Port #13: The Great Escape!

Great Loop II Date: 8/20/2014

Day #20 (Wednesday): 67 miles (760 total miles)

Locks: 0 (2 total locks)

Port #13:  Portage Lake (anchorage) Onekama north of Manistee, MI

Somehow the weather as it turns out and the forecast is not coming up equal.  The day was supposed to dawn calm.  It didn’t.  I woke up at 4:45AM feeling the boat rocking in the dock and hearing the burgee flapping on the bow pulpit.  I went up to the pilothouse to check the flag at the marina office.  It was flapping pretty good too…out of the southeast.  I went online and saw much the same at the NOAA, Weather and Wind Passage websites.  I immediately went into a funk.

Todd got up, checked everything out and announced there was fog.  Great…my frown grew deeper.  I got dressed and headed up to the marina office, mainly to experience the weather.  I couldn’t hear the waves beating the beach next door.  That was good.  The wind didn’t feel that stiff.  That was good too.  However there was dense fog with mist.  I decided that wasn’t bad since we have radar, GPS and AIS.  We can see just about anything that’s out there…except fish nets.

When I got back to the boat, I looked at Todd and said, ”Let’s go to breakfast.”  Todd agreed that was a good idea.  It would let the day lighten up so we could see what our situation was and make a decision.

After breakfast at the Early Bird, we walked back to the marina.  The wind was dying down, we could see at least a couple of miles and the fog was lifting.  It was time to get out of Leland!

Leaving Leland, the fog was lifting somewhat and the dunes were visable.

The shipping channel marker was a little hard to make out!  We could see it on the GPS Chartplotter and with our binoculars.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes...prettier on a clear day.

Sleeping Bear Point...the fog was coming back in.

Most of the day was spent in thickening fog, some increase in waves and surrounded by water…not much of a view.  I should have cleaned the boat but decided to play games instead.  Todd and I traded manning the watch…’Auto’ was driving as he normally does.

This is what we saw...fog and calm water.

This is what Auto saw...Chartplotter on the right, radar on the left.  Nothing on the radar except dust!

Todd plots a course, embeds it in our GPS mapping program and lets our autopilot take over from there.  It makes for a much better ride.  We both get through the day with less fatigue, although traveling does seem to make us tired no matter what.

The fog lifted around 3PM...and we celebrated.

We were nearing Manistee, MI when Todd said we were passing Portage Lake (north of Manistee).  I said Blue Moon was planning on anchoring there.  Todd looked over the charts for Portage Lake and asked if I’d like to anchor.  Well of course!  I checked out Active Captain and the Waterway Guide and both gave us good reports and the areas of the lake best for anchoring.  Todd changed course direction and the entrance to Portage Lake appeared to the east.

Todd guided OB into the northeast bay of the lake.  The anchor took well and we had a wonderful evening floating in a quiet wooded area.

Another beautiful anchorage.

Time for an appetizer dinner with wine...and fudge for dessert.

And, of course, another glorious sunset on a peaceful setting.

Port #12: What Can We Say About Leland?

Great Loop II Date: 8/18/2014

Day #19 (Monday): 55 miles (693 total miles)

Locks: 0 (2 total locks)

Port #12:  Leland, MI

Who would have thought it?!?!?  The weather predictions turned sour once again.  Everything we read about Washington Island, WI recommended going there only in fair weather.  Washington Island would not be a choice anytime this week.  Staying at Beaver Island was not a good option either.  We had to make a decision; risk it or play it safe.  We always take 'safe' so staying on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan was our only choice until weather improved.

Todd and I deliberated about which of three ports we should chose.  Our options were Charlevoix, Grand Traverse Bay or Leland.  Going to Leland would get us farther down the coastline and give us the opportunity to move on to Manistee, MI when the weather cleared.  From Manistee we could cross Lake Michigan to Sheboygan.

I’m pretty sure EVERYONE has heard about our experience in Leland September of 2010.  We darn near became residents because of back to back gales.  I was a bit depressed even thinking about seeing that village again, but decisions had to be made.

