Lake Michigan Northport Coming Home 9-19-10

The last cruise of the season is always special as it has to sustain us through a boatless Denver winter. I wanted to make it extra special on this 23 mile sunny and calm trip from Charlevoix to Northport so I “fired” Captain Bob and took full command for the day—docking, setting waypoints, monitoring the GPS and paper charts, helm duty (ok—monitoring the autohelm) and having Captain Bob wait on me for a change. Maybe I will go ahead and get my Captain’s license.

We visited Northport in 9/08 at the start of our Great Circle Loop and remembered it as an unpretentious, charming, hilly port town similar to our home port of Bayfield on Lake Superior. Northport Marina has a very helpful staff (Marv, Martha and Jason) and the price is right at $15 per night after 9/15—the lowest price on the whole Loop. Northport has everything we need—Tom’s Grocery store, an Ace Hardware store, Wi-Fi at the marina and library, an indoor pool up the hill at Highlands, and the real reason we came back—Barb’s Bakery for the best cinnamon twists ever. Grand Traverse Bay Lighthouse and Leelanau State Park are 8 miles away. We looped with a lot of Michigan boaters and some have cottages near here and we were able to visit with Pat and Ted (South Shore), and Deb (Catrina), and hope to see Jack and Linda (Cynthia Faye and other Loopers in future summers in this area.

We’ve had a great season and will now be Great Lakes cruisers rather than Loopers. We look forward to exploring Lake Michigan and returning to the North Channel and Georgian Bay areas of Lake Huron for the next few summers. I will probably add-on to this blog and you are welcome back aboard in June, 2011.

Have a great winter and we look forward to following the blogs of our boating friends heading south. Let's stay in touch peggy8301@hotmail.com

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Lake Michigan Charlevoix 9-17-10

Waves and wind finally calmed down and the sun came out on 9/15 so we scooted the 54 miles down the Lake Michigan coast to Charlevoix. We were here in 9/08 just for an overnight, but this time with the time to spare and the 2 nights for 1 dock price sale, we are staying for 4 nights. This is a great stop with a very protected harbor that you enter through a canal onto Round Lake and can even explore further by entering Lake Charlevoix. The fountains in the foreground of the picture pulse with color and a sound track at night and I have a date with my girlfriend Terry on Tootsie to dance through the sprinkler next June. Hope it’s warmer then…..

There is plenty to do here in Charlevoix. The newly renovated harbor is right downtown so there is access to shops, restaurants, grocery store, parks and galleries. Cherries are big here and celebrated all over but the chocolate-covered, jalapeno-dipped cherry was a bit much even for me.

We took our bikes off the flybridge and used them everyday to explore---- Ferry Ave. runs along Lake Charlevoix and offers a number of parks; Lakeshore Drive goes along Lake Michigan and takes you to Boulder Park where you will find the incredible “mushroom” or “hobbit houses” designed by Earl Young. They are only found in Charlevoix and with their wavy roofs and diminutive whimsical size, they would be a perfect home for Frodo from Lord of the Rings; or take a 10 mile roundtrip bike ride out to Castle Farms. It is a remodeled 1918 model farm developed by the Loeb family who owned Sear and was used to test farm equipment. The cow barns and horse trough have now been converted to an amazing castle decked out with formal gardens, but the multi-tiered railroad caught Bob’s eye.

We went to the beach and caught the wave action on Lake Michigan. Loopers are so tired of this lake with its unseasonably early wind and weather that they are calling it “Lake Misery.” It is definitely more ferocious than when we were here in 9/08. As we prepared to leave for Northport on 9/19 with good weather, Looper friends were trying to make distance to Frankfort or beyond. I watched them leave, wished them well but are glad that we are staying here in this area. Sometimes you have to leave home to discover that the best is right here.

Mackinaw City 9-13-10

With the wind and waves continuing on Lake Michigan, we delayed our departure and switched from cruising to touring mode here in Mackinaw City. This town of 900 is positioned well to handle the throngs of tourists who swarm here all summer to visit the princess port, Mackinac Island, right across the Strait. Mackinaw City is more practical, spells its name like its pronounced, and offers ferry service, hotels, shops, restaurants and has more fudge stores than bars.

