Today has been a long, interesting day. We awoke just before seven to find that all the US folks who were returning to Lakes Michigan and Huron, had already left. When they way they leave at 5 AM, they really do. The air was calm, warm, and not a cloud in sight. Phil went off to the marina office to pay the bill and we were out of the marina and at our first waypoint by 7:26. Record time, considering it included a quickie breakfast.

Our plotted path took us north out of the marina and then west below Howard Island and between the markers at Cheney Shoal and Wreck Island. I wonder how many Wreck Islands there are in the Great Lakes? Cruising westwards south of Gull Island and between Bow and Surveyors Islands, saw us crossing the top of Sturgeon Bay. I think that is the fourth Sturgeon Bay we have encountered this trip.

Fifteen minutes from our departure we were rounding Dix Point on Drummond Island and heading into the De Tour Passage.

De Tour Passage Approach to Lake Huron
This is the passage where all the freighters coming and going from Sault Ste. Marie (both US and CDA) have to travel. We had been told by many people that this was a real challenge and we should carefully monitor channel 16 to listen for freighter traffic. In addition, as you travel south through the Passage you have to cross the track of the Drummond Island ferry going over to De Tour Village. We only saw a couple of large freighters in the channel but there must have been a couple of dozen small fishing boats, the guys out for the morning catch. Using the glasses, I could see at least 10 pleasure craft passing the De Tour Light and heading across the waters in all directions.

We are used to freighter traffic in the St. Lawrence, especially in Brockville with its Narrows where they zing by, so the big guys didn’t upset us. But I can see where they would upset someone who wasn’t used to them.

The first really prominent marker at the end of the Passage where you enter into Lake Huron is the De Tour Reef lighthouse. This structure is about a mile off Point Du Tour on the Upper Michigan Peninsula. It is a tall white lighthouse, 3 stories of windows with the light on a 4th story above that. It sits in 12 ft of water on a huge concrete pad which is probably 2-3 stories high itself. The light is 74 feet off the water. Michigan has numerous historic lighthouses which are still in use, most of them now automated but not all, and there is an organization which is trying to restore and preserve them all.
Martin Reef Light

The De Tour Lighthouse gives tours, they take you out by boat and you have a tour of the whole thing. In addition, for $200US you can spend a working weekend at the lighthouse. Your job is to clean up the gull poop and do spider and bug control. I think I’ll pass on that opportunity.

At the light, we hung a hard right and set our course for the Martin Reef Light which is 65 ft high and visible for 13 miles which means that you can almost see it as soon as you make your course change. The water is a green colour in this part of Lake Huron and with the sun behind us, we had no trouble seeing ahead of us, and soon picked up the light and we were right on the course we plotted.

The lighthouse on Martin Reef is another 3 story white building also built on a huge concrete pad sitting on a rock 1 foot under the surface of the lake. It looks, from the distance, rather like a white spinnaker on a sailboat as it has an almost curved shape at the top. Martin Reef light marks the southernmost of half a dozen reefs on the eastern side of Les Cheneaux Islands. This is a series of long rock fingers bearing northwest to southeast on our starboard side. There are channels through these islands, with a couple of marinas and several anchorages. We may check in there on our return.

At Martin Reef Light, we are able to see the very small outline of three islands on our port bow and a slight course change here took us almost due west, past the reef at Goose Island and Goose Island Shoal and headed straight for Mackinac Island. We skirted the island to the north and approached St. Ignace, arriving at the city marina at about 10 am.

The trip was calm with a few freighter waves to cross. They seem to come at you even when the freighter is no longer in view. There was no wind and it was an excellent crossing.
Turning through the De Tour Passage and into the larger Lake, at first you can only see the land which is on the starboard side. It is easy to understand why the earliest explorers thought they were on their way to China. Nothing but water on every horizon.
Passing the De Tour Lighthouse and into Lake Huron

One thing we had to watch for are the salmon nets. We saw several poles about half the size of the flag poles used on golf courses with triangular red flags on the top. The poles were white and about the thickness of a snow fence and very hard to spot. Upon seeing one of these, we noted that several hundred feet away would be a small red and white float. There are notes on the charts about fishing nets but when we arrived in St. Ignace we read that the Native fishery is allowed to fish for salmon using nets between 1 Aug and 30 Oct every year. The pole marks one end of the net and the floats which are 6" by about 2 ft, must be placed every 300 feet. We only ever saw a pole with one float and they were easy enough to go around. But since they are constantly moving them, it is not something that will be on the charts.
Approach to St. Ignace Marina

