Manana: ON TO LAKE HURON

At 4:30 in the morning on Monday, I checked the weather and the radar. The front was pushing through over Wisconsin with some pretty severe looking storms. That was it. No sense in putting ourselves in harms way, we'll just spend another day in Mackinac Island. Of course, the storms that were coming across from Wisconsin seemed to dissipate before they got across Lake Michigan, so the day was turning out to be quite nice. Imagine that! Denise pulled out her special birthday present from her daughter Kim. It is a well built and designed folding bike. Since we only had one bike, I was going to rent one and follow along. At $7.00 per hour for a 7 speed, it was better than walking! We started our tour through the downtown area and continued on around the entire island along the shore. Denise forgot her camera, so we didn't take many pictures. The road took us through the state park and we saw many beautiful sites, including the British invasion site in the war of 1812. Most of the island is made of a type of limestone rock that is sort of like a lot of small rocks cemented together over thousands of years. Thousands of years ago, the lake levels were much higher and part of a cliff that is now a hundred or so feet above the shore, has a beautiful arch that was carved away by erosion from the water. We made the entire 8 mile trip around the island and were able to return the rented bike in two hours. We made our way back to the boat to dis-assemble the folding bike and get it back on board. Denise went to pay for the slip fees just as the downpour hit. It rained heavily with the winds shifting to the Northwest for quite some time. Denise had asked me to make a cocktail for us, so I did, and pulled out my guitar and started playing and singing "in the rain". By the time she escaped from the dock office, her cocktail was watered down and mine was almost gone. We decided to take a walk downtown and find a reasonable place for dinner. Of course, in a touristy town, not many things are reasonable. The Seabiscuit Cafe was fairly priced, with good food and a nice atmosphere. After dinner we wandered around town sampling ice cream and fudge. Before calling it a night we went to the Pink Pony to see if they would sell us some ice. We wound up with much more than we could use at no charge. Back at the boat, we checked the weather again. They were calling for Northwest winds from 10 to 15 in morning, going more Westerly in the afternoon and increasing to 15 to 20. The waves were predicted to be 1 to 2 feet almost all day. That was good. We went to bed to get ready for another early start.

The Pink Pony from the water

The Catholic Church all lit up

When the morning came, the winds seemed to be blowing a little harder than 10 to 15, but we were ready to leave. By 7:45, we were racing to get out of the way of about a half dozen ferries that all seemed to be racing to Mackinac Island at the same time. As we turned to port and headed to the South Channel around Bois Blanc Island we got a full blast of the winds that seemed to be at 20 knots already. The waves were also up over the 4 foot mark and we estimated 6 foot or higher. I assumed this was just in the Mackinaw Straits area and that everything would calm down as forecast once we got into Lake Huron. Our destination was Presque Isle, which was about 60 miles away. Motoring downwind with the wind and the swells, we hit up to 10 knots at times. We were going to get there sooner than we thought! The wind continued to build, but we still thought it would change and let out the genoa to help us along. The swells were so strong and the wind was gusting so high, we could not keep the boat on course or the wind in the sail, so we had to furl it. This was no easy task! Running downwind, you really don't realize how strong the winds are so we had to turn into the wind to get it back in. As we continued to motor, I noticed the true wind gusting well over 30 knots. The waves were getting well over 6 foot. We decided to hop into Rogers City and get out of the lake before it got any worse. Rogers City has a narrow entrance to the marina with a hard starboard turn and then another hard port turn before you are inside the break wall. We had been told to tie up to the gas dock, which was another starboard turn once you are in. In order to maneuver a 38 foot boat in a narrow channel, making all those turns, you have to go relatively slow. By the time I was turning into the gas dock, the wind caught us and turned us completely around. I was having a hard time shifting into forward, which only complicated things more. I finally figured it out, but the channel was so narrow, I could not get enough speed up to turn back into the wind. I opted to just back it down the opposite side of the gas dock and we got it tied off. As we were fueling up and taking care of the bill, I glanced up at the wind instrument and it was gusting over 50 knots! That's almost hurricane strength! No wonder we were having a hard time. With that kind of wind, there was no way I could get up enough speed to make a u-turn around the gas dock and into the main area of the marina. So here we are, snugged up to the gas dock for the night. The winds have continued to howl consistently at 35 and 40 knots and gusting close to 50 all afternoon and still into tonight. We were, however, able to finally do our 2 + weeks of laundry and had a nice oriental meal from a Thai restaurant in town.

Tomorrow's forecast call for light and variable winds with waves 1 to 2 feet. We'll see how that works out!