The State of Michigan has developed a first class, reasonably priced ($1.03 to 1.19 per foot) marina system every 20-30 miles along Lake Michigan; Mackinaw City has two—Mackinaw Municipal Marina and the new state-of-the-art, State Harbor Marina with floating docks and wind turbines. We found lots of stuff we needed at Shepler’s Marine Store, and we are even thinking of doing inside boat storage with Shepler's Shipyard next year to be closer to the North Channel and Mackinaw City is a great place to spend a few days.

Mackinac Bridge or “Mighty Mac” is the 5 mile long suspension-type bridge which connects to Upper Michigan, Yooperland. The bridge defines the skyline and is nicely complimented by the shoreline paths and parks. You can tour the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse and/or step back in time with a visit to Colonial Fort Michilimackinac. Bob was here 50 years ago when there was only a cannon. Over the years, archeologists have unearthed and Michigan has reconstructed almost the entire fort.

Winter is long here so I thought I would include a picture of the icebreaker, USCG Mackinaw, now dry docked and open for tours. Our thoughts are now turning to tucking in Baby Grand for the season in Northport, 75 miles away. Our season is slowly coming to a close.

Mackinac Island 9-12-10

Sometimes a place transports you and Mackinac Island is it. Just like in the 1979 movie, Somewhere in Time, with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour, based here at the Grand Hotel, romance is in the air. The weather was perfect for hiking and biking the island trails for 2 days as well as enjoying the gardens and ambience of the Grand Hotel for lunch. You can explore Fort Mackinac, take a carriage ride or marvel at the blue water through the lens of Arch Rock. So much to see and do…we will be back…

Lighthouses of the Straits of Mackinac 9-10-10

We left DeTour Village on a bright calm day without weather for a change. These lighthouses (DeTour Reef, Barton Reef, Mackinac Island, Round Island and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouses) dotted our scenery and served as chart markers, but have been lifelines to sailors in the past.

Mackinac Straits is the narrow passage between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, is filled with reefs and shoals; add storms and fog and it is a recipe for shipwrecks. These lighthouses marked the reefs and channels, sent out a beacon of light and helped steer ships to safety.

Life expectancy for a Great Lakes sailor in the 19th century was only 7 years, and with 6,000 shipwrecks from 1878 to 1898 alone, it proved to be more dangerous than the job of a whaler in Nantucket. Their memory is honored and preserved in the Straits of Mackinac Underwater Preserve. Check out www.michiganpreserves.org/straits.htm

North Channel Drummond Island and De Tour Village 9-9-10

This is a 2 flag day for us: we come back to the USA and the red, white and blue through customs on Drummond Island; and we really earn our gold burgee for our Great Circle Loop for the 2008-2010 trip. We will not be going back into Lake Superior this year, but we were here in De Tour Village on 9/12/08 at the start of that Loop, and crossed our wake here today after logging 7,315 miles. We know we’re back in familiar waters as the ore freighters are on parade and they definitely have the right-of-way.

We are quietly reflective today compared to our other Loop milestone of technically completing the Great Circle Loop in the Chesapeake on 6-27-09 (see archive article, It's Been a Grand Adventure). Since that accomplishment, we’ve really slowed down, savored the moment and have broken-up the final leg into segments. It has been less stressful, and more fun in many ways than the fast-paced Loop schedule. Going only 300 miles in 3 months allowed us to really revisit our roots, relatives and friends in New Jersey, New York and Vermont last summer and fall, and this spring. Slowly cruising the Chambly, Rideau and Trent-Severn Canadian canals this summer, and then exiting into the Georgian Bay and North Channel areas of Lake Huron has been the highlight of our entire Loop.

We went to the De Tour Botanic garden today as we did on 9/12/08. Here are a few of the images from there: a Passage Keeper, a Sea Memorial and a Window on the World. It captures some of how we feel today—thankful that we could make this passage, and mindful that it has definitely given us a new window on the world.

North Channel Town of Thessalon 9-6-10

With the trio of strong clocking winds, cold temps (we don’t have a built-in heater) and rain with t-storms continuing here in the North Channel, we made the reluctant decision to leave the town of Spanish for the town of Thessalon instead of anchoring out on this holiday Monday. There were no boats in sight as we traveled east through the Whaleback Channel and Blind River Bank. We saw lots of anchorages that we want to try next year—Bear Drop, Long Point Cove, John’s Harbour—the list is endless here.

