the entrance to the harbor.

We are traveling on Lake Huron and they are still having a depressed economy here, especially in Oscoda, where we were for 3 nights, due to rough seas.  They reportedly had over 75 fishing charter boats here 5 years ago and then the fish disappeared and now they have only 2.  Sad story, as it affects all the businesses in town.  We stayed at a marina that was really closed, but the guy let us stay anyway, and we biked all over town.  We found a bookstore we really liked, played Dutch Bingo with the owners and bought a few things also.  Here we are moored to the wall of the DuSable Marina on the DuSable River.

They also claim to be the home of Paul Bunyan - wonder what Bemidgi, MN would say about that!

Seeing more swans grace the lake here up north....they are beautiful!

This lighthouse marks the entrance to Cheboygan, MI, at the northern tip of lower Michigan, where we stayed 2 nights.  Nice marina, nice town, nice beach (except it has pebbles in the sand). 

 We are so spoiled at South Haven!

This day we were crossing the Straits of Mackinac - we didn't go to Mackinac Island because we have been there twice and for several days 3 years ago. 

 Here we pass under that gigantic Mackinac Bridge...

As we have been here before we technically "crossed our wake" and completed the "Great Loop".  But we'll wait until we're back in South Haven to celebrate. 

Onward to Leland, MI - Historic Fishtown - very touristy!  We've been here before also, when the marina was under construction, 3 years ago.  It is very nice now and busy!  Full marina and rafting up to 3 deep at some spots - partially due to the sailboats coming back from the

Chicago to Mackinac Race last weekend. 

After 2 nights there waiting for good weather, we take off for Manistee.  We get to within 2&1/2 miles of the harbor and our boat dies.  We called Towboat US (our insurer) and they tell us their towboat is "down" so they will call the Coast Guard to tow us in. 

 And so it goes...major headache time.

Actually the boat didn't die - something went "bang" and the propeller stopped turning.  Probably broke a shaft in the outdrive.  We'll learn more when the marina "hauls" the boat and has a closer look.  Anyway, we'll probably be here for several days.  We have the time.  Just glad this didn't happen in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  We've traveled 5660 miles on the water with no major mechanical problems - just normal maintenance issues and now 130 miles from home....

I'm holding my head because I'm wondering what this "little problem" will cost!!

We are thankful for those willing to help us out!!

I thought that's why we pay taxes.  And I don't know how "willing" they were but we did appreciate the help - even if we were a training exercise for new Coast Guard enlistees.  

So here we are in Manistee, MI for awhile - guess we'll check out the town.....

Lake Erie to Port Huron

We are back on the waterways, after a 3 week hiatus for our annual family 4th of July in South Haven and some time in Iowa, etc.  It was wonderful!  Here we are gathered for the annual parade...
It was time to get off the boat for awhile and we had a really great time with the kids and grand kids.  Our grandson, Reese, couldn't get off work for the week but his girl friend, Jess, came.  He has a summer job working in a Coca-Cola  warehouse.  Good money for a college guy.

We start back along the southern shore of Lake Erie, where we spent a couple of nights at Vermilion, OH (went to a fish fry festival - plus arts and crafts and some rain to work around.) 
                     That was the last part of June.


Then, we moved on to Put-in-Bay, OH, which is one of many islands in the southeast part of Lake Erie.  It is a tourist island, only accessible by boat, has lots of golf carts, restaurants and fishing and water sports. 
This is Lake Erie's idea of Key West.  I wasn't impressed, which probably says something about my age.


Interesting sign in Put-In-Bay - We've been to most of these places, by boat...


We crossed over to LaSalle, MI (We're in MI now!!  Seems like we are almost home!)  This is where our boat stayed while we rented a car to drive to So. Haven.  We were not happy when we came back - it was filthy - dirtier than it's ever been!  Covered with bird poop and spiders!  (They had a boat cleaning service clean it up while we went out to eat and shop a bit.)  Plus the batteries were dead - turns out that was our problem - our battery charger had died.  So we stayed there 2 nights to get the cleaning done inside and the batteries charged.  They did have a swimming pool, so I spent some time there and we returned our rental car in the morning.
There was not 1 sq. inch of the boat that didn't have bird droppings.  They also left a side curtain open. The birds got inside the cockpit and did their thing.  Thank goodness the door to the cabin was closed.  There was also greasy foot prints in the cockpit from when they serviced the engine.  Management made an effort to correct the situation but I'll never go back there.  Maybe my standards are to high after a career in customer service management.

Then our son, Brian and his family came to drop him off ( he travelled with us for 2 days).  Don, Brian, Ursula and Donovan went for a short cruise on Lake Erie.

It was really good to have Brian with us for a few days.  I can only hope he enjoyed it as much as we did.  We had issues the first day.  The anchor wouldn't set because the flute pivot had rusted.  Then the line to the dinghy broke and we had to chase it through a busy anchorage in heavy winds.  At that point Brian was probably wondering what he had gotten into.

I felt very confident and safe with these guys at the helm!  We passed the 5,000 mark of mileage on this trip with Brian on board.  Wow!!
5180 miles under the keel - about 600 to go.   

The Detroit River Lighthouse, marking the end of Lake Erie and the entrance to the Detroit River.

A pivoting railroad bridge - we've seen many of these on our trip and always have to make sure we have adequate clearance.  Usually have to put our antenna down to make it under these short bridges.

  We tried to "hug" the US side of the river - didn't want to have to deal with Canadian customs, etc.

Here's a view of some of the industrial side of Detroit....

Downtown Detroit framed by the Ambassador Bridge - from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, Canada.  Since 9/11, it has become much more of a hassle to get back into the US from Canada, we're told.

View on the Canadian side....

We stay clear of the big Lake boats...

Passing Belle Isle Park, which has a zoo, beaches, walking trails and a maritime museum.  We've been to several of these attractions in the Detroit area when visiting Brian & Chris, by land.

The Port Huron Lighthouse marks the entrance to Lake Huron.

The Bluewater Bridge from Port Huron to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Celebrating Brian & Chris' anniversary, with her sister and Dad, at a rooftop restaurant in Port Huron.

Then we're on to traveling up the east coast of Michigan, around the "thumb" and on up to the Mackinac Straits.  Until next time....