We had hoped for following seas to Leland and 1 foot or less waves.  Neither materialized.  As soon as we took our heading to Leland after passing the tip of Beaver Island we were taking mostly 2 foot waves on the port forward quarter beam with a few confused waves smacking us squarely on the port beam.  The crew gutted out the bumpy, rocky ride.  Once we were within a few miles of land, the wind shelter settled the waves and allowed the crew to regain some equilibrium.

The only sun we saw until well after we got to Leland.  See that little light patch close to the middle of the picture?  That's the sun shining on Beaver Island.

Large sand dunes run along most of the Western Michigan coastline.  These are just north of Leland.

The dunes are very tall and very pretty.

This is the rock wall protecting Leland Harbor.  The office is the building with the red roof.  It takes both of us with binoculars to identify the entry into unfamiliar harbors.  We're familiar with Leland from our last Loop.  However, looking at the picture, without a chart it would be hard to identify the opening to the harbor.

The clue to the opening is in the markers at the end of each rock wall.  The red marker (in the left circle) will need to be on the right side of our boat.  The green marker (in the right circle) will be on the left side of our boat.  The arrow marks the opening which is shown on our chart.

I didn't have a picture of the chart so this is an overhead photo from Google with the channel markers and route direction.

This is what it looked like as we rounded the corner of the wall.

Coming into Leland Harbor, we had two Looper boats ahead of us:  El Nido and Blue Moon.  We docked next to another Looper, Takes Two.  After everyone was settled, the tradition of exchanging boat cards took place along with talk about where we’d been and where we were going.  There was mention of docktails however that didn’t materialize.  Leland has a lot to offer with Fishtown and other shops as well as a grocery near the harbor.

There's OB on the left (with the red ball on the bow) and Takes Two on the right (Cheri and Gerald).  Takes two was a huge 49 foot DeFever.  The bow rose a good 10 feet above the waterline.  Walking by it was amazing...great ship to take out in the ocean.

El Nido on the left (Bob with his dog Duncan...taking the loop by himself) and Blue Moon on the right (Sharon and King).

The same harbormaster that was in Leland during our 2010 stay was in the office to check us in.  She mentioned they would not keep us as long this time.  We hoped for good luck!

We did much the same things as we did before; visited Fishtown, went through the shops and bought cheese curds.  Leland has added a wine store, so we checked it out, took in the wine tasting and bought 2 more bottles of wine.  We ate dinner at The Cove in Fishtown and never made it to the Blue Bird.  The dinner was over priced and not as good as we anticipated.

The Leland weather station.

See the water on the rock?  That's the kind of day we came into in Leland.

Fishtown....the big draw in Leland.

The weather prediction looked good for an early morning departure on Wednesday, giving us only a one day layover in Leland.  The other Looper boats planned departures for the same morning only all were going to different ports or anchorages: Takes Two was off to Ludington, El Nido was going to Frankfort and Blue Moon to an anchorage in Portage Lake near Onekama.

Port #11: No Beavers Noted Here...Just Ducks!

Great Loop II Date: 8/17/2014

Day #18 (Sunday): 48 miles (638 total miles)

Locks: 0 (2 total locks)

Port #11:  Beaver Island, MI (anchorage)

OB had another shorter day ahead so we didn’t rush around to get underway.  Leaving St. Ignace was anticlimactic compared to our entry.  The winds were close to calm and the seas were fine.

The skies were cloudy but we had another magnificent sunrise.  Cloudy skies don't always dictate bad weather...many times it's wonderfully calm.

We passed under the Mackinac Bridge and headed west around some shoals and fish nets. The Michigan coast line has many islands and shoals.  Unfortunately, most travel cannot be made in a straight line.

The Mackinac Bridge is not only spectacular but historic.  It was the largest suspension bridge built at the time...1957.  There is a magnificent video made during the building of the bridge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFsy_EHWM-Q) .  My cousin sent it to me and it made seeing and crossing under the bridge even more amazing.

There was some corrosion control work underway at both ends of the bridge.  I'm guessing that is a constant with such a large bridge exposed to some very extreme weather.

Charlie didn't get the idea of being in a very historic place.

 Once all the shoals were behind us, Todd was able to take us west to Beaver Island.  We anchored in St. James Bay.  The sun broke out and we had a pleasant afternoon.