We had been told by many boaters that St. Ignace was the place to stay to see Mackinac Island. They were not exaggerating. The marina is the most prominent feature of this small town’s lovely waterfront. It has an extremely high white block limestone breakwater, marked with a large white lighthouse and green and red flashing markers at the entrance. It is easy to enter past the breakwater and the facilities’ dock is immediately in front of you with no having to make 90 degree or worse turns to dock. We refueled ($1.05 Cdn litre) and pumpout ($6.00 Cdn) then moved to slip #24 (at a $1.20 per ft Cdn). Again, the slips have lots of large cleats and the tall posts that make it easy to tie up. I really appreciated these posts when we left Drummond Island. I usually have to push the bow of the boat off the dock with a long reach pole, and if the docks are floating ones, I have to reach about 4 ft below the bow of the boat. With these tall poles, pushing off is a cinch. At the fuel dock, they are all protected with vinyl bumpers and the boats don’t even put their fenders out.

Again, another very hot day but the humidity was away down. When we docked at 10ish, the thermometer on the wharf was already reading 90 in the shade. (We are the only Canadian Cruisers in the harbour which has many slips vacant with very light boat traffic which has been consistent the whole cruise.)
St. Ignace Harbor breakwater

We settled in to the slip, hooking up our electricity, and then over to the marina office to check in and check out the facilities. These are second to none. Large washrooms and showers, an office where they couldn’t have been more helpful, a welcome goody bag full of discount coupons to local stores and restaurants, floating key chains, a beautiful colour book on the local history and lists of activities, maps of the town, etc.

Our first job was showers and then we went for a walk up and down the main street. We checked out most of the shops and splurged on fudge! Had to pick up a couple of things at the hardware store (including an alarm clock so we can get up early for a better chance at calm seas early in the mornings) - something is always breaking - and then back to the boat for a much needed nap. This early morning stuff is not my cuppa tea.
One of the shops we went into was a Radio Shack/Marine store and Phil was chatting with the owner. WIFI came up in the conversation and the chap said that the marina had WIFI but you would have to pay for it. One of the other shops in town invites you to bring your PC in and use theirs for free. Anyhow, the owner said that “the” fibre-optic cable had been accidentally cut and no one could use their WIFI anyhow, it hadn’t been working since yesterday. We also heard this in the restaurant and the hardware store so we figured we couldn’t check the mail.

We splurged on supper out at the Mackinac Grille beside the marina and had a lovely meal of whitefish, the local delicacy. When we returned to the boat, Phil decided to pop in the Bell Canada internet connection which uses the cell phone system and low and behold, we have service. Probably coming from a tower at the Soo which really isn’t that far to the north of us. Some day there’ll be some sort of system that will work without having to carry half a dozen pieces of equipment and spend hours trying to figure out which one will work wherever!!!

We were interested to note in the shops that this Upper Peninsula also uses the “eh?” which we Canadians are so fond of, eh? And all the T-shirts are about Yoopers, eh?. But the best was the hat in blue velvet with the imitation Mackinac Straits Bridge on the top, about 2 feet high. Passed up the opportunity to own one of those.

The marina is between two of the ferry wharfs taking passengers to Mackinac Island. One type of ferry is a catamaran, nice and quiet with very little wake. Another type of ferry is a bit smaller and goes very fast, making the crossing to the island in about 15 minutes. These boats put out a huge plume of water at their stern, similar to jet-skies. The ferries operate every half hour from 8 am to 10 pm to and from the island.
A Local Ferry

As we were entering the harbour, one was just leaving the neighbouring dock. I grabbed the camera, got a shot of it, then grabbed the ropes just as Phil was docking the boat. Behind us was a 42ft SeaRay and he was just entering the breakwater as the ferry whizzed by. He got caught in its wake and he wallowed from side to side from gunnel to gunnel and it was not an event that I would care to participate in.

Tomorrow, which is supposed to be a nice day, we will head to Mackinac Island by ferry for the day or until our sea-legs wear out. And then it will be time to decide our next move, Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, is only 63km away and would take us under the Mackinac Straits Bridge. We caught our first glimpse of the bridge about 30mi off in the haze as we approached Mackinac Island, a very impressive sight from the water.

Location