GOING AROUND THE "MITTEN"

Charlevoix is a beautiful! Every sign in town says "Charlevoix the Beautiful" and they are correct. From the entrance into down Pine River to Round Lake, the downtown area, and then Lake Charlevoix, the town lives up to it's name in more ways than one. Pine River is short but scenic and it opens up into Round Lake that is surrounded by the Town , beautiful homes, condos and boat houses.  All this makes Round Lake an excellent anchorage with protection from just about every direction. We woke up to a beautiful morning as the only boat anchored in the middle of the lake. We dingied into shore to check out the town and tied up to "shopping docks" that are provided for boats to come in and spend time visiting and shopping in Charlevoix. We had lunch at the Weather Vane along the Pine River and browsed some of the shops and then headed back to the boat. Beyond Round Lake is a channel that leads past the Coast Guard Station into Lake Charlevoix, which is a deep and very large inland lake. Not realizing how large it was, we thought we would take the dingy through the channel and see what was on the other side. We were amazed at the size of the lake and the beautiful setting. It was surrounded by cliffs and green hills with the East side of the lake fading from view into what looked like a deep valley. Impressive! We dingied along the shore, realizing we would not be able to go too far. Denise took a lot of pictures and then we headed back into Round Lake. We had planned on getting some Kilwin's Ice Cream and then do some grocery shopping. Luckily, the grocery store was very close to the "shopping docks".  Even though we took the "small" shopping cart, we soon realized that, even though the dock was only 2 blocks away, we were going to have a hard time carrying everything back. We talked to the manager and they allowed us to take the shopping cart to the dock to unload. We had a really nice dinner floating in the middle of the lake and then went back to see the sunset at the lighthouse on Lake Michigan. On our way back, we, of course, had to sample the local Oyster Bar. After one drink, we decided we had enough excitement for the day and went back to the boat for an extremely peaceful night.

At Anchor in Round Lake

Pine River Entrance

One of the Unique houses on Round Lake

We awoke to another beautiful morning. Denise cooked a good, hearty breakfast and we pulled up the anchor. The anchor had held flawlessly, even in the 58 foot depth. Our CQR anchor and 100 feet of chain has not failed us yet. In bringing up the anchor, however, when the rode transitioned from line to chain, the windless got hung up. In the past, all I had to do when this happened was too loosen the tension on the windless and pull out the chain or line, tighten her down and start again. This time it didn't work. I loosened it again and began pulling the chain out as far as I could. Unfortunately, some part inside the windless came out with it. We found out from the manual that it was the tension arm that helps it transition for line to chain. It would still work for the chain but not as well for the line Our first stop was to the gas dock where we could pump out the holding tank and top off the fuel. With that done, we were on our way to the next stop North. Denise has some high School and Michigan State University friends that live in Harbor Springs and we had promised to stop by and visit with them along the way. After we got out in the Lake and headed north for a little ways, we headed Northeasterly into Little Traverse Bay. The winds were perfect for a nice run downwind. The winds began to build and soon we were gliding along at 6 knots and better. By the time we got to Harbor Point that lead into Harbor Springs Bay, the winds were clocking over 20 from the West which created a little challenge dropping the sails, but we're getting pretty good at it now. We found a perfect anchorage at the deepest point of the bay in about 40 feet of water. The wind was howling but our little corner was as smooth as glass. We picked up Denise's friends next to the beach and packed our four bodies into our 8 foot dingy to head back to the boat.  We probably looked comical pulling the boat off the beach, especially when we the life guard informed us we should use the dingy dock that was just around the corner.  We had some sun downers on the boat while Denise caught up with Dave and Susan on what has happened since their college days. Dave had been in the Coast Guard and had some experiences in boating, diving and survival skills and we had some good conversations. They took us to their favorite Mexican Restaurant for a nice dinner and a great evening of Denise getting caught up with her old friends.

Manana at anchor Harbor Springs

Our Mermaid and interior of Manana awaiting guests

Historic and Beautiful Homes in Harbor Spring

Part of Downtown Harbor Springs

On getting back to the boat, we checked our batteries and found them to be down to 25% of charge. We had noticed they weren't lasting too long and became concerned. We ran the motor and they charged up right away. We turned on the anchor light and conserved any other power usage, but, in the morning, they were down to 50% again. Time to look at new batteries. First we had to have our coffee looking out on the beautiful glass like bay. Another perfect anchorage. We went into town to find some Internet to check on batteries. It was disturbing. $300 to $800 each, and we needed two! We decided to walk to the Irish Boat yard to talk to them about our problem. Every time we mention the age of our batteries, everyone tells us to throw them out. This is the first time, however, that we have had a problem. In Fish Creek, we spend over two days at anchor and never had to charge them. The Irish Boat yard found identical batteries for only $175 each, but we still wanted to make sure ours were bad. We pulled our boat over to their docks and gave them a full charge and waited for someone to test them. They tested good!  We were still confused. The then asked us to turn off the charger and they would come test them again in about a half hour. They tested good again, but after explaining to this different technician what we had experienced, he decided to disconnect them and test each one separately. There was the problem. Testing them together showed good, separately they were OK but showed they were on their last legs. We decided to err on the side of caution and replace them. The bad thing is, we didn't get to take our next leg of our trip. The good thing is, the quiet little anchorage is still quiet and, storms or not, we will have another pleasant night at anchor.

Part of the Marina where we had our boat looked at

Out with the Old

In with the New