Terry and Ken from Roundabout came by in their dinghy.  We had a nice visit and compared travel intentions.  Their plans were to go to Petoskey or Traverse Bay, MI next.  Our plans were to go to Washington Island, WI.

Roundabout...Loopers from Connecticut.

The lighthouse at Beaver Island.

I think this was the abandoned boathouse I read about.  There is a huge, decaying wood boat inside.

A panoramic shot of the downtown area on Beaver Island...St. James City.

The Emerald Isle...the ferry serving Beaver Island.

Watching the Captain bring the ferry to the dock was very interesting.  He had separate pilothouse atop the stern of the ferry where he controlled the docking.

After a good dinner of barbecued pork chops, roasted vegetables with some of Laurel’s wonderful green beans and salad, we turned on the TV to check the weather channel.  A storm front was approaching from the west.  Our plans to go to Washington Island were in jeopardy.  Washington Island did not look like a good option in a stormy situation.  They have very little dockage and unprotected.  Two to three days riding windy seas at anchor was not attractive option or even safe.  We spent the rest of the evening deciding a different route.

Sunset at another pristine anchorage.

We went to bed a little depressed that our plans were changing.  As we were trying to go to sleep, we could hear this constant tap, tap, tap moving slowly around the boat.  The mystery noise went on for about an hour when finally one of the culprits gave itself away.  I could hear a quack, quack, quack just outside the hull and realized we had a couple of ducks eating the moss from around our waterline.  Good job, ducks…now we have a clean waterline!

Port #10: Dodging High Speed Ferries...

Great Loop II Date: 8/15/2014

Day #16 (Friday): 45 miles (590 total miles)

Locks: 0 (2 total locks)

Port #10:  St. Ignace, MI

The cold air just did not give up.  I wore jeans, Todd refused and stayed in his shorts and Charlie stopped shedding.  The consensus of the crew was that fall was possibly making an early appearance.

Another good view of the Detour Reef Light.  It signifies we're back on the path of the Great Loop.

Lot's of pictures of the Big Girls out here, eh?  Well there's lot's of Big Girls. Soon these Big Girl pictures will transform into barge and tow pictures in the rivers after Chicago.  They all carry way more than the semi-trucks on the highways.

Our first views of Big Mac (the Mackinac Bridge) were a little before I took this photo.  We spotted it 20 miles out.  To see it, you'll have to click on the photo and make it bigger.  Remember to click on the white X in the right corner to come back to the blog.

A better view of Big Mac as we were heading into the Detour Marina.

We had following seas to St. Ignace once we left the St. Mary River.  All was well until we tried to figure out the harbor entrance.  The markers were confusing and the high speed ferries running in front of us make entering tough.  Worse yet, the wind was very strong out of the North.

St. Ignace Harbor is protected by huge rock walls and the boulders came well out into the channel.  We wanted to pump out the holding tank and take on some diesel but the conditions would not permit it.  After one failed attempt at the gas dock, we went straight to our assigned dock.  Once there, we found the harbormaster had assigned us to a starboard tie up which we were sure to fail because of the wind.  I was talking to her on the VHF radio and mainly said,”Oops, missed that one, we’re taking the next one for a port tie up and the wind will put us to the dock!”  I’m not used to overriding an assignment…and I think I might have said that to her.

The high speed ferry terminal was just north of the Detour Marina.  Imagine two of these crossing in front of us, each going opposite ways, as we were battling a strong northwest wind coming into a narrow harbor entrance full of big rocks.  It was a little testy for the Captain.  Some of the rock wall protecting the harbor is visible in the right upper corner.

OB at her dock.  The rock wall is visible behind us.  Notice, OB is not sternned in in this picture.  We had to bring her in bow first because the wind was so obstructive to our navigation.

Our first Looper sighting.  Untide was a few slips down from OB.  It's always nice to start meeting folks doing what you're doing...experiencing an adventure...and it's ALWAYS an adventure with new twists and turns.

