The Adventures of Monk's Vineyard - The Great Loop and Beyond: September 7, Day 86

Both Monk’s Vineyard and Emotion III planned an early departure this morning. Michele and Carole were headed to Mackinac Island, while we were going to Mackinaw City. (Both spellings are pronounced “aw”). We are having mail delivered to the Mackinaw City Post Office, so decided it would be best to stay there and then take the ferry over to Mackinac Island. We left first as Emotion III needed fuel and a pumpout. After being underway for approximately 20 minutes we got a call from them on the VHF. Seems they had run aground coming out of the marina. They had to get a tow and then check out the prop (found out later, fortunately no damage). During that time, the fog rolled in at DeTour and they were not able to leave for several hours. On the other hand, we had been out on the open water for about 1 ½ hours when the fog hit so we just pressed on. We had the radar on, both captain and first mate kept a careful lookout and we blew the horn every so often in case there was something out there we didn’t see or something out there that didn’t see us. It was sunny overhead, but very low visibility on the water. We could hear chatter on the radio concerning closure of the locks to Lake Superior on the St. Mary’s River because of the fog. Fortunately, after about 2 ½ hours it finally lifted as we were approaching Mackinac Island.

We picked up quite a bit of boat traffic, both from the ubiquitous ferries and from all the boats that were finally out and about because the fog had cleared. We noticed a lot of traffic on the Mackinac Bridge and realized it was the annual bridge walk. Took a few pictures, but not sure it will show the traffic.

We pulled into the Mackinaw City Marina at around 1:30. We also got a call from Emotion III saying they were okay, the fog had lifted and they were heading out. However, with their delayed departure we decided we’d explore Mackinaw City this afternoon and then go to the Island and meet them tomorrow.

The streets were pretty crowded since it was both Labor Day and the Bridge Walk. This is the most people we’ve seen in several weeks. It’s very different from the small, one main street towns in Georgian Bay and the North Channel. We browsed in several stores and bought a few items, but our biggest score was the chart book of Lake Michigan. Our friend had bought it Saturday in Drummond Island for $122. Gerry decided he wasn’t going to get it since we have the electronic charts on 2 systems. However, today we found the same thing on sale at Shepler’s Ship Store for $50. We got it!!! Never hurts to have the paper charts, especially for that price. We also picked up a new American Flag – ours was starting to tear apart in several places.

We had dinner at “Cunningham’s”, a “family restaurant”. Everything is homemade and it was pretty good. Then back to the boat to finish the blog and tidy up a bit. We plan to take the ferry to Mackinac Island tomorrow, but can’t leave until after we check for our mail … and the post office doesn’t open until 9:30!!! Ughhhhhh. In Maryland they open at 8:00. Oh well, guess we’ll sleep in. We’ve had a busy day.