Our boat is a Grand Banks trawler and we joined the Great Lakes Grand Banks Association (GLGBA) a few years ago but have been too busy Looping to do much with them. On a whim, Bob sent an email to Linc North, a GLGBA member, newsletter editor and resident of Thessalon, that we would be coming into the Thessalon marina. Linc was there to catch our lines and whisked us away to his stunning home overlooking the harbor. We were wined and dined with a fantastic partridge and wild rice dinner, topped off with his wife, Shirley’s amazing apple rhubarb pie. What a gracious couple and the only thing Linc is requesting from me is a newsletter article—that’s a deal.

Thessalon offers a harbor with good protection, use of loaner bikes, a lighthouse-inspired marina building with a boaters’ lounge loft with complete kitchen. There are shops, a grocery store, hardware store, restaurants (Tina’s On Main is good), LCBO, parks and an ice arena that is gearing up for some serious hockey. You can tell a country is serious about hockey when it depicts hockey on their $5 bill—not pros, but kids playing. You got to love it! Speaking of money, we have been accumulating oodles of coins as Canada does not have $1 or $2 bills, but has these denominations in coins. We are hunched over carrying all these coins around, and Canadians tell us that’s why they all use knapsacks for wallets. I took $50 in coins up to the municipal office to pay the marina bill as the boat was listing from all the weight.

The last picture illustrates our boat name better than any explanation. With a name like Baby Grand, we usually get asked—“Are you musicians?” or “Do you have a baby grand piano onboard?” “Of course,” we say, “It’s just a little hard to get it out of the rear locker.” The real answer is that our Grand Banks 32 foot boat is the smallest model made by Grand Banks, hence Baby Grand. Here that point is illustrated next to Bonnie Banks, a 49 foot Grand Banks, owned by Floyd and Maggie Lewis who also came into Thessalon to visit with Linc and Shirley.

This is our last stop in Canada. We crossed the border on 6/13 and have been welcomed everywhere we’ve travelled. It is a beautiful country, filled with amazing people who really want you to have a good time here. I’ve been reading Richard Ford’s novel, Independence Day, and could not agree more with his character's observation: “The best all-around Americans, in my view, are Canadians. I, in fact, should think of moving there, since it has all the good qualities of the states and almost none of the bad, plus cradle-to-grave health care and a fraction of the murders we generate……”

Canada—see you next summer, eh.

Blog Has New Features Finally 9-4-10

You asked for a more user-friendly blog and we’ve finally had the time, high speed internet and, more importantly, got around to reading all those pesky small print instructions on Blogger to figure out how to do it. I thought that I would do this in Denver during our 5 month hiatus, but I never got around to it, or learning French either. But today, with the wind and rain howling outside here at Spanish, it was a great yin-yang activity to do together. Many of you tech heads already know how to navigate these changes but for “my people”, I am adding the following:

Starting at the bottom of the blog page on www.babygrandadventure.blogspot.com , you will notice a more useful archive. My 260 entries since 9/08 have only been archived by weekly dates which is not very helpful and I can’t even find my own stuff—when were we in Marathon??? Now the weekly dates have the blog titles noted so you can find entries by title.

Want an even easier way to find an area, subject, name etc.-- use the Search This Blog section with a keyword. I had great fun with this and was amazed at all the pirate entries. You will find this new section in the second section from the top of the blog page.

Now for the absolutely most amazing added section—Locate Baby Grand which is featured prominently now in the first section of the blog. I do not pretend to understand it, but it links my blog with Google Earth and is routed through the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruising Association) Looper Locator website. You can download Google Earth if you don’t have it already and see a satellite photo of where we are.

You can also click on Track This Boat in Google Earth and see our entire trip this summer and we will be adding the track for our entire Loop. Zoom in and out of our hot air balloon icon and you will see the satellite photo as well as interesting photos of the area. I played with this for 2 hours, and even though I’ve been to all those places, it was a whole different perspective. Enjoy.

North Channel Town of Spanish 9-3-10

Labor Day weekend is celebrated here in Canada also, but spelled Labour Day. It marks the official end of summer vacation, but the weather is getting quirky. We have had the most amazing summer of really hot weather but that door is slamming shut now with clocking winds forecast for 20-30 knots, +6 foot seas and temps dropping into the 50’s for the holiday weekend. Great Lakes boaters have to be very patient and wait through all of this as usually warm and calm weather does return but when?????