We stayed in St. Ignace an extra day due to more poor weather conditions.  The layover allowed us to see the town, get some wash done, enjoy a wonderful prime rib dinner at the Galley Restaurant, sit on our bridge sipping some red wine and eating fudge while watching a superb fireworks display.  All in all, St. Ignace was a wonderful stop aside from the horrid wind.

We were impressed with the clarity of the water here.  You could see every stone...as well as the rocks in the harbor that held up the enormous rock wall.

St. Ignace is a cute little town with some great restaurants and shops along the shoreline.  There are also 4 ferry lines that take folks from the UP to Mackinac Island.

Sunset Saturday night before the fireworks display which was an excellent display...especially considering they have it EVERY Saturday night from July 4th until August 31st!

We met two Looper boats while we were in St. Ignace: Monica and Warren on Untide, Terry and Ken on Roundabout.  Untide was taking the Michigan west coast route down Lake Michigan before crossing to Chicago.  Roundabout went to Beaver Island, our destination as well.  From there they planned to run to Ludington on the Michigan west coast, then across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee.  We will most likely see both in the rivers south of Chicago.

Port#9: A Tour of Detour...

Great Loop II Date: 8/14/2014

Day #15 (Thursday): 45 miles (545 total miles)

Locks: 0 (2 total locks)

Port #9:  Detour, MI

The crew on OB was getting restless.  They knew it was time to move on.  The weather gods finally decided to give us a morning with less wind but certainly not wind free.  Our concern with the amount of wind we had wasn’t the wind itself but the closeness of the boat next to us.

We were up before the sun prepping OB for the morning run and making ready to leave the Soo to begin heading south.  No one else was up and around on the dock, or so it seemed.  As the sun rose, we wanted to be on our way without taking OB into our neighboring boat.  Just by chance, a neighboring sailor happened down the dock and offered his assistance.  Leaving ended up being a non-event however it eased our minds to know someone was present to thwart a situation.

Marilyn and Don's condo on the St. Mary River.

Heading back down the St. Mary River, OB passed Marilyn and Don’s condo.  It looked sleepy in the early morning sunlight.  The river was quiet with no freighters in sight until we turned the corner to head south.  A freighter was going our direction in the downbound channel at a slower speed than our 8-9 mph.  Todd didn’t want to be caught in a passing situation in the narrow section of the downbound channel so chose a route in the upbound channel.

Shipping channels are developed for the freighters because of their size.  Some areas are so narrow, freighters traveling in opposing directions could not pass by each other.  Pleasure boats of our size have no problem getting by oncoming freighters and are free to chose either channel.

As we got closer to Munuscong Bay, we were coming out of the upbound channel and beginning to run into uncomfortable building seas in the river.  The freighter we were avoiding by taking the upbound channel also appeared along side.  It was time to put OB up on plane and burn some diesel for comfort and for safety.

The freighter we were trying to avoid ended up right next to us as we emerged from the upbound channel.

The shallow water along shore and the waters coming across shallow Munuscong Bay churned mud and sand up with the winds of the preceding 3 days.

Interesting to see how the freighters look when coming through the horizon with the sun shining on the choppy river.

There she is.

This looked like a scuttled freighter just north of Detour.

A pilothouse converted to a house...smaller than the one on South Bass Island in Lake Erie.

OB ran like a champ.  We came into Detour an hour ahead of the time we would have at the slower speed.  Because the winds had picked up and were much stronger, coming into Detour Harbor was a little dicey.  Once well into the harbor, Todd was able to bring OB into the dock without mishap.

Todd tries to dock OB stern first if at all possible.  Generally, the power tower and water are on the main dock and not the finger dock we have OB parallel to.  Our electric cord and water are in the stern of the boat.  The shorter distance to keep our creature comforts running makes setting up at each dock easier.

Detour Harbor Marina

Ocean Breeze sterned into the dock.

THAT'S a brisk wind!

Detour was a cute little town.  The main street (Ontario), has 4 restaurants, 2 bars, 3 churches, a grocery store, a sports and marine store and a few boutique type shops.  It’s a sleepy little town and the main business is the ferry that runs between the UP and Drummond Island.

Ontario Street...the main street leading to downtown Detour.

Sune's IGA and a little restaurant across the street.

Downtown Detour with St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and a restaurant next door.