We really wanted to spend more time anchoring out but with the above forecast, we journeyed west and north through the islands to the McBean Channel to Little Detroit Narrows marked with a range marker and then into the Whaleback Channel and east to Spanish. The town of Spanish is at the mouth of the Spanish River and is marked with a wind turbine and has depths of 4 ½ to 5 feet due to river runoff so larger boats with deeper drafts never make it here.

Spanish has a newly developed, government-sponsored town marina with a multi-million dollar 4 season complex including a restaurant, fitness area, lounge, high-speed internet, trail system and laundry. Unfortunately, it’s losing money now and is for sale for a cool 2 million. We’re the only transients here and with the awful weather forecast, even the local boaters have stayed home for the weekend.

Here are pictures of Spanish Marina complex and the Discovery Trail taken before all the weather hit. I had time to do some teak deck work—notice that the rear cockpit decks are stained and mottled from all the tannin rivers and 100 locks we’ve transited through this summer. I was able to bleach the side decks which are now brighter and not as blemished.

When the rain, wind and cold hit for 3 days, we read, finally updated this blog site on the high-speed internet and fired up the oven for a few great meals. We’re monitoring the weather and hope that summer comes back soon.

North Channel Benjamin Islands 9-2-10

It was a 14 mile easy run from Kagawong over to the Benjamins between Secretary Island and the Sow and Pigs Rocks which you can see now on our added Google Earth link. The repaired lower station shifter on Baby Grand is working just fine, but unfortunately storm clouds are brewing which will keep our visit short here in the Benjamin Islands.

Hard to believe that these magnificent pink stone islands were once bored with dynamite and scheduled to get blasted to kingdom come. Sanity and good people prevailed; the islands were saved from mining, and instead, declared a National Beauty Spot for generations to enjoy.

There are so many single-slot gunkholes here, but we chose to anchor in the harbor between North and South Benjamin Islands for our first visit. Here’s a view of the harbor and you can imagine it looking X10 on a sunny day. We took the dinghy in and hiked all over the rocks and saw amazing vistas as well as a bird’s eye view of Baby Grand.

Gathering storms have a great way of making a fabulous sunset. We’ll be back next year for a longer visit.

North Channel Fun in Kagawong 8-30-10

After our docking adventure and shift repair, we relaxed, breathed deeply and explored Kagawong for a few days until the dinghy repairs dried thoroughly.

This 1894 harbor lighthouse is now automated and according to townspeople, was recently serviced by the Canadian Coast Guard on a 300 foot ship—a lot of manpower to change the light bulb. The Mariners Chapel is also in the harbor, has a “bow” pulpit made from the bow of a boat shipwrecked in an August 1965 storm during which 4 crew members were lost.

There are great hiking trails on Manitoulin Island. You can take the trail right from town to Bridal Veil Falls Park through a lattice of streams, waterfalls and shady paths. With temperatures in the 90’s, everybody is cooling off here. The island has its own ice cream plant, Farquhar’s, available at convenient dockside and park locations. My favorite flavor is Rolo which is just brimming with that flavorful candy. Serious chocoholics have to visit Manitoulin Chocolate Works for artisan creations. Kayak rentals are available at Wind and Wave, and I am seriously looking at a collapsible or inflatable version that we can use on the boat and RV.

We’ve had a front row seat for all the dock jumping the past few hot days in Kagawong. Generations of Kagawong kids grew up doing this, and we’ve met people from England who grew up here and wasted no time getting in line to dock jump. Although it was a navigational hazard to us, it really is great fun but watch out for boats first.

There is a small general store/post office where you can meet the locals and overhear the gossip. There are a few galleries and craft stores, including a beautiful African boutique. The town has a great location and a good harbor, used to have restaurants and more stores, but while other adjacent communities have expanded their marinas and facilities, Kagawong has lost ground. It is still worth a visit but make sure to call ahead for reservations as there only a few transient slips available.

The highlight of our visit here was meeting Bob, a 2004 gold Looper, who taught us how to repair our Zodiac dinghy. Thanks, Bob. We’re really ready for more anchoring in the islands now.

North Channel Kagawong Catastrophe Averted 8-29-10

We had a perfectly leisurely 19 mile run from Little Current through the West Bay to the bottom of Mudge Bay to Kagawong, another town located on Manitoulin Island. We were cruising along under beautiful blue skies, with 75 degree temps and minimal wind and waves and wondering why boaters in the North Channel were already ending their season.

Kagawong is a really small town off the beaten track with only a few transient spots in this tiny town marina, but in 2000 and 2001, it hosted a Looper Rendezvous when the marina was under different management. We’re here to explore as well as get our leaky Zodiac dinghy fixed. Do you remember on 7/25/09 when the pirates of Poughkeepsie on the Hudson River stole our dinghy, took it for a joyride, dumped it and it was luckily retrieved by the Duchess County Sheriff days later and returned to us? That was the incredibly good news; bad news is that it has had leaks since then and we finally found someone to help us repair it here in Kagawong.

But first, put yourself in the first picture----we were approaching the Kagawong marina while 10 kids were jumping off the dock wall. All of a sudden Captain Bob hollered out that the transmission was stuck in forward and he could not shift into neutral. He had already throttled back, but was still going 3 mph with no room to turn away. He had to make a hard right turn into our assigned dock as there was a swimming beach to the left and a dead end straight ahead. This is every boater’s nightmare—being out of control in a small area with the possibility of injuring people. Bob tried to shift a few more times and concluded that the only safe option was to shut down the engine.

I used my Mom voice which still works to yell to the kids swimming to get out of the way NOW, told adults in the area to help with this, and alerted the dock hand to the situation. Luck was with us as the SW wind increased which helped to brake us a bit, the fenders helped cushion the impact and Collin, the young dockhand, and I were able to secure the boat to the dock. It remained a good day as no one was hurt and not even a scratch on the boat—Captain Bob definitely earned his stripes.

Captain Bob then shifted into fix-it mode. He took apart the flybridge and lower station shifting mechanisms, saw that the cable had broken, but by cutting it, the lower helm shifter worked for a quick fix (tech heads can email Bob at bob1064@gmail.com for the detailed version). Without the required special tools, it will be impossible to fix both stations until we’re at a bigger marina. Fortunately, our little trawler works just fine from below so no need for delays and expense now, so we’ll keep on cruisin’.

North Channel Little Current 8-27-10

Going to Little Current on Manitoulin Island takes some planning as you have to coordinate your arrival with the hourly swing bridge opening. We expected to spend a half hour getting the anchor up at Mary Ann Cove in Baie Fine, but this time, no grass and the anchor was clean as a whistle. Since we had some extra time, we cruised over to Heywood Island, into Browning Cove, to enjoy its teal colored water and array of birds spending the summer here, and then a leisurely cruise by the Strawberry Island Lighthouse and to the Little Current swing bridge. And, the current is not so little—3 knots at times-which makes docking interesting.

Leisure is not a word we would have used in our 2005 boat delivery trip from the Chesapeake to Lake Superior in 3 weeks. We went from Port Severn at the end of the Trent-Severn Canal to Little Current in 2 days on open Lake Huron; this time, we took 30 days through Georgian Bay and now to the North Channel. We’ve met a lot of Loopers speeding through here to get to Chicago by Labor Day. Our advice: slow down as Lake Michigan is doable in September as well as the Loop rivers in October; or even better, break up your Loop and keep the boat in this area for a full season.

Little Current feels like home as we again met so many of the cruisers we anchored, hiked and traveled with, or are familiar names we’ve heard on the Cruisers’ Net. The Cruisers’ Net is a marine radio call-in broadcast with news, weather, North Channel happenings etc., is heard daily in July and August on Channel 71, and is hosted by the gracious Roy Eaton. We’ve heard similar Nets in the Keys and in the Abacos and it really helps form a community. Community is something we’re searching for—after almost 2 years, we leave the community of Loopers and now join the community of North Channel boaters.

Little Current has done a fantastic job expanding their town dock into a 140 slip modern marina. This is a boating town and you can easily reprovision at 2 grocery stores (ValuMart and Foodland), an LCBO, Turners Department store, a hardware store and a 24 hour laundromat on Water St. Anchor Inn hosts the Friday Cruisers Net Happy Hour from 3-5 pm in July and August and the restaurant does some amazing whitefish dishes. A $4.99 breakfast is available at the Old English Pantry and is guaranteed to fill you up for the day.

It’s all here, plus the most amazing scenery on the entire Great Circle Loop. We will definitely be back